Locked Out of Gran's Secret Room, I Wore What Was Inside novel · Chapter 15 of 24
Chapter 15: The Barge
Tiago's POV
I put the Lucia between the barge and the rocks and cut the engine.
The barge was a flat gray deck with a welding rig lashed to it and six men in hard hats looking at me.
The foreman stood at the bow with a bullhorn.
"Launch, you're in a work zone," he said. "Clear it."
I did not answer.
I let the Lucia drift sideways until her fenders touched the barge's steel.
Behind me, the first of the drivers came round the point.
It was the big man with the gray ponytail, with his lamps still on.
Then two more.
Then four.
By the time the sun cleared the horizon, there were seven boats between the barge and the cliff.
Their engines idled, and their crews stood on deck in oilskins.
Nobody said a word.
The foreman lowered the bullhorn.
He looked at the line of boats, and at the ledge behind us, where the iron door stood open on its black passage.
"Son, I've got a work order," he said. "Signed by the trustee."
"I know."
"I'm going to land my men on that ledge."
"You'll have to go through my bow," I said.
He studied me for a long time.
He was near sixty, with a thick gray moustache and a blunt, tired face.
He was not going to ram a launch full of people he knew.
"Ain't you the Raposo boy?" he said. "Your uncle's boat?"
"Yes, sir."
"Your uncle taught me to splice."
"He taught everyone," said the man with the ponytail.
Octavia stepped up beside me on the foredeck.
She had Vovo's black scarf knotted over her hair and my oilskin over her shoulders.
Nothing in her face showed a night without sleep.
She stood on my bow and owned the water.
"Sir," she said, in a clear voice that carried down the line of boats. "I'm Octavia Tillinghast."
"Ma'am," the foreman said.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–6 of Locked Out of Gran's Secret Room, I Wore What Was Inside are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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