“With the speed it was moving,” Humphrey said, “we have five to ten minutes before the barge gets here.”

“Do we even know they’re with these people?” Mose asked. “It sounds like that barge is far away.”

“We weren’t making a straight line back to the city,” Ernest said. “That’s specifically to avoid interception. They needed fast skimmers to catch us, but they couldn’t handle the weight of the coins. The most likely scenario is that the faster skimmers moved to intercept us, with the slower barge following to pick up the loot.”

“That leaves the question of whether we move towards it or away,” Humphrey said.

“Anyone?” Ernest asked. His gaze went over the group, who looked largely uncertain. When no one spoke up, Ernest looked to Jason, who was standing around with a casual lack of concern. He was also older than the other team members, even Ernest himself.

“Mr Asano,” Ernest said. “What is your assessment?”

“The instinctive reaction might be to neutralise the threat,” Jason said, “but that isn’t the job. We’re not out here to catch pirates or wipe out bandit clans. That’ll be the job they send the next group on. We’re here to escort the coins. Attacking an unknown force with unknown capabilities significantly impacts the likelihood of the actual mission going wrong. I say we just get on the skimmers and go.”

“And if they have an intercepting force?” Ernest asked.

“Then we handle it,” Jason said.

“We did handle this lot quickly enough,” Phoebe said. “We’d most likely handle the next before the barge caught up. I vote we stay on task.”

“Same here,” Mose said. “That barge isn’t an immediate threat to anyone but us.”

“That's true,” Humphrey acknowledged. “The only things out here are the spirit coin farms. Even if there's a whole clan of nomads on that barge, there's no way they'd get past the walls.”

Ernest looked around the group again.

“Alright,” he said. “Humphrey, I love that you’re thinking more actively, but you also have to know when to temper that drive. Everyone back on the skimmers; we’re heading for the city.”

“What about the prisoners?” Jason asked.

“They’re your prisoners, Humphrey,” Ernest said. “Your decision.”

“Leave them here,” Humphrey said. “Let their friends come for them.”

* * *

The potential interdicting force never appeared and the skimmers reached a relay station at the edge of the delta without further incident. The coins were loaded from the skimmers to heavy, armoured carriages. These were the kind driven by magic rather than drawn by animals. Clive Standish was on hand as the Magic Society representative to inspect the coin boxes for tampering and check the carriages.