Bram Möller's Arc

Chapter 31 of 63

The tender rose out of the harbor lights and climbed into the dusk. Bram sat wedged against the rail with the borrowed coat over his knees. Omondi worked the wheel with both hands, glasses sliding down his nose. Vex crouched by the burner and watched the gauge. The storm-tracking hawk rode a perch bolted to the mast, feathers ruffled against the wind. Bram had two hours to the depot and one job left: sign the run closed in his own hand at the counter. He pulled the paperwork from the inside pocket of his jacket. Route slip. Consignee stub. The harbormaster's void notice for the runner's fraudulent entry. He had to check every line before landing. The depot clerk would reject a smudged sheet or a missing seal. He held the pages against his thigh and squinted. The lines blurred. He blinked and they stayed blurred. His face ran hot under the wrap on his hand. He tried to read the route number and saw only gray marks on white. "Vex," he said. She turned. She put the back of her fingers against his forehead and swore. "You're burning." "I can't read the slip. I need it clean before the counter." She pulled her glove off with her teeth and dug in her belt for a tin. She thumbed it open and pressed a wet cloth to the side of his neck. The cold ran down his collar. "Omondi," she said. "How long?" "Forty minutes," he said, without turning. Vex took the papers from Bram's lap. "Read them to me. I'll check your reading." "I can't see them." "Then I'll read. You listen. You tell me what should be there." She held the top sheet close to the lantern. She read the route number, the seal codes, the consignee line, the void stamp. Bram closed his eyes and listened. He knew the run by heart. He caught a missing initial on the void notice and told her. She marked it with a pencil from her belt. The hawk shifted on its perch and clicked its beak. Vex glanced up. "Bird says the front's moving. Omondi, push." Omondi pushed. The tender leaned. Bram gripped the rail with his bandaged hand and kept his eyes shut while Vex read the second sheet. She caught a smudge on the seal and blotted it with the cloth's dry corner. She read the third sheet twice. She folded them all back into the pocket over his chest. "Signed off in your head," she said. "Now just your mark on the counter." The depot lights showed under the cloud line. Omondi brought the tender down onto the mooring rail. Vex lifted Bram's boot to the step. The clerk was already at the door with the ledger open. Bram walked to the counter between them and made his mark. The clerk stamped it. The run closed on paper, in his own hand, before the deadline. Then his knees gave and Vex caught his elbow.