The Little Ships (Alexis Carew Book 3)

by J. A. Sutherland

  Alexis kissed his cheek as he drew back, smiled assurances she didn’t entirely feel, and patted his arm. She watched Delaine walk away, her heart beating faster and faster as he disappeared into the crowd, then turned back to Reinacher with a smile that quickly faded.

  Reinacher was no longer smiling, no longer jovial. His face was set, eyes narrowed and cold.

  Chapter 36

  Reinacher took Alexis’ arm and another man she’d never seen before took the other. Their grips were tight to the point of being painful. She started to speak, to ask what they were doing, but Reinacher squeezed her arm harder and she took the hint. The two men steered her off the dance floor and up the stairs to the balcony level, having to support her and almost drag her when she stumbled.

  She looked around frantically, hoping to see Delaine or even Balestra, though what they’d be able to do she didn’t know.

  They turned into a corridor off the balcony, one almost hidden from view by plants and decorations. It was nicely appointed, not a service hall as she’d assumed, and it soon met another corridor in a T-intersection.

  Behind those alcoves and meeting rooms Delaine mentioned.

  “Que faites-vous?” Alexis asked quietly. She was trying to think how Marie Aubert from the Berry worlds would react. Probably terrified and knowing she can’t resist the … what did Delaine call them, political police? Well, and I’ve the terrified bit of that with no problem at all.

  “Sei still,” Reinacher said, the meaning clear from the shake he gave her arm.

  They stopped at a hatchway. Reinacher held her arm while the other man slid the hatch open then Reinacher flung her inside. Alexis stumbled and fell after a few steps. She recovered her footing and looked around. It was definitely a meeting room of some kind, with a small sidebar in one corner and a pair of couches facing each other across a low table. The far wall was the outside bulkhead of the station. Most of it was a clear material offering a spectacular view of the planet below.

  Reinacher slid the hatch shut, leaving the other man outside, and walked to the sidebar to pour a drink. Alexis edged toward the door, but stopped — even if it were open what could she do? Run through the reception hall with Reinacher in pursuit and a guard outside? No, she’d have to see this through, whatever he had in mind.

  Reinacher raised his glass and said something quickly in German.

  Well, I’ve heard it often enough myself. I might as well say it.

  “Que?” she asked trying to fix her face in an innocent yet puzzled expression.

  “Excusez-moi,” Reinacher said. He took a sip of his drink. “Or we should use your English, yes?”

  A chill went through Alexis and she tried not to react.

  “Que?”

  “Do not play me the fool,” Reinacher said. He spoke in rapid bursts, each accompanied by some gesture or movement. “I have little tongue —” He pointed at his mouth. “—for languages, but I have an ear —” Another gesture to the side of his head. “— for accents.”

  He turned back to the sideboard and poured another glass. Alexis edged toward the door again. Perhaps it would be better to take her chances running.

  “Locked,” Reinacher said without turning. “You speak French, but not with an accent of the native.” He turned, carrying both glasses and held one out, finger extended to point at her. “No, you have an accent of New London in your French.” He smiled. “You arrive —” He stepped toward her holding out the glass. “— on a ship called Röslein, which we know is Marilyn, whose records say is captained by Herr Federmann, who we know is Dansby.” He raised his eyebrows and gestured with the offered glass.

  Alexis took the glass and held it gingerly.

  “We know he smuggles, and we allow this.” Reinacher shrugged. “Times being what they are. So when you are introduced as Marie Aubert, I must ask myself: How does this French Marie Aubert from the Berry worlds come to be on not-Herr Federmann’s ship the not-Röslein?” He took a sip and smiled. “Drink, please. It is a fine schnapps.”

  Reinacher waited smiling, with eyebrows raised, until Alexis took a small sip. The drink tasted of peppermint and Alexis thought she might enjoy it if she wasn’t becoming more and more certain that it would be her last.

  I would much rather my last drink taste of peat and smoke, not candy, if at all possible.

  “The answer, of course,” Reinacher continued, turning and walking back into the room, “is that she is not Marie Aubert.” He spun and put a finger to his temple. “But this … brings only more questions. If she is not Marie Aubert, then why does Leutnant Theibaud, a trusted, loyal man, introduce her as Marie Aubert? Has she deceived him? Has she —” He smiled. “— worked wiles upon him?” He shook his head. “Nein, no, it makes me think there is more to this …” This time his smile showed teeth. “We have the saying, ‘layers to the onion’, you know this saying?” He waved his hand dismissively. “Of course you do. So now I think that under not-Herr Federmann is this Dansby and under not-Röslein is the ship Marilyn, but are these the final layers? Have we peeled these enough?” He grinned widely and Alexis was reminded of a shark. “What might I discover if I peel these things and see the next layer? Hm?”

  Alexis remained still, not trusting herself to speak and not sure what she could say in any case.

  “Still you say nothing?” Reinacher shrugged. “I will peel a layer of what I know for you and we shall see.” He placed his glass on a table and pressed his hands together, fingers at his lips. “I know the men I am to watch, do you see? And so I see Leutnant Theibaud walking in the morning —” He gestured at Alexis. “— with a lady and I know that this is not Leutnant Theibaud’s habit. Since he has come to Dietraching, Leutnant Theibaud will smile and Leutnant Theibaud will dance and Leutnant Theibaud will charm the frauleins, but Leutnant Theibaud goes to his rooms or ship alone at night.”

  Alexis’ heart fell and she swallowed hard as she realized what Reinacher was saying. She’d given it away, just by her very presence and having spent the night with Delaine. If she’d sent him back to his ship and gone herself to Röslein, then Reinacher would never have seen them together. If she hadn’t been so terrified, she might have spent more time thinking about what Reinacher said, that Delaine went to his ship alone at night, and that her fears about his feelings were misfounded, but she forced those thoughts aside and concentrated on what Reinacher was saying.

  “And I think of the reports that came with this fleet from the Berry worlds,” Reinacher went on. “Prisoners who escaped and how Leutnant Theibaud was said to have spent much time with one of them.” He narrowed his eyes. “A small, pretty leutnant zur see.” He looked at her and pursed his lips. “Some might think so, I suppose.”

  Reinacher sat on a couch and spread his arms wide.

  “And so Leutnant zur See Alexis Carew, will you now speak?”

  Alexis’ mind was racing as fast as her heart. It had seemed quite a simple plan when she’d started this. Find Delaine, speak to Balestra, sail home — but she’d given little thought to what might happen if she was discovered. She’d known it was a risk, of course, but an abstract one. She’d not really believed it would happen, so hadn’t planned for it. Now she was faced with Reinacher, a man Delaine said she had cause to fear, and what was she to do?

  “I’m not.”

  “Nein, fraulein, please. Do not deny what I know.”

  Alexis swallowed hard, took a sip of her drink to stall for time, and inhaled deeply of the schnapps. The scent of the drink seemed to clear her thoughts a bit. What other reason could she have for following Delaine here?

  “I’m sorry,” she said, moving into the room and sitting on the other couch opposite Reinacher. “I meant I’m not what you called me … leutnant zur see, was it? Does that mean midshipman?”

  Reinacher nodded. “Yes, the young officer not yet Leutnant. Your midshipman. So, you do not deny that you are this Alexis Carew?”

  “No, sir,” Alexis said, “only that I’m not a mi
dshipman. Not anymore.” She took a deep breath and looked down at the floor as though embarrassed. “I resigned my commission, you see.” She glanced up without raising her head to see Reinacher regarding her with raised eyebrows. “I never wanted to be in the Navy in the first place, you understand,” she went on quickly, speaking in a rush. “I only did because … well, because my grandfather was trying to marry me off to whoever’d have me. So I ran away and signed aboard ship.”

  She couldn’t tell from Reinacher’s expression if he believed her or not.

  “Then I met Delaine,” she said, “Lieutenant Theibaud, and I … well …” She squared her shoulders and met Reinacher’s eye as though defying him to challenge her. “I quite fell in love with him.”

  Alexis felt sick to her stomach at what she was doing. She wasn’t certain what her feelings for Delaine were, but using what they might be in this way, speaking those words for the first time as part of a lie and to Reinacher, made her feel like she was tainting something good and special.

  Still if I don’t manage to talk my way out of this, no matter how distasteful the telling, we’ll neither of us have much of a future to find out what feelings we do have.

  “I would have stayed on Giron to be with him,” she went on quickly, “but my captain insisted we flee. And when I was back in New London, aboard a ship, I realized that I didn’t care about anything else. So I resigned my place and …” She glanced down again as though embarrassed. “Well, I took what money I had and found that Mister Dansby. He’s quite disreputable, I know, but I couldn’t just book passage on any ship to come here, now could I?” She gave Reinacher a pleading look. “I needed someone who could find where Delaine was stationed now and who could get me here from New London. It took most of what I’d managed to save, but I did get here. To be with Delaine … nothing more, Herr Reinacher, I assure you.”

  He regarded her for a moment with pursed lips, nodding, then began to slowly applaud.

  “Very nice. Very nice, yes. Almost, I believe you.”

  “Herr Reinacher —”

  “Nein.” He held up a hand to stop her. “Please. The tale needs no more protestations. It is the best of lies that has so much of the truth. Still, there is the part I believe is true and the part I do not believe is true.” He pointed at her. “You have layers to you.” He sat back and crossed his legs, reaching to his boottop to pull forth a thin knife. “And I must peel from you the real truth.”

  Reinacher tapped the knife blade against his lower lip and stared at her intently.

  “So,” he said, eyes narrowing, “first I will peel away the truths of what you have said and you will see that you cannot lie to me. I have dealt with many accomplished liars, Fraulein Carew, and you, while you show promise, are not of their skill.” His frequent gestures were now made with the hand holding the knife and Alexis’ eyes followed it. “I think it true that you are not leutnant zur see, but your voice when you say you have resigned, it does not have the ring of truth. So …” He bowed slightly. “… I congratulate you on a promotion, I think.” He smiled and waved the knife at her face. “Yes! You see? I know the lie from the truth.”

  Reinacher stood and began pacing. He made his way behind the couch Alexis sat on and walked back and forth, tapping the blade on the couch behind her as he went.

  “I do not believe that it is you who have made arrangements with Herr Dansby-not-Federmann. You are too young, too much the naïf still. You would hesitate to have dealings with such a man. Still, though …” He stopped pacing and tapped the knife blade rapidly in one spot. “You and he are much the same in many ways, I think.”

  Reinacher resumed pacing. Alexis felt an urge to comment or question his comparison of her to Dansby. She felt rather insulted that he’d dare say she was at all the same as Dansby in any way, and the offense had broken her out of the paralyzing fear she’d felt. She clenched her hands in her lap. They were trembling and she didn’t want Reinacher to see that, nor did she want to give him any more information to work with by speaking again. What he was doing with the little she’d told him so far was frightening enough.

  “You say a grandfather wished you to marry, so this means that your parents are dead — I believe this. But —” He went back to the other couch and sat facing her again. “— you do not speak of him as one who was forcing you to this marriage. There is too much affection in you.”

  Reinacher crossed his legs and sat back. Alexis eyes followed the knife blade as he rested his arms on the couch’s back.

  “Affection,” he mused, smiling slightly, “has so many uses. Curious, though, that you say you love Leutnant Theibaud … so much that you will give up your life in New London and follow him here, and yet I do not believe this. You care for him, certainly — and he for you, else he would not have dared lie to me — but your face is uncertain when you say it.”

  He leaned forward and slid the blade of his knife along his other palm.

  “Many uses, fraulein, you will see. I do not think it would be easy to peel the truth from you. But this Theibaud, he may not bear watching me make the attempt.”

  Alexis closed her eyes and breathed deeply. She wished yet again that she’d found some way to hide a weapon in this dress. She heard the compartment’s hatch slide open behind her — that would be Reinacher’s man and likely meant Reinacher was done with whatever game he was playing at and about to begin questioning her in earnest. She felt he was likely correct — neither she nor Delaine would be able stand silent and watch him harm the other. They’d tell him what he wanted, if only to make it stop.

  Reinacher was staring at the hatch behind her. His eyes narrowed and he nodded.

  “And so it is bigger than the two.”

  Alexis turned her head and saw Commodore Balestra sliding the hatch closed. Balestra, face impassive, turned from the hatch and took three steps into the compartment.

  “I am curious what you have done with Heinrich,” Reinacher said.

  Balestra frowned. She pulled her tablet from a pocket and ran a finger over it.

  “My man at the door?” Reinacher prompted. He was still bent over, elbows on knees, running the blade of his knife over his palm.

  “There was no one at the hatchway,” Balestra said. She looked at Alexis. “So, vous.”

  “You know fraulein Aubert, commodore?” Reinacher asked with a smile.

  Balestra kept her gaze on Alexis. “From the blade in your hand, I think you know she is not.”

  “Your purpose here, commodore?”

  Balestra ignored him. “What Delaine has told me, Lieutenant Carew, it is true?”

  Alexis started to reach for her tablet in the little bag she held, but stopped. There wasn’t time for Balestra to view the messages or review the figures and timetables, nor was she asking for that. She nodded.

  “It is.”

  Balestra raised her tablet and spoke into it.

  “Allez.”

  In the same breath, she pulled a flechette pistol from her jacket and trained it on Reinacher.

  “So,” Reinacher said, “it is more than a leutnant or two who is disloyal.”

  “Drop the blade, Herr Reinacher, s'il vous plaît, and place your hands atop your head.” Balestra waited until he’d complied. “Stand slowly.”

  Reinacher remained still. “I think not. There is much for me to ponder in this. I had thought it was only Theibaud taken in by a woman, but now …”

  Alexis stood and slowly edged her way around the couch to Balestra’s side.

  Reinacher looked from her to Balestra. “Much more than leutnants, and more than a fleet, I think.” His eyes narrowed.

  “Shoot him,” Alexis whispered, seeing the man’s mind work on the puzzle of her purpose here and Balestra’s involvement, as it had on her own story for being there.

  “Kommodore Balestra does not like to kill, Leutnant Carew. I know this about her.” He smiled thinly. “But now I have learned another of your layers.”

  “Stand,” B
alestra repeated, gesturing with the flechette pistol, and the gesture was all the distraction Reinacher required.

  He straightened, standing, but at the same time twisting and launching himself over the back of the couch he sat on, disappearing from view.

  Balestra fired. The flechettes tore at the couch’s cushions, shredding them. Balestra grabbed Alexis’ arm and dragged her to the floor behind their own couch just as Reinacher’s arm appeared wielding a laser. The bolt snapped through the space Balestra had just occupied.

  Alexis shared a look with Balestra and glanced around for some sort of weapon. It didn’t appear that Balestra’s flechette pistol would penetrate the couch’s back, while Reinacher’s laser likely would. A suspicion that was proven true a moment later as there was another snap and a smoking hole appeared in the back of the couch near Alexis’ head.

  Balestra raised her flechette and hosed the other couch with a stream of tiny darts as Alexis continued to look for something, anything, she could use as a weapon. Their only advantage lay in the fact that Reinacher would have to replace the capacitor in his laser with a fresh one after each shot, and that would take time.

  A disturbingly short time, she noted as another smoking hole appeared in the center of the couch’s back. He might have two pistols and could have one at the ready while he reloaded the other, which would make rushing him after a shot disastrous for one of them. Her eyes fell on the sidebar.

  When next Balestra raised her arm to send a stream of flechettes in Reinacher’s direction, Alexis sprang for the sidebar. She scooped up the icebucket and an armful of bottles before scrambling back to shelter. Balestra gave her a confused look, then jerked back as a hole burnt through the couch near her nose.

  “That is not so much space to hide behind!” Reinacher called out. “I will find one of you — it is best, I think, to end this now.”

  “I couldn’t bloody agree more,” Alexis muttered. She dumped out the ice and unscrewed the bottles, pouring each into the bucket. The scents reached her nose as she poured.