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"At the fort, checking the stores," said Tall Lou, raising her gray eyebrows at him. "Why didn't you come around to the dock?"
"No time. What's the quickest way?"
"Up the new stairs, there. What about your cargo?"
"Haul the cargo up with the crane!" Makhno yelled back, already ru
Nona opened the door, batting her eyelashes furiously. In answer to his snapped question, she pointed fast directions to the storeroom. By the time she had the door closed and bolted, he was already yards off and ru
The dim-lit rock tu
"Jane," he panted, bent over with the effort of sucking enough air. "It's bad news. Old Harp's dead. Killed. And Jomo's taken over Docktown. And he's got CoDo weapons."
"Whoa, hold on." Jane got up, tucked a stray lock of dark-blonde hair back into her tattered braids, and went to him. "Calm down, Leo. Take a deep breath and tell me everything, right from when I saw you last."
"Harp-" Makhno started, then choked again. He sat down on a box and rested his head on his knees for a long moment, caught in memories.
Harp had been the leader of the independent faction of Docktown, willing to do business with the Harmonies or anyone. When he had arrived, he had asked Castell himself if he could build a shelter, and a bank was pointed out to him near the lake by a warden of the church. Old Harp (had he ever been young?) had smiled, and had taken a shovel and started excavating into the hill.
By the end of the next two shifts, he had a room beyond it and a pile of rocks and soil blocking the wind from the entrance. Within a cycle he had rented his shovel for the use of an axe and had felled a couple of trees that he split for rough boards. Within four cycles more, he had added a brewing room and a bar and had a going business dealing in beer, food, and renting the main-room floor space for sleep during off-shift and full dark.
Harp's business had grown in leaps and bounds. He had become master trader and unofficial arbiter of deals between the independent farmers, growing Docktown and Castell City, respected by all sides as an honest man.
He had also been a voice of reason and a strength against the growing gangs in Docktown. He had refused to pay protection to Jomo or any of the others.
". . . They found his body washed up on the lake shore, just a couple shifts before I arrived. Jomo took over his place, changed the name to the Simba Bar, moved his bullyboys in." Makhno ran a lean hand through his wiry dark hair. "Word is, he's taking over Docktown. He got CoDo stu
"Back up; you've just lost me." Jane sat down beside him and rested an arm across his shoulders. "Just who and what is Jomo?"
Makhno turned to stare at her, then remembered that she'd spent less than a turn at the landing-site before getting her land-grant, collecting her settler, and himself, and striking off into the wilderness. What she knew of Docktown she'd learned mostly through Makhno, and he hadn't told her everything.
"Okay, from the top." Makhno rubbed his eyes. "Remember the day you came in on the third ship, right after you got back from seeing Castell?"
"Oh, yes." Jane chuckled.
She remembered that well; as soon as she'd set foot on the lake shore, she'd gone after Charles Castell, finally caught up to him in a cow-barn, and asked him then and there for legal right to a full land-grant. Of course she could have just gone off and land-squatted, as so many did, but the fact that she bothered to ask the head of the Church of Harmony had impressed the old man. In return, he had bothered to ask her what ma
In the end they'd struck a mutually profitable deal; Jane got a river island in exchange for a tithe of her crops for the next five years. A secondary deal for breeding-stock of turkeys, pigs and two cows for another half-tithe. She'd headed back to the landing-site, looking for a boat and whistling "Solidarity Forever," feeling quite charitably disposed toward Castell and his crowd.
"That's when I got hold of you and the Black Bitch, to take me down river."
"Right, right." Makhno had a vivid memory of the first time he'd seen her, a big stocky blonde woman in denim bib overalls, wrapped bundle of tools on her shoulder, huge pack on her back, plodding up to his ship. "You remember, after you stowed your pack and went out to collect volunteers . . ."
"You thought I was nuts." Jane gri
Makhno winced. Looking back now, it made sense; the women had no illusions about their situation, good reason to fear what the bigger and badder elements might try on them. Damn right, they'd taken Jane's offer to get out of town and set up on their own.
"Well, that was part of the problem, you know," he reminded her. "There you were with a whole gang of women. A real prize for any pimp."
"I don't recall that we had much trouble with that," Jane frowned. "Just that one fool who came up and tried to bully us . . . ."
"And you hit him on the head with the shovel," Makhno finished. "That was Jomo. He won't remember you kindly."
That too was part of the problem. Jomo had always been a strong-arm man and a thug, but now he was a thug with weapons, and was moving to secure all Docktown.
His first obstacle would be the other, smaller gangs. Jomo commanded about thirty men. DeCastro had about twenty, but until now they had been better armed: three shotguns, one old-but-serviceable rifle and nine pistols of various calibers. However, getting ammunition for them was a problem. The rest of DeCastro's men carried clubs and knives and had shown great willingness to use them. Jomo, with his new weapons was a power to reckon with.
". . . He must have made that arms deal way in advance," Makhno concluded. "When he knew the guns were coming in, he took out Old Harp, grabbed Harp's place. It won't take him long to deal with DeCastro and the others, take over Docktown, maybe even Castell City . . . . Hell, I was the one who delivered those crates! 'Mining Equipment'-Goddam, if only I'd known, I'd have pitched the things overboard!" Makhno pounded his fist on the stone floor.
Jane caught his wrist. "There's no way you could have known."
"I could have saved Docktown . . . ."
"But not Old Harp. You said he was killed before the ship landed."
"Yeah." Makhno took a deep breath and straightened his back. "So how do we deal with this, Janey? What do we do when Jomo takes over Docktown, maybe all the settlements he can find. He'll try to make himself king of the whole valley before he's done. How do we survive?"
"We organize," said Jane. "Up and down the river, among all our friends, we organize. Then, we strike."
Jomo was talking with his accountant, and the news was not good.
"For the last two turns the take is down, and instead of cash, barter is being offered. Most of those clients insist that Old Harp always took trade goods, so why don't we?" The accountant, a small ski
Jomo briefly rattled his fingers on the table before him. "Has any of the trade been in foodstuffs?"