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pulled off my glove.
    The dock boss yelled up to us with his megaphone. “Who the fuck dropped their lashing bar? You nearly hit a worker down here.”
    I stared down at Bill. Color had returned to his face. He sat up and rubbed the back of his head. He looked over at the edge that he had nearly just fallen from and then he scowled up at me. “You don’t say a word about this you little weasel, understand?”
    “That’s my lashing bar down there. I’m not taking the heat for this.”
    His face darkened as he stood. “Yes you are, you clumsy, little grunt. I can’t get written up again. I’m the card holder. You’re worthless out here on the docks.”
    “Except that I just saved your sorry ass from a painful death.”
    His face reddened more. “Nope. You slipped and your bar went over the edge. That’s what happened, you got it?”
    “Both of you get down here now.” Harcourt sounded angry enough to be shooting flames through the megaphone.
    “I need your word, Grunt, or you will never earn your card out on these docks. I’ve got connections, and you’ll be finished out here.”
    “Yeah, whatever.” I stared hard at him. “But next time, I’ll just let you fall.”
    His thin lips twisted so tightly, they turned white.
    Without another word we climbed onto the catwalk and down to the deck. I probably didn’t need to worry about Bill using his connections to end my career. I figured this incident would probably seal my fate anyhow.
    Harcourt held up the lashing bar, and I stepped forward and took it with my uninjured hand. I kept the left hand hidden. Every injury out here was a mark against you, no matter how it happened. And I had no plans to spend the entire day waiting in the workman’s comp clinic.
    The white megaphone swung at Harcourt’s side as we followed him in silence back to his office. His shoulders were stiff with anger as he reached for his door and swung it open. “Take off your caps and leave the bars outside.” The inside of his office always smelled like a mixture of briny mold and cheap cigars. His desk was a flurry of unorganized paperwork, and I wondered how he’d managed to land himself the cushy office job. He showed no signs of being worthy of it. His office chair squeaked in protest as he lowered his fat ass onto it.
    Harcourt glared up at us with flared nostrils. His face was an unfortunate combination of small eyes and a big nose. The nose looked extra bulbous when he was pissed, which he was now.
    Bill stood straight as a rod next to me, but it was obvious he was still shaken from his near death experience.
    Harcourt looked at him. “You first. What happened up there?”
    Bill’s scraggly black beard twitched on his chin as he seemed to be considering what lie to tell. “Don’t really know, Boss. I was just doing my job, and next thing I knew, Warner here, dropped his lashing bar over the side.”
    Harcourt’s tiny, deep set eyes shrank even smaller as he stared at Bill. “His bar came over the bow side of the container. When I looked up there earlier, Warner was working on the stern end. Are you telling me his lashing bar flew across the entire length of the container before falling over the side?”
    Bill scrunched his cap up tightly in his fingers. “He— he had walked over to talk to me about something.”
    For a second, I had hope that Harcourt would see through the lie and my ass would be saved. He turned his attention to me. Bill looked over at me too with a look that assured me we were sticking to the plan.
    “Well, Warner, is that what happened up there?”
    I scowled at the idiot next to me and then looked back at Harcourt. “Something like that.”
    Harcourt paused a second before motioning Bill out of his office with a wave of his hand. “And stop that caterwauling up there. You sound like a cat in heat,” Harcourt called to Bill as he walked out of the office.
    Harcourt leaned back in his chair and stared at me. “You want to tell me what happened