“Hm?” I asked.
“The game. When do you have to be back for it? I can set an alarm.”
I glanced up at his eyes before refocusing on my own food. “They’ll send for me. In the meantime, I need to work.”
“Right. You mentioned I might be able to help?”
I thought about it for a long moment. I’d meant that Jett could help me stay focused and de-stressed. But the manhad proven to be remarkably intelligent the other night while learning Paxis. He reallycouldhelp with this.
I shoved the salad bowl away and reached for the small plate of cheese and crackers he’d also brought. “I need you to find me an isolated spot along the Kiel Canal.”
Jett’s fork paused halfway to his mouth with a sprig of greens hanging off it. “The Kiel Canal?”
I nodded. “It’s in Germany.”
“What do you need this spot for?”
“In case one of my ships needs to pull over for an emergency.” I waved my hand dismissively. “Just find me a spot.”
He was quiet for a moment. I looked up to see his eyebrows furrowed.
“Problem?” I asked. “Use Google Maps. Look for areas that aren’t close to population centers. That’s all I need.”
He cleared our dishes away, retrieved his own laptop, and retook his seat across from me.
Within the hour, my contact at Bakker called.
“Locke, what the fuck is happening up there? Just today, I’ve had two ships boarded in Skagerrak Strait!”
We commiserated for a few minutes before trying to determine at what point it would make more sense to use smaller ships in order to use the Kiel Canal instead of the North Sea.
“I will reroute through Kiel,” I insisted. “At least for the time being. Hopefully, the inspectors will lose interest soon.”
When we ended the call, I felt Jett’s eyes on me.
“What’d you find?” I asked. “Anything good?”
“Not yet. What’s this for?” he asked, closing the laptop. “It sounds like something’s going on. Does this have to do with inspections? Like cargo inspections?”
I took a final sip of the coffee he’d brought, realizing my headache was receding. “There’s an increase in NATO agency inspections on maritime traffic in the North Sea. Inspections cost precious time. I’d rather avoid the risk and use an alternate route.”
“The Kiel Canal,” he supplied.
I nodded.
Jett studied me. “But… why are you concerning yourself with the routes your ships are taking? That seems… way below your pay grade. More of a job for operations.”
The man would make a shit soldier. He’d mouth off to his commanding officer before doing a damned thing he was supposed to.
I reminded myself I wasn’t his commanding officer. I wasn’t his anything, really.
“You suddenly know global shipping management? Did you learn that on Duolingo, too?” I huffed and nodded at the laptop. “You said you wanted to help. So help.”
Jett made no attempt to open the laptop. “I know a little bit about a lot of things. I’m smarter than I look. And I do want to help. But I can help better if you tell me what’s actually going on.”
It was on the tip of my tongue to say that Jett had already impressed me with his intelligence more than once. But instead, I sat back in my chair and crossed my legs, watching his teasing, bow-shaped lips and trying to read them for the truth.
“Impress me, then, with your knowledge of global movement of goods and the tech that keeps half a million metric tons of cargo moving across the world’s waterways every day.”
