The harbor was quieter than Bai Zhu had expected.
He docked his boat at the outermost berth. As soon as it stopped, someone in uniform came over to inspect it.
Bai Zhu handed over the fake documents Milluki had given him. The inspector glanced through them, looked at his face, then stamped them and let him through.
The whole process took less than thirty seconds.
Bai Zhu slung his bag over his back and headed toward the fish stalls. There were half as many boats at the docks as usual. Torn nets still hung from the sterns of several fishing boats, looking as though they had just been hauled out of the sea.
"Ten jin of hairtail, please."
The stall owner was an old man wearing rubber gloves. He looked up at that and sized Bai Zhu up.
"Heading out to sea, young man?"
"Yeah."
The old man asked no more questions. He turned, pulled a frozen-solid hairtail from the freezer, and slapped it onto the cutting board.
"Things have been rough around the trench lately. Several boats have sunk. Their hulls were sliced clean through, like a knife through tofu."
Bai Zhu's hand paused.
"Which trench?"
"Which else? The Old Trench!" the old man said as he weighed the fish. "Lots of outsiders have shown up at the harbor these past few months, asking everywhere about small boats that recently came into port. Probably middlemen."
Bai Zhu took the wrapped fish and paid.
"Thanks."
As he walked away, he caught sight of several people standing outside the harbor administration office. Dressed in suits and leather shoes, they held terminals and were talking to a boatman.
Bai Zhu lowered the brim of his cap and turned into a nearby alley.
The Mysterious Mechanism's withdrawal order was real, but something else