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Milwaukee, August of the forty-third year of the Kurian Order: The burned-out corpse of a city that once held nearly two hty square an Froreat lake in the east to the Meno but hollow shells of buildings, the upper stories now housing bats, hawks, pigeons, and seagulls The lower levels shelter everything frorant huhoutLocust Avenue, and Greenfield Avenue is precisely that: a green field where cattle are raze
The new center of the city is the railway station, where the more favored soldiers and technicians house thele of casual labor lives around and under the spaghetti-strand warren of overpasses that make up the old Interstate 94/43 juncture Two Kurian Lords run the city, one fro, and the other frorounds of MarquetteUniversity The Miller Brewing Co but a trickle of the pilsner torrent it once did Under new an awed Valentine with its quietdrama of the ocean shoreline he knew frorees of the horizon in almost a north-south line impressed hiether north of White-fishBay They had left Gonzalez in a secluded barn far outside the city li of southern Wisconsin The only difficulty had been fro settle corn for the horses The dogs contented the, and the Wolves had hurried back to their nity
Now each night they stood behind a four-foot-tall, decorative stone wall in an overgrown park overlooking the lake, waiting for a boat fro, which they would ansith two
"What exactly is this Flotilla?" Valentine asked his companion
Harper, comfortably seated with his back to the stone wall, took a puff of one of the noxious cigarettes he smoked "They&039;re syht the Kurians tooth and nail They&039;re ss, it&039;s ot double-crossed, or they asked for too big a payoff The Hoods hate going out into blue water, I&039;s and sos take bribes whenever they can get aith it But the Flotilla always fights the Grogs whenever they get the chance It&039;s a real blood feud I guess these Grogs are more partial to human flesh thanMouths, Snappers, or whatever They have jaws that open right to left, instead of up and down, right? Kind of fish-frog things?"
"Yep, slio dor, when they lay their eggs, you gotta keep away froe miles inland for food They like the water a little shallower though, so they&039;re not such a probleh And Lake Erie is stiff with theht of all the times that he had taken a boat out into the lakes of the Boundary Waters, collecting fish for dinner Strange to think of fish e ashore "So why does the Fleet carry our ive theuns and aines, gasoline-all sorts of stuff We&039;re lucky We&039;re just delivery boys; we don&039;t have to worry about payoffs But I got a little grease for the wheels in ; it&039;s sort of expected"
Valentine shrugged "Whatever it takes You&039;d think they&039;d be on our side"
"They are, they are In fact, I guarantee that you&039;ll like &039;eot a , but it&039;s still fun to listen to"
"I&039;ll bet," Valentine said
The next night the boat arrived Valentine al wolf-trotted back to Gonzalez&039;s barn to check on things at the main camp Both the horses and his scout looked better for a few days&039; rest Gonzalez had explored the area, finding so nearby The scout had collected a basket of green apples and an ars with the horses "I saw soet &039;em tomorrow, sir," he reported
"Justso worse than dogs I don&039;t want any locals to suspect we&039;re here"
"No tracks, no sign, and best of all, no Reapers," Gonzalez reassured hiht I&039;ll take some apples back, if you have no objections, Mr Bountiful," Valentine said, filling his pockets
"Of course, Lieutenant Give a few to the sarge with my compliments"
It was a tired lieutenant who returned to the overlook that evening, having covered fifteen miles on foot in the course of the day Two hours after sunset, the three lights appeared on the dark lake
"Thar she blows," Harper quoted, choosing a curious allusion Valentine wastwo on the land and three in the sea, and I on the outskirts of Milwaukee will be
Harper poured his flammable liquid on two piles of wood, twelve feet apart on the lakeside of the overlook wall, and set the on and off, as somebody opened and closed a hooded lantern
"Are you satisfied it&039;s them?" Harper asked
"Yes," answered Valentine, trying to make out the lines of the little ship
"Then let&039;s go down to the beach, sir, and deliver theout his fires
The ship bobbed in the san did not roar as they struck the shoreline, but instead gently slapped it The lake al, and so breeze ht The e bags, hy met them, its sides a bare sixteen inches out of the water
"Climb in sideways," a boy&039;s voice said from the stern "You&039;ll capsize me if you try to vault in"
The Wolves threw their packs into the dink and rolled into the little boat It settled in the water appreciably with their added weight
Valentine looked into the stern, at the figure with the paddle What he had thought was a young boy was in fact a young woman dressed in shapeless white canvas She had a round face and ers over freckled cheekbones
"Nice night, eh, boys? Captain Doss sends her compliments to the representatives of the OzarkFreeTerritory and invites you aboard the yawl White Lightning," she said, flashing an i?" Valentine asked
"Yawl," she repeated "You know nothing of ships, soldier?"
"Not much," Valentine ad, but seaworthy as a porpoise A ship not very different frole o, that was"
"Good to see you again Teri, is it?" Harper said, conteht you looked familiar Aaron no, Randall Harper Met you twice before, I recall But I didn&039;t see you this spring"
"I had the overland route I don&039;t want it again," Harper explained
"Well, the captain will be glad to see you So who&039;s this with you?"
"Lt David Valentine He hails from Minnesota"
She reached over to shake Valentine&039;s hand "Pleased to know you, Lieutenant Teri Silvertongue, first entle?"
"I can&039;t think of anything I&039;d likeher courteous phraseology He wondered if Silvertongue was a nicknao by Mr in the flotilla, ue corrected "Just as you do in the Wolves Will you take an oar, sir?"
"I beg your pardon, Mr Silvertongue Sergeant Harper here didn&039;t tell me the ship had a female crew, let alone how you expected to be addressed Likes to keep a good thing to hilance at Harper He paddled for the white blob outside the gentle surf
"Oh, there&039;s plenty of ue explained "The commodore of our fleet just has a soft spot in her heart for any woman with a sad tale It&039;s the only soft spot she has; the woman has steel in her backbone and flint in her heart in all other s," as she calls us But yes, it&039;s three wo But it beats life on land The Capos just want us for breeding stock, and their gunbelt lackeys seeirl who tickles their fancy"
"Capos?" Valentine asked
"That&039;s e call the Reapers out east, handsohy reached the ship, and Valentine got a good look at the White Lightning Her lines had kind of an off-balanced beauty, with an oversize centralfrom far astern
Captain Doss wore a suests The captain had beautiful, dusky skin and the angular features of a storybook pirate queen Her short black hair lossy sheen
A third wo, stood over six feet tall and had the long, graceful lis up," she said perfunctorily, and Valentine realized he had heard a foreign accent for the first tihtning seehy It aisted; the top of as obviously the cabin area filled the middle third of the ship It had a wheel to steer it-so the spokes-placed in front of the rear mast All the ork, save the planks of the deck and the decorative wheel, was painted a uniforray
The captain introduced her crew "You&039;ve ue My second mate, orks so hard I don&039;t need any more crew, is Eva Stepanicz She crossed the Atlantic four round trips before ending up in the Lakes"
"It will be h for h?" Harper asked
"No, sir Goods In Riga is agent of tradings, who pays ht back fro arts"
The captain se soainer I don&039;t know a Picasso froh to start a gallery"
"But I&039; into his haversack "Captain, co over a pair of elabo-rately wrapped and sealed bottles of liquor In the ht, Valentine couldn&039;t read the black labels, but they looked authentic
"Sergeant Harper, you just bought us a new coat of paint, andMy thanks to you, sir"
Harper pointed to the three bags of correspondence "You&039;ll also find a box of cigars for each of you in those bags If you don&039;t srease the Quisling wheels, I believe"
"You southern gentlemen are too kind I wish those Green Mountain Boys would show the sa her overbaggy trousers
"Enough playacting," Captain Doss interrupted "I&039;d like to be anchored off Adolph&039;s Bunker by ht You Wolves want to pay a call on Milwaukee? Get a little taste of life in the KZ?"
"We&039;re always interested in the Kurian Zone But would that be wise, Captain?" Valentine asked
"Well, Lieutenant, the pathfinder look would have to go But we&039;ve got soh spot, but I&039;ve never heard of the Reapers going in there The owner never makes trouble; in fact, I&039;ve heard he turns troublemakers over to the for the deal we need to do I&039;ll ht for athe New Order would object to?"
"If they knew about it, Lieutenant," Doss said, looking at the wind telltale The tiny strea with the Quislings"
"Count us in, then"
An hour later, the yawl tacked into Milwaukee&039;s harbor A single decrepit police boat, piloted by a Quisling whose sole badge of rank was a grihtning with a sht
Captain Doss held up a hand and flashed a series of hand signals that would have done a third-base coach proud The Quisling nodded, satisfied
"Just arranging what you es," Doss explained to Valentine The Wolves nohite canvas shirts and trousers, as well While more tattered than the e fro the run south, Valentine had questioned the captain about the Lakes Flotilla and its habits, and had learned a little about how the sails were balanced Valentine sponged information off anyone henew
They pulled up to the main civic pier, a cracked concrete affair that sloped toward Lake Michigan at a twenty-degree angle Valentine noticed that the captain pivoted as she brought the ship in so that its bow pointed out to the lake
"The Kurians aren&039;t too big on infrastructure repairs," Sil-vertongue co to the dock A few boats, none of whichthe pier
"Stepanicz, you&039;ve got the first anchor watch Don&039;t give me that look; after the deal, I&039;ll take over for you If we&039;re not back in two hours, or if anything goes down, you raise sail There&039;s a good wind for it tonight"
"Aye, aye, sir," she answered, drawing a sawed-off shotgun from the chart locker She broke it open and inserted two loads of buckshot
"And if our broad-shouldered young rab one of the barrels lashed to the mast in the cabin-Silver, help Mr Valentine with the knots, would you-we can be about the rest of this night&039;s business"
Adolph&039;s Bunker looked like a transplant froinal purpose, its builders had wanted it to last They constructed it from heavy concrete, with narros imitative of a castle&039;s arrow slits The bleached white of the concrete and the irregular rectangular slits gave it the countenance of a toothy skull It lay on the lakeshore, set well away fro behind
"Why is it called Adolph&039;s Bunker?" Valentine asked as they approached the squat, brick-shaped building The ten-gallon cask grew heavier with each step
"The guy who runs it is a dictator, for starts," Captain Doss said
Silvertongue turned and looked at thewith a cask on his shoulder "There&039;s a feeling about the place It&039;s a piece of sanity in an insane country Or htly different insanity within the insanity, take your pick It&039;s popular with the Quislings When we found out we had toshot, so we could kill two birds with one stone this trip"
"As long as our bags get delivered," Valentine said, trying not to breathe too hard under his aard burden
"This trade will h a lot easier," Doss said
The building seemed hollow and dead as a shucked oyster Valentine sur in dark and quiet, when he realized that music, too loud to be the product of any instru He switched to hard ears and listened to the beat of ancient rock and roll and the gabble of voices echo up from a stairwell Captain Doss turned to a set of narrow concrete steps that disappeared along the side of the building down into the earth A knoblessDoss squatted down and said so open
As he descended the stairs, Valentine plastered a drunken ser sailor The captain entered, nodding to soed shrugs Sil-vertongue turned to theto frisk you for weapons and sn"
A Grog roughly the size of a Volkswagen Beetle barred their way Over its yard-wide shoulder Valentine watched the captain and then her ht out of an H G Wells nightue, the smelly roadblock at the door stepped aside and Valentine passed into the noise of the Bunker
Hehis feet twice his shoulder width apart and putting his hands to either side of a sign, stenciled in paint onto another concrete wall just inside the door To Valentine&039;s left, a su his stubble with a Saturday night subave him the once over, Valentine read the stenciled letters: the rules adolph&039;s word is law no s, unless it&039;s ours you&039;re only as good as your barter you&039;re only as bad as we let you be VISIT OUR GIFT SHOP CONFUSED? SEE RULE 1
Valentine retrieved his keg and joined the wo like a corn-fed hick fresh off the back forty Electric light and noise overwhelmed him Prerecorded music played by aped at the source A box of neon and chroainst one cinderblock wall blared CD Selection & Sound, as the reflective lettering on the glass proclaimed A bar almost filled the wall opposite the jukebox, and a mismatched assortment of tables, booths, and benches stood about the sawdust-covered floor The base of a flush toilet peeped from beneath a curtain in the corner farthest fro urinal next to it trickled water down the wall and into the soggy shavings beneath An alcove, separated fro sie at the door, advertised itself as CURRENCY EXCHANGE-GIFT SHOP-MANAGEMENT
He was relieved to see the rest of the occupants of the Bunker were huenetic cross section Two bartenders stood only a hair shorter and sli at the door, stuffed like a pair of pointy-headed sausages into red T-shirts with black lettering reading the bunker A desiccated weed of a e, s between the tables, laden tray ed and weaved, a nioed baseball cap, bikini top, and a thong, she looked the happiest of anyone in the room Valentine ran a quick estimate in his head and decided her hat contained e of her body, than everything else she wore coh heels included The patrons, dressed in ill-fitting black-and-tan fatigues or blue merchant roups
The captain led her little party in single file to the Currency Exchange-Gift Shop-Managehtning herself coarette clenched between yellowed teeth "And Teri Silvertongue! Ahhh, ain! Any ties, you just come see ue said, exposing her rack of teeth in a forced smile "But I catch cold kind of easy"
Captain Doss stepped up to the slot e and placed a sht you sos for your coffin nails, Ade Do me a favor and die quick, would you?"
Til outlive you, Dossie You got a couple new hands?" The owner ran his eyes quickly up and down Harper and Valentine, perhaps assessing their creditworthiness or potential as troublemakers
"Just a little extraof which, has the Duke arrived yet?"
"Take my advice, Cap Slon and enjoy life a little But yeah, his party is in the card rooonna pull another Captain Bligh like last time?"
Doss shook her head "After the deal, Ade, after the deal" She gestured to the other three, and they filed toward a door next to the long wooden bar Valentine counted three casks and some thirty-odd bottles of assorted poison, all unlabeled He watched one Quisling, crossed rifles of a captain on his epaulets, purchase a shot and a beer chaser by placing a pair of bullets on the bar The Quisling tossed off the shot, face contorted as though he had poured an ounce of nitric acid down his throat
Valentine tried not to think about the fact that he stood in a roo by turning him over alive to the Reapers
Doss knocked on the door marked private It opened a crack, and half of an ebony face looked at her through a narrowed eye The door shut again, but just for a uard opened the door, and the crew entered a spacious, well-ventilated room Three men and a woman sat around a felt-covered table Cards and chips lay before three of the players; the fourth, a man, only watched Valentine&039;s eyes were drawn to hi if for no other reason