Chapter 325: The Mark on the Load

Ren lodged the supplementary report as soon as they reached the landing.

The account covered the junction station, the two parties and the sealed crates changing hands. He enclosed a copy of the transfer record and Vesper’s sketch, keeping their working papers with him. When he checked his slate at the post, a reply to the earlier yard report was waiting through the landing contact.

The office had sent several attachments. Above them was a short acknowledgement.

Report received. Observations and records of the described activity are requested.

Ren read the line, then opened the first attachment. Vesper came up from the shelf with her notebook while Eira remained beside him at the post.

— • —

The depot-register extract carried the time at which it had been prepared. Ren found the reference from the station sheet among the survey lot’s entries.

4118 — survey lot. Dispatched by Guild carrier from the freight point. Authorized destination: survey depot. Receipt at depot: none recorded as of this extract.

Other consignments appeared below it, each with its own dispatch entry and no recorded receipt. Ren checked their references against his notes. He had seen only part of the yard’s stock, and the register could not tell him where the rest had gone.

Two further entries had been copied from the carrier records.

Receiving annotation: tag folded inward on arrival.

Routing entered from custody sheet, reference attached.

Ren followed the references. The handling note belonged to the same consignment as the depot entry. Someone had noticed the folded tag at receipt and preserved that detail in the paperwork. Now it gave him another way to match the load between records, though he had never seen the tag himself.

The routing entry named the document used to send it onward. It did not explain why that document differed from the authorized destination.

He set the slate beside his paper copy on the post’s ledge. The register named the depot. His copy recorded a handover at the junction beyond it, followed by another station designation. He had watched that handover himself.

"That’s the discrepancy," he said, pointing between the entries. "The load was authorized to the depot. We saw it being passed on beyond it."

Vesper checked the station designation against her sketch.

"Do we know it never stopped at the depot?"

"No. There’s no receipt recorded here. We didn’t watch it all the way from the freight point."

He wrote both facts beneath the reference, leaving room for an explanation when the office had one.

— • —

The next attachment carried an Alliance case reference.

Your report of Crimson Serpent activity has been referred under case reference 2/71: the investigation into the abduction of Mei Lanhua, registered cultivator, Crimson Empire. Relevant transport records are requested.

Ren read it through, then lowered the slate onto the ledge. Vesper leaned closer to see the line, and Eira waited while he read it again.

"Mei Lanhua," he said. "One of the Twenty-Seven. She was taken in the strikes not long before I broke through."

Vesper looked at the transfer sheet. "Does this mention her?"

"No. The Crimson Serpent is the front for the people who took her. That’s why the report went to her case."

The name had brought back the news of that night. Until he opened this reply, the cargo route had been something obstructing his approach to the nesting ground. Now he had a reason to keep the details that led farther along it.

Nothing in the attachment placed Mei in the realm. The workers at the yard might never have seen her. But someone investigating her abduction wanted their transport records, and Ren had just lodged one.

He drew the copied sheet closer and checked the party marks beside the handover. He could reproduce them, even if he could not read the names behind them. The station designations gave the office places to ask about as well.

"I’ll put the case reference on the next report," he said. "They should have the station copy with it."

Vesper added the reference beneath her yard entry.

Eira glanced toward the road. "If we’re going back, how much time do we have before the next report?"

Ren opened the last attachment.

— • —

It was a carrier’s notice, dated separately from the register extract. Two consignments from the lot remained at the upstream freight point at the time of the notice. Both had an onward handover booked at a named station, with an arrival window beneath it.

4119, 4120 — survey lot. Held at freight point pending onward carriage.

Ren compared the station designation with the one at the top of his copied transfer record. Every character matched.

He showed Eira the booking and brought up their reporting deadline beside it. The scheduled handover fell early enough for them to watch from the ridge and return to the landing, provided they left soon. There was little room to wait for a delayed load.

"The side channel, past the mound, over the ridge," she said. "Same way back?"

"Yes."

Vesper opened the page where she had noted their last return time. Ren checked it against the booking before marking the latest time they could leave the ridge.

"If the crates haven’t arrived by then, we leave anyway."

The notice gave them a place and a window. It did not tell him which route the carriers would use to reach the station, or whether the crews would be the same. He copied the two consignment numbers alongside the booking so they could check whatever arrived.

— • —

They went down to the shelf to settle the plan. Ward held in the channel with Keep mounted above the water, and Tarin stood on the bank beside the supplies.

"We’re still going to the nesting site," Ren told Vesper and Eira. "This handover is on the way toward it. We’ll watch during the booked window, then bring the record back if we can get it."

"If they leave the station occupied?" Vesper asked.

"We stay on the ridge. Nobody enters while they’re there, and nobody follows the carriers."

The previous copy had required him to cross the boards and open the box. He remembered the papers beneath the retaining strip and the two routes disappearing into mist. Either crew could have returned while he stood there.

"Even if they leave, we check both approaches before anyone goes down," he added. "If we can’t see enough, we come back with our notes."

Vesper marked the departure limit beside the booking. Eira checked it once, then went to examine Mistwhisker’s dressing.

Ren showed Tarin the time and repeated the arrangement for the water group. They would hold at the blocked channel’s mouth while the land party crossed the ridge. Keep’s reports would give delayed positions. If Ren’s group missed its return time, Tarin would take everyone at the channel back to the landing, lodge the report and wait there.

"We’ll know where to find you," Ren said.

Tarin nodded and looked along the road toward the blocked channel.

— • —

Ren returned to the post with his working copy.

The cargo entry filled the front: the consignment reference, sealed crates, station designations and the marks of the people who had signed. The four handling shapes occupied their separate field. The office’s reply had said nothing about those.

He turned the sheet over and wrote the case reference on the back. Beside it, he wrote Mei Lanhua.

His pencil rested at the end of her name before he lifted it.

The follow-up went on a fresh office sheet. He cited the supplementary report already in the box so its transfer record and sketch could be forwarded under her case reference. Below that, he set out the difference between the depot’s authorized destination and the onward handover they had witnessed.

He included the carrier notice’s reference and their intention to observe the booked transfer. Any further copying would depend on the station being unattended and the approaches visible. Their reporting deadline remained unchanged.

Vesper checked the times and references before he lodged it. Ren kept the working copy, with the booking where he could reach it. Eira was closing her kit on the shelf, and Tarin waited beside the road.

The next handover was due before their next report, at the station with the box.