Cape Storm Page 0,85

off with it when it goes up. Classic choice, though. Who wants a hook to complete the whole pirate image?"

Guns hit the deck and tumbled, metal on metal.Weapons skidded from side to side in the pitch and roll of the waves, and an Uzi nudged my foot. I kicked it to the rail, where it hesitated on the edge, then tipped over.

"Good boys," I said. The captain - no coward, even if he didn't understand what was happening - pulled his knife, the better to fillet me. "Okay, not you, obviously, and I'm voting you off the island. Thank you for playing. Say hello to the sharks." I blew him over the side of the ship, out into the water. He hit with a tremendous splash and came up screaming.

I ignored him. "Right," I said. "Your captain had an attention problem. Who wants to be in charge now?"

They all looked at each other. Nobody dared make a move to rescue Josue, who was flailing like a gaffed fish, although their gazes frequently cut in his direction. One man stepped forward - Thiago, who I suspected was the second in command anyway. "You are," he said.

"Miss."

I smiled at him - my best, most winning smile, fueled by a wild edge. "You're a smart guy.

Thiago, do you want to make some money?"

"Sure."

"Same deal I tried to make with your ex-boss. You take me in that direction" - I pointed toward where I knew Bad Bob was, as the torch on my back throbbed when I faced that way; no clue what the nautical course was, and I didn't much care - "and I can promise you that you'll get one hell of a great payday out of it. Better than holding up unlucky pleasure boaters, anyway."

He exchanged looks with his fellow scavengers - okay, pirates - and one by one, they nodded. The sound of their captain's increasingly desperate calls for rescue off the port bow probably had something to do with their quorum.

"Can we pick him up, please?" Thiago asked, like it was an afterthought, and pointed toward their captain. I turned my head and looked at him. The dawn wind blew my damp hair over my face, but I was pretty sure he could see my expression even at that distance, with that concealment.

"If he points so much as a dirty look in my direction, I'll shoot him in the stomach and let him tell it to the sharks," I said. "Make sure he knows that. I don't feel like giving second chances right now."

Thiago nodded. He had a good poker face, but there was a shadow of uneasiness in his dark eyes. "What do you want us to call you, miss?"

I smiled. "You can call me whatever you want, buddy. This isn't going to be a long-term relationship. Believe me."

Thiago gave some orders, the content of which was lost on me, but the ten or so men that crewed this rusty scow snapped to it. Somebody fished the captain out of the ocean and got him safely out of my sight. I felt the engines growl, shift, and surge beneath my feet as we got under way. The bow turned, heading toward a destination that wasn't visible in any way on the horizon - except to me.

After enjoying the view for a while, I went down to the hold, where I found the captain enjoying the hospitality of the rotting tuna. I pulled up an empty crate. "So," I said. "How about you tell me who hired you to fish me out of the water, Josue?"

"Vai pro Inferno,"he said. "Foda-se."

"Want to see a magic trick?" I asked, and put my hand out, palm up. Nothing in it. I turned it palm down, then over again.

Lightning danced along the skin, clung to my fingertips, and dangled from my knuckles like a handful of tangled string.

Josue sat back.

"You know anything about Tasers? This is the same thing, only without the delivery system.

Oh, and the batteries. And you know the best thing?" I leaned forward and smiled. "It never runs out of juice."

There's no such thing as a loyal pirate. "He was a man," Josue said.

"Name?"

"I don't ask names. He gave me cash money."

"White hair? Big, blue eyes? Red nose? About this tall?" I indicated Bad Bob's height, but Josue was shaking his head.

"No, never seen that one. This one, he was weird. Shaved head. Wearing leather like out of some motorcycle movie. Scary."

My heart took a running leap. "How'd he pay