by Jake Logan
Long before the Portobello was sighted by the lookout high in the rigging, Slocum had worked out a plan so he would be the one who recovered the jade crown. Returning to San Francisco would be easy enough once he got off the junk. A quick trade with Little Pete would get him Ah Ming’s father. Then, with his debts all erased, he could hightail it. Desert was fine. Or mountains, in spite of the winter storms. Anywhere that was not a San Francisco filled with scheming Celestials.
The junk veered sharply, causing him to lose his balance. He caught himself on the railing, amid a wall of water crashing down. He flinched but held on tight. Getting drowned now was not in the cards since he had gone through too much getting to this point.
The Portobello saw the junk tacking toward it but did not change course. The Cape schooners hugged the coast all the way, only venturing into empty sea when they reached Colombia and headed directly for the East Coast, stopping over in Cuba. Such ships were used to considerable traffic all around them, but the Portobello captain recognized the danger immediately. Semaphore signals flashed that Slocum could not read. He doubted Lai Choi San could, either. Nothing mattered to her now but getting close enough to board.
The pirates not engaged in working the sails all flocked to the starboard side, knives and swords ready. The few who carried pistols were armed with single-shot black powder weapons. Slocum itched for his six-gun, but he had no idea where Lai Choi San had put it. For all he knew, she had tossed it over the side.
“Ahoy, steer clear of us!” yelled a mate in the prow of the Portobello. “We have right-of-way!”
Lai Choi San snapped one final order and then fell silent. Slocum felt the expectation of battle building among the crew. They had done this before. This was what they lived—and died—for.
“Veer off!”
The junk arrowed directly for the other ship, then turned and seemed to skid against the water, coming up side by side in a maneuver Slocum found both fascinating and adroit. Lai Choi San’s sailors were expert. The ships hardly bumped when the pirates threw grappling hooks over the other ship’s railings.
Slocum saw the Portobello crew rushing on deck and dropping from the rigging, reaching for belaying pins and other weapons. Compared to the junk’s crew, they were woefully unarmed.
“Repel boarders,” screamed the ship’s captain. Slocum wondered if he had ever been in combat, much less attacked by pirates. He doubted it. The Portobello’s captain shouted contradictory orders and caused more confusion among his crew than the swarm of Celestial pirates now attacking him.
“To the cargo hold,” Lai Choi San said. “I will not leave you aboard my ship, Mr. Slocum. You would find a way to scuttle it.”
“Mighty long walk to shore, if I did that.” He obeyed the woman when she pulled out a knife and prodded him with it.
Judging distances and the up-and-down motion of the two ships on the waves, Slocum jumped. He miscalculated enough so that he lost his balance and went tumbling. Lai Choi San followed. She landed lightly on her feet and immediately drove her knife tip into a Portobello crewman’s eye. The man screamed in agony and whirled away. Lai Choi San took two quick steps behind him and slashed his throat. She stepped over his fallen body without so much as a glance.
Slocum got to his feet. Slipping in blood, he made his way to the stern where the captain’s and passengers’ cabins stood with doors open. If the jade crown was aboard, it would be there and not in the hold. A quick glance into the captain’s cabin showed total disarray. Slocum rummaged about but saw nothing of the jade crown. He backed out and bumped into the captain. The man’s eyes were wide and unseeing because of the complete fear clutching at him.
“Where is the jade crown?” Slocum demanded of the man.
“We’re being attacked by pirates. Pirates!” The captain turned and charged off, shouting incoherently. Slocum started after him, then stopped. The man would be no good even if he did catch him. Fear seized him completely.
Slocum poked his head into another cabin. A familiar trunk stood open. He hurried to it and began yanking women’s clothing out. The more furiously he worked, the more Slocum seethed.
Tess Lawrence was aboard. These were her clothes. When the trunk was empty, he examined it for secret compartments. Nothing. The search of the rest of the cabin was done quickly and produced similar results. Nothing. Not even a small piece of jade.
Slocum charged from the cabin and crashed into two seamen holding Lai Choi San. He bowled them over, letting the Chinese captain jerk free.
“Look out!” Slocum cried. One sailor pulled out a small pistol and cocked it. Slocum launched himself, grabbed the man’s arm and dragged it down so the bullet went into the deck. Not stopping, Slocum swung a long, looping haymaker that drove his fist all the way to his forearm into the man’s belly. The sailor gasped, turned green and passed out.
Slocum got his balance back in time to see Lai Choi San finish cutting the other sailor’s throat. Again she killed without any hint of remorse.
Sung yelled to her. She turned her back to Slocum, giving him the chance to end her life. On the deck lay the unconscious sailor’s pistol. He swept it up, cocked, aimed and fired.
Lai Choi San glanced over her shoulder at him, then up to the poop deck. Slocum had expertly drilled another sailor attempting to kill her. This time she smiled. A little. Then she walked away, as if this were nothing but a Sunday stroll to stop at an open hatch. She pointed, grated out commands, then stepped away as her pirates pulled four crates out of the hold.
Slocum read the destination stenciled on the sides: NEW YORK CITY. He wondered what was going on. Sir William had said his jade would be exhibited in Boston. Shrugging off this minor discrepancy, Slocum started to look for Tess.
“Back to the junk if you desire a long life, Mr. Slocum,” ordered Lai Choi San. “We have company.”
“What’s that?” He turned to see a long column of black smoke rising from empty ocean.
“A steam frigate. If you remain, you will be tried for piracy. I have heard they hang offenders from the yardarm after only a brief trial at sea.”
Lai Choi San jumped to the railing, gauged the distance and leaped back onto her ship.
Slocum knew she was right. Unless he killed every last surviving sailor aboard the Portobello, he would be charged and convicted of piracy. What decided him was Sung struggling with Tess Lawrence. The woman fought hard, but the Celestial sailor was too strong for her. He made the leap back onto the junk with her tucked under one arm.
Finding a dry spot amid the puddles of blood, Slocum dug in his toes, ran and then made a powerful jump at the now-separating ships. He kicked hard and managed to grab the railing of the junk as the last grapple was cut free. The Portobello rapidly fell astern.
He clung to the railing, toes kicking against the slick side of the junk until a powerful hand reached down and seized his arms. Sung pulled Slocum into the junk and dropped him like he would a fish. Slocum kicked about for a moment, then got to his feet.
Sung was gone. The first mate already shouted orders to the men in the rigging who expertly unfurled all their sails.
“We cannot outrun a steam-powered vessel,” Lai Choi San said to Slocum, “but perhaps we will not have to fight. Their smoke remains black.”
“What’s that mean?”
The frigate had come closer. Slocum guessed the U.S. Navy vessel was less than a mile away. Although the range was far too great, the frigate fired its forward gun. The shell fell woefully short, but it was only intended to be a cautionary shot. “Surrender or die” was the plain message carried by the small geyser where the shell exploded.
“They waste ammunition,” Lai Choi San said almost gleefully.
“You said they’d catch us. They’ve got heavier guns, bigger than your cannon.” Slocum pointed to the brass cannon at the stern. Two sailors stood by it. Slocum remembered all too well how effective it had been against the navy launch back in San Francisco Bay. There, however, the range had b
een short and there was no chance of return fire.
“The smoke, Mr. Slocum, the black smoke. It tells the story.”
“You can outrun a steam frigate?”
“Yes,” the pirate said softly.
Slocum watched nervously as the frigate steamed closer and closer. The junk sailed along, skimming the water with the wind catching the sails and forcing them to billow to their fullest, but the steam-driven ship overtook them and angled to cut off the junk’s escape to the north.
Slocum stiffened when he heard a loud explosion. The frigate’s smokestacks vented a huge puff of black smoke and then…nothing. The junk kept moving with the wind and soon left the frigate behind, dead in the water.
“The smoke should have been white,” Lai Choi San said. “There was a problem with their boilers. The harder they pushed their engines, the closer to disaster they sailed.” She laughed. “It will be days before they can repair a ruptured boiler.” Lai Choi San sobered. “By then I will be ready to sail for China.”
She pointed to the crates on deck.
Slocum felt the jade crown slipping from his fingers. Ah Ming’s father’s bones might never be returned to her by the Sum Yop tong. Lai Choi San’s victory was his failure.
17
“Come into my cabin, Mr. Slocum,” the pirate captain said. She half turned and pointed, as if she were ordering a small child about.
He cast a quick look at the crates, then shrugged it off. He would have to find some way of getting the jade crown out of those boxes, but it had to wait until he had dealt with Lai Choi San. That looked to be a dilemma. She was the absolute ruler in his small floating kingdom, with an army of cutthroats to do her bidding. The only real chance Slocum had for being rescued lay behind him, helpless on the high seas with a ruptured boiler.
Lai Choi San closed the door behind him. Slocum noticed that she also slid a locking bolt into place. She brushed past him as she went to the stack of papers on her desk. She began idly leafing through them.
“Why did you do it?”
“What?” The question took Slocum by surprise.
“Aboard the sailing ship, why did you save my life?”
“I remember doing it twice, now that you mention it.” Slocum tried to figure out where she would have stashed his six-shooter. The obvious places were all closed. Drawers and small cabinets were secured against the rocking motion of the junk. If he began hunting, she would know instantly. The knives sheathed at her belt were not for decoration. More than he cared to remember, Lai Choi San had shown that.
“Yes, twice. The question remains unanswered. Why did you save my life? Twice?”
“A lovely woman like you dying seemed to be a waste,” he said. He surprised himself when he realized there was more than a nugget of truth in his words.
“I am a pirate who enslaved you. I made you do demeaning tasks.”
“No work’s demeaning, if you get paid for it,” Slocum said.
“You think you will be paid for scraping decks and dipping your hands into tar to seal leaks?”
“That needed doing. Wouldn’t another of your crew been doing those very things if I hadn’t been here?”
“Yes,” she said, sounding a little perplexed. “You are a complicated man, Mr. Slocum. I do not understand you.”
“That’s all right. Nobody understands much of what goes on in the world.” He slipped around the cabin, sharp green eyes hunting for either his six-shooter or another weapon.
“I want your opinion of this,” she said, turning. She held a sheet of paper in her hand, but other than a few of the Chinese ideograms the page was almost entirely covered with a picture. For a moment, Slocum couldn’t figure out what it was. Then he grinned when he made out the tangle of arms and legs.
“A couple folks who enjoy each other’s company, I’d say. It’s hard to tell what’s going on with all that clothing in the way, though.”
“It does not have to be in the way,” Lai Choi San said. She handed him the erotic drawing, then began unfastening the frogs holding her tunic closed. Slocum looked from the drawing to the real thing. Bit by bit her pale flesh appeared. With a shrug of her shoulders, Lai Choi San got rid of the quilted tunic and stood naked to the waist in front of him.
“The picture’s nowhere as good as the real thing,” he said, tossing the drawing aside and stepping closer. Lai Choi San waited for him, not moving a muscle. He reached out and ran his fingers lightly up her right arm. He felt the flesh quivering under his touch.
He gripped her shoulder and pulled her closer. She took a small step. He ran his hand from her shoulder around and down so he pressed his palm into one of her apple-sized breasts. This produced a small moan from her. When he similarly covered her other tit with his hand, Lai Choi San closed her eyes and let out a long sigh.
Slocum squeezed down gently. He felt the dark nubs of her nipples begin to throb with desire. He crushed down, and this brought the first real response from her. She stepped even closer so her breasts were mashed flat. She put her arms around his neck and drew him down. He thought she wanted to kiss him. Instead, Lai Choi San guided his face down between her breasts.
He kissed tender flesh. She moaned louder now. He moved his hands around behind her as his mouth began working all over those tasty mounds. He licked and kissed and then nipped gently as he reached the summit of one breast. Sucking the nip between his lips, he felt it throbbing and pulsing with every beat of her heart. A quick stab of his tongue forced the nipple down into the softness below. Lai Choi San moved closer, trying to get more of her into his mouth.
Slocum’s tongue whirled about like a prairie tornado, then drifted lower. He found the deep well of her navel and sucked there for a moment before driving his tongue inward. Moving around, he found the ties holding her trousers on and unfastened them. Using only his lips and tongue, he pushed them off her slender hips until they fell to the deck. Between her legs nestled a tiny puff of pubic hair more like a bottle brush than what he was used to finding.
The pirate captain parted her stance and opened herself to him. He pressed his face into her and licked along the slit until he tasted salty juices leaking outward. Slocum looked up at her. The woman’s face was tense with sexual need.
“Show me how to get into the position on the paper,” he said.
She said nothing as she pushed him away. Slocum lost his balance and sat on the deck, his feet flat on the floor and his knees bent. As he started to straighten, she stepped over his body and lowered herself. Slocum saw how they might fit together.
“Get my jeans off,” he said.
She already worked to accomplish that feat. He had to lift himself up so she could slide his pants over his hips, but when she did his erection jutted upward. She sank down quickly, her knees on the floor as she spread wide for his entry.
Slocum gasped as she came down upon him. There was no hesitation. One instant he was out in the cold, the next he was surrounded by hot, wet female. When he was entirely within her, she put her hands behind her on his upraised knees and rocked back. Slocum thought she was going to break him off inside her. He sat up and put his arms around her waist for support.
The rocking motion of the ship helped them get into the proper rhythm. Lai Choi San rocked with one tempo, Slocum another and the ship added a third. He slipped in and out of her tightness only an inch, but the motion was more than enough to excite him. She began tensing and relaxing her powerful inner muscles around him, squeezing and kneading and making him feel as if her hand worked knowingly on him.
“You’re good,” he gasped out. He stared into her lovely face. Lai Choi San said nothing. Her eyes were closed, and her lips thinned to a line as she concentrated on the sensations rippling through her.
Slocum closed his own eyes and focused on what was going on. Their motions were intensely arousing. A white-hot core blazed within his loins, then spread slowly like spilled kerosene with a match tossed into it.
Slocum pulled himself up and f
orced his face between her breasts. He felt as if they were bent into a pretzel, but what a rush of sensation every time they moved! He fought to hold back the fierce tide rising within his loins. He felt her body quivering as she moved faster around him. He forced his hips off the deck as she began twisting from side to side. Coupled with the up-and-down toss of the ship, Slocum was no longer able to restrain himself. He let out a low, guttural groan and pumped fiercely into her.
She was more subdued. Lai Choi San gasped, then bit her lower lip. He knew she was getting off but hardly a sound escaped her lips. Then they sank back to the deck, both spent from their exertions.
“How was it?” Slocum asked.
“There are many pages in that book,” Lai Choi San said, a tiny smile curling her lips.
“You’re a surprising woman. Pirate and ship’s captain and—”
Before Slocum could finish, a harsh rapping came at the locked cabin door. He could not understand the rapid stream of Chinese, but he caught the gist of it. Slocum flopped back on the floor as Lai Choi San lithely rose and stepped away from him. She dressed quickly. Slocum wanted to watch but knew when she opened the door, he had better have all his clothes on. He grabbed his pants, rocked back on his shoulders and pulled them on, both legs at the same time. He rolled onto hands and knees, then came to his feet. Quick fingers finished the buttons on his fly and got the rest of his clothes into respectable shape. It was not so much for him that he dressed quickly as for Lai Choi San. She had to maintain discipline aboard the ship. If it got out she was trying out every erotic drawing in a thick book with a foreign devil hardly above a slave in status, it would harm her standing as captain of the junk.
She did not even look in his direction as she settled her quilted jacket, then opened the door. Sung stood outside, looking worried. He twisted his head about to get a look into the room, but by now Slocum stood docilely, no threat to Lai Choi San or anyone else.
Sung rattled on for almost a minute. Lai Choi San only nodded once before sending him on his way.
