by Selena Kitt
"It was probably the wife," Cardinal said, as she checked a tie-down on the dock and coiled the extra rope in a neat spiral. "I'll bet Mom did everything she could to find her baby. It's depressing he got away with it."
"Right? How do you do that to your own daughter?" Whiplash's voice muffled as she went below deck to tidy up.
"Didn't sound like he cared for her or the wife much." What was the statute of limitations on trafficking in Italy? Farid had confessed to their faces, he clearly had no fear of the law.
"Still, it's disgusting someone could do that to another person. I'm glad you pulled me out of there, Cards. I probably would have beaten up an old man. That can't be good for our annual review."
Cardinal laughed and moved to the next line. She could see Whip sucker punching the guy on principle. A boat idled by in the marina.
Whiplash mused, "Do you think he would have told us more if we gave him a bag of fire eyes? I could probably drum up a kilo ..."
Cardinal just shook her head. Although, didn't Pisces have a fire eyes mission in the area recently? She glanced up at the idling boat. Cardinal stopped breathing. The boat idling by had a woman at the wheel, gesturing at a crewmember to haul up the bumpers. A crewmember with a sling on one arm. The boat was white. The back end was carved. Millefiori. "Whip--"
Whiplash snorted, "Relax, Cards, I was joking. They'd probably catch us, anyway. Why do the bad guys always have more resources?" Whip's voice faded further as she moved deeper into the boat.
Cardinal untied the line in her hands and threw it on board with no regard for neatness. She untied the second line and leaped directly to the bow. The whole boat tipped to starboard.
"Whoa." Whip startled inside. "What's up?"
Cardinal fumbled with a ventilation hatch, unwilling to take her eyes off the Millefiori. The woman captain had turned control of the craft over to a second man—one without a sling. They were about to leave the marina. "Whiplash," Cardinal hissed into the open cap window. "Get up here, I found them."
"Found who?" Her voice was muffled. What was she doing, using the head? At a time like this?
"The pirates!"
Whiplash tisked. "Yeah, okay."
Millefiori turned out of the marina and sped up. Cardinal cursed with feeling. She jumped over the head of the cabin and scrambled for the keys. The boat roared. Cardinal spun it roughly out of the slip faster than was legal. She almost clipped the dock. Water slapped boats to either side. She punched the throttle forward.
Whiplash stumbled up to the deck. "You weren't joking?"
Cardinal squinted down the waterway. "Get the radar up, I just saw them exit the marina!"
Whip turned immediately to the console and brought up a speckled image of their surroundings. "Too many boats around here," she said. "Do you have eyes on them?"
"Just lost visual, give me a second." Cardinal dug into the first turn out of the marina, spraying water and starving the engine for a moment. It coughed until she straightened out. The marina gave way to directed bay waters full of white boats, some with sails, crisscrossing the water. Millefiori winked in the distance, steadily heading out to sea.
Under power, Cardinal was supposed to give way to sail boats. She didn't have the time. With the throttle open at full power, they skipped across the water toward their target.
The Millefiori was the larger boat. Cardinal could tell they weren't weighed down either—they must have already offloaded their hostages or let them go. Cardinal turned the last corner of the bay hard to port. Water surged up over the breakwater. Millefiori was already up on plane. They didn't know yet they were being followed. Under Cardinal's feet, the engines screamed.
Whiplash punctuated the driving with handfuls of weaponry. She steadied herself with one hip against the boat and took control. Cardinal stuffed her M9 in her hip holster and checked the barrel of her shotgun. Already loaded. She smiled.
Whip drifted the boat to port side as they approached. The pirate with the sling spotted them first. He shook the woman's shoulder and pointed. She glanced at them and the Millefiori leaped forward. Whiplash swerved to starboard and cut hard in front of the pirates. Millefiori's nose clipped the back end of the heavily armored Cancer craft. They both spun about on the water.
The female pirate took control of her boat. She surged away again but the damage to the front end made the nose dig in. They couldn't get back up to speed. Whiplash came about to ram their engines. A sudden skillful turn dodged Whiplash's thrust and brought their sides crashing and scraping together. Cardinal fell to the deck, striking her elbow on the way down. Her hand tingled and she lost her grip on her shotgun. The men aboard cursed at them in Italian. Whiplash yelled back. A three-prong grappling hook skittered past Cardinal's legs. She kicked at it. It found the steering column and dug in. Both boats strained against the rope between them and drifted spirally.
Whiplash killed the engine. Another grappling hook slid across their bow and lodged in the cap window Cardinal had opened earlier. The pirates hauled the boats together. Whip readied her MK23, two hands and a wide stance. Cardinal abandoned her shotgun–it was useless when she was one-handed—and drew her M9 instead. She stretched her left hand, trying to work the tingling out of her arm and fingers, and wrapped her fingers around the gun.
The pirate captain turned off her boat. A third man came up from below. He had a machete. He kicked Sling's heel, barking in Italian. "Tie off the line, moron." They tied the lines.
Whiplash's Italian snapped at the edges. "You are all under arrest. Put your hands on your heads."
Machete laughed outright and held his hands up. He waved his oversized knife. "Oh, help me!" His laughter mocked them. He dropped his arms. "It is not we who are under arrest, Crabs. It is you. We have your boat."
He had something of a point. Cardinal moved a few steps back, away from the meeting of the boats. She trained her sight on Machete, but let her partner take the lead. They were beyond manners.
Whiplash scowled. "Running around here kidnapping tourists. That's really the best you can do?"
"It pays better than working in the marina." Machete smiled. "Besides, how else would I meet so many beautiful women?"
The pirate captain shot Machete a look that Cardinal didn't miss. There was trouble in the ranks. She had a feeling their guns would make an appearance shortly. Whiplash asked, "What do you think you're going to get out of us?"
Machete waved his knife dismissively. "Nothing out of you two. I think your employers will pay handsomely, however, to keep your skins intact."
Cardinal pressed her lips together. Zodiac wouldn't drop a cent for them. Send in a Pisces extraction team, maybe. But it was really up to Whiplash and Cardinal to get themselves out.
Sling tried fishing around under a seat and Cardinal hoped it wasn't for a gun. She shifted her M9 to him. His hair was cropped short against his head and he wore a Hawaiian shirt. Whiplash stood across from Machete. When things went weird, she would handle him. Cardinal assessed the third pirate and behind him, the woman at the helm.
She was a bit concerned about the man. His eyes looked wild, as if he were some kind of addict on the edge of withdrawal. His ponytail barely contained an explosion of dark hair. He kept shifting his feet. If anyone was going to freak out on them, it would be that guy with his grunge band t-shirt and faded cargo pants. Sling was still fishing. Cardinal shifted her M9 to Druggie.
Machete hefted his knife. The captain dodged under the canopy and disappeared.
Cardinal saw Whip move from the corner of her eye. Go team.
Cardinal fired twice, bullets square in Druggie's chest. She planted her foot on the edge of her boat and launched herself at Sling, half-hidden behind the bench seat. He tried to put his hands up but was caught completely off guard. Cardinal rammed him square in the chest. She crashed to the deck as Whiplash fired on Machete.
Cardinal rolled to her feet. Druggie was either unconscious or too dead to get up. She looked up towards her partner
. Whiplash was grappling with Machete and might have been winning. Sling lay on deck, not moving. Cardinal rolled to her feet and ducked under the canopy after the captain. The stairs down were steeper than she expected.
The captain ran down the length of the boat and slammed a door behind her. Cardinal yanked it open. She froze at the business end of a double barrel shotgun, the stainless steel doorknob cold in her fingers.
The pirate peered at her over the shotgun with sharp blue eyes. She spoke in unaccented English, "Give me a good reason not to shoot you right now."
She was looking for one. While her stance with the shotgun was steady, her finger was nowhere near the trigger. Cardinal brought her hands up slowly to show she meant no harm and took an educated guess. "Natalie Bowman?"
The gun wavered. The pirate whispered, "How do you know that name?"
"We found a message in a bottle."
She lowered the shotgun a hair. "What messa—" She lowered the gun another fraction and whispered, "I dropped that off a boat years ago. You tracked me from that?"
Sure. It made a good story, anyway. "We know you were sold when you were younger. We can help you." Cardinal tried to keep her voice steady while her heart flailed in her chest.
It was the wrong thing to say. The shotgun came back up. Natalie's eyes sharpened. "That's what they say right before they rape you. That you should trust them. That they're here to help."
Cardinal floundered for words. She wasn't a therapist. "I'm not asking you to trust me, but you better believe if we die, you'll be receiving a visit from a whole squad of angry Pisces."
"Zodiac doesn't negotiate."
So they weren't all stupid pirates. Cardinal pushed. "But we do take revenge."
"Fuck you."
"You'd rather deal with me. Pisces will sink your boat in the middle of the night and pluck you out of the water as you try to swim to shore. I don't know about your pals here, but your mother was a citizen, so you are, too. We can get you out of this. Get you home." Did Natalie even remember what a home was like?
A body thumped above them on deck. Machete cursed colorfully in Italian.
"Home?" Natalie shook with anger. "I have no home. I was abandoned. Natalie died years ago."
Cardinal narrowed her eyes. Her heart raced in her throat. This wasn't going the way she'd hoped. "Then who are you now?"
Boots crashed down the steps. Sling emerged from the light, holding his head and slurring in Italian. "Nadel, did you get her? We have the other one."
Natalie made a hard gesture at Cardinal with her shotgun. "Into the berth. Hands at your back."
Cardinal did as she was told, hoping Sling didn't mean Whip had been killed. Natalie took her pistol, zip-tied her wrists together, and pushed her further into the room. The only room was up on a berth. Cardinal ducked and stayed crouched to fit. Her hands bent awkwardly to accommodate. Natalie closed the door and locked it.
Outside Cardinal heard conversation but couldn't make out the words.
Chapter 6
One of her hands was numb. The other was getting there. As far as Cardinal could tell with no window, hours had passed since the door had closed. She could really use the bathroom and she hadn't heard anything from or about Whiplash. The boat was still motoring somewhere, though. The engines hadn't even slowed. Had they scuttled their Cancer craft?
The lock snapped open. Cardinal turned onto her side despite the discomfort in her hands. Natalie stood with a small pistol. Not the M9 she'd taken from Cardinal, this was smaller. A twenty-two. Just as effective when there was only a few feet between them.
"Where's Whiplash?" Cardinal didn't much care what Natalie had come for, she needed to know Whip was alive.
"Your partner? She's fine."
Fine? What did fine mean? "I want to see her."
Natalie nodded, as if this were expected. "I imagine you also could use some water, food, and a bathroom."
"You have to—what?" Cardinal struggled forward. "You've done this before."
"It pays." Natalie gestured her off the bed. "I'll shoot you if I have to, but keeping your hands tied will cause more problems. Turn around."
"You don't really want to shoot me."
"No, it makes a mess and then I have to listen to you complain about the pain."
Cardinal slid off the bed and put her back to Natalie. It wasn't the answer she was hoping for, but it would do. All she needed was a second of freedom. Just a blink. She was a highly trained foreign operative. Even with a gun, Natalie wouldn't win a fight alone. She felt Natalie's hand on her shoulder.
"Listen. At the moment, I'm the only thing standing between Alexander and your partner's virtue. I want to release you so you can hit the head and get some food. If you don't cause any trouble, you may get to see her."
"And if I don't, you'll let him rape her."
"No, if you make a mess of things, he uses me instead."
"... what?" Cardinal tried to turn but Natalie pushed her back around and clipped the zip-tie.
Maybe she was lying. It could be a good trick to get Cardinal to play nice. Before she could figure out a decent plan of action, the zip-tie popped off her wrists and all the blood came rushing back. Cardinal curled her shoulders forward with a moan and just hunched there for a moment, hissing and breathing through the throbbing, stinging, red-hot pain. Her entire back cramped. She had no idea it could be so hard to see through spots of light.
Natalie grabbed Cardinal's shoulder firmly and stuck the gun high on her back as a reminder. They walked to the toilet. Natalie didn't let her close the door and Cardinal wasn't in much shape to push the matter. Her wrists throbbed, raw, and she wanted to see Whip.
After, Cardinal marched to the modest galley where a plate was already set for her. Steamed chicken and vegetables. A glass of orange juice. Cardinal rubbed at the skin above her wrists and devoured the meal.
If you make a mess of things, he uses me instead.
Cardinal cleared her throat and hopefully her head. "I'm surprised you're this practical about keeping me."
"You're no good to me dead from hunger and I'd appreciate it if you didn't piss in my bed."
"I won't thank you for the hospitality, then." Natalie frowned. Was Natalie a prisoner here? She'd obviously been participating, but her signals were mixed. What did she want? Cardinal cleaned her dish of everything and chugged the juice. "Can I see Whip?"
"Yes, but not for long and I have to restrain you again." She almost sounded annoyed by the idea.
"Fine." Whiplash wasn't down here in the belly of the boat, which meant she was up on deck with the two, maybe three guys. She had a better vantage point for an escape plan. The trouble was communicating it. Italian was out, as was English. Not Arabic just in case Natalie still knew some from her youth. Whiplash didn't know Russian. Cardinal didn't know a lick of Afrikaans even though Whiplash was fluent enough to fool a native.
Natalie marched her to the stairs. It would have to be Polish. Neither of them were good at it, but it would do. Cardinal blinked against the setting sun. The portside seat cushion was blood-stained and she saw no sign of Druggie. Sling stood at the wheel, a cigarette between his lips and a cloud of blue smoke puffing out his nose. Fire eyes smoke.
Alexander still had his machete. He sat at Whiplash's head on the starboard seat, petting her hair with the blade. Whiplash lay on her side; wrists, knees, and ankles tied together. There was a gag in her mouth. One eye was swelling shut.
"Oh, jeez." Cardinal stuttered forward and utterly forgot about her plan to speak Polish.
Alexander looked up, eyes angry. "What is she doing here?" Cardinal was proud to see his face was a mess of red scrapes.
Natalie walked close behind Cardinal. "They need to see the other isn't dead yet."
"Waste of time."
"Got something better to do?"
Alexander scowled but he stood and gave them some space. Cardinal rushed to take his place on the bench. She wanted to hold Whip, check for deeper inju
ry. She settled for talking. "It's ok, Whip I'm here. Focus on me."
Whiplash turned her head up toward Cardinal's voice. She blinked. Cardinal couldn't tell if she was seeing anything, but her pupils were even and responded to the light. "Hey, I'm okay. You're a little knocked around, but you'll be fine." Actually, Cardinal had no idea what kind of damage had been done internally, but she wasn't going to admit that. "I even found your Natalie for you."
Whiplash's lazy eyes drifted over Cardinal's shoulder. When they came back, they were sharp, clear, and very angry. Now she was paying attention.
