arcade machines go on, who opened the sweetie-box and handed out grog and dope on party nights. He was the man promising them even more of that; promising them enough power that every night they could play on the games consoles they’d brought along, watch the library of action movie DVDs they had tucked away.
I’m in charge because I’m the chap who says ‘yes you can’.
He shuddered at the thought of what would happen when he finally had to start telling the boys they couldn’t have a party. If they’d stayed on at the dome, that day would have eventually come. And not too far off, that day, either.
With these rigs at least there was the leverage of limitless oil or gas, whatever their generator was tapping for fuel. DVDs, games and girlfriends would keep them busy, keep them happy for the foreseeable. And this container port looked like a useful place to come back to for more booze and fags later on, should he need to sweeten his leadership.
‘You okay, Chief?’ asked Jeff.
Maxwell forced a smile. It felt uncomfortable and ill-fitting and fled quickly. ‘Fine.’
‘We heading off again tomorrow?’
‘I think we’ll give it a day before we move on,’ he replied, ‘see what other supplies we can forage here first.’
Getting the boys to mobilise tomorrow morning, with their heads pounding, was going to be difficult. At least back at the Zone the grog was under lock and key. He put some of it out for them once a week, and once it was gone, it was gone. Tomorrow morning, whilst the boys were all nursing their heads, he’d get what was left of that Froot-ka stored down below on the tugboat. After all, if they were going to have to fight their way on, the boys would be all the better fired up for a scrap with a little alcopop buzz inside them.
He picked Edward out of the milling crowd, his dark face shimmering on the far side of the vodka- and wood-fuelled fire; holding court, relaxed and reclining like a lord on a chaise longue of car tyres covered with fake-fur coats. Beside him, Jay-zee, now proudly wearing the ‘second dog’ jacket inherited from Dizz-ee; the jacket the other boy - Jacob - would have worn alongside Nathan.
He sensed, with a creeping disquiet, that the balance of power was one day going to swing Edward’s way. The young man didn’t need to bribe the boys with perks or parties. They followed his say-so because he was one of them, because he was like the big brother. He looked right, he sounded right. He acted right. The top dog.
That bastard’s going to turn on me soon.
Snoop watched the boys queuing up to take their turns with the girls, shuffling forward with their trousers already undone and round their ankles. Most of the girls - mercifully for them - were so drunk they were barely conscious.
He watched the boys dancing around the fire like wraiths, playing with burning sticks and daring each other to leap over the flames as they waned. Snoop had tried a bottle of the sugary drink and curled his lip in disgust. In any case, he wasn’t in the mood to get totally smashed. Not like these morons in front of him.
When they got this off their heads, this stupid and infantile, the boys truly embarrassed him. When they got too rough with the girls, he felt ashamed of them. Watching them now, he wondered what the real difference between them and those feral children was. They looked just as wild and out of control.
That’s his trick, though, right? Keep ’em happy. Keep ’em bribed. Move from one stash of contraband to the next. Stay one step ahead of his boys. Above all, keep ’em grinning like idiots.
Snoop shook his head with irritation as two of them started to spray mouthfuls of whisky onto the fire and yipped with glee at the billowing clouds of flame.
‘HEY!!’ he shouted. The stupid fuckers were going to set themselves on fire. ‘Stop that shit!’
They stopped and contented themselves with waving smouldering slats of wood in the gathering darkness and making smoke trails.
This was the Chief’s plan, wasn’t it? This is the long game. This. Just this. Keep them happy. He wondered if Maxwell had actually bothered to think any further ahead than taking possession of these rigs. Because he had.
How long does this shit last? Because at some point the hidden treasures that can still be foraged out of