~
Ailyss’ hair was plastered in wet tangles through her face. She glanced fearfully at the way white lines of spray crawled along the tops of the waves, wind whipping up manes for the wild horses. A swathe of rain blanked out everything around her, thundering; then it thinned again. She shifted her eyes to the Crow’s Nest, in the vain hope that maybe the menace had been blown away by the most recent gust of wind; to her surprise the mast and deck lights blinked on. The Solar Wind’s dusk sensors had self-activated.
She had liked the sensation of flying at first; but by now her arms felt as though they were going to fall off and her whole body was battered from balancing against such nasty angles all the time. The knowledge that she was helping a pirate escape the law, didn’t make it easier. And looking up all the time at that weird kite sail – her neck would be so stiff tomorrow! If it was still in one piece. Was there a tomorrow?
She focused on the sleek, synthetic rope in her hands, her legs and back straining against the precarious angle at which the ship was hanging in its descent into a trough. The deck of the Solar Wind was treacherous. The sweet-water from the swathes of rain was leeching the salt out of it. This reduced the stickiness of the non-slip coating; even with a foot in a toe-strap the Irish brunette had to work hard to stay on her feet. The ship skimmed down into the next trough, and then a massive wave gushed across the deck.
Ailyss let go of her flying line, yielding it to the wind, and grabbed at the handhold. Captain could tame his wild Pegasus alone! She had had enough!
In releasing her winch line to grab the handhold she gave it a jerk which released the winch lock. The abandoned sheet had been operating on half-pulled-in position for a manoeuvre of the kite and was therefore under strain, and it shot through the winch. The loose end, coiled at Ailyss’ feet, whipped across viciously to wrap round Rhine Gold’s legs where he stood to the side and slightly forward of her position, pulled him off his feet, and dragged him towards the winch, while the speedbar sheet he had been paying out started dragging him uncontrollably as well. Ailyss saw it and squeezed her eyes shut. It was gruesome. Best to remember that they were all going down together, after all.
Federi watched from the Crow’s Nest and gasped. Why hadn’t the automatic safety override kicked in? Rhine Gold would get injured!
“Let go the lines, everyone,” he shouted over the ship com. “Rhine Gold, let go!”
All except Captain Lascek dropped their lines instinctively. Rhine Gold would have had a hand taken off by the winch if he had not, but fortunately the brake line reached full sheeted-out position just before his legs reached Ailyss’ winch. Lascek was ripped off his feet. Something wrong with the override on that side, too! Federi frowned. Could it be the dratted little saboteur had tampered with more than the radar? How suicidal was that girl?
“Captain, let go the line, you’ll get hurt!” yelled Federi. Captain really ought to listen to him. He was the experienced flyer. Captain was usually on the bridge steering during a storm, as he should be now! Radomir Lascek was dragged all the way across the deck, helped along by another breaker surging over the ship. The rain silenced Federi as he watched in horror.
Captain Lascek fought to get back on his feet without abandoning his line. Ailyss gaped at the sheer power, the dogged will. Man against the elements? Captain was the master, this was clear! He reared up, forcing the deck to steady under his boots. Once more the Solar Wind quit bucking like a young horse and levelled out. As though there were a connection between the Captain and his ship; as though she were alive. Incredible!
“Everyone, take up your lines again,” the Captain commanded, back on his feet. He cast Federi a murderous look. “Tzigan, stop interfering! Men, and ladies, continue!”
The ship plummeted into the depths of a trough. Ailyss was thrown off her feet. Rhine Gold caught her. She glared at him. If she’d known about all this, she would never, never have volunteered for the Solar Wind!
“Veer to port, Dr Jake!” yelled Federi over the ship com. “Rocks to starboard! – And that's not interfering, worthy Captain, yodiho!” he muttered under his breath, wiping the rain out of his eyes for a second. The downpour played a nasty trick on him and slackened for that crucial moment. The ship broadcast his angry comment.
“Gypsy, I’m warning you,” said Lascek irately. Dr Jake steered clear of the rocks. He cut it much too fine and the ship danced on turbulences for a moment. The Crow’s Nest jittered and jolted. The Solar Wind lost her height and dropped back to sea level with a splash, and instantly a band of curious waves investigated the deck.
Federi clenched his jaws shut. He was only trying to prevent people from getting injured, anna bottle! He peered into the shrouds of rain, through the twanging ropes. The Silver Bullet was not visible anymore, vanished behind mountains of waves. Lights were not enough to penetrate this soup of rain and spray. Lightning bolts riddled the ocean behind them. He stared hard at the grey sea, listening intently. What was that he had heard?
“Federi, what’s wrong?”
Federi’s eyes stopped at Shawn’s puzzled face without his brain registering it.
“Nothing we can change right now,” he said darkly. Blast! The little songbird should have jumped ship in Atuona!
Another wave gushed around Ailyss’ knees. She stared at it and hung onto the lines, terrified. In her mind she was trying to recall what she had learnt about storms and ships. Modern ships were built to withstand thirty metre and larger waves. The boat, yes, she thought. Not the blasted crew! They weren’t supposed to hang out on deck as though this were one huge party! She peered at Ronan Donegal who was crowing with delight. Her stomach was lurching along with the ship, and here her nutty countryman was having fun!
“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?” asked Rhine Gold.
“Loving it,” grinned Ronan. “It’s what I’ve been dreaming of.”
“You’ll make a good sailor, Ronan!” said the Hamburger.
Radomir Lascek bestowed an approving gaze on the young sailor. The Captain’s daughter glanced at him as well, before she returned her full attention to the parafoil and the flying console. She played the controls with an experienced hand as the Solar Wind was coaxed to lift and fly once more, her feet hooked under the deck hooks, her knees slightly bent for better balance. Rushka had been dreaming of flying too; dreams, at night, and daydreams by day. Ever since her father had got overprotective of her, her life had turned into a long, sorry stretch of so-so and lah-di-dah. This storm was exactly what she had been longing for; and being given the central position surpassed her wildest hopes.
“This is the point at which we all sing a shanty,” crowed Ronan. “On a good ship wet, when it rains and snows…”
“Go away!” – “Stop that!” – “Honestly!” – “Go back to kindergarten!”
“Hey, guys, where’s your sense of sports?” grinned Ronan. From the ship com came a muttered comment about singing lessons. “By the way we need some more people. Paean, won’t you go below deck and – where’s Paean?”
“On the Silver Bullet,” Rhine Gold reminded him.
“Oh. Drat! Hope she’s okay.”
“The Silver Bullet is a motorboat,” said Salvatore Rodriguez. “Much easier to navigate in a storm, but not nearly as fast as this of course.”
“Oh, good. Only hope she can escape Sherman’s ghost stories.”
“Not much hope there, Ro,” grinned Rhine Gold.
Ailyss hoped that poor little Paean would escape more than just the ghost stories of the old pirate. A breaker washed her feet out under her just as the Solar Wind achieved lift-off again. This time, however, Rhine Gold was prepared and caught her before the surf could drag her any further. Their eyes met for a moment. Tango, she thought. He looked wild, with his golden curls streaming rivulets of water on her. Rain stung Ailyss’ face too. She freed herself.
r /> “Stop that!” said Rhine Gold, surprised. “You’re messing up the operations! You’re doing it on purpose!”
“No,” said Ailyss. Her eyes darted up to the Crow’s Nest and locked with Federi’s black stare. She got another faceful of rain for it.
Rhine Gold had glanced back at her from staring at his section of kite just long enough to see her. “You’re scared of Federi!” he stated, even more baffled.
“No,” repeated Ailyss. Scared didn’t begin to describe it. If she didn’t drown in this storm, the gypsy would kill her tonight. She wondered if he garrotted people.
Federi beckoned Shawn closer.
“This has gone far enough,” he shouted through the rain. “Did you see what Ailyss is doing? Go down there, ask Captain if you can escort Ailyss below deck and rouse some of Rodriguez’s men. It’s better to have drunken sailors doing as they’re told than have a saboteur doing her damnedest to sink us!”
“Okay,” said Shawn.
“But it’s your idea, understood?” said the Tzigan. “I have nothing to do with it. You saw.” His hand flicked the Captain away in an insolent gesture. “He’s on his own station. Can’t hear Federi at all today.”
Shawn nodded. “I’ll tell Captain I’m seasick. And Ailyss too.”
“She is,” agreed Federi. He was amazed at the gumption of the spy, to carry through with her nuisances despite feeling very obviously green. Gumption? Or perhaps desperation?
“Just Shawn, be very careful when you climb down. Stick to the rules. Keep reattaching your lifeline securely the way I showed you. At all times. If something happens to you, I think Captain will sink this ship personally.”
“Okay,” said Shawn doubtfully. “I’ll be careful.” He started his descent. He had monkeyed up and down here often enough; he was completely secure with his footing no matter how the Solar Wind swayed. Still, he obeyed Federi’s directives about the lifeline.
“Tzigan, what are you planning now?” the Captain’s voice boomed over the speakers. Federi activated his com.
“Nothing, Captain. The boy wanted to get down. Can’t say I blame him.”
Shawn climbed down to the deck. He clung to the mast in a theatrical show for a second or two, then staggered over to the Captain, grabbing onto all nearby sailors for support. Ronan watched in concern, and caught a wink. Oh, the little scoundrel!
“Captain, permission to go below deck,” Shawn groaned, grimacing. And genuinely slipped on a bit of treacherous deck as the Solar Wind abruptly pointed her nose down into a trough. Radomir Lascek’s hand shot out and caught him by the left shoulder; Rodriguez’s by the right. The two Captains exchanged a glance.
“Hombre,” said Rodriguez, “this child has no business learning to be a pirate! Let me take him into port so he can lead an honest life!”
“Amigo,” replied Lascek with a smile, “the Unicate orphanages are no place for a bright boy like him! With me he has a future!” He turned and directed his piercing gaze at Shawn. The boy swallowed. “Go below deck, Donegal!”
“Captain, please, I think Ailyss isn’t feeling well either,” added Shawn mournfully.
“You’re right, young Donegal. Take her below, and then the two of you keep watch over Wolf in the infirmary.”
“Yessir.”
Shawn gestured to Ailyss, and she followed him down the hatch and below deck. One audacious wave followed them inside, splashing around them down the steps. Shawn pulled the hatch closed, Federi’s comment echoing in his head. Some things should not be left to electronics!
Instantly there was quiet. The storm raged on – outside. Shawn led Ailyss along the undulating passage past the boardroom, where the four crew members of the Silver Bullet were sitting, not quite sober, yet not drunk enough to be oblivious to the storm outside and the fact that the Solar Wind was riding it. There was evidence oozing around the blue carpet, changing its direction with each tilt of the ship. Shawn peered at it and felt genuinely queasy. He’d have to mop that up!
Would these hung-over hoodlums do? They’d just jolly have to! Shawn Donegal straightened out.
“Your Captain needs you on deck,” he instructed the men. “Right away.”
They took themselves out of the boardroom and headed for the hatch.
“And close the blasted hatch behind you,” Shawn yelled after them. “We’re taking the begging ocean aboard!” For a moment he felt a surge of uncharacteristic rage at these guys. They were grown men, for the wet in blankets! They shouldn’t be hanging there drunk and sorry while boys and women braved the roaring sea! He shook a fist after their retreating backs.
Ailyss glared at him.
“You’re not seasick,” she snapped.
“Neither are you,” replied Shawn, shaking his head. “Ailyss, why are you trying to sink this ship? You’ll die with us!”
She paused and studied him pensively.
“Shawn, just stick close to me. I’ll rescue you. You’re innocent.”
“But so is my brother! And all the others too!”
“The others!” She spat on the floor. Shawn looked at her with wide eyes.
“You like Paean,” he stated.
“Paean’s not aboard, luckily,” replied Ailyss. “There’s a chance she’ll get away.”
“And Federi? Don’t you like Federi? He’s been nice to you!”
“Federi?” Ailyss shuddered. “The man’s a psycho! Doesn’t he freak you?”
“No,” said Shawn. He didn’t think Federi was insane. Silly and a clown, yes, but that was deliberate. And an accurate shot, like Shawn Donegal, and a calm head in a crisis.
“But aren’t you worried he’ll turn and slit your throat one fine day? If the mood takes him?” asked Ailyss.
Shawn shook his head. “You misunderstand him. You do him wrong.”
“Don’t think so,” said Ailyss cynically.
“And Wolf?”
“Wolf,” smiled Ailyss. “Shawn, you little innocent! Wolf’s a juvenile delinquent! He comes from a correctional school! This is a ship full of human garbage! No loss to humanity!”
“Why do you hate us all so much, Ailyss?”
“Hate?” Ailyss stopped and stared at him, frowning. She shook her head, grabbing onto the rail lining the passage as the rear of the ship lifted steeply once again. “I don’t actually, Shawn. I don’t hate you at all. You remind me of my little brother.”
“You have a little brother!”
“His name is Keenan. He’s got the same round eyes as you have.” She suddenly stopped talking. Her eyes became sheltered again.
“Where’s Keenan?” asked Shawn.
“Don’t ask!”
“Are you all that’s left of your family, Ailyss? Are you orphans too?”
“Be quiet,” she snapped.
“Your little brother is in a bad place, isn’t he?”
“Shawn, shut up!”
“Ailyss, is there anything I can do to help you get your brother back?” asked Shawn. “I’m sure Captain will want to give him shelter on the Solar Wind too!”
“Shawney, you’re naïve. Radomir Lascek is a crook. Don’t you get it? Sinking the Solar Wind’s the only way I can save my little brother!”
Ailyss saw Shawn’s rattled expression and knew that she had told him too much. He was a pirate. There was no rescuing him. Too late – and he was only twelve! Poor little Paean – her brothers would have to go down with the ship.
“Ailyss,” said Shawn, “we’ll help you. We Donegals. Just Ronan and Federi and I. We can do it! Tell me where we must find your little brother and we’ll go and pull him out of the very hands of the Rebel terrorists if we have to.”
“Ironically that’s exactly where he is,” retorted Ailyss. “How are you proposing to do this?”
“Federi will have a plan,” said Shawn confidently. “He always does. Will you trust me?”
“I trust nobody,” said Ailyss.
“Telling me that, you’ve already shown trust,” Shawn pointed out.
“Och, quit your mind games, little Donegal!”
“I’m an orphan too,” said Shawn. “If you sink our ship, you kill my brother and sister, and then I’ve no family left in the world. Come, we have orders to look after Wolf.”
“Oh, Shawn?”
He looked up at her with his eyes round.
“A single word of this, to anyone,” she warned and drew her finger across her throat.
“Roger,” said Shawn. “I’ll stay mum.” A promise to a psychopath didn’t count, he thought to himself. Hell with her.
Federi had redirected his wrist-com to the bridge, navigating for Dr Jake and not bothering with the flying team any longer. Let Captain figure it out! If a sailor went overboard, there was still time to furl the sails and launch a rescue mission! If someone lost a hand – he shook his wet mane and wiped the rain back out of his face. A vivid imagination wasn’t always a blessing. But the hell would he allow Captain to put a guy ashore who had been disabled because of Radomir Lascek’s stubborn lack of foresight!
Foresight – that was what he was, thought Federi acidly. A gust of wind tore at his scarf; a swarm of stinging raindrops whipped across his back. He was the Captain’s radar to the future. Ailyss – or perhaps that Rodriguez, who knew – had sabotaged the ship’s spatial radar; Captain was sabotaging his own time radar! Blast, but that made no difference! Federi would continue functioning.
There it was again, carried on the wind, clearer this time – Federi and Ronan, Crow’s Nest to deck, exchanged troubled glances. Both had sensed it at the same time: Paean’s panicked cry for help.
“Captain, we need to slow down and wait for the Silver Bullet,” called Federi on the ship com. Ronan shot him a thankful look.
“Federi, butt out,” Lascek snapped into his wrist-com. “You’ve messed with the works quite enough!”
“To hell with it, Captain!” the Romany reared up, the wind whipping the ends of his ridiculous bandana into his face along with his own black tangles. “I’m not messing! I’m telling you! We’ve got to wait for them!”
“One more word from you, gypsy…” warned Lascek. “Rhine Gold! Pick up that slack! The hydraulics don’t know what to do!”
“Captain,” shouted Federi, boiling over, “if you don’t stop the Solar Wind immediately so we can wait for them –“
The Captain fiddled with his wrist-com.
“I’ll get out of the Crow’s Nest and go looking for them myself, and you can navigate by touch, anna bottle,” completed Federi and realized that the ship com had been switched off. He threw back his head and yelled with rage. And tested his wrist-com. He had access to the bridge and to most of the sailors; not to Captain though. Rats on the old tyrant!
What the hell was wrong with Captain? He expected to wake up from this nightmare any second now. Except that he knew that it was no dream. A clown? A fool! The flipside of being the Jester was that in life-and-death situations you stood alone, because nobody took you seriously. He started whistling a mournful Romany tune through his teeth over the wind, trawling desperately for possibilities in the dark depths of his mind.
Ronan was saying something, in all probability imploring the Captain to stop and wait. Federi watched the exchange and read from the body language how Ronan was snubbed too.
“Doomed,” he muttered. “We’re doomed. Our Captain’s lost his mind. We’re a dead crew walking.” A sunken Rebel Schooner full of dead terrorists loomed briefly out of the veils of rain to port, shadowing them. Juan on the bridge. A trick of the light. For Federi’s eyes only. Making sure they would meet again in hell!
Rushka was now confronting her father. Federi could practically read from their lips what was being said. Lascek snapped at his daughter. She backed down.
Federi felt like screaming. He could feel Paean’s fear like a tangible presence and knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that something had happened to the Silver Bullet. If only he could to come down from the Crow’s Nest, stop this flying nonsense for a moment, speak to his Captain eyeball to eyeball… but he couldn’t do that without endangering the whole ship. If only this accursed storm would abate soon!
Ailyss sat in the infirmary, curled up small on the empty bunk with the pea-green blanket, wedged into the corner between the wall and the equipment at the head of the bunk. Shawn was sprawled on the single narrow chair that was usually hiding in the corner, having plonked it in the middle between the two bunks, riding it as the ship rocked. He was telling Wolf in excited detail about the detaching of the Silver Bullet and the flying of the Solar Wind, and the way he and Federi had been navigating the ship by sight. The heavy rolling of the ship enhanced the feel of drama in his tale. Ailyss deliberately refused to think about those sailors on the deck, in the rain and surf. They were pirates. They had cast their lot.
Suddenly Shawn paused and listened. “Paean’s in trouble!”
“How do you know?” asked Wolf.
“Telepathic link,” said Shawn. If they laughed, he’d point out the telepathic contact they all knew Paean had established that time with Federi.
“There’s nothing we can do,” said Wolf. “Not in this storm.”
Ailyss sat listening. Against her better judgment she was drawn into the young pirate’s wild account, even though she had been there. This was a tale nothing short of heroism! Shawn had also picked up on Captain’s amazing ability to stabilize wind, weather and the sailing ship. Wolf was nodding with an appreciative grin and adding, “yes, he does that!”
But the ship’s radar, broken… She countered the long, searching looks Wolf bestowed on her with sadness. Too late she realized how much she had come to like her rough-cut colleague, the one she had referred to minutes ago as a juvenile delinquent. Wolf was not actually rough in daily life. He was quiet and intelligent, and always kind to her, and he kept things to himself. The way he had stood up for his scaly, undeserving shipmate – that loyalty, that backbone – she could appreciate it. And she had begun to find his company comforting.
She liked too many of them. It was too bad. It wasn’t her first mission. She closed her eyes and felt the ship roll and tilt around her. It would not be long now.
Federi had lost track of time. The swaying of the rigging, the flapping and bunching of the sails, the quivering of the lines and the wet wind around his ears had put him into a trance. He was eyes and ears only, calling out rocks and danger zones to Dr Jake over the com and shutting his mind to everything else. After a while it felt to him as though clinging to the rim of the Crow’s Nest with fingers numb from the pelting rain, and pushing the com’s button was all he knew how to do. As though Federi was only a part of the Crow’s Nest.
When the wind suddenly stopped, it came as a surprise. The Solar Wind moved out under the heavy rain and into a calm, light patch, only faint drizzle…
“Dr Jake, veer to port, bright weather to starboard,” shouted Federi and stopped, stumped. What had he said there? He felt as though he had awakened from a dream. His entire psyche felt blanked out.
There had been things in that dream. Wild passages through Lake Gatun. Flights out of Stab nests in the Atlantic. A crazy episode of towing Unicate military. And towing, and towing again. The Solar Wind, a towing service. Dark bits too. A man eaten by a vanishing lizard, for a Unicate capsule. Having to slaughter his way out of a ship. That darned capsule was bothering him! What the hell was in it?
And through it, the sound of laughter, light and carefree, as though there were another side to the world, one that was pure innocent sunshine… the sound of her terrified screams, and her panicked little calls, and then her silence…
“Federi, I want to see you on the bridge,” the Captain’s voice cut authoritatively out of his com. Ha! So now the blasted
com was good enough again?
“Yessir.” He flung his wrist-com into the Crow’s Nest, stripped off his lifeline and climbed down from the drenched rigging. There was a fire burning in his gut. If they had murdered Paean, and he had been unable to prevent it because of Captain’s doggedness…
Captain Rodriguez clapped Captain Lascek on the shoulder.
“That was marvellous, Capitano, estupendo! I’m exhausted!”
“It was a good one,” agreed Lascek. He gestured toward the bridge. Federi obeyed, his hands twitching. “Please excuse me, Captain Rodriguez.”
“I’ll round up my men,” said Rodriguez. He turned away.
Federi’s fists clenched and unclenched as he stood waiting on the bridge. There was only one thing he could do now. And it had nothing whatever to do with Captain! He had drowned out Paean’s screams for help. She was silent now. That silence was terrible.
The Captain was messing him around wasting time. He was lagging behind on the deck, complimenting Rushka, Ronan, Rhine Gold, and the Cubans on a job well done. He entered the bridge and thanked Dr Jake and sent him back down to the machine room to Marsden, to check on the repairs.
He ignored Federi completely until they were alone on the bridge. Then he turned and stared at the Romany for a good thirty seconds in silence.
Get it over with, thought Federi, his fingers and toes tingling. Move, blast you! I’ve got a mission!
“Tzigan, what were you thinking? Giving me uphill while another Captain is visiting?”
Was this a real question? “I’m sorry, Captain. I was only -”
“Who gives the orders on a ship?”
Ah. Not a real question. “The Captain, sir.”
“So what were you doing giving orders? Contradicting me? Staging a mutiny in a crisis?”
“A mutiny?!” That was too much! “Blast it, Captain, get off my back! I have no time for your little issues now! You’ve wasted enough of my time! Got to get to Sherman and Paean!”
Lascek’s mouth hung open. “Little issues -?”
Blast. That had come out wrong! Federi counted. One… two…
Radomir Lascek’s Hungarian temper exploded. Federi stood struck into silence as the Captain let rip, about good-for-nothing Tzigany and their lack of discipline, and the way a ship had one clear command line, and if he didn’t like it, he could get off! Lascek took a breath.
“Thanks, Captain, that’s exactly what I was about to –“
Federi’s words went under in the next bomb blast. Hells, Captain was taking long! And there was no defending yourself when Lascek was in such a mood. Walk out, thought Federi, apologize later. But, being Federi, he just had to try once more the correct way.
“I’m sorry, Captain,” he said. “I never meant –“
“To hell with what you meant! Can’t you submit to authority at all?”
Federi shut his mouth. There was a remote chance that Paean was still alive. And here was Captain, wasting time on an ego trip. Federi decided to give it another thirty seconds, then he’d walk away, and to hell with the future! What future was there anyway? He’d stand trial on this if he had to, damn the Captain! No, on the contrary: He’d simply not come back.
“An answer, gypsy.”
Federi smiled viciously. “Permission to speak, Captain?”
“Now don’t get snotty with me! What do you do while aboard this ship?”
Federi bit back his retort. Snotty! “Obey your command, Captain,” he said with insolent patience.
“Exactly. May you but never forget that again! Now get on with your job!”
“Thank you, Captain.” It had taken less than thirty seconds.
Federi turned and left the bridge.
27 - Federi
There was absolutely no wind; only this otherworldly fine drizzle. Low-flying clouds, Paean had called it once, and Irish Fresh Air. The sense of unreality kept lingering on the fringes of Federi’s awareness as his hands worked the holdings of the Stormrider loose in the drizzling rain and released the catch on the Mother Ship. The electric winches lowered the motorboat onto the rolling water. The Stormrider bobbed on the agitated sea. The Tzigan cast a suspicious eye at the strange colour of the clouds up there before climbing over the Solar Wind’s rail and slipping down a lifeline into the Stormrider. Pure luck, that.
“Now we’re on our own, you realize,” he commented, glaring at the Stormrider’s screens. “Captain will think this is mutiny.” He keyed in the security sequence on the console, and the electric outboard drive whizzed into life. He glanced uncertainly back at the ship. It didn’t sit well, abandoning them to Ailyss’ devices right now! But there was no choice.
“I don’t care,” said Ronan Donegal. “My first loyalty is to my family. My job comes second.”
“Good man, Donegal!” Federi nodded approvingly. The boy had his priorities straight! His hand moved to the gear lever.
Rushka took a flying leap off the Solar Wind towards the lifeboat. She landed in the sea close by and surfaced in the high waves, a bit winded. Federi steered the boat closer to her and Ronan helped her aboard.
“Thank you,” she gasped. “Why are you running away?”
“We’re only going to rescue my sister,” said Ronan bitterly. Federi turned and pulled the gear lever. The Stormrider shot forward soundlessly. Federi whistled his relief through his teeth. We’re on our way, little songbird, and Sherman! Here we come!
“My father can be a very harsh man at times,” said Rushka. “And also he has sometimes been known to make mistakes.” She looked knowingly at Federi.
“Oh well,” said Federi with a shrug, sounding more cheerful than he felt. “Your father is a good man, Rushka. Don’t break him down. You know we’ll all sail to hell for him. He’ll come round. Don’t worry about it, Princess, I sure don’t.” He bent over the display panel, testing all the functions as the boat put ocean between them and the Solar Wind. That blasted spy had at least not thought of disabling the Stormrider’s radar! All was fully operational.
“Now we follow her signals,” said Federi, turning, and understood that he was suddenly alone on the boat. Oh, sure, there was this bubble behind him, with the two pretty teens in it having discovered each other’s eye colour. Not really part of reality though. Merely a spectre.
“Aw, hell, Princess,” cursed Federi, adding a juicy expression in Romani. They weren’t even aware of being spoken to! The fine prickling of accelerated drizzle didn’t even seem to bother them. He had considered pulling the roof over; now he wasn’t going to.
This certainly complicated matters! A psychic signal always came through clearer to next of kin – why he had taken Ronan along in the first place! He wished he could have taken Shawn instead. But this mission was far too dangerous for the boy.
He peered uneasily at the clouds. They were green, and very high up. They were trying to tell him something! This was no ordinary tropical storm! And what about this weird calm moat in the middle of it… where the violence should be at its worst?