Ship Breaker (Ship Breaker #1)(68)



But Nailer was pretty sure that Sadna would fight for him tooth and nail, and maybe even give up her life to save him. Sadna cared. Pima cared.

The blood bond was nothing. It was the people that mattered. If they covered your back, and you covered theirs, then maybe that was worth calling family. Everything else was just so much smoke and lies.

22

The Ray was a sleek yacht with a small crew. Dauntless stalked her with Captain Candless making small talk over the ship radios and making friendly observations on the state of the weather during hurricane season.

As they drew closer, the captain’s confidence increased. The ship was lightly crewed, and he was not frightened by what he saw. It took the yacht a long time to guess what Candless was planning and start to flee in earnest.

When the Ray finally shook out its sails and began to flee before the wind, the captain laughed, delighted. “Ah! Mr. Marn isn’t quite as stupid as we supposed,” he said. “Now we’ll have a nice little chase.”

He shouted at his crew to prepare for speed. More sails unfurled and Dauntless surged after its quarry. Dauntless was a larger ship and much faster and the captain laughed at the Ray’s attempt at flight. “Like a tiger chasing a kitten,” he crowed.

Still, the other captain, Mr. Marn, was clever. He veered, he dodged, he forced them to overshoot once, and the men on his deck fired their pistols across the gap. But it was only a matter of time before Dauntless overtook them and grappled.

“Heel over or I’ll sink you and leave you swimming!” Candless roared, and the other ship gave up the fight.

Before they even were fully reefed, Candless’s crew was leaping across the gap, hunting, pistols in hand. They swarmed across the deck and poured below. After a few bated-breath minutes, the rest of the Ray’s crew came up on deck with their hands on their heads. Half-men guards and cooks and stewards and finally, Captain Marn. They glared across at the Dauntless.

“Where’s Miss Nita?” Candless shouted.

Marn grinned and shouted back, “If you can’t find her, you’ve got no business with her, you mutinous bastard!”

“Mutinous?” Candless muttered. “I’m not the one who lapped red cash out of Pyce’s hand.” He turned to his lieutenant. “Reynolds, take the ship.” He made his way down the steps with Nailer following. The jump from one ship to the other was nerve-racking, but Nailer was determined not to show any fear. He leaped and landed badly on the moving deck, but at least he was aboard.

Captain Candless surveyed the deck. “Go see if you can sniff out Miss Nita, boy. She’s got to be somewhere.”

Nailer slipped down into the bowels of the ship, making his way from state room to state room, but every place he looked revealed no sign of Lucky Girl. Nothing. She wasn’t in any of the astonishingly large staterooms. She wasn’t anywhere. Others were searching this ship as well, Knot and Vine and Cat, and all of them were increasingly nervous as they went through the rooms.

“What about secret places?” Nailer asked.

“Wouldn’t she make a racket?” Cat wondered.

“Not if she’s drugged or tied.”

Cat made a face of distaste. They continued their search. Finally they came back on deck.

“Nothing,” Cat reported. “We’ve got nothing anywhere.”

The captain cursed and turned on Marn. “Where is she?” He poked his finger in Marn’s chest. “If you free her, I won’t drop you over the side. Which is better than you deserve. You’ve gone against all your clan oaths, and you should be hung.”

“From where I sit, there’s only one person against his clan oaths and it’s you, you piratical bastard.”

Captain Candless scowled and turned to shout at his crew. “Take it apart! Take the whole damn ship apart. Take it apart piece by piece! I want Miss Nita found and then I want this ship sunk.” He glared at his opposite. “You had a chance to do the right thing. More than enough chances.”

Suddenly Captain Marn grinned. “We always suspected you of not being loyal. You couldn’t have been. Not after what happened to Ms. Sung. We always knew. But you were more careful than most of them. Biding your time. Keeping your head low. Some people thought you deserved the benefit of the doubt.”

Candless smiled tightly. “Mighty grateful for that.” He tipped his hat. “I’ll think about your kindness while I’m watching your boat sink under you.”

“Don’t bother with thanks,” Marn laughed. “Now that we know where you stand, we’ll hunt you to the ends of the earth.”

“Not once the board convenes. You’ll be gone and I’ll be back at sailing.”

Captain Marn grinned and shook his head. “I’m amazed at you. You used to be such a clever bastard.”

Candless’s eyes narrowed. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Marn shrugged. “Just that you’re not as sly as you used to be. You used to have a sixth sense. I was sure you’d smell a trap and never fall into it, and then you came all the way in, just like they expected.”

“Like who expected?” Captain Candless stared at Marn. A look of fear flitted across Candless’s face, an anxious thought; then the captain roared, “Reynolds!”

“Captain?”

“What’s our horizon?”

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