"They're still pretty red, friend. Eight more hours oughta do it. Can I find Captain Mantilla on board?"
"Engine room, I expect. He's usually there when we're not hauling." The anchor watch stood up and gave his belt a lift. "Follow the blue streak."
Sure enough, Valentine picked up a steady stream of grumbles and curses in English, Spanish, French and what he guessed to be Russian or Polish.
"C'mon, panoche. Loosen up, you bitch. Kurva, what's the matter with you this morning, you old putain."
"Cap, this ol' boy's come aboard askin' for you," the boatman called down the hatch. "Wearin' a TMCC pisscutter and a turkey on his collar."
"Merde. Just a moment, Chief." Valentine heard tools being put down, and then someone coming up the ladder.
Mantilla's face appeared in the sun, smeared with grease like Comanche war paint. He furrowed his brows. "Morning, Colonel. Saw you last night but damned if I can remember your name."
"Le Sain, monfrere. I want to talk about getting a little extra cargo up here, the next time you come up the Arkansas."
"Thanks, Jim Bob, I'll take it from here." As the sailor moved back to his shady rest, Mantilla pulled out a cigarette and sat on the edge of the hatch. "What can I get you, Colonel?"
"I'm an old friend of Miss Bright's. You've done a few favors for her, and I need something similar. She sent me."
Mantilla took a sidelong look at him and blew out a lungful of carcinogens. "You stick your head in the noose first, Le Sain."
"When you talk to her faraway friends, you probably re-ferr to her as Smoke. If you speak to the same people, call me Ghost."
"Pleased to meet you. How can I help?"
"I need something brought to Southern Command."
"Fair enough. I have to tell you plain, sir, that's getting trickier by the month. I can't guarantee anything. What is it, people, papers, photos?"
"Some wood. Just a few dozen four-by-four beams."
"You're shitting me."
"It's not really the wood, it's what's in the wood."
"Gold? Platinum?"
"If you don't know, you can't tell anyone. I just want to know if you can get them into the Boston Mountains."
"Boston Mountains? You're misinformed. That's just a screen. The Ozark high command's hiding out in the bayous in the southwest. Big Hal Steiner's got them hidden."
"Really?"
"Easier to feed them from the swamps and rivers. He's got rice up the wazoo, too. The part of your army that's holding out up north, it's mostways teams of your Bears and Wolves wearing Guard uniforms. The invaders got so busy blocking up the mountains they didn't catch the evacuation south. They think the whole southeastern corner of Arkansas is a Kurian backwater. All those Grogs Steiner has around the place has them confused."
"I've been there. You could hide an army there."
"They won't be hiding there much longer."
Valentine, already excited, hooked a thumb in his belt near his .45's holster. "When?"
"Soon. Within weeks."
"You a Cat, or what?"
Mantilla bristled. "Look, Colonel, let me have my secrets, too. We're on the same team, isn't that enough?"
"When you're on a team it's nice to know if you're talking to a quarterback or the towel guy."