Beemo’s brows furrowed deeply as he stared at the crew, hairy arms folded, wondering why his lowly workers were lined up against the barge rail like they were competing in a diving competition. “Right! What’s going on here? I didn’t give you permission to take a break!”

Dameer turned to him, “There was a firefight on the bay!”

“What?” Beemo replied, waddling to the railing, almost stumbling over himself as he did so. “Where!?”

“You missed it,” Shazi said, chuckling to himself.

Beemo grumbled, “No!” he said looking around desperately for some evidence of the fight. His shoulders dropped in disappointment when he found none. “Who were they fighting?”

“That group that calls ‘emselves the Order of Zion. Those terrorists from a few years back,” Dameer replied.

Beemo slammed his fist on the railing, “Order of Zion? I though they’d been blown to high heaven! Bunch of dirty beggars. How do they get off walking around in those ridiculous outfits in this day an’ age? Should’a wiped out the lot of ‘em.”

“What do they think they’re fighting for anyway?” Shazi asked.

“Who knows! Some childish fantasy most likely,” Beemo replied.

Thaqib listened to the conversation in silence. Shazi turned to Thaqib, “Looks like Thaqib here was smitten with them.”

“Was he?” Beemo replied turning to Thaqib. “Trust you to have a liking for a bunch of no good criminals!” he said, wagging a large finger in Thaqib’s face. Thaqib leaned back to avoid it.

“He’s not far off being one of ‘em himself!” Shazi added with a chuckle.

“That right boy?” Beemo said to Thaqib. “Sympathizing with scum like that? Why I ought to throw you overboard right now. Lucky for you we’ve got a mountain of trash to get through, so it’ll have to wait for the time being,” Beemo said, flicking his hand in the air and turning away.

“How do you know they’re scum?” Thaqib asked stepping forward, their dismissive attitude toward the Order members who had showed such incredible skill starting to rub him the wrong way.

“Huh?” replied Beemo, turning back. “You can damn well see they’re scum, disturbing the peace like that. If I hadn’t heard correctly I’d think you were siding with ‘em.” Beemo leaned in close, staring at him through beady eyes. “If you didn’t know already, that’s illegal. I could have you chucked in jail for even thinking such a thing.” Thaqib rolled his eyes. “You don’t want to turn out like that no good old man of yours do ya? Rumor has it he was one of them!”

“What? Rast was in the Order?” Thaqib asked, shocked.

“The dirty hobo that he is—is it any surprise? It’s a good thing he lost control of this fine vessel and left it in more capable hands,” Beemo said, booming with laughter.

Thaqib’s fists began to flex, “What did you say about Rast?” he said, stepping forward, about to strike Beemo.

WOOOP

The Siren from a police cruiser caught them all off-guard. They turned to see a black cruiser pulling up alongside the docking station.

“What’s going on!?” Beemo yelled, turning and stomping toward the agents that were now streaming aboard.

A tall man in police overalls approached Beemo, “We have orders to inspect this barge.”

“Inspect? For what? All we got here is trash!” Beemo protested, “This is going to keep us from meeting our quota. We’re already behind schedule with that hold up this morning—and now this chaos with the shooting and the like!”

“Move aside!” the officer repeated.

Beemo’s shoulders dropped, he knew there was no resisting the B.C.P.D. “Right, you heard the man! Line up, they’re comin’ aboard.”

Thaqib went back to the railing, standing shoulder to shoulder with Dameer and Shazi. The other crew-mates did the same. He watched as the agents spread out across the barge, some heading into the cabin, others heading for the trash mound. The head officer made his way toward Beemo and had quiet words with him. He wondered what they were talking about. He heard Beemo repeat something that was supposed to be kept quiet and the officer bopped him on the head. The word he said was, “Veil.”

As Thaqib was struggling to eavesdrop on the conversation, Beemo turned to him. Thaqib thought he’d been spotted, but those fears were allayed. “Get back to work you lot! What are you all doing standing around?” The crew grumbled, shaking their heads as they moved back across the deck and got to work.

Thaqib had no intention of getting to work though, he was intent on hearing what those two were discussing and learning anything he could about the object that had come from the Veil. He made his way to the trash hold where a hatch lead into the hull where the trash was sent after being sorted. When no one was looking, he dropped down into to it and quickly made his way across the trash beneath the deck to where Beemo and the officer were still talking.

Through a gap in the planks of the deck, Thaqib could see the officer and Beemo. He got as close as he could and listened.

“All the barges are to continue hauling through the night,” said the Officer, “it will then be inspected in the morning by our crew.”

Beemo had his hands on his hips and didn’t seem too impressed with the prospect of working through the night. “This is outrageous!” he boomed, “you expect me to stay here all night lookin’ after this lot?”

“All you have to do is keep the nets coming up, you don’t need the whole crew just for that do you?” the Officer replied. Beemo grumbled. “Watch your tone Beemo, after all we did for you—I’d expect you to be a little more grateful and ready to assist us.”

“All I did was inform you of a sympathizer of the Order—like you guys said to be on the lookout for. Now that you got rid of Rast, I expected to be free of this ship, but you gave me more responsibility making me take his place!”

Thaqib’s eyes widened in shock, he couldn’t believe what he’d just heard, It was Beemo that had gotten Rast fired!? He lost his composure, he quickly ran back to the hatch, leaping out of it with a single jump and ran straight toward Beemo.

Beemo turned at the last minute to see Thaqib barreling toward him, steam practically streaming from his ears. He didn’t have time to react and in a shock to the Officer also, Thaqib tackled Beemo right in front of him.

“You were the one that got Rast put in prison!?” Thaqib yelled, loud enough to stop the crew and the agents in the middle of what they were doing. He pulled on the scruff of Beemo’s singlet, pulling his head up, staring directly into his face. “Do you know what they did to him in there!?”

Beemo yelled out “What are you all doing standing around!? Get this lunatic off of me!”

Thaqib pulled an arm back, a balled fist ready to strike. The Officer nodded to his agents who grabbed Thaqib and pulled him off of the captain who lay flat on his back like a beached whale. He struggled to get back to his feet as Thaqib squirmed trying to get loose to attack Beemo.

“Let go of me!” Thaqib yelled.

“I want this brat fired!” Beemo yelled, “I won’t stand for it, attacking me—who does he think he is?”

“You’re a rat! You got Rast chucked in jail just so you could get off work!?” Thaqib yelled.

“Fire him! Take him away like the old man. A couple of degenerates the both of ‘em,” Beemo bellowed.

The officer stood, chuckling, a grin on his face. “No, I enjoyed that a little too much.”

“Huh? Are you saying you’re not going to punish him?” Beemo yelled.

The Officer turned to Thaqib, a floodlight bouncing off his black shades. “Get back to work boy, I appreciate your enthusiasm but this is not the time.”

Thaqib was steaming, some small part of him managed to penetrate the rage that controlled him, he realized now wasn’t the time to be losing it with all these cops around. He’d deal with Beemo soon enough. The agents let him go and he turned and walked back to the deck, grabbing his implement and stabbing it into the trash mound. The other crew-mates watched him in silence, awed by his outburst.

“What are you lot looking at!” Beemo boomed, his face purple with insult. “Get to work!”

“When I come back here tomorrow, I expect the work to be done,” the Officer said, leaning into Beemo, then, noticing Beemo staring at Thaqib with intent to kill, “leave the boy alone, he’s got more guts than you. If he’s been roughed up when I get back tomorrow, it’ll be your hide that’s sent away.”

Beemo looked back to the Officer in alarm, the Officer stared back—deadly serious, fear crept across Beemo’s face. As furious as he was, he knew better than to disobey, he knew how quickly one could be condemned to prison, or worse—Hexagon. He nodded, despite every ounce of his being fighting not to.

The crew watched as the police cruiser left the barge and disappeared into the distance. The tension in the air was palpable as the crew members waited for a response from Beemo toward Thaqib’s attack. Beemo had a legendary temper and they expected fireworks. They were surprised then at the measured response he gave.

Thaqib looked to Beemo, still struggling to hold back his anger.

“You’re staying on board tonight Thaqib, the rest of us are going home, but you’re gonna stay here and keep hauling that trash up until the next shift starts. You hear me boy?”

“Whatever,” Thaqib replied, his anger clouding any resistance he could muster, he just wanted to be left alone. Beemo thundered off toward his cabin leaving the rest of the crew to finish the shift.

“That was something kid,” Dameer said.

“Wanted to do that for a long time,” Shazi added, “Beemo flat on his face, the look on it was priceless.”

“Was well and truly shamed, you best watch out Thaqib, he’s not liable to forget that,” Dameer added. Thaqib had his head down digging, not paying attention to them. “Thaqib?” Dameer asked.

Thaqib finally turned, the expression on his face scared them. “How many of you knew and went along with it? Huh? You let Rast be put away after how well he treated you all! Don’t you have any respect?” The others stared at him blankly then dropped their heads and got back to work. Thaqib launched his shovel into the mound.