by Paul Kater
There were only a few lamps burning on the immense yard, but Daniel saw two swinging lamps. That had to be where Clelem and his companions were. He moved as quietly as he could and reached the three people quite fast. They were talking out loud, evidently having no fear that anyone might be around to listen in on them.
"The work is almost done. In one or two weeks the ship is afloat and can be outfitted further," Clelem stated.
The man next to him almost stumbled over a block of wood that was in the dark, outside the reach of the lamp Clelem carried. The man cursed violently. It made Daniel frown. There was something about that voice...
"Don't. I hate it when people curse. It shows weakness and lack of control. You did not want to take a light," Clelem dryly said. "Mr Slindris, if you'd please help."
So the third man was Gaguran Slindris, the serving man. He silently lowered the light he carried.
"This'd better be worth it," the other man said, "I'm risking my head, walking around with you."
"It is dark. Nobody sees you and nobody hears you. And you can row a boat to your ship and sail off before the light, so nobody knows you've been here," Clelem said, as if nothing was the matter.
Daniel almost froze. He recognised the voice. His tiredness had just delayed things a bit. Clelem was marching around over the deserted shipyard with Birkle Asciza, the pirate captain that had thrown him into the water. Who had enslaved his friends. Daniel's blood ran cold and his first reaction was to jump the man and rip his heart out. He understood that was not a good plan, though: he was tired and Birkle did not sound sleepy at all. Plus there also were Clelem and the mouse.
"You wanted to check the smuggle hatches, captain," said Clelem. "I proposed this time and you agreed. If you want to go away because you are frightened, then please do so at once. I can spend better time in bed than walking around with a cursing and muttering pirate."
For a moment it looked as if Birkle was going to inflict some serious damage upon Clelem, but the moment passed and the men walked on. Daniel followed them, his ears wide open. Smuggle hatches?
"Let's get this over with then. Where are these hatches?" Birkle tried to talk business again.
"There are three on the deck and two in each cargo bay. There are also some hidden in a few of the cabins for the crew, where the double walls are. I'll show you." Clelem informed the pirate.
The three reached the long zig zag gangway that led up to the deck.
"I should kick you, Dandra ko Galem, for making that thing so high. Make them longer next time."
Daniel could not help but repress a grin. The great pirate captain was clearly afraid to get tired. He saw how the men started the long and slow climb up the gangway. Daniel could almost hear Gaguran sigh and moan, despite his silence. How that man hated going up a ship...
The loading hatches to two of the cargo bays were still open, and the gangways up to them were in place also. Next to each hatch hung a lamp. These ways in were faster, he knew, and then up the stairs in the inside of the ship. Drawback was that there were no railings on these two gangways, so he would be taking an awful chance. It was the only way to get on board without being seen, though. He could not go after the other men. They'd hear him.
Daniel waited until they were going up a part of the gangway where they had their backs to him and ran over to the closest board. Swift as a cat he ran up the gangway, hoping that his steps would go unnoticed. As he reached the inside of the ship, he stopped for a moment and listened, his heart pounding. From outside, the footsteps of the three told him they were still climbing. He took the lamp next to the opening from the hook and lit his way through the enormous cargo bay, to the door. He praised every power that might be around for having been here before. That made it a lot easier. Also the fact that the floor had been closed completely was a big help.
Daniel ran up the stairs as long as he dared, the lamp in hand. At the foot of the last set of stairs, the one that would get him to the deck, he waited. Could he hear the voices? Yes, the men were there already. Daniel put the lamp on the floor and slowly ascended. A quick peek over the deck told him that they had to be below deck now, probably checking out the smuggle compartments in the crew quarters. Daniel suddenly wondered if there had been similar things in the other Pricosine.
The men came back sooner than he had anticipated. Daniel almost dropped himself down the ladder as he noticed they were coming his way. He snatched the lamp and quickly went back to the cargo bay he had come in through. Damn it, he was not sure what information he had missed by not hearing them.
He waited by the partly opened door, the lamp extinguished. The three men went into the other cargo bay. Daniel moved through the corridor and looked at what they were doing.
Clelem walked to a side, with Birkle in his wake. Gaguran trotted along behind. "See, here is the hatch. You can recognise it by the triangular knob on it. Just twist it like that, and the hatch opens. The space is not too large, but I did what I could without making people curious about it."
Birkle nodded. "Much easier to load drugs in there than going through the trouble of sticking it in kid toys. It was utter horror to raid these villages for them and get it out of them again."
Daniel swallowed hard. He remembered how he had been playing with the toys in the cargo bay. The toys that had been in the red and green boxes. Clelem was a drugs dealer and smuggler. And he was in business with the pirate! And Gaguran, the rat, was in on the deal as well.
"It's the same thing with the other cargo bay. Two hatches left, two right, triangular knob. Want to see them?"
"No. I'm sure that's the same thing." Birkle spat on the floor. "So what did you do with that guy who refuses to get killed? And the kid?"
Daniel knew the pirate meant him. But 'the kid'?
"Mr. Slindris here knows more about that," Clelem said as he started walking back to the door of the cargo bay.
Daniel retreated into the dark, hoping they would go back to the stairs and up to deck. They did.
Gaguran coughed. "We took the girl and put her in the cellar, sir. It was the safest place, we thought, he would not look there at all. One of our operatives took the liberty of installing and detonating an off-world implosion device in the building." Gaguran chuckled as they climbed the stairs. "I am quite certain that the device was set correctly. The operative has not survived either, so there is no witness against us."
Daniel, going behind the three, had his heart near escaping from his throat. He also was feeling hot and cold at the same time. Clelem and Gaguran had arranged to have the building with his apartment to be blown up? To kill him? And the cellar-
"You're cold, Dandra ko Galem," said Birkle. "It was your kid in the cellar."
The men reached the deck and took time to catch their breath.
"Not my kid," said Clelem. "They both are my wife's. I wanted the money from her family, but getting rid of her husband was enough of a problem. I could not do the two children also without people becoming suspicious. But at least the nosy one is now out of the way."
Daniel closed his eyes for a moment. There was the man who had struck him as a good and gentle, concerned person, good for his people. And he was telling the pirate that he had killed a man for the money of his wife's family, and now the daughter of his wife?
And cellar... Daniel's heart stopped for a few moments. The cellar under what had been the building where he had lived! He had to go there, as quickly as he could. And he couldn't. He was too close to the deck. If he moved on the stairs, the men would almost certainly hear him.
"And the boy? No problems from him?" Birkle seemed to be quite well informed on Clelem's family situation.
"No. That's an idiot who only lives for music and books. And his stupid poems. I may find a good way to get him out of the way too when the need arises, but for now he's no problem."
Daniel willed the three to go away. Go, go, go... He was holding on to the ladder so tightly that his arms started to ache.
"If you say so..." Birkle stomped away. "I'm going. Too bad you had to kill the bastard that took my slaves away, Slindris. I would have loved to see my Bonto play with him for a while. Maybe I'll ask Dandra ko Galem if I can have you instead." The pirate laughed.
Daniel was tempted to move down the ladder, but the laughter could stop any moment... Then he heard more footsteps move away. Agonising seconds later he heard the sound of feet on the gangway. He bolted down the stairs, blindly searched his way through the corridor and found the door to the first cargo bay. The open hatch made it easy for him to find the way out.
He peeked around the ship's side. Drat... the three would see him if he would run now, and they were coming down faster than going up. No way he could get away before them.
48. The cellar
It felt like hours to Daniel until he finally could get off the Pricosine 2 and start towards the exit. In the cover of the shadows he could get quite close to the three men. He heard how Clelem locked the gate. The three men walked off, talking and apparently joking, as Birkle laughed again.
Daniel looked at the gate. It was high. The top had nasty-looking pointy parts. He was for certain not going to leave the shipyard through or over the regular exit. Taking more chances, he started to run towards the spot where he knew the fence to be low. The one he had climbed over before, to get to this shipyard. Darkness did not make that easy, so he did not go fast. Nothing much had changed, so he climbed over the fence and found his way to the exit of that yard. There, the powers were with him. The gate was as open as the first time. Even in the night.
As he walked towards the road, careful still as he had no idea how fast the three others had gone, he debated with himself if he should take a carriage or go walking. With the carriage, he was afraid he would fall asleep. And walking was at least as fast. That took care of that.
In the streets everything was quiet. No carriages, no people. Daniel fell into a jogging pace he usually could hold for hours. His long legs took him to the corner of what used to be 'his' street. The police now had put up a fence and a few warning signs. From where he stood, he did not see any guards, but that did not mean there weren't any.
"No chances," he mumbled to himself. He walked past the Street of Barges and found the parallel street again. This time there were no people guarding the fence. Slowly, moving from tree to tree, Daniel reached the fence. It took him only a few seconds to get over it.
On the other side, he crouched down for a while, scanning for police that might still be around. The area was quiet. Very quiet. The street lights showed the devastation that was the result of the bomb Gaguran had arranged. The lower half of the building was still standing, that much was clear. For some reason Daniel did not know, the top part had collapsed to the front, not straight down. The way things looked was as if some giant hand had knocked the upper floors off the building, slapping it from behind.
After minutes, Daniel decided that it was safe to move closer. He kept to the shades, to make as sure as possible nobody would notice him. After all, there had been enough commotion around this explosion. As he circled the remains of the building to get to the back side, he saw two lamps burning. He came closer and found a table in front of the back-door. The two lamps were on it, and next to one of the lamps was a handwritten sign that read 'Keep Out: Danger'. Especially the capitals made it look quite deterring.
Carefully he moved the table far enough to the side to give him access to the back-door. That was still in place. Daniel tried the doorknob and pulled. The door resisted for a moment, then opened. A creaking noise startled him and he ducked behind the table. Again he waited for several minutes, but nothing stirred. He dared to breathe again and picked one of the lamps from the table before he entered the collapsed building. Daniel was fully aware that he was taking chances. The sign was not terrifying, but it did tell the truth. This place was dangerous now.
His feet bumped into strange blocks of stone. Lowering the light, he saw there were many and they seemed to have come from the ceiling. "Okay, Daniel, easy does it," he told himself as he slowly, foot for foot, moving forward to the door that led to the staircase of the cellar.
There was no need to open the door. The building had sagged somewhat, breaking the door and making it fall out. The large cracks in the wall were worrying, but Daniel had to go on. If there was any chance that the girl was down there, he had to take it.
The staircase that led downwards had not sustained any damage. Daniel was still very careful, testing each step a few times before putting his full weight on it. The only sounds he heard were his feet on the wooden steps, his breath as he went on, and the pounding of his heart that seemed to grow louder with every move he made.
Finally he was in the cellar. Daniel had only been there a few times, out of curiosity. He knew there were four doors in a short corridor. Two of them, he knew, were always open. These doors had no locks. He found these two open still, and empty also, except for a lot of dust and some fallen down bits of ceiling.
He tried the third door. Locked. He knocked on it. "Is someone in there?" Daniel strained his ears, attempting to catch even the faintest sound. There was nothing though.
"I am going to kick in the door," Daniel said, hoping that his words were not in vain. He took a few deep breaths. The cellar seemed to be intact, but he did not know what was wrong in the parts he could not see. And there were far too many of those.
Daniel stepped back as far as he could. He did not dare to lean into the wall behind him, so he gave it his best shot and kicked at the door. It complained and cracked, but it did not open. He kicked again. That was too much for the door. It gave up and flew open, showings the darkness that lay behind it.
Daniel waited, to make sure the building was not taking revenge by coming down. It seemed safe. The lamp in front of him, Daniel stepped into the storage room. He saw a bunch of sacks in a corner. A table, all dusted over. A broken chair. But no Rayko. "Damn..."
He stepped into the corridor and treated the last door to a few kicks until that gave in also. As the door crashed open, the wooden beam over it crashed down to the floor, taking lots of stone and mortar with it. The whole thing created a dust cloud that made Daniel cough. He needed time to recover and wipe the dust from his eyes. Then he got into the room. "Hello?"
No sound. The floor looked empty except for a few open boxes that contained clothes, and a discarded suitcase. Why on earth would someone keep that behind a locked door, he wondered despite the situation.
"Damn it again," he muttered. Gaguran had said the girl would be in the cellar. He had seen all of them and there was no girl. Had the mouse meant another cellar then? Daniel could not believe it. Then he heard a soft moaning sound. Or was it his imagination?
"Hello? Are you here?" Daniel called out as loudly as he dared. His voice echoed through the room. Again there was the sound. He returned to the previous room and looked.
"By the winds," he muttered as he saw a foot sticking out from under the stack of sacks in the corner. Quickly he crossed the room, put the lamp down and started tossing the sacks to the side. There was the kidnapped girl.
Rayko was tied up in a horrible way. There were ropes everywhere around her body except her neck and her face. She also had a gag and a blindfold. Those were the first things Daniel took off her. Fear was in her eyes. Rayko tried to scream, but her throat was too dry for that; it just gave her a painful coughing fit.
"Stay calm, please," said Daniel. "Please. I'll untie you." Quickly he got to work, finding the knots and taking the ropes away. That was not easy as he had no knife with him. He had to lift Rayko up and keep hold of her as he unwound the long ends of rope from her. He sensed how weak she was, as she could not bring up the strength to stand on her own. He wondered how she had been lying here, without food or water.
Finally she was free. Daniel held her in his arms, with some trouble picked up the lamp from the floor. The he made his way out of the room and up the stairs. As he moved, he sensed t
hat the woman in his arms had fainted. Anger washed through him as he went up the last steps. Anger against Clelem Dandra ko Galem and Gaguran Slindris, and also the pirate captain, and whoever had their dirty fingers in this. They had a lot to answer for.
Daniel paced through the corridor and with a foot pushed open the door to the outside. He kept walking, past the short bit of pavement. Behind him, as if the building had been waiting for them to get out, a wall gave in and a large part of the construction shifted, collapsing. Daniel closed his eyes for a moment and shuddered. Just in time.
He reached the corner of the street. A sudden wave of dizziness hit him, and he had to stop going. Slowly he sank down to his knees, behind a hedge, carefully laying Rayko down for a moment. She did not move, did not make a sound. He checked her pulse. It was faint but it was there. The nauseating feeling left him and he thought what he should do next. He reached for his hydger and looked at the names.
