A week after the auction, Arya was well on the way to recovery. She was sunning herself on the front porch when Antakari approached the mansion. She called for Jiemba to translate. Jiemba came out with a dishcloth in her hand and greeted the dignitary. Antakari said, "That thief we caught was Zon, too. Only this time, we got information from him, and what's more, we discovered their base and have the keys. We thought your people might like to be in on the investigation when we go there." They went inside, and a small council was called. The group picked to go with the investigators was Thomas, Gendry, the younger Mangana, Jiemba, Drena, and Caelan.
The team assembled at dawn the next day and left. The house where the base was found was along the coast southeast of town. After a couple of hours of travel, they arrived at a secluded building set back from the road and quite near the water. There were hedges and trees around the house, nearly blocking it from view. They unloaded and approached the door, and some fumbling with keys ensued, and at last the lock clicked open. They searched the house, finding some papers and a small cache of coins in a hidden drawer. It was clear that 7 or 8 men had been living here, leaving one or two at large. But they found no clues as to where others might be. They dug deeper, each carrying a lantern to allow them to see more closely. Thomas was searching the floor for some sign of a trap door when he noticed a rug that seemed cleaner than the ones around it. He pounced and threw it out of the way, but there was no trap door. While looking for the door, he expected to see small scratches on the wood floor.
The others came to see what he had found, and Gendry said, "These scratches seem circular, as if something swung outward and around....maybe that bookcase?" As they were searching the bookcase, Jiemba said, "Many of these books are written in the Zon language. Antakari, do you mind if I take some? I know a good deal of that language, but these books will help me learn more. He nodded in response. She placed 10 or so in a box and went back for more. Then she pulled one out, and it wasn't a book. It was made of wood, and when she pulled on the top of it, a mechanism clicked, and the bookcase swung away from the wall. A dark staircase was revealed, and Drena and the younger Mangana carried lanterns down it while the rest followed. The staircase had two landings and came out into a broad room with a dock and ocean water on the outside, and a laboratory/work space around the other three walls. Two vessels were docked in the water. One of them looked strange; there were no sails on it. Just then, Drena spotted movement and jumped to grab a man who was trying to loose a message bird. She had the man in one hand and slashed the bird in two as it rose to fly away. The man began to struggle and shout in the Zon language, and Jiemba began to translate. "You will all die! The Zon will be victorious! I am but a small part of the great Zon army! Antakari's men gagged the man and carried him upstairs to throw him in their wagon. Thomas and Gendry were studying the chemicals and reagents on one table, and the mechanisms were scattered out on another. They asked if they might collect them to learn more. Antakari nodded again. So they boxed up all they could find. Jiemba found a small note on the bird's leg and began to translate it. It was written in small, abbreviated text, but she worked out what it said mostly. "Their vessel is still a month away from completion. Our man in the shipyard will soon sabotage the hull construction. The lieutenant was captured, and the assassin team was killed. I am alone. Send another team." Hastily scrawled on the bottom was "I am discovered!"
The team scoured the lab area and carried everything they found to their wagon. Then they began to search the two boats. Antakari asked when they searched them, pointing at the strange one, "How does this boat sail?" Drena and the younger Mangana said as one, "We can use the small sailboat to tow it to the shipyard and figure it out there?" Antakari nodded, and the two of them loosed the smaller sailboat and then paddled it away from the dock. A line was thrown and tied to the prow of the strange boat, and they paddled out of the small cave into open water, dragging the strange vessel. Neither one spoke the other's language, but they knew sailing, and the lad knew the local coast well.
The two intrepid sailors pulled into the shipyard, just as the wagon was pulling in the gate as well. When one of the shipyard workers saw the two boats, he skulked away towards the gate. Gendry jumped down, grabbed the man, and they hauled him to the warehouse for questioning. There was a buzz among the workers when they saw the man run and look at the strange little boat.