the police, even Central.”

“What’d they do about it?”

She glared at me. “They sent you.”

“Oh… then I understand your disappointment. Hmm… I’ll see what I can do.”

Dross watched me as I headed for the exit.

“Don’t you want to see your first inspection assignment?”

I waved a hand over my shoulder. “Forward it to my tapper. I’ll go through it. I’ve got a photographic memory for these things.”

Muttering disgustedly, she let me go. A few minutes later, when I was out loafing on the docks, I got a priority message.

I’d almost forgotten that I’d asked Dross for the manifests, and I’d already swiped the message away to the spam folder when I realized what it must be. Shrugging, I decided to leave well enough alone. After all, I’d caught the name of the ship in the subject line: Sea Empress. That should be all I needed.

Twenty minutes later, I reached the moorings where the Sea Empress stood. She was an imposing hulk. She blotted out the sky. Her shadow lowered the temperature of the chilly March winds down to an icy level.

A few surly looking crewmen eyed me as I approached.

“The last tour group has come and gone, mate,” one of them said as I moved to march right past them.

The other guy released a scratchy laugh. “Yeah… tour-guides! Good one, Merron.”

“Shut up,” Merron said. Then he turned back to me. “What do you want, boy?”

“I’m the new inspector.” With a flourish, I showed them the credentials that Dross had given me.

“Well, it’s about bloody time. We’ve been waiting seven hours for our damned inspection. How about you give us a quick pass and go have yourself a beer?”

I walked past him, and they followed irritably.

For a few hours, I walked around their big, echoing ship. The thing was even bigger than I had expected, and the task quickly began to look helpless. Accordingly, I gave up.

Heaving a sigh I closed the nonexistent file I’d been pretending to consult every few minutes. The two crewmen, both bored by now, eyed me dully.

“Hey. How about the three of us have a beer or something?”

They perked up immediately. “You’re done?”

“Sure thing—if it means we can all have a brew or two together.”

“That sounds great!” Merron said. He was instantly perky.

His sidekick Lenny never did anything without his approval, but even so, Lenny looked baffled. “That other guy, Billington… he takes twice as long to do an inspection.”

Merron landed a big hand on his shoulder. It looked friendly, but I could tell from the look on Lenny’s face it had landed with surprising force, turning into a slap.

“There now, no more arguments out of you, mate. If the good man says he’s finished—he’s damned well finished.”

“Oh… oh yeah.”

They led the way to the crew quarters, where I flicked at my tapper and guzzled four of their shitty beers. They were cold, bitter, and cheap—but I didn’t care.

“Have you boys heard anything about inspectors like me disappearing? Aboard these big ships, I mean?”

Merron looked scandalized. “What? Nah… Super-cargos are the dullest places on Earth, McGill. You should have figured that out by now.”

I smiled. “Yes… they do seem to be boring, but still… there have been some disappearances. Don’t you think that’s odd?”

Lenny was frowning, while Merron kept right on smiling. “Just rumors, mate. Don’t let it spook you. I know you’re new to the job, but after your first hundred inspections, you’ll be as wall-eyed as the rest of us.”

“Right…”

My eyes and attention soon moved to Lenny. He was the man who might tell me something. It was clear that Merron just wanted me out of the way as soon as possible.

When Merron shuffled off to some duty or another—probably a quick trip to the head—I took a shot at Lenny. “Hey, what was it you wanted to tell me?”

Lenny gaped and blinked. He looked confused, then scared. “Nothing.”

I nodded sagely. “That’s fine, then. Too bad I’m going to have to fail your ship this time around.”

“What?”

“That’s right. Too many violations.”

“Are you crazy, McGill? You didn’t say anything about any violations. You said you were happy about everything.”

I shook my head and tapped at my tapper in a meaningful manner. “It’s all here. Fire hazards, improper container maintenance, bad paperwork… when I said I was done with the inspection, I didn’t say you’d passed. I meant I had enough to keep you from unloading.”

“But… that’s…”

“Say,” I said, leaning forward as if gripped by a sudden concern. “You don’t think the captain will blame you and Merron for this, do you? That would be unfair.”

“Blame us? How?”

“Well, seeing as your name is on every page of this failed report. There’s a stack of work here to do—a big stack.”

“Listen, McGill, that’s crazy. We’ve been coming here for years. Every month or so. We’ve never failed inspection. Never.”

I shrugged and cracked open another of their piss-water beers. “That’s too bad. But I’m new here, a new inspector. I have to make my mark. You understand.”

“No. I don’t understand at all.”

“Hmm…” I said. “There is one thing… but no, you wouldn’t be interested.”

Lenny gaped at me for a few more long seconds. He wasn’t the sharpest. “Wouldn’t be interested in what?”

“In showing me what’s really going on aboard this ship. I looked it up. One of the inspectors, one of my comrades, Lenny—they vanished on this ship. You know about that, don’t you?”

Lenny studied the deck. He nodded once, miserably.

Merron appeared at that point, spoiling everything. “What’s all this then?” he demanded. “Are you two proposing marriage or something?”

I smiled and chugged my beer. “You guessed it. Lenny refused me.”

Merron found this uproariously funny. I laughed with him, until we both noticed Lenny was trying

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