Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 120 of 619

Ajax rode down to the port with Elara, Grayson, Chalam, Marco, Asher, and Tucker at dusk. The mason and Cody were already at work when they got there. Ajax needed a base inside the port where his crew could sleep out of sight while the walls held two days east. Tucker's brothel was the only door in town that opened for him without questions. Tucker rode point. He stopped them a block short of the brothel and swung down. "I'll clear the front," he said. "Give me a count of fifty." He went in through the side gate. Ajax counted. When he reached fifty, Tucker came back out and lifted a hand. "House is closed to trade until the construction is complete.” Tucker said. "I told the men a private party bought the whole floor. They took the coin and went to the back kitchen." "Anyone in the street watching?" Ajax said. "Two," Marco said. He stood at Ajax's stirrup with his eyes half shut. "A drunk by the well. A boy on the roof across. The boy is paid to watch the door." “Can you bend their minds to look away until we’re all inside?” Ajax asked. Marco nodded and did so. Tucker opened the side door. They went through the bar room, past a stripped table, and up the narrow stair. Tucker unlocked two rooms at the end of the hall. Both had two beds, a washbasin, and a window over the alley. He handed Ajax a spare key. "Front door stays barred," Tucker said. "Guys are paid to say the house is shut for a week. Anyone knocks, my man at the bar sends them off." Ajax walked the two rooms. He checked the window drop to the alley and the sight line from the roof across. The boy could not see this side. "Grayson, Asher, and Marco take the far room," he said. "Chalam and Elara with me. Tucker sleeps at the bar. No lamps in the windows. No one on the street until I say." Ajax closed the door and turned the key. He had a hidden floor above a closed house, two days from the shelf. The mason had a week. The Keeper's rider would come before then. Ajax now had a place in the port to meet him from.