Jade War

Kehn summoned the ship’s doctor to see to the man’s injuries. Crew members were brought out to operate the shipboard crane to move the indicated six-meter-long container off its stack. When the corrugated blue metal box was opened on deck, Kehn saw it was packed full of cardboard cartons. The first several boxes they inspected contained hundreds of individually poly-wrapped items of clothing—exercise pants, tank tops, swimwear—straight from the garment factories in the Uwiwa Islands. Then Iyn noticed that some of the boxes appeared to have an extra bar code on the side. Kehn opened one of them and held up a woman’s blouse with small green buttons down the front. The buttons were made of jade and the blouse was false—it didn’t even open at the front. The whole box was filled with jade, disguised as mere ornamentation. Nestled in layers of fabric and mixed in with thousands of items of clothing, the gems would easily evade casual inspection until someone on the receiving end in Ygutan took delivery on behalf of a fictitious retailer and collected a fortune in jade.

“That Uwiwan is a clever dog,” Kehn admitted in a grumble, standing among a mess of boxes, plastic, and fabric. He left his Green Bones in charge of the continuing search and went to the bridge to order the captain to change course; the MV Amaric Pride would be docking in Janloon’s Summer Harbor.

CHAPTER 26

Setting Expectations

The news was vaguely reported in the Ygutanian papers and not at all outside that country’s borders, but according to the translated articles Shae received from the clan’s contacts in Ygutan, several targeted bombings had occurred in the past week, destroying chemical factories near Dramsk, Nitiyu, and Bursvik. The Ygutanian Directorate was blaming the attacks on Shotarian loyalist groups from Oortoko, backed by the Espenian government. The articles did not reveal who owned or operated the facilities nor what they were producing that would make them the targets of sabotage, but Shae already knew. The Espenians wouldn’t offer to pay for something if they didn’t plan to use it; she’d met with Ambassador Mendoff and Colonel Deiller in the White Lantern Club eight months ago, and now the Mountain’s lucrative shine-producing facilities were destroyed.

Ayt Mada must be furious. A satisfied smile crept onto Shae’s face and hovered there before sliding off. No Peak had not acted against the Mountain’s operations directly, but Ayt was sure to deduce who had sold the information to the Espenians. Shae did not for an instant regret what she’d done; she’d dealt a staggering financial blow to the Mountain without risking any No Peak lives or businesses, prevented vast quantities of the poisonous drug that had killed Lan from ever reaching the black market, and strengthened the alliance with the Espenians without giving in to their demands for more jade. It was precisely the sort of cunning victory that her grandfather would’ve been proud of. The only problem was that Ayt was sure to retaliate. Shae didn’t know when or how it would happen, but the Mountain would find a way.

Shae called Woon into her office and asked him to arrange another meeting with Colonel Leland Deiller. “Tell the colonel we have additional information of military interest to him.”

Woon sat down in front of her desk. After his attempt to resign as her chief of staff, several weeks of unspoken awkwardness had lingered between them, but it had faded under the pervasive necessity of their working relationship. Shae was glad that Woon seemed comfortable around her again. She was grateful they were still friends, even if things were not the same as before. “Maik Kehn’s discovery of jade being smuggled from the Uwiwa Islands to Ygutan on commercial cargo ships,” Woon inferred. “You believe if we hand over that information to the Espenians, they’ll shut it down, the way they destroyed the shine factories in Ygutan.”

“Kehn and his Fists got lucky with a tip-off on that one ship, but they can’t possibly patrol the entire West Tun Sea. The Espenians can, and do,” Shae said. “Even though we have informers and agents in the Uwiwa Islands, we have little power there—less ever since Hilo caused a publicized bloodbath. Espenia, though, provides the bulk of that country’s foreign aid; they could force the Uwiwan government to crack down on Zapunyo’s activities when no one else can.”

Woon nodded. “We get them to solve our problems.”

“Ayt Mada’s nationalistic rhetoric aside, we have interests in common with the ROE,” Shae said. “We don’t want jade or shine on the black market, and neither do they.”