Mort considers the near future. 

Whatever it holds, it's likely not going to be peaceful. To guard against unpredictable, chaotic fluctuations of the journey, Mort needs to be ready with a full hand of cards. 

Mort knows he is not the best fighter. When it came to fight or flight instincts, he was unabashedly a master of the latter. "Always run away from a hard fight," his father had said, "and if you're not sure if it's a hard fight, run away anyway. The best place to stab an enemy is in the back. Preferably when they're sleeping. And preferably stabbed by someone you've hired. Preferably without a paper trail."

Mort weighs his current wealth. How much money and belongings does he have that he could use to leverage capitalist loyalty? He busies himself by walking up and down the caravan and scanning for people he can talk to. He summons up as much of his old skills as he can in identifying people's desires, weaknesses, and leverage points. What he's looking for are people with knowledge of where they're going, people who have experience dealing with Pathfinders, people who are good at fighting, people who can heal, and really, people who have useful skills.