The Last Heir of the Forbidden Family

Chapter 22: The Smuggler’s Ledger

Chapter 22: The Smuggler’s Ledger

"We can't play hide-and-seek with corporate security forever, Kenji, but we won't even reach the ship if we wander blindly into a patrol drone's field of view," Silas growled, leaning heavily against the scarred metal console of his floating office barge.

The rusted barge rocked rhythmically beneath them, creaking with every swell of the dark, oil-slicked harbor water. Overhead, the neon advertisements of the corporate mainland cast an sickly emerald glow through the grime-caked windows, illuminating the maritime broker’s lined, cynical face.

Kenji didn't flinch, dropping the heavy metallic cylinder onto the grease-stained map table. "The decryption key you wanted, Silas. Military grade. Pulled straight from a corporate safehouse before the alarms even finished initializing."

Silas narrowed his bloodshot eyes, eyeing the cylinder like a starving stray eyeing a suspicious meal. He reached out with a scarred, cybernetic thumb, tapping the casing to verify the checksum. A tiny blue light blinked green. "This is hot, Kenji. Sweating data like a reactor core with a cracked shield. You've got half the regional enforcement division breathing down your neck."

"Which is exactly why you're going to give us the transponder codes for that coal freighter heading south out of the jurisdiction," Kenji countered, stepping closer into the broker's personal space, his voice dropping an octave. "Unless you want me to remind the port authority which broker fenced their missing inventory last quarter."

Silas stiffened, a dark flush rising up his leathery neck. "Careful, Kenji. You used to play it straight, back before the syndicate burned your badge and your crew. Now you're shaking down old contacts in the middle of the night just to keep some twitchy kid breathing?"

"Times change, Silas. The codes. Now," Kenji snapped, resting his hand casually near the hilt of his tactical knife.

Seraphine stood near the door, her eyes darting between the two men and the grimy window overlooking the foggy docks. "We don't have time for a family reunion, Kenji. Corporate maritime security has been tightening patrols around every unregistered vessel since the container yard incident. If a patrol boat sweeps this barge, we're all dead."

Silas finally broke eye contact with Kenji, letting out a wet, rattling sigh as he punched a sequence of hard-light keys on his terminal. A small, encrypted data-chip slid out of the terminal's slot with a mechanical click.

"The Iron Gander," Silas muttered, flicking the chip across the table toward Kenji. "Slated to cast off at dawn. Hauling low-grade coal and scrap metal down to the southern delta. The captain's a greedy bastard named Oakes who doesn't ask questions as long as the digital currency clears before the harbor master checks the manifest."

Kenji snatched the chip out of the air, slotting it immediately into his wrist-pad to verify the string of alphanumeric codes. "Clean?"

"As clean as a smuggler's ledger gets," Silas replied, glaring bitterly at Kenji. "And don't bother coming back this way, Kenji. You burned the last bridge we had standing the moment you walked through that door."

"Wasn't planning on it," Kenji said coldly, turning toward the hatch.

"Wait," Seraphine said, her hand stopping Kenji’s shoulder as a sharp crackle echoed from the handheld radio clipped to her belt.

Static hissed through the cabin, followed by the flattened, computerized cadence of a corporate security band. "—unregistered biometric signature detected in sector four. All patrol units converge on the Voss Shipping Docks. Lock down all outbound commercial berths. I repeat, lock down—"

Kenji cursed under his breath, drawing his suppressed pistol with practiced fluidity. "They found the container we left Dorian in. The auxiliary battery didn't hold."

"They're locking down the berths right now," Seraphine said, her voice tightening with sudden, raw panic as she looked from the radio to Kenji. "If we don't get to the Iron Gander in the next ten minutes, we're trapped on this side of the bay with a city-wide lockdown at our backs."

"Move," Kenji barked, shoving the hatch open and disappearing back into the freezing coastal fog.

Silas watched them go from the threshold of his barge, shaking his head. " You're running out of miracles, Kenji.

And the clock's already ticking."