Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 35 of 619

Ajax kicked dirt over the fire ring. The port had their gold and a stranger in an iron collar knew it. He needed to know who that stranger answered to before they rode back. He looked across the camp and picked the man he trusted least to lie about it. "Marco," Ajax said. "Walk with me." Marco set down the tin of grease and followed him past the pines. His shirt hung open at the collar. The short gold chain caught the last light. He kept pace without asking where. They stopped where the dry creek turned. Ajax faced him. "You've been quiet since Tucker came back," Ajax said. "Say it." Marco looked at the ground. Then at Ajax. "I know what you're chewing on. The broker. The collar." "I didn't say it out loud." "You didn't have to." Ajax's hand went to his knife. Not drawn. Just there. "Easy," Marco said. "I've been sitting on it since the coast. Sometimes I hear a man's thinking. Not always. Loud ones. Close ones." He rubbed the gold bracelet on his wrist. "Grandmother said it ran in the blood. Part of what the god took, maybe. I don't know." "Anything else?" Marco held his eyes. "If I push, a man will do what I tell him. Once. Twice, if he's tired. I don't push our people." Ajax stood still. He thought about Chalam, hired under a rule he could break at any moment, and about the port broker asking twice who sent Tucker. "Prove it," Ajax said. "On who." "The broker. Tomorrow. You ride in with Tucker. You stand at the counter. You listen and you push if you have to. I want a name for the man in the collar." Marco nodded once. "And the others?" "They don't know. Not Grayson. Not Chalam. Not any of them." "Grayson made you swear to tell him first." "I'll tell him what he needs. Not this." Marco held that a moment. "Your call." "My call." Ajax stepped closer. "You use it on me and you're in the creek before you finish the thought." "I won't use it on you." "You won't need to. I'll say what I want done." They walked back. Grayson looked up from the horses and read Ajax's face and read nothing off it. Asher was tying his shirt. Elara had the sprig in her fingers again. Tucker sharpened his knife on a flat stone. Ajax squatted by Tucker. "Change of plan. Marco rides in with you at first light. He stands quiet. You do the talking." Tucker glanced at Marco, then back. "Reason." "Two sets of ears." Tucker shrugged and went back to the stone. Ajax sat with his back to the pine and watched the road down to the port. He had a knife in his company now that cut both ways. He would use it once and see what it opened.