Huge Ajax's Arc

Chapter 399 of 619

Ajax followed Tucker and Marco down the wharf toward the red quay house. He had sent them ahead to set a price, but the walk was long, and he wanted eyes on the door himself. The crowd thickened near a row of lodging halls. That was where the trouble started. Workers lined the open doorways of the halls. Men dressed in bright cloth cut low. They watched the three of them pass. One caught Marco's eye and held it. Another leaned toward Tucker and flexed his bicep. A young man leaned against a post exposing his chest. Marco slowed. His jaw tightened. Tucker, walking beside him, grinned back at a man who touched his chest alluringly and laid his hand on his gold chains. Ajax saw both men drift. Marco read minds and Tucker worked rooms. Neither noticed a lodge worker had cut in behind them, hand out toward Tucker's purse. Ajax grabbed the worker’s hand before it touched the purse with a low growl. Tucker looked back. His grin faded when he saw the hand near his belt. He stepped clear. "Fast little thing," he said. "I'd have felt it." Marco shook his head like a man waking. He turned from the doorway and faced the wharf. Ajax set them in a line. Marco walked point, listening for thieves instead of watching faces. Tucker walked the rear with his hands closed. Ajax took the middle, blade under his coat. They moved past the halls without slowing. A worker called out. No one answered. The three ahead saw plain men who would not be led, and they let them go. The red quay house stood at the end of the wharf, a wide stone door under a painted sign. Ajax stopped his men there. "That's the door," he said. "We walk in together. We name the goods, we set the price, we leave. No one wanders." Tucker nodded once. Marco pushed the door open. Ajax stepped through first, his men close at his back, gold still safe on the ship behind them. The sale was all that remained now.