"Yep. The old man's a mind reader. What the hell did you expect, Aaron, mopingaround here all morning? Nobody pays attention? Come on. Spit it out."
"It isn't that easy, Billygoat. It's one of those things where you've got tomake a choice, and even ignoring it is a choice, and no matter what you choosesomebody is going to get hurt. So what you have to do is pick who gets it."
"Yeah. Those kind are a blue-assed baboon bitch, ain't they? Homar, it's timeyou broke. You're getting tired and sloppy trying to keep up. I see a coupleplaces you're going to have to do over."
Aaron couldn't see anything wrong with Homar's work. Neither could Homar, hesuspected, but Billygoat's assistant cleaned his tools, put more charcoal on, broke up a couple of pitch billets and put them in to melt, then went away.
"So, Aaron. Let's talk about it."
"What do you know about the Living?"
Billygoat's eyes got wary. "As little as I can. Knowing too much could get youa chance to swim across the bay with a hundred pounds of rocks tied to yourtoes."
"Yeah." He hadn't thought of that angle. "What I meant was, are they somethingworthwhile, or are they just a bunch of diehards making it rougher for therest of us?"
Billygoat smiled. "You don't get me that easy, Aaron. It's in the eye of thebeholder. Why don't you lay out the problem and if I see something I'll say soand if I don't I'll forget you even asked."
Aaron thought about it a minute, but there was not much going on inside hishead. All he wanted to do was puke it up, get it out of his gut before itpoisoned him.
"Say there was a guy who betrayed Qushmarrah in a way that was just asimportant as what Fa'tad did, only hardly anybody noticed, and only one guyknew, and the traitor didn't know he knew, and one day years later suddenly itlooked like the traitor was now somebody real important in the Living. If heworked for the Herodians before ..."
"I see." Billygoat raised a hand for silence. He had stopped working. "Say nomore." He turned inward for several minutes. Then, "With the years interveningthere would have grown up knots of personal considerations and complications, not so? The fight for Qushmarrah is over and lost. The traitor probably has afamily now, all completely innocent, who would suffer terribly from anybelated justice. Yet if he were indeed high in the councils of the Living, andstill a tool of Herod, and the Living are a worthy group of men with a realchance of restoring Qushmarrah's independence and glory ... Yes sir, Aaron, truly a blue-assed bitch baboon of a problem."
Someone up top yelled at Aaron to come on. The men on the hoist were ready tolower the mast step.
"I'll think about this, Aaron. For every no-win situation I've ever seenthere's always been an extra way out if you could just back off and look atthe whole map from a skewed angle. Talk to me later. Get up there before they get pissed."
"Thanks, Billygoat." Aaron trotted to the nearest scaffolding, clambered up, crossed the ship on a work deck of loose planks, checked that everything hehad brought up earlier was still handy. His helpers were ready. "Lower away!"
The step assembly came down slowly. The men helping turned it, aligned it, guided it into place. Aaron beckoned the foreman. "It looks like a good fit.
But let's check the join points to make sure."
Ten minutes later he was puffed with pride. Only one place did he need toplane a bit offa beam end. Cullo told him, "You have to stay in this business, Aaron. We'd get the contracts filled in half the time."
Aaron shrugged, went to the side, had the men on the hoist lift the assembly afoot and a half. His helpers started brushing all the join points withadhesive. He let it set up a little, then had the assembly dropped into placeagain. His helpers started driving adhesive-soaked pegs immediately, four tothe join, of which there were twelve: four at deck level, two to the side; four halfway down a pair of the midships ribs, two to the side again; and fouron the keel itself.
"A successful experiment," the foreman told Aaron. "It's saved us a week overputting it together in place, piece by piece. I'm sure you'll get a fat bonus.
How soon can you start on the steps for the cargo booms?"
"I still have to finish this. After the glue seasons I have to cut the peggingflush, sand the joins smooth, layer on some more glue, then cover everythingwith lacquer."
"All stuff that could be done by somebody else, under your supervision, whileyou're getting the other steps. What the hell is going on?"
Men were gathering in the bow of the unfinished ship, chattering and pointingtoward the harbor. Aaron followed the foreman forward to see what was up.
A huge galley was working her way in. She wore the gaudiest sail Aaron hadever seen. "Who is it?"
"Must be the new civil governor. Early. And now everything goes to hell whilewe fake up celebrations to show him how overjoyed Qushmarrah is that he'sfinally come."
Aaron leaned on the rail, watching the Herodian galley, and smiled slightly, remembering how cynical his father had been about government and those whogoverned.
Bel-Sidek was hard at it, holystoning the foredeck of a tubby merchantman outof Pella, a Herodian tributary where friends of the Living worked the docks.
Behind him, stevedores shuffled to the dock and back aboard, loading andunloading at the same time.
Sacks of something were going off and sacks of something else were coming onand bel-Sidek could not quite see the point because he could not distinguishone group of sacks from the other. But inside a few of those coming off therewould be lethal tools for the Living.
Someone hailed him from the dock. The voice was breathless. For a moment he feared it was going to be a warning that the customs goons were coming and hewould have to get his men scattered before they could be identified. But whenhe got to the rail he saw one of that very select group of men entrusted withcarrying messages between the khadifas. The man pointed toward the bay andshouted, "The new governor's ship is coming in."
Bel-Sidek cursed and signaled his understanding. "Early. The bald-headedlittle bastard would get here early." He tried to look for the ship but all hecould see in that direction was the tips of the lighthouses atop the Brothers.
The Pellans had taken the cheapest commercial wharfage available. That putthem behind a jungle of masts and spars belonging to Qushmarrah's fishermenand sponge and pearl divers. And small-time smugglers. If there was anydistinction between the bunch.
He limped off the ship and got himself to the nearest height where he couldsee the harbor. After a minute he began to chuckle. Other gawkers looked himaskance. He controlled himself.
The governor's ship and two fast war galleys escorting her had bulled theirway past commercial traffic beyond the Brothers and now several delayedvessels were coming in behind them. Including Meryel's two ships with the armsdown in their holds. There would be no trouble getting them off-loaded andsafely away. The whole Herodian colony would be going crazy and would cease tofunction for a few days.
Would the old man take the opportunity to welcome the new tyrant? He hadbefore. But if Meryel was right and there was some special operation shaping ... Could it have something to do with the new governor? Doubtful. The Generalhad talked in terms of months.
Might as well go back to work. The governor's arrival would make no differencein his life, at least today.
As he was passing the new shipyards, put up where the old public baths hadstood till they had been demolished because they offended Herodian morality, aman fell into step beside him. "So. Billygoat. Haven't seen you in a while.