Previous – Book1 Page165 – Next
Chapter 22
A Delicate Question
“Two ships going out today!” bellows BlackDog, “norf of Fflint there’s bounty coming down from Douglas, silver if we’re lucky, and they’ll have other metals too. And because we ‘ave two ships, you’re all needed on board. Where’s that SpudMutt? You’re not getting on my ship! TallyBen, make sure he’s on the Blackbird. Sort it out!”
BlackDog walks back to join the other officers who are quietly surveying the misshapen ranks of the conscripts.
Lieutenant Slender is there, trying to focus on the usual rabble, but she’s finding it difficult to stop herself from fixating on MickeyWarr. He’s standing next to SpudGunn at one end of the line.
His mind is on something else though, not Slender. He’s been looking around at everybody and everything. Perhaps there were one or two brief spells of eye contact, but the suppressed smiles on both their faces said only, “good morning, nice to see you,” and little else.
MickeyWarr certainly wasn’t paying attention to BlackDog’s pep talk! Something about two ships if he remembers correctly, and something about keeping SpudGunn away from him. MickeyWarr is busy on other things, trying to build a map in his head detailing the layout of the dock complex.
Slender can’t pick out any thought patterns. There are thirty people on the dockside, and others on board the two ships. A few more people are standing by the stores and by the main gate. There’s simply too much noise on the wavelengths.
However, she can see that MickeyWarr is concentrating on something, even though she has no idea what. Probably an escape plan, or at least a skiving plan, a plan to avoid working aboard either ship. That’s the sort of thing that the smart people think about.
But what seems really odd is that MickeyWarr is sticking close to SpudGunn.
Previous – Book1 Page165 – Next