![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
The Company
Time: Sunday, January 9, 2011 (wee hours).
Place: Halifax.
Last Event: Hitting the pubs.
The Agents share notes upon returning to their motel, and soon agree that the Dutch ship headed to Rotterdam is probably their best bet. Conversation turns to how to stow away, and eventually a plan emerges: Zhang will use his exceptional climbing skills to slip on board along the ice-encrusted mooring lines. He'll take one of the hockey bags that he and Wen bought to carry provisions, and once he's aboard, he'll fill this with snow – there's a fresh layer of that – and add whatever junk he can find as ballast. Then he'll toss the bag overboard with enough hue and cry to make the deck watch think that a drunken sailor plunged into the icy harbor. While the crewmen are distracted, Anabel, Hamid, Qoqa, Vinnie, and Wen will dash up the (hopefully) abandoned gangway.
Wen professionally packs the team's bags with the supplies that she and Zhang bought earlier: food bars, bottled water, water purification tablets and filters for the long term, vitamins, hygiene items, and some basic cleaning and first-aid supplies requested by Qoqa. There's also one change of clean clothing for each Agent to wear at the other end, carefully sealed in plastic. Decks of cards, magazines, and other sanity-saving measures get packed, too. When Wen is done, Zhang takes possession of the leftover bags and Vinnie's recently acquired pistol.
Once the gear is sorted out, Anabel calls a cab for herself, Qoqa, and Wen. About 20 minutes after the women leave, Hamid calls a taxi for himself, Vinnie, and Zhang. Both groups head downtown, and restrict their conversation to grumbling about having to board a train first thing in the morning. They meet in the predawn hours and approach the port on foot, taking advantage of the falling snow to stay out of sight. Wen soon spots the Dutch ship, which the Agents approach as closely as possible while remaining in the shadows.
After that, it's Zhang's show. He crosses the space between the group's hiding place and the nearest mooring line with incredible swiftness and stealth – his allies actually lose sight of him for a moment, only to spot him again, most of the way up the cable! The ice and snow don't slow him much. Just as he did in Greece, Zhang wows everyone with his ability to tackle a difficult climb at speed. In mere minutes, he's pulling himself over the gunwale and concealing himself in the shadows.
Zhang isn't one to waste time – as soon as he's sure that the coast is clear, he looks around for loose items to use as ballast. The ship is fairly squared-away, but it's a huge cargo vessel and there are lots of tools and maintenance items to be found. Before long, he has a hockey bag full of such junk, which he packs stiff with snow taken from the deck. As usual, Zhang works swiftly and silently. Once he's sure that the bag is hefty enough to make a good splash and then sink, he lugs it over to the gunwale.
At the gunwale, Zhang pulls out his "secret weapon": a tin of baked beans and a can opener. He shakes the tin, opens it, and then pours the contents overboard while making a loud barfing sound. Then he curses loudly, tosses the weighted-down bag overboard, and gets out of sight. From the shore, Zhang's allies witness what sounds like a convincing show of puking, cussing, and splashing.
The reaction of the deck watch is everything that Zhang had hoped for! Everyone on duty, including the man watching the gangway, runs his way, shining flashlights in the water. By the time they're grumbling that some drunk just threw up and dropped his duffel in the harbor, the other five Agents have crept aboard unseen. Zhang goes around the long way and meets up with them, whereupon Vinnie directs the group to his best guess at a hiding spot below decks.
Stealthily eluding the few crewmen who are up and about, the Agents make their way below with Vinnie in the lead. Vinnie soon finds what he's looking for: an out-of-the-way space that houses one of the ship's pumps. While noisy and dirty, it's also a lot warmer than the unheated hold, and offers both visual concealment and a racket that will drown out talking, coughing, etc. The group sets up camp there and then waits for the ship to get loaded up and on its way.
The crossing itself is largely unremarkable. January 9-14 tick past without any event more thrilling than Zhang coming down with a cold, which Qoqa does her best to treat. There's a brief moment of excitement on January 15, when some of the crew show up to do a routine check on the pumps, but Anabel sees them coming and the Agents manage to bundle themselves out of sight in time. January 16-18 bring more boring days filled with the deafening din of pumps, punctuated by meals of cereal bars and filtered-but-foul-tasting water.
When the ship makes port in Rotterdam on Tuesday, January 18, the Agents have had enough of being stowaways. Anabel is thoroughly green and sick, and ready to vomit at the least provocation; moreover, she seems somewhat delirious, rocking and mumbling about "feeling dirty." Zhang's cold has grown worse. Qoqa notes that Zhang is also showing signs of depression, as is Hamid – although her clinical judgment is impaired by the effects of her own insomnia. Morale is low across the board. Everyone is tired, filthy, and dying for a hot shower and a proper meal, and nobody is at the top of her or his game.
Although the ship is moored by midday, the Agents decide to wait for nightfall to disembark. They fill the long hours by packing up their belongings and trash. Qoqa "cleans" the group's hiding place as well as she can. After dark, Zhang heads topside to assess the situation. When the coast looks reasonably clear, he summons the others to join him. Soon the entire team is sneaking across the deck to the spot where Zhang originally boarded the vessel; while Anabel is clearly staggering a bit, she manages to keep up.
All six Agents clamber over the gunwale, drop carefully to the mooring line, and cautiously make their way to the dock. Zhang and Wen go first, gliding quickly and quietly to the pier. By contrast, Anabel only just makes it, focusing more on avoiding throwing up or falling in the drink than on being sneaky. After that, Qoqa, Hamid, and finally Vinnie make their way down to the wharf. Nobody spots any security personnel; so far, it looks as if the group's arrival in the Netherlands has gone unnoticed.
Once everyone is on terra firma, the Agents steal behind concealment and change into clean clothing. Qoqa, who's the best at concealing small items on her person, takes possession of Vinnie's pistol. Then the six move from shadow to shadow until they reach one of the massive port's many exits. There, they step out into plain sight and walk out casually. They pass through the gate unchallenged, and soon find themselves on the streets of Rotterdam.
The agreed-upon short-term goal is to find a low-rent flophouse where a few Euros in cash will buy a bed and a shower, no questions asked. Qoqa locates an establishment that looks disreputable but not actively criminal. A puking drunk out front manages to set off Anabel's own nausea, but there's no confrontation – just some synchronized spewing. Inside, Anabel uses best-guess Dutch figured from her German to struggle through curt negotiations with the scummy-looking proprietor. Eventually, the Agents manage to get a few rooms for the night, which Qoqa purges of visible vermin as best as she is able.
The more streetwise Agents warn their allies never to walk around alone or flash cash, and always to use the (crummy) locks on the doors. Then it's time for showers, with one person washing up while another keeps an eye on the hallway. The water is lukewarm at best, but it's better than nothing and gets the dirt off. Anabel goes first, while Wen makes sure that none of the place's other patrons decides to walk in on her. Then it's Qoqa's turn, with Hamid standing guard.
As Qoqa showers, Hamid has a run-in with one of the place's denizens: a large, indifferently clean man who has taken exception to the Agents monopolizing the shower. Fortunately for Hamid, the guy speaks French, so they can communicate. Unfortunately, the bloke is completely unreasonable, and starts pushing Hamid around. Shoving becomes hitting, and hitting soon escalates to Hamid facing a knife (really more of a shank). When the other Agents hear shouting, Zhang comes over to break up the altercation before it gets bloody.
From there, things go pear-shaped rather quickly. Zhang ends up tumbling down the stairs with the ruffian, the two of them fighting in the flophouse's lower hall. Then the tough guy's intoxicated girlfriend – a mess of stringy hair and bad teeth – joins in, swinging a bottle at Zhang's head. This brings Wen into the fight; she kicks the hooligan in the groin hard enough to lift him up and drop him on the ground, and then rolls him out into the street. The fight ends when the proprietor pulls an ancient Browning Hi-Power and starts yelling. Zhang and the screaming drunk woman are expelled, while Wen is inexplicably allowed to go back to her room.
This drama is mostly a minor setback . . . Zhang rejoins the others by going around back and climbing in the window. Then the Agents resume washing up, and soon all six are reasonably clean. After that, they lock the doors (Vinnie makes sure that the locks actually work) and Wen hands out earplugs. Almost everybody manages to get a reasonable night's sleep. Hamid has bad dreams about being knifed, however, and spends most of the night sitting up, listening for trouble. By daylight on Wednesday, January 19, everybody is feeling rested enough to get to work.