Lewis whistled and yelled at his team. “Hold the dock!”
He saw about a dozen sailors disembarking from a ship anchored on the next pier south of his ships. They hurried to catch up with the original twenty, who were almost jogging by then. Lewis and Inu stood and surveyed the scene.
“I think you should wait on your ship.” Lewis said. “And while you’re going, let everyone know that we aren’t going to kill anybody if we can help it,”
Inu turned and rumbled down the pier. “Will do.”
His team streamed past Inu and stood on the pier behind him. The four seamen from the longboat jogged down the beach from where it was tied up.
The crowd arrived with pieces of wood, or rocks for weapons. He noticed that a few in the back carried knives. They milled around at the head of the pier until a man stepped forward and confronted Lewis.
“We are here for the grain,” he spoke loudly, with no hesitation in his voice or manner. “It’s been three days since many of us have fed our families. Tell your people to bring it to bring the grain dockside, so we don’t have to search your ships, nobody needs to get hurt.”
Lewis watched him warily while he spoke, and then raised his voice enough to be heard over the din. “The grain is here now and it will be distributed by the city. You don’t have enough people to take it by force, so take a few steps back. We don’t want to see anyone get hurt either.”
“Damn the city!” a voice in the back hollered. “Your children will starve before they finish the paperwork!”
The crowd surged forward, pushing and shouting.
“What’s your name?” Lewis suddenly asked the man in front.
“Arad, why?” the man replied, stumbling a little as someone jostled him from behind.
“Listen, Arad,” Lewis tried to sound as friendly as possible. “Help me get the situation under control before it turns ugly. Everyone needs to back off a little, or a whole lot of people are going to get hurt or worse. If that happens, they won’t be feeding their families.”
Arad nodded. “I didn’t come here to fight, but we need to feed our families today,” he turned and raised his arms. “Back up a little! Let’s listen to…” He dropped when a rock the size of Lewis’ open hand hit him on the temple.
“Look! The dirty merc hit him when he turned around.”
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This time Lewis saw a man who was taller than the rest, pushing men forward into the crowd. The mob let out a roar and rocks flew toward the front. Lewis’ team stepped in front of him and waded into the crowd. Off to left the defenders were in a tight knot at the edge of the mob, dragging the people out of the crowd a couple at a time and tying them up with short lengths of cord. He could hear Telini behind him, but he couldn’t make out what he was saying. Lewis ducked a board aimed at his head, then saw its wielder fall as Roquette punched him in the kidney from the side. Lewis reached up and grabbed a man by the hair, yanking him forward and down. He propelled the man toward the water and turned his attention back to the fray. Several people fell as rocks missed their mark and landed in the crowd. Derrick was swinging a man by the back of the shirt and his belt, and then sent him flying onto the pier. Telini had to sidestep as the poor fellow landed right where he had been standing. That’s when Lewis noticed that Telini was on the radio. Something hit Lewis hard across the shoulders, causing him to stumble, when he turned around a boy about five feet tall was winding up to swing his board again. Lewis yanked it out of his hand and spun him around, marching him onto the pier. When they reached Telini, Lewis pushed him down flat onto the walkway.
“This one hit me with a board,” He told Telini. “Take him to the sailors. I want to talk to him later. Who’s calling?”
“It was Morris, I hope you don’t mind, I told him you were too busy to talk to him,” Telini answered. “He said that he was sending six soldiers.”
“Soldiers?” Lewis wondered out loud.” What is he talking about?”
“I’m guessing,” Telini said. “But I think your answer will be here pretty soon,” He pointed north.
Lewis looked and saw six huge men running at breakneck speed down the beach in submariner uniforms. Twenty or thirty more people came out of the city. Telini grabbed the boy and hauled him toward Inu’s ship, while Lewis ran down the ramp and dragged a man off of Blair’s back. Blair didn’t turn or look, just went back to dealing with the two people in front of him.
“First Lieutenant Lewis!” a voice boomed.
When Lewis turned and looked to see who had yelled, he saw the submariners plowing through the crowd, knocking down everybody who got anywhere near being in their way.
“Over here!” Lewis shouted.
They altered their course through the crowd until they stood in front of him. He noticed a few things all at once. The men were hardly winded after their run, they all looked as if they were mister universe contestants, and their braids were light grey.
“First Lieutenant Lewis, I’m Lieutenant Junior Grade Wilsey,” their officer said. “How may we serve you?”
“First of all try not to kill anybody,” Lewis told them briskly. “There are about twelve people out there with knives, apprehend them for me, will you please?”
The others looked at Wilsey and when he nodded, they scattered into the crowd. Telini came down the pier at a run, with his arms out. He head-butted one guy and clothes lined two others, and then just pushed his way to where Gomez was spinning crazily like a dreidel, people falling away from her kicks and punches.
A column of militia men was marching out of the city. About a dozen defenders had arrived in another longboat, and moved up to reinforce their companions, who were being hard pressed by the mob.
Lewis saw the officer of the submariners go down under a press of bodies, so he pushed and shoved his way over to him. He drew his combat knife and used the pommel to knock heads. Blair appeared at his side and helped him pull people off Wilsey.