Chương 28: CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT: JIN PARK

Jin Park had been, on the FOB, the person who kept the communications infrastructure running. This was a role that intersected with everything — every unit, every operation, every piece of information that moved through the base moved through infrastructure that he maintained and understood — and it had given him a quality that Marcus had noticed in the few direct interactions they'd had before the transition: a comprehensive and current map of how things connected. He had the same quality here.

He had been mapping the region's information networks for fourteen months. Not with any official role — he had woken up in a river merchant's body with a river merchant's trade connections, and those connections had given him natural access to the conversation flows of the merchant road: what was moving, who was buying, what the political temperature was in different territories, what the rumors said about conditions in the march.

He had been running, in other words, an intelligence collection operation without being tasked to run one, because it was what he did and the situation presented the opportunity.

"How comprehensive is your picture of the region?" Marcus asked. They were in the study, late afternoon, the light coming through the window at the angle that meant the day was almost done. Jin Park had been talking for two hours, and what he had produced in those two hours was the most complete regional intelligence assessment Marcus had received since arriving.

"Ashford March territories, good coverage," Jin said.

"Capital region, moderate — I have trade contacts there but not the kind of access that produces sensitive reporting. The Church territories to the east, thin — they don't interact with the merchant road in ways that expose their internal dynamics." He paused.

"The north is the gap. The Ironfen is not a trade zone. What I know about the north comes from hunters and from the goblin activity patterns visible in the southern territories."

"The goblin activity," Marcus said.

"What's your read?"

"Consistent with displacement, not expansion," Jin said, which matched Hollis's assessment perfectly.

"The pattern of movement is wrong for territorial aggression — it's too consistent, too directional, too lacking in the opportunistic exploitation that characterizes expansion. Something is pushing them and they're going where the pushing points them." He paused.

"The rate of displacement has been increasing. The month-over-month numbers are not comfortable." This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

"They're not," Marcus agreed.

"There's something else," Jin said.

"More speculative — I want to be clear about the confidence level. But the hunting communities that work the Ironfen's margins have been pulling back for six months. Not completely — there are still hunters going in — but the aggregate activity is declining in a way that the hunters themselves describe as the forest feeling wrong." He paused.

"That's an unquantifiable report from people with a strong prior of supernatural explanation for natural phenomena. I'm not sure how much weight to put on it."

"Put it in the record," Marcus said.

"Confidence-weighted. It fits with other indicators." Jin looked at him.

"What other indicators?" Marcus told him about the Ironwyrm reports — what the patrol intelligence was suggesting, what the goblin displacement pattern implied about a source of pressure, what the oldest hunters' accounts described when pressed for detail. Jin listened with the focused attention of someone who was updating a model he had been building and seeing it become more complete.

"The heliograph," Marcus said, when the intelligence exchange was done.

"You built it independently."

"I needed faster communication," Jin said.

"The merchant road is too slow and too exposed for anything sensitive. What else was I going to use?"

"Exactly," Marcus said.

"What else." He paused.

"I want to build a network. Not just for the march — for the region. Relay stations, trained operators, a codebook that works at speed." He looked at Jin steadily.

"That's your project."

"I'll need better mirrors," Jin said.

"And probably twelve to eighteen months to get coverage of the march."

"You have both," Marcus said.

"The mirrors — I'll introduce you to Briggs tomorrow. The time is yours." He paused.

"I also want you embedded in the merchant road, not based in Greyhold. Your coverage is most valuable if you're where the information flows."

"I've been thinking the same thing," Jin said.

"I can come to Greyhold monthly for the reporting cycle. Otherwise I'm on the road."

"Monthly," Marcus said.

"And the heliograph for urgent reporting."

"I need a second station here to receive," Jin said.

"Hollis will build it," Marcus said.

"By the time you have the mirror quality you need, the receiving station will be ready." Jin Park looked at Marcus steadily for a moment.

"You've been building this for a year," he said.

"Since the boot prints in the mud," Marcus said.

"How many confirmed?"

"Including you, eleven," Marcus said.

"Probable three more." Jin was quiet for a moment.

"There are more," he said.

"I've been watching for behavioral anomalies across the region for fourteen months. There are more."

"I know," Marcus said.

"Help me find them."