The freighter was parked at the dock where I’d seen the group of fishermen the night before. Painted a deep dark green and stacked with long rows of brightly colored boxes and containers, the ship had a spindly tower topped with a flashing red light in its center story. From a distance, it looked like an enormous insect. I’d never been on a water vessel of any kind, not even a small boat.
“Move quickly, beggar,” the guard said. “The ship is about to leave. We don’t want you loitering around waiting for the next one.”
I picked up my pace to match the guard’s long strides and we made it to the freighter just as the crew was about to pull away from land. We stopped a few yards from the bottom of a short staircase leading up to the deck.
“What’s this?” a square-faced man wearing a dull brow
