Cape Storm Page 0,90

to a small, claustrophobic closet of a room with bad ventilation and a crew member who evidently liked beans and hated baths. I evicted him from his battered chair and rolled up to check out the radio. It was old, but highly complicated.

"Hey!" I yelled through the closed door. David opened it. "Help me out a little. I'm not Sparky the Wonder Horse."

That earned me a full, warm smile. "I wouldn't say that. "

"Watch it." I meant that; he was looking at me like I was the old Joanne. The less demented one. "Keep your guard up. I mean it, David. Bad Bob can be funny, too. That doesn't make him any less of a monster. Don't you dare trust me. I can't trust myself, not anymore."

The smile faded, and the sparks in his eyes turned ash-dark. "Yes. I understand." David looked at the radio, and the dials turned. "There. That should put you in touch with the Grand Horizon 's bridge."

"Thanks." I slipped on the headphones as he shut the door between us - less to provide me with privacy than to give me elbow room. There wasn't enough space in here to breathe.

"Merchant vessel - " Oh, hell, what was this ship's name? "Merchant vessel Sparrow for the cruise vessel Grand Horizon. Please respond, over." I expected I'd have to repeat myself, but instead I got an immediate crackle of connection.

" Sparrow,this is Grand Horizon." I knew that voice. "You made it."

"Lewis." I kept my voice neutral, although I was glad he'd made it, too. Even if he had tried to kill me. "You're lucky David hasn't made a lampshade out of you."

"Time will tell." Lewis obviously knew all about how much trouble he was in on that front.

"You're heading straight for Bad Bob."

"I have a plan. Obviously, it won't be as good as yours," I said, "but I make one hell of a good distraction, right? So I go in, do as much damage as possible, and you guys land for the cleanup."

"That would be great - if I thought for a second we could actually trust you." Lewis's voice was bleak and dry, even through the distortion of the radio waves. "You brought us this close. That's enough, Jo. Break it off. Whatever happens, don't let him finish what he started in destroying you."

"What makes you think he can't do it from a distance?" I asked. "I'd rather go down fighting for you than against you."

"Jo - "

"Maybe you didn't get that I wasn't asking your permission. I was informing you, that's all.

You can not love it all you want, but it's what's going to happen, and - " I felt the laboring engines of my little ship begin to struggle. "Don't you even think about it, man. You start screwing with me and you are in a world of trouble." He covered the mike, presumably to warn off the Earth Warden or Djinn who was trying to shut me down. "I'm not interfering," he said. "I'm just advising, and I advise you very strongly to break this off and run, Jo. Now."

"You sent me out here," I said. "You put me on the hook for bait. Let me do this. " No answer but static. "Fine. Joanne Baldwin Prince, signing off - "

"Wait," he snapped. I did. "Don't take David with you. We're not allowing any of the Djinn to make landfall. Too dangerous for them."

I was a bit unclear on the concept of how one stopped Djinn from doing something, if they weren't bound to a bottle, but I didn't bring it up. "And what do you suppose I'm going to do about stopping David?"

His sigh rattled the speaker. "You're not going to love the idea."

"Try me."

He did. I heard him out, although my first impulse was to blow the radio up in a satisfying shower of sparks. I thought about it.

After a long, quiet moment, I agreed.

"Jo?" I was so deep in thought that Lewis's voice startled me. "Still there?"

"More or less. Look, I can't trust anyone on this ship, not with what you're asking. Send me someone." I thought about that for a second. "Send me someone who isn't going to take shit from some fairly scary pirates."

"I've got just the guy," Lewis said. "We're going to slow down, to give you time to get to the island ahead of us. But we'll be coming when you need us."

"I hope so," I said. "Let's not say our good-byes this time. Last time