~
Paean turned. Here came the Sunshine Gypsy!
“Hey, little mockingbird.” Federi joined her at the rail. “Happy?”
“Very,” she smiled.
“Still want to jump ship at Hawaii?”
“No! Huh? Why?” Hawaii. She had forgotten about their plan to get off there! She’d have to call a sibs meeting and discuss it. For her, it didn’t seem like a good option anymore.
She gestured at the light point on the south-eastern horizon. “What’s that ship there?”
“Ha,” said Federi. “Cuban Coastal Guard!”
“Ah,” said Paean, “bounty hunters again? Cuban Coastal guard?!”
“Yup,” grinned the gypsy. “Thought that would tickle you!”
“Are you saying they followed us all the way from Cuba ?”
“That’s what I’m saying,” smiled Federi.
“We shouldn’t run then,” said Paean. “We should wait for them and board them and loot them!”
Federi laughed. “Little pirate!”
“Why? They want to turn us over to the Unicate! For cash! Who’s the pirate in that?”
“We are,” said Federi. “We still are. They are the system guys. We’re the lawbreakers. Has nothing to do with who kills more people.”
There had to be something wrong with that!
“You were going to explain about Marsden’s missing puzzle piece,” said Paean.
“I was?”
“You said you’d explain later.”
“I did.”
“Well, now’s later!”
“I meant the other later,” grinned Federi. “Later, later.”
“You pirate!”
“Thank you.”
“You’re not going to, are you.”
Federi shook his head. Thieves’ honour!
“I will too, little luv,” he said. “But at this point it’s still classified, unfortunately.”
“So then why did you tell me in the first place?”
“Sweet thing, I had to ask you to tell them that so they’d take you seriously about the rest! There was no time to explain. Captain already knew. Trust me, he figured it out the moment he decrypted that stuff.”
Paean said nothing and listened to the snatches of music that carried down from the Crow’s Nest. Good enough to bear a crucial message, good enough to patch people, and to be solid crew on the pirate ship – but not good enough to be let in on what Captain planned for all of them for their future!
Federi frowned too as he peered at that Cuban. They were decrypting the information, this he knew – but what it was, that was another story! They didn’t exactly inform him! That classified. Ha! Good enough to get the darned information to them… He grinned.
Shawn was trying Irish settings for Romanian tunes on his ocarina. Paean grimaced. He ought to try some Scandinavian tunes, damn him! Why not some Aleutian ones?
“He’s good,” said Federi appreciatively.
“I know,” replied Paean. “Just too glad to be back at sea.”
“You or he?” probed Federi.
“Both of us,” said Paean with feeling. “Say, what about Rushka?”
“What about Rushka?”
“Does she know Captain’s plans?”
“You bet. Guess what: She’s his daughter.”
“And you’re in on his plans,” said Paean.
His plans. Yes. “I’m an officer,” said Federi. Said like that, it sounded strange. He frowned and repeated it to himself a few times, in his mind. Almost like saying he was poliţia!
“And Ronan knows, too!”
“Yup,” said Federi. He wasn’t prepared for this onslaught.
“He’s not an officer,” said Paean.
“Nope,” replied Federi, eyes round and innocent.
“So when will you tell me?”
Federi smiled, reached out and ruffled her hair. “Where’s your scarf?”
“When will you tell me?”
“When you’ve learnt to keep a confidence, little sunbird.”
That stung! Federi watched her face and wished he could take back his words. He saw Ronan making his way towards them.
“Come join me later in the galley, little luv?” he asked.
“Kay,” said Paean listlessly. It was probably an order anyway!
“Got to go.” Federi clasped her wrist for a second.
“Kathal, Federi,” she said as he moved off. She saw him hesitate for a second before he carried on.
“Hey, sis!”
“Hey, Ro.”
“What’s with the gypsy?” asked Ronan.
“Nothing, why?” Paean pulled her fluorescent green scarf out of her pocket and tied it around her head. Was high time anyway; the wind was freshening up. Her curls were getting out of hand.
Rushka appeared on Paean’s other side. The Irish girl braced herself for the Captain’s order she was about to receive. Instead Rushka pulled her cap off her head and shook her glorious hair back. She leaned on the rail and stared out at the horizon.
Federi glanced back at the small group of teens as he climbed up into the rigging. With his binoculars he peered at the solitary light on the horizon, following the Solar Wind. Its satellite signal showed in translucent white letters in the lens, picked up by the binoculars’ electronics. Id CSUCG8997390221 – CS Silver Bullet. Federi had to smile. Hunting pirates or hunting werewolves?
One solitary coastal guard. No threat. The sense of foreboding hit him hard, a faceful of undiluted black doom. Blast, that couldn’t be! The last time he’d had such a vile feeling had been before Lake Gatun. A feeling of can’t-escape; another net closing on the Solar Wind.
He grimaced. Perhaps he ought to include more fresh greens in the menu. His guts should feel better then.
All good and well though, making light of these feelings – they had all made light of their fears of the Unicate, back in Romania. Been happy Tzigany instead of morose gloom-diggers. Until the day the Unicate was suddenly there, with their dogs…
The Captain and Marsden were also watching the teens; gazing out from the bridge at the three.
“Amazing,” said Marsden. “What a beauty Rushka has become! Can you believe she’s already grown up?”
“She’s not,” growled Lascek. “She’s just tall for her age.”
Marsden smiled. That hardly applied at age nineteen!
“And she’s not supposed to fraternize with the new crew,” added Lascek sourly.
“But Radomir, surely you can’t forbid her to –“
“I can forbid whoever whatever on my ship,” retorted the Captain.
“I could think of a worse match than Ronan Donegal,” remarked Marsden.
“Whom?”
“Just about everyone on the Solar Wind,” laughed Marsden. “Ronan is not a pirate!”
“You’re right,” said the Captain thoughtfully. “But match ? She’s hopelessly to young for us to be thinking in those lines!”
“Uh-huh,” smiled Marsden. “So what are we going to do with our little tag?”
“That Salvatore Rodriguez?” Lascek lightened up. “Wonder what he’s trying!”
“Waiting to corner us in a dark and lonely alley on the Pacific,” said Marsden. “Overwhelm us with his crew of five.”
Lascek laughed. “I missed you on the bridge these past few days, old friend!” He hit a button on the console. “Shawn Donegal! Come to the bridge!”
A few seconds later the twelve-year-old stood on the bridge.
“That ship you’ve been tracking,” said Lascek.
“She’s still following us, Captain,” said Shawn breathlessly.
“I know. What would you suggest we do with her?”
“Captain, Paean feels we should turn around and board and loot her.”
“Ha,” said Lascek. “Plunder, hack, slash and mutilate?”
“I don
’t know,” said Shawn. “Maybe, put them all to sleep with the little green bug in the water tank.”
“You told her who they are?” asked Lascek.
“No, Captain, but she seems to think that’s what ships are for! Captain, their captain will turn us in at Hawaii!”
“Hmm. You’ve got a point, they will alert the Unicate,” said Lascek. “But I don’t agree that we have to be pirates about this. What does Shawn suggest?”
“Invite them for a cup of tea,” grinned Shawn. “Worked for Gomez!”
“Sounds like a good idea,” said Lascek. “Do we have the time, Jon?”
“I think we can spare an hour or two,” smiled the First Mate.
Radomir Lascek punched a sequence into the console and relayed an order to Dr Jake. The engines stalled and the sails furled. The Solar Wind lay waiting.
The gypsy beckoned to Paean from the Crow’s Nest. Obediently she tied on a lifeline and climbed up, clenching her teeth. The sails of the Solar Wind were furled. She wondered how the sailors coped climbing up there when the sails were open. And it stayed scary.
Oh well! In for a penny…
“Look,” said Federi when she stood in the Crow’s Nest next to him. He gestured at the sky and sea as though he owned them. Paean grimaced. He could feel her stress; but she was mastering that fear of heights nicely. It was the third time she was up here. He was proud of her.
Of course he had an ulterior motive for calling her up here. It made him feel better. Her sunshine flooded out the horrible sense of doom. Like the sun that was drenching the ship and sails and sea and crew and everything in its golden-and-red beams.
“If you love treasure,” she muttered, “this is like being inside a ruby.”
“A garnet,” he corrected with a smile. “Have a look down there!”
She glanced at the deck and giggled. To the left of the Mermaid’s Head, Ronan. To the right, Rushka. Both studiously ignoring each other, with a Paean-shaped hole between them.
“Thought that would amuse you,” grinned the gypsy. “That’s dynamics. Watch those two the next few days!” He peered critically at her, then he reached out and removed that awful lime-green scarf from her head with a swift movement.
She flew around and stared at him, fuming. “Hey!”
“That’s a horrible bandana, little luv!”
“You gave it to me!”
He grinned. Guilty as charged. He studied her intently. For a moment he thought he could see the masses of flaming hair billowing around her incensed face, the way it should have been. It was a trick of the light. The sun was catching the red in her short curls and lighting it up like fire. Memory gallery. He should capture it in a woodcarving.
And suddenly he had a vision of the red flames turning into splashes of blood, and her face a black hole. He caught his breath. What was this? How few days, or perhaps hours, did she have left to live? Did it tie in with that other awful hunch? He should keep her close. If she stuck with Federi, he could protect her.
Those blue eyes were stretching in worry. Aw, it was no good that she should pick up on all that morose stuff. Federi grinned briefly and pulled out of his pocket, with the same prestidigitation as the first time, another scarf. A turquoise one. Much more her colour! He tied it into her hair.
“Stole it for you in Atuona,” he said. “Wanted to get that colour in Plymouth, but they didn’t have. They’re too British, they just don’t understand…”
Paean smiled uncertainly.
“Thanks, Federi. Actually you shouldn’t steal stuff for me…”
“You don’t want it?” he asked, shocked.
“No, I do, it’s lovely… Federi, why do you?”
“Steal?” Aw hell, they had been through that! “Sorry, little bird. Ancient habit. Had to learn the streets, the hard way. You’re right, girl, Federi should lay off the thieving, it’s unnecessary now. Look!” He put his hand back on her shoulder and pointed. “There’s that coastal guard now. Watch the sports!”
The Solar Wind was now in shouting distance from the Silver Bullet, a fast-moving Barracuda, solar-driven with back-up fuel-cell drives. The coastal guard ship veered towards them.
“This is Captain Rodriguez of the Silver Bullet,” came the announcement over the ship intercom. “State your identity and purpose!”
“Captain Rodriguez, as you know I am Captain Lascek of the pirate vessel Solar Wind. You’ve been following me so long, I feel we are friends. I would like to invite you for a cup of coffee.”
There was a shocked silence.
“I’ll lace it with genuine 2015 Jamaican Rum,” added Captain Lascek.
More muffled silence followed as a furious discussion broke out aboard the Silver Bullet, and someone kept their hand clapped over the microphone.
“The rum is the real thing, taken from a shipwreck only this week,” advertised Lascek.
More furry silence. Then the voice of Captain Rodriguez.
“If this is a trap, Captain Lascek, you’ll have to think of a better one!”
“This is no trap, Captain Rodriguez. You may even come armed if it gives you emotional security. I only want to have the opportunity to meet my honourable opponent.”
More restrained sounds failed to come through clearly.
“There are scones too,” added Lascek. “I have an excellent cook.”
“I’ll bring my First Mate,” said Rodriguez.
“Feel free,” said Lascek. “But I’m not trading.”
“The man is dangerous,” said Pedro Romero, the First Mate.
“The man is funny,” said Little Cloud Navarro, the Hispanic ship engineer, pan-faced.
“The man,” said the Captain, “is a pirate and not to be trusted. Still, what can happen? We go in fully armed.” He engaged the intercom again.
“Captain Lascek, I’m coming in with three of my men. We are fully armed. One wrong move on your side –“
“I know, I know,” sighed Captain Lascek. “And you’ll give us a hang-over until Monday and fry our electronic equipment. Point taken. We’ll be good.”
Captain Rodriguez and his First Mate, ship engineer and medic all came aboard. The only one left behind was the technician, who was rather grumpy about being left out.
“How many still on your ship?” asked Federi as the Cuban Coastal Guard climbed aboard. Paean was still inching her way down from the Crow’s Nest, jaws clenched. Down was worse than up, but she had known that.
“One.”
“Why not attach your ship, and then he can also join us and not miss out!”
Captain Rodriguez thought this was a good idea, so Rhine Gold, Ronan, Federi and Shawn quickly organized the mooring of the Silver Bullet to the Solar Wind.
It turned into quite a party. Out here on the open sea, who cared if the bounty hunter took a bit longer roping in the prey, and had some fun in the process? Who cared, for that matter, if they chose to party through the night, dancing to Rodriguez’s Spanish guitar, accompanied by the Solar Wind’s band, and emptying bottle after bottle of priceless 2015 Jamaican rum (and later, when nobody cared, bottle after bottle of real cheap 2116 Chilean Real Jamaican Hangover Rum)? Who cared if they stayed so late that eventually they slept right on the deck of the pirate vessel, under tropical stars, wherever they passed out?
Sherman Dougherty peered out from the bridge onto the deck, where Paean was playing one tireless jig after another at the Cubans.
“She’s good,” he commented.
“Better than many,” agreed Jonathan Marsden next to him. “And so darned young.”
Sherman glanced at the First Mate in surprise. There had been a very odd undertone in that remark!
“Jon, what do you mean?”
“We still don’t know what the Unicate is hunting them for,” Marsden pointed out. “We have this story of their mother being executed. But Sherman, seriously now. Even if that is true. You
know the Unicate. If they have it in for people, do they let them get away?”
Sherman nodded thoughtfully. “What you’re saying…”
“What I’m saying,” completed Marsden, “is I’m not saying anything. You know, we’re assuming that Ailyss is an agent, right?”
“Come now, Jon,” said Sherman. “I think this is an established fact?”
“Because Federi dislikes her? What if she’s a decoy?”
Sherman frowned.
“All I’m saying,” said Jon Marsden, “is that it strikes me as odd that they got away. Unicate doesn’t let people escape like that – especially three inexperienced youths! Right?”
“Right,” echoed Sherman with a scowl.
“Unless it’s for a purpose,” added Jon Marsden.
Sherman whistled softly through his teeth.
Late that night Federi went around the deck tying lifelines on the passed-out Cubans. They had literally fallen asleep wherever they fell over from drinking. Jonathan Marsden wandered out onto the deck and peered up through the rigging at the star-strewn sky.
“Man, do I have square eyes!”
“Making progress?”
“Yup. Federi, that was a brilliant coup. Next meeting you’ll be hearing all about it. Don’t really want to discuss it in the open.”
“Course not!” Classified, thought Federi.
Marsden smiled. “So your little green pirate has a new scarf?”
“Your eyes can’t be all that square then, Jon, can they?” laughed Federi. “Cor! The poor girl! I couldn’t do it to her any longer! Everyone teases her!”
“Only serves to bring out her own witty replies,” said Jon with a smile. “And you’ve taught her the rigging!”
“Still think she’s the agent?” asked Federi with a raised eyebrow.
“We shall see, my friend,” replied Marsden.
Federi nodded. Jon would indeed see! “What are we going to do with all this dead meat if a squall comes up?”
“Stash them in the storage deck.”
“Can’t submerge then,” said Federi.
“Couldn’t submerge before the Solar Wind was submersible,” said Marsden. “Come, Federi! She’s weathered a lot of storms.” He frowned at the gypsy. “Why, are you picking up a squall on its way?”
Federi shook his head, worried. “Jon, I can’t say exactly what I’m picking up! Hells! Didn’t see poor Wolf’s injury coming either. And that proved life-threatening! And back there in Atuona? Walked right into their trap! Can you buy that? Here Federi’s supposed to keep the Solar Wind safe, and my radar’s acting like a rank beginner! Can’t understand what’s going on.”
“Non-specific feeling of doom?” asked Jon Marsden.
“More or less.”
“Interspersed with completely unrelated concerns about little green pirates?”
Federi laughed brightly. “Honestly, Jon! Should I steal you a green scarf too?”
“So we can share a telepathic connection too? What’s on that scarf?”
“You know,” said Federi, “that telepathic contact we had. Simple. Paean was stretched; she feared for our lives; she reached out. Might have reached to you first in fact, except that you keep your radar switched off!”
“Federi, not everyone has a gypsy radar!”
“Correction, Jon. Everyone has one! Some dare to use it!”
“How can you say that?”
“Ever watched animals communicate?”
“Oh,” said Marsden. “Like cats? Loudly caterwauling all night through?”
Federi laughed brightly. “What’s with you, Jon? Is it the prospect of Prime Oil in a few more days?”
“Could be that,” grinned Marsden. “Could be that!”
“I’ll stay up,” said Federi. “Not taking the risk of these drunken louts here drowning by accident.”
“Call me when you need me to take over,” said Marsden. “I don’t mind the graveyard shift. Going to get some shut-eye now.”
“Thanks, old bud.” Federi resolved that his friend would get a complete night’s sleep. Marsden was not yet recovered from being bled within an inch of his life. And Federi was not yet ready to trust his cabin to keep the ghosts out. Maybe he should make a few more totems to hang into the dream-catcher. And hang up a few more chimes to invite more good spirits. Aargh! Rampant superstition all of it, anna bottle! He sighed. Even deliberately being a pirate didn’t help. Ghosts were in your head. There was no keeping them out, annabottle.
Ailyss snuck into the infirmary. Wolf lowered the book he was reading. She nodded at him. He nodded back, a question in his eyes.
“Mind if I sit here a bit and read?” asked Ailyss.
“Sure,” said Wolf, watching her as she settled on the bunk Marsden had only vacated today, pulling her legs in under her. She leaned back against the wall and lifted her novel.
Wolf continued to watch her for a little while, then returned to his own book. It was a book on herb lore. You got to the point where you couldn’t stomach another cliché from the bygone century, and then it was time to read something more substantial. Except that he knew all his own manuals off by heart, so asking Paean once again had resulted in something, if not particularly interesting, then at least off-the-wall. He suspected she didn’t own much beyond this and her music, which he honestly didn’t know how to read.
Ailyss waited until the engineer was engrossed in his reading again before her glance darted to all the electronic equipment. Somewhere in there, a camera was hidden. Hell’s bells, but this bunch of pirates was paranoid! And that Federi – while she had known that the clown getup was a façade hiding a dangerous criminal, she hadn’t actually realized how closely he was watching her!
Well, his secret was out of the bag, she thought. Nobody slaughtered their way through the entire crew of a ship without having some very special attributes!
She felt safer here, in the company of her colleague. Wolf was enough of a friend to Federi to take a bullet in his kneecap for him. She doubted the gypsy would slit her throat in front of the nuclear engineer! She’d be staying in plain sight a lot for now. If she always stayed somewhere in the picture, they’d get used to her presence.