The Skeleton Coast

by Mardi McConnochie

  ‘What is he doing?’ Essie whispered to Annalie.

  ‘I have no idea,’ Annalie said.

  An argument broke out between Blue Hat and the last of the second wave of pirates, who was wearing a faded football shirt. They seemed to be shouting about whether they should be chasing after Will or going down to the saloon to find out what had happened. Blue Hat, it appeared, wanted to go after Will, but Football Shirt was more interested in finding out whether his men were okay. After more shouting and arguing than seemed entirely necessary, Football Shirt took Beardy and went below, while Blue Hat went back to looking for Will.

  Pod waited, his gun at the ready.

  There. Now. Feet descending—two more of them.

  He let them both get down into the saloon. Shattered glass lay everywhere. The first one, a bearded man, stepped on some and swore. The second man spotted the blood on the floor, and his eyes widened.

  Pod fired.

  Will came up from underwater cautiously. He’d been hiding under the boat, holding his breath for as long as he could. Now he swam to one of the empty pirate dinghies and quickly swung himself into it. He’d hoped there might be more weapons aboard, but there weren’t. Improvising, he cast off, started the engine and drove away from the Sunfish at top speed.

  Behind him, he could hear Blue Hat hollering. The third dinghy swung out from behind the Sunfish and gave chase, just as he’d hoped they would. Gunfire rattled, but nothing hit him. He hoped they were just trying to scare him.

  He steered around in a great arc until he could see the distant shape of Brundisi in front of him and made straight for it.

  Blue Hat stood on the deck for a moment, watching the third dinghy race off after Will. Then he turned and looked back towards the saloon.

  Four men had gone down there. None, yet, had come back up. Red Bandana still lay on the deck where he’d fallen.

  Annalie and Essie watched Blue Hat as he sized up the situation. For a moment, Annalie had the dizzying feeling that they might actually be able to win this. Could they really succeed against armed pirates?

  Blue Hat took a knife from his belt and came towards them, an angry snarl on his face. Essie was his target, and she couldn’t help a squeak of terror as he brandished the knife at her. But no—he wasn’t going to cut her. The knife sliced through the rope holding her to the mast, leaving her hands still bound behind her. He grabbed her around the neck, held the knife to her throat, and said, ‘If your friend shoots, you die. You tell! Understand?’

  Essie stared at him, too frightened to process what he was saying. ‘You tell your friend!’ he repeated angrily. ‘Tell him! Understand?’

  ‘Okay, I get it,’ Essie said.

  Blue Hat marched her to the stairs, holding her in front of him, his knife pressed to her throat. He stopped her at the top of the stairs, and said again, ‘You tell!’

  ‘We’re coming down,’ Essie called, her voice wobbling. ‘Don’t shoot me! Okay?’

  And then the two of them began to descend step by step into the saloon.

  Will glanced over his shoulder. The third dinghy was still on his tail, and the Sunfish was now far behind them. He slalomed on, heading to shore. The water became shallower. Underwater obstacles turned into green, slimy stubs. Broken roofs, pieces of wall, pylons and metal and concrete. He could not now skim over them; he was having to zig and zag, twist and turn, picking a path through the debris. Open sea was becoming a watery streetscape, the rubble turning back into wet-footed buildings. And as the buildings emerged from the water, people began to appear. Brundisi before the Flood had been one of the most densely populated countries in the world, and it still teemed with people. Even here at the water’s edge, where high tides regularly inundated old houses, people lived and worked, washed and cooked and shopped. Some of these people looked up or shouted and shook their fists at Will as he roared past, the wake of his engine setting up a mighty chop that slapped against the houses.

  On he flew, and the pirates flew along behind him. He had hoped that once he was among these twisty streets it would be easy to give the pirates the slip, but now he realised that they were actually gaining on him. They knew these waterways; they lived them, travelled them, every single day.

  Too late to think about that now. All he could do was race on.

  He sped up.

  It was getting dangerous now as he zoomed around blind corners and cut across slower moving traffic. He had not hit anything—he trusted he would not hit anything—but he had near miss after near miss—a corner that hid a protruding wall! A pole sticking out of the water! A slow-moving ferry! A woman with washing! A family of water birds!—until he was breathless and desperate to get out of there. A few minutes had gone by since he had seen or heard the third dinghy and he began to wonder if he’d managed to shed them after all and whether it was time to head back out to sea again, when something came roaring around a curve. To his horror he saw the third dinghy appear directly in front of him.

  The pirates on board grinned and pointed their guns at him.

  Will swung around in a circle and tried to lose himself once more in the maze of streets. They hadn’t fired at him; Will hoped that when the streets were teeming with their own people, they wouldn’t dare shoot, since they’d be just as likely to hit six other people at the same time. But he didn’t know just how bad these guys actually were. Maybe they didn’t care who they hit if it meant they got what they wanted. He roared on, now with very little idea even which direction he was travelling in. The buildings around him were high enough that it was hard to tell whether he was heading deeper inland, or back out to sea. He could hear the roar of the third dinghy behind him. They had him, and they would not let him go.

  Will began to think that this had not been his best idea ever.

  Gulping down his fear, he kept on. He’d found himself on a busier waterway, and a few moments later, he understood why. The street he was on ended and suddenly he was out in a wide open space: it was more like a river than a channel. In fact, it was the harbour he’d been through yesterday with Annalie.

  And there, riding at anchor slap-bang in the middle of it, was the same Admiralty ship they’d tried so hard to avoid.

  Will had never been so happy to see the Admiralty in all his life. He steered towards it and did a pass right along its side, hoping to get the Admiralty crew’s attention, knowing that the pirate dinghy was coming up behind him. Then he began racing down the channel as fast as he could go, heading for open sea once more.

  The pirate dinghy burst out into the channel behind him. Will glanced back, hoping the presence of the Admiralty ship would deter them from chasing him any further. It didn’t. The three pirates in the dinghy were so intent on him they didn’t seem to care that there was an Admiralty ship right there. They turned their engine up full throttle and came after him, guns at the ready.

  Will’s heart sank. He’d been sure the presence of the Admiralty would frighten the pirates off. It had certainly frightened him when he saw them yesterday. But nothing seemed to scare these guys. He would simply have to try and outrun them.

  Now it was just a speed game—who could go faster? The two boats were identical, and both drivers were equally determined. Will’s dinghy, with only one person in it, sat a little higher in the water. Will headed for open sea once more.

  Essie took one trembling step down the stairs, then another. The saloon smelled horribly of gunpowder and blood. She knew Pod must be down here somewhere, but she couldn’t see him. Glass was strewn over the floor. Blue Hat held her tightly, the knife prickling against her throat.

  ‘Pod?’ she said. ‘Please don’t shoot.’

  ‘You try anything,’ Blue Hat called, his voice very loud in her ear, ‘I cut your friend. I’ll do it!’

  For a long moment there was silence, then they heard a muffled banging coming from the cabin. Blue Hat called something in his own language, and some other voices responded from the other side of the door.

&nbs
p; ‘You got four of my people,’ Blue Hat warned. ‘But I got two of yours. Better come out now, or bad things gonna happen.’

  Still there was silence. Blue Hat kept swivel-ling cautiously, not sure where Pod was hiding in the narrow space, knowing he had to be close.

  ‘I count to three,’ he said, ‘then I cut. One…Two…’

  There was a sudden eruption of feathers and squawking from behind the cabin door. Graham flew at Blue Hat, screeching and furious, his ferocious claws extended. Blue Hat momentarily relaxed his grip on Essie as he fended off Graham. She twisted away from him and stumbled into the saloon, glass crunching underfoot, only to see Blue Hat swing viciously at Graham with his knife. Suddenly there was blood on feathers, Graham was tumbling to the floor, and Pod erupted from the cabin door with a great cry of ‘No!’ Blue Hat lunged for Pod, grabbing the other end of the gun he held and wrenching it from his grasp. The pirate swung it around and covered both Pod and Essie with the gun, and suddenly it was all over.

  Blue Hat grinned. ‘Kids shouldn’t play with guns,’ he said.

  He took a step over to the other cabin and unlocked it, setting free the other four pirates, who were bloodied and damaged but alive.

  ‘Now,’ he said to Essie. ‘What you say about a rich daddy?’

  Up on deck, Annalie waited tensely. There had been no more shots fired, but she could hear voices. What was going on down there?

  Suddenly, there was movement beside her. Red Bandana, who’d been felled by Will’s first and only spray of bullets, was clambering to his feet. Blood seeped from a wound on his head, but it didn’t seem to be troubling him. His eyes glinted with greedy malice as he looked around the boat, trying to understand what had happened.

  His look swivelled back to Annalie, now alone at the mast. He looked thoughtfully at the door that led down to the saloon, then came to a swift decision. He walked towards her, pulling his knife from his belt.

  Will could see the Sunfish now, dead ahead. The sails were down and she was adrift. He peered up ahead, trying to see what was going on. There was no one on deck, and the first pirate dinghy was missing. Was that a good sign? A bad sign? Had Pod somehow, miraculously, managed to retake the boat from the pirates by shooting his way out of the saloon?

  Or was he too late, and the pirates had already taken the others prisoner?

  He zoomed up to the Sunfish and slewed to a stop, his mind already racing ahead. At least some of the pirates could still be aboard, so what could he use as a weapon? His speargun, which had proven itself before as a weapon against the Admiralty, was unfortunately secured in a locker down below. The slingshot was also somewhere below, probably in the girls’ cabin. Essie had used it very effectively on the pirates who’d come after them yesterday, but he wondered if the same trick would work twice, even if he could get to it.

  He tied up the dinghy and crept up the ladder, sticking his head up for a cautious look around. Nope—definitely no one on deck. He went over to the doorway that led to the saloon, hoping he might be able to hear what was going on down there.

  Voices. Not Pod or Essie or Annalie’s voices.

  The pirates were still here, then.

  Moving as quietly as he could, he crept across the deck to an equipment locker, pulled out some heavy metal weights, quickly tied them to the end of a rope, and then moved into position.

  The roar of the third dinghy grew louder and then the engine stopped. Will got a firm grip on the rope. The first pirate head came up—and Will let fly with the rope. The heavy weight smashed into the pirate’s arm and he yelled in pain and fury, dropping back out of sight. A second pirate head appeared, this time with a gun. Will swung again, but missed; the second pirate recovered and trained the gun on him. The pirate shouted something; answering shouts came from below, and a third pirate came climbing up the ladder. He grabbed Will securely as Blue Hat came up from below decks.

  ‘Little thief back?’ He smiled unpleasantly. ‘You have rich daddy, too? Or do we just kill you now?’

  He repeated what he’d said in his own language and the other pirates laughed. The pirate with the gun came closer, closer—

  And then Will heard something.

  Another high-powered motor. At first he thought it must be the first dinghy returning to the Sunfish. But then he noticed the looks of dismay on the pirates’ faces. Whoever was coming, it was not their friends.

  He turned, and saw two large inflatable boats filled with Admiralty marines zipping towards them. They were exactly the same kind of inflatables that the Admiralty had sent after the Sunfish when they were chasing them across the Emperor Reef, but this time it appeared—or at least Will hoped—the marines might be on their side.

  The pirates from the third dinghy abandoned the job immediately, practically shoving each other out of the way to get back to their dinghy and escape. They went zooming off back towards Brundisi and one of the two Admiralty inflatables peeled smoothly off and went after them, leaving the other one to come gliding up to the Sunfish.

  Will ran to the side, his hands in the air, and shouted to the marines. ‘Quick! Please! Help us! These pirates attacked us!’

  Behind him, he could hear some of the pirates talking to each other in quick, angry tones.

  A marine was giving orders through a loudhailer. ‘Unknown vessel, stand down immediately! Lower your weapons and put your hands in the air!’ The same message was then repeated in Brundisan.

  Will already had his hands in the air. He turned anxiously to see what the pirates were doing, hoping this wasn’t about to turn into a shoot-out, and saw them muttering and gesticulating angrily. None of them had put down their weapons.

  ‘Stand down now!’ the marine ordered.

  Blue Hat was arguing with Football Shirt. Suddenly Green Shirt swung his gun and sprayed the Admiralty inflatable. He didn’t hit anything, but at once all the marines had their own weapons trained on the pirates. There was a single, sharp crack, and Green Shirt crashed to the deck with a yelp, his gun skittering across the deck.

  ‘Place your weapons on the deck and put your hands in the air now!’ the marine said again.

  This time, there was no further argument. The pirates slowly and unwillingly dropped their weapons one by one and put their hands in the air.

  The marines swarmed aboard, and while they were busy handcuffing the pirates, their commanding officer spoke to Will. ‘What happened here?’ she asked. ‘Was anybody hurt? Are you in need of medical assistance?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ Will said, starting to feel afraid that he still hadn’t seen any sign of the others. ‘I left the boat to try and lead the pirates away. I only just got back. My friends and my sister—I left them behind—they could be down below—’

  He darted for the stairs to the saloon, but the marine commander stopped him. ‘Wait. We’ll make sure it’s secure.’

  Will waited, filled with anxiety, as two marines went below, weapons at the ready. They weren’t gone for long before they quickly reappeared with Pod and Essie.

  ‘Are these your friends?’ the marine commander asked.

  ‘Yes, but—where’s Annalie?’ Will asked.

  ‘She was up here,’ Essie said, starting to look frightened. ‘When that guy made me go downstairs, he left her here on the deck. Didn’t you see her?’

  Will stared at her for a moment, unable to make sense of this. Then he realised what must have happened. Either Annalie had somehow managed to get free, taken the missing dinghy and escaped, or someone had kidnapped her.

  ‘Is something wrong?’ the marine commander asked. ‘Is someone missing?’

  ‘Actually no,’ Will said. ‘I know where she is. We’re all fine here.’

  Essie and Pod looked at him in astonishment.

  ‘Thank you so much for rescuing us, though,’ Will said, trying his hardest to sound sincere and trustworthy. ‘We were lucky you came along when you did. They just about had us. So are we going to be all right to go soon?’

 
‘Go? We can’t authorise you to leave yet. We’ll need you to come back to our vessel and make a report.’

  ‘Oh,’ Will said. ‘Sure. Very happy to make a report. Thing is, we’re just waiting for our other crewman to come back. She’s off getting supplies now but she won’t be gone for long. Would we be able to come and make our report as soon as she’s back?’

  The marine commander looked at him through narrowed eyes. ‘We can stay and escort you back to our vessel. We don’t mind waiting.’

  ‘No, we don’t need an escort. Just give us an hour or so. Two, max. And then we’ll fill out a complete report. We definitely want you to throw the book at these guys.’

  ‘Right,’ the marine commander said. She obviously wanted to get back to processing the pirates, but she was still a little sceptical about what was going on here. ‘Are there any adults on board this vessel?’

  ‘My sister, the one who’s coming back. She’s the adult,’ Will said.

  The marine commander gave him one final look, then nodded. ‘Okay,’ she said, ‘but don’t leave it too long. We’re shipping out ourselves soon.’

  ‘Roger that,’ Will said. ‘And thanks again for saving us.’

  ‘Yes, thank you,’ Essie said.

  Pod was mute.

  The marine commander nodded, but said, ‘You know, you shouldn’t be out here. These are dangerous waters.’

  ‘No kidding,’ Will said. The commander gave him a stern look. ‘I mean, yes, we know. We’ll go as soon as we can.’

  The three of them waited in silence as the marines finished handcuffing the pirates and collecting up all their weapons. Then the pirates were separated into two groups and taken off the Sunfish, some in the pirates’ own dinghy, the rest on the Admiralty inflatable.

  ‘I wish they’d let us keep that dinghy,’ Will sighed as the marines pulled away, then he turned to the others. ‘Okay, now let’s get out of here.’

  ‘Go where?’

  ‘What are you talking about? What about Annalie?!’