Tunnel Rat-Chapter 345: Standing Guard

The Sharks who were left in the casino were the youngest and most inexperienced Scavengers in the clan. So while they outnumbered the dozen Engineers and six crew of the Leviathan, it was no contest as to who would win in a fight. So when closing time came around and no one moved from their seat, they sighed and restocked the buffet with whatever they had left in the kitchen. Both Whale and Sledgemonkey agreed that if everyone left, the Sharks might start pillaging their own casino. Stranger things happened when Scavengers thought the ship was sinking. They needed to stay and guard the place, and keep an eye on the alcohol.

The kitchen itself was a mess. Pillbug's method of cooking used every pan and pot available. Besides his glorious French Toast, he'd been cooking anything he found in the kitchen, adding his own touches to the recipes, often involving alcohol and fire. Sledgemonkey had been a little cautious about eating oysters in a bowl of flaming whiskey but had to admit that the flavor was worth a few burns to his tongue.

Boomboom had searched the casino until he found a deck of cards that the Sharks hadn't marked and got another poker game going. Others did the same and eventually, the Sharks had to watch in horror as three tables of ex-customers sat and played late into the night without the clan getting any profit at all. And they were playing for copper and toothpicks!

Captain Whale was sitting with BoomBoom, Narwhale, Sledgemonkey, and Two-Screws. Eventually, she couldn't take it anymore and said, "Alright, enough is enough. Tell me how the hell you pulled off this caper tonight. We've always suspected Mako ran crooked games, so I don't give a rat's fart, but dammit, I'm curious as hell. It was like your crew couldn't lose."

Two-Screws laughed, "But Sledgemonkey still tried! You had the damnedest bad luck tonight. I watched you sitting on your hands and praying the dealer would break! Which she didn't and left you holding a 14 or a 12."

"Not my fault. The next card would have put me over. You jerks took all the good cards and there I am at the end of the table having to sit on crap. Still came out ahead though. Hard not to."

Whale looked around the table, "What do you mean, you knew the next card would put you over? Were the Sharks running with marked decks?"

Sledgemonkey nodded to her. "Yup, take a look. Rune-Marked decks." He handed her a deck of cards from the blackjack tables and a monocle. All of the engineers had worn special goggles, or spectacles tonight, recalibrated to specifically look for a certain type of rune and function like the Shark's monocles. Whale stared at the cards and cursed.

"Damn, this is blatant. And brilliant. That's some clever runework on these cards, and quite subtle. I have to admit I'm jealous they had someone this good. I suppose the Captain's table was the same? Or was something else going on? That last hand was impossible! And the Professor pulled a fast one on Mako, sitting quietly in his seat nibbling cheese and sipping coffee."

"No sure about that game. I tried to spot the cheat, but couldn't. The monocles didn't show a damned thing. So however they were cheating, and whatever the Professor pulled, we don't have a clue. Maybe you should ask him sometime." Sledgemonkey grinned at her.

Whale crossed her arms and glared back. "Maybe I will. But you haven't said how the hell you found out about the rune-marked cards."

BoomBoom giggled, "It was in the job description." He shared an Engineering notification with the Captain.

Job #4732-J: Testing Optical Enhancements for the ability to Detect Runic Markings

Senior Engineer Milo is studying Optical Enhancement apparatus to determine the optimal piece of equipment to detect runic markings upon painted cardboard playing cards. An experiment has been set up in the casino in Shadowport.

Senior Engineer Milo asks for several Engineers to conduct testing to see if they can detect the Runes on Marked cards.

This is a Blind Test, and Clan Shark is unaware of the testing procedure. Subtlety must be used, increasing the difficulty of the test for most Engineers.

Optional Experiment: Conduct psychological tests on Clan Shark to learn the effect that a loss of gold has on the clan.

Optional Experiment: Conduct dexterity tests to find the optimal height to stack gold coins while playing blackjack.

"And how the hell did Senior Engineer Milo figure this out?!"

"Maybe you should ask him sometime."

"Maybe I will! Where the hell is he?"

Sledgemonkey, "Oh, Senior Engineer Milo keeps busy. Always trying to fix something."

Two-Screws added, "Or break something."

Narwhale and her husband laughed and said, "Boom Boom Boom!"

An hour before sunrise would send light into the city of Shadowport the Iron Orca was firing up her boilers. Captain Annie wanted a full head of steam by dawn when the salvage operation started. Steam was movement, power to the winches and cranes, and most importantly her steam cannons. She didn't put it past some bunch of idiots trying to steal her ship thinking her crew was distracted with a salvage operation. Plus, she wanted to show off in front of Mako.

The leader of the sharks was nervous and smoking her cigars to the nub every few minutes. One of her cabin girls was standing nearby with another box of stogies and a bottle of rum. Annie thought Mako would be out of both before the day was half over. She was enjoying the sight, and hopeful for the amount of salvage. Mako wouldn't be so worried about a couple of chests of gold. The loot was substantial and it represented the last of the clan's wealth. Annie looked forward to taking her percentage off the top.

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Stumpy had been less happy with the deal. "Something's fishy here. You don't see someone be so specific about the loot, specifying only coins and ingots unless they have something else they don't want to give up."

"Well, maybe if someone hadn't been face down in a plate of French toast while getting a shoulder rub instead of being around to advise her captain, maybe I'd have caught that!"

Stumpy looked a little guilty, but her belly was full and her shoulders and back felt wonderful, so the guilt melted away quickly. "Ah, don't sweat it. I bet she has a jeweled sword or crown hidden away she wants to keep. Everyone has their little keepsakes. But I think the Sharks spent every last coin they had on that casino. Hell, the crew contributed all their swag to it when the clan savings weren't enough, and most of what they took from gambling was coins or raw nuggets they melted to ingots. They hauled them out in chests every week. That treasure vault of hers is fat with chests of treasure. We'll do fine even if Mako keeps a few things. And this is a cake run. The divers will be at the wreck an hour after dawn, another hour to spread the salvage net and lines and we'll pull the wreckage up with the crane and swing it onto the beach."

Annie considered her mate's words but still scowled. "You could have at least brought along breakfast."

Stumpy slammed her wooden leg on the deck. "Nope! If you got one taste of my man, you'd be after him too! I'm not taking a chance. You'll have to go shopping and pick out one of your own! We need to wrangle you an invite to the deep parts. Pillbug is taking me down next week to show me around. Maybe Whale will let you come along?"

Annie stared at her. "The Whale do a favor for another Captain so she can go fishing for an Engineer in her territory? Are you daft?"

"Oh, I didn't say it would be cheap. But we've got a nice windfall coming our way in a few hours. Maybe a little shark gold can buy your way in."

"There's a better chance of opening up that vault and finding an Engineer napping on a pile of gold!"

"Oooh...now there's a thought. Maybe covered in maple syrup?"

"Stopping you right there Stumpy. We've got work to do, and I don't need thoughts like that in my head!" She yelled down to the crew, "Sun's up, let's get moving. Move ahead at one-quarter speed. Mako! Give the helm directions and tell them where you want them to stop!

Mako was relieved to finally be underway. Every day, hell, every hour, that she didn't have access to her treasures was going to weigh heavy on her mind. Not that Annie or anyone else was going to find the real treasures she had hidden. Even the crew didn't know what was in that vault. And it wasn't part of any salvage deal. Annie could have her cut of the precious metal. She'd get back her hidden trove and they'd be back in business in a day. A couple of months was all it would take to recoup her lost money, and by then the Engineers would want to start work on putting Leviathan back together and have to negotiate with her for land and dockspace. That would get her foot in the door to be one of the Captains salvaging the Queen. One step at a time and the Sharks would be back on top.

She pulled a Treasure Finder out of her pocket. They were a popular bauble with some Captains who might forget just where they buried a fortune in gold. Too much gold on a ship could be a problem. To most Scavengers, gold was a thing that bought fancy hats, and strong drinks, or paid the repair bills after you tore up a bar. They understood making repairs to the ship and replacing food and ammo, but that was about as far as they thought ahead. Many a Captain had to deal with a mutiny when the crew found out about a fat chest of loot hidden beneath the floorboards of the captain's Quarters.

This was the reason so many clans had only one ship and few saved up to make a permanent base of operations. The solution was hiding the loot somewhere and then collecting it when needed. Treasure Finders were a unique item made by gnomish artificers. Each compass pointed to only one thing, a small item crafted at the same time as the magical compass was made, and from the same batch of metal. Her Treasure Finder pointed to the Vault door in the Silver Shark. She watched carefully as the needle quivered, and called out, "Cut the power, we're close." The ship drifted a bit more, and then the needle spun in circles. "She's right below us, Annie, send them on down."

Annie looked overboard, seeing the change in the color of the water. "We're right at the drop-off, I'll drop the main cable down, then reverse and drop anchors. That will lay the line along the slope and once they find the wreck, it will be easy to hook up." The crane started dropping its cable down and then the ship moved backward and dropped two anchors to hold her in place. The three divers shared a glass of rum, then put on their helmets, and jumped overboard, tethers trailing behind them.

It was two hours of hard work to get to the wreck, move the line to it, and hook it up securely. Slowly the crane began to lift the wreck up to the surface, with the divers sitting on the stern and getting a ride. There was no sense pulling the wreck out of the water, even if the crane had the power. In the water, it put far less strain on the ship as she dragged it back to the docks. Mako was grinding her teeth the whole way.