When one thinks of a Pevensie going deep under cover in order to infiltrate the smuggler's ring, the logical person would be Lucy or Edmund. I wanted to use Susan though, and put her into that all-women crew. I love the idea of using Narnia to develop ideas of female-dominated cultures. The smuggler ring, operating illegally and with no small amount of cruelty was both horrid for Susan as she saw the suffering wrought by the trafficking and yet it also played to her strengths. Susan condemned what Captain Nyssa and her women crew were doing, even if she understood why they had embarked upon this path and grudgingly admired them for it. Of course, they had to be stopped -- selling that opium knock off was killing Narnian subjects. When the Narnians finally attacked the ship, well, you know what happened. While the reader might have thought otherwise, there was never any doubt as to Susan's loyalty. Nyssa had been Susan's mentor and teacher, a cruel taskmaster, and lover, and it was appropriate that in this case, it was Susan who her determined her fate.