The morning fog over the Grandview River hung thick and yellow, smelling of diesel fumes and brackish mud. Along the northern wharves of Maritime Boulevard, towering gantry cranes stood frozen against the pale dawn sky. At half past five, the dull rumble of heavy marine engines broke the silence as twelve dark patrol cutters belonging to the State Maritime Police cut through the channel, slicing across the glass surface of the water in tight formation.
They did not merely patrol the navigation lanes. They swung their armored bows around and dropped heavy mooring lines across the mouth of Berth 1, forming an unbroken metal barricade that locked the deep water turning basin completely shut. Flashing blue strobes painted the damp concrete docks and the steel hulls of eight docked container s
