Seabound (Seabound Chronicles Book 1) (23 page)

“I . . . have . .
. a plan,” David gasped. “I was going to tell you. I knew the captains wouldn’t
help, so I’ve been trying to think of another way. I didn’t want you to talk to
them and ruin it. Ugh.” Tears leaked from his eyes. “We need the element of
surprise to pull it off.”

Esther folded her
arms. “Why should I believe you?”

“You have to trust
me. I know what we need to do. I was just trying to work out how.”

Esther stared at
him for a long moment. His face was still red, and his glasses had fallen
sideways. He still hadn’t had the crack repaired.

“What’s your
plan?” she said slowly.

David sat up and met
her eyes. “You need to steal a ship.”

Chapter 22—The Plan

Esther and David stood
on
one side of Marianna’s satellite center, Neal and Marianna on the other. A line
drawing of the
Galaxy
’s configuration was spread out on the table
between them. David and Marianna were engaged in a heated argument that had
begun almost as soon as he and Esther returned from the
Crown
.

“If you think we’re
going to trust you, you captain-loving bastard,” Marianna hissed.

David scowled. “At
least I have a useful idea. I haven’t just been shouting up to antique
satellites, hoping someone will pick up the signal.”

Marianna leaned
forward, crumpling the edge of the map beneath her fists. “I know you, David
Hawthorne. You’ve threatened me before, tried to intimidate me into keeping
inconvenient reports quiet. You’ll do anything to keep everyone sedated.”

“I did my job,”
David said, “but it’s different now.”

“Is it? How do we
know you’re not going to send Esther and Neal off to die at sea, problem
solved?”

“I confirmed with
two reliable sources,” David said. “They’re moving a load of RO filters on the
Lucinda
tomorrow afternoon. It’s the perfect opportunity.”

“They need more
than filters!” Marianna countered. “They need fuel and food and probably some
rusty pipes or something. Don’t you know anything, you overprivileged windbag?”

David looked
genuinely surprised at that epithet.

“Why do you keep
saying ‘they’? Aren’t you coming with us?” Neal asked, turning to Marianna.

She stared back,
her mouth still open midrant.

“Look,” Esther cut
in, “none of this matters if we can’t find the
Catalina
. How are the
communications coming?”

“There was a
warship in the region when the storm hit,” Neal said. “They saw the
Catalina
yesterday morning.” It was notoriously difficult to get anything out of old
navy ships. The ones that hadn’t gone completely rogue were paranoid about
sharing information. “Marianna managed to charm the comm officer and got the
coordinates. They were heading east.”

Esther felt the
sea-deep pressure that had been sitting on her chest for days ease a little.
“Why didn’t you tell me that the second we walked in? Neal, that means they’re
alive!”

“No, it doesn’t,”
he said. “It means the ship was moving almost two days ago. That’s all. Why
didn’t they send out a distress signal when they saw the warship on radar? Something
is wrong.”

Esther couldn’t
dwell on that. “At least it gives us somewhere to start.” For the first time,
she felt hopeful, and there were tangible steps they could take. “David, when
do you—?”

“Just a minute,”
Marianna interrupted. “We are not starting anything until Hawthorne tells us
who his ‘reliable sources’ are.”

David nodded. He
had rolled up the sleeves of his black shirt and unbuttoned the collar. He
spoke calmly, despite Marianna’s opposition. “I went down to the engine room of
the
Mist
after Esther left for the
Crystal
. I got an earful from
the head machinist down there about morons wandering through his facility, but
I told him the captains needed a report on the lower decks. He let me into the
hold through the engine room entrance and mentioned there would be a load of
filters going over to the desal facility on the
Lucinda
.
I confirmed the information
with Boris, one of the captains, this afternoon.”

“Aha!” Marianna
said. “You and Boris. Of course. You’re friends, aren’t you?”

David missed a
beat. “We had a falling-out. It’s been all business lately.” He rubbed the
knuckles of his right hand.

Esther wondered
when David had talked to Boris about her. Boris’s remark still stung. She had
to regain control of this situation. “Tell me more about
Lucinda
,
” Esther said.

She wasn’t
completely sure they should trust David’s plan. He might screw them over, but
the
Catalina
was running out of time.

David pulled
another diagram from beneath the map. It was a hand-drawn image of a ship with
an impressive amount of detail, every deck and porthole labeled and measured.
It was the same style as the drawings Esther had seen in David’s cabin. “She’s
a
Cyclone
-class patrol ship,” he
said. “One of the most beautiful ships we have. One hundred seventy-nine feet.
Three hundred thirty-one tons. Max speed is thirty-five knots. Diesel
propulsion and three thousand three hundred fifty shaft horsepower. Designed by
the US Navy, but they lost her ages ago.”

Marianna scoffed.
“They don’t use
Lucinda
for deliveries.”

David nodded.
“You’re right, of course, but the ferries took a serious hit during the storm.
They’re using every available vessel to get the grunt work done. That’s why the
machinist told me about it in the first place. It’s unusual.”

“You want to steal
a warship?” Esther said, liking this plan more and more.

“She’s fast and
light, and she’ll be able to handle the open water. Plus she can outrun the
destroyer if they come after us.” David grinned.

“Rust! The
Galaxy
has a destroyer too?”

David nodded, and
there was a light in his eyes, a spark of passion.

“Of course,” he
said. “But they aren’t using high-quality fuel. The captain’s an idiot, so the
destroyer’s not running as fast as she should be.
Lucinda
can take her.”

“What about crew?”
Neal asked.

David shrugged.
“Well, since we’re stealing her anyway, we might as well take a few of her men
along.”

“And have them
throw us overboard the second they realize how few of us there are?” Neal
asked. “What do you think we should do, Esther?”

The door burst
open.

“Esther’s been
arrested!” Dax shouted. He made a beeline for Neal and Marianna. “I just got away.
Things looked like they were going well with the captains and then that smarmy
. . .” Dax noticed David and jumped a foot backwards, where he collided with
Esther.

“Calm down, Dax.
I’m all right,” she said.

“Oh my God. I’m
sorry, Esther! I wanted to rescue you, but my mother—”

“She didn’t need
rescuing. She can take care of herself, and I was trying to help her. Talking
to the captains at a
Crown
dinner was a terrible idea,” David muttered.

“I’m so confused.”
Dax slumped into the swivel chair by the radar screen.

“David is going to
help us steal a ship so we can find the
Catalina
,” Esther said simply.

In that moment,
she knew it was the right thing to do. They’d have to work out the details, but
they had no time to be indecisive.

“Are you sure this
is a good idea, Esther?” Neal said quietly.

“What?” Dax
shouted.

“Yeah, now be
quiet,” Esther said. “We’re working out how to get enough people to sail it.
We’re not sure kidnapping the crew will work.”

Dax’s eyes
widened. “Which ship?”

“
Lucinda
.
”

“Are you crazy?”

“She’s perfect,”
David said. He ran a long finger across his drawing.

Dax leapt up.
“She’s Captain Boris’s pet project. He loves to send her zipping around the
Flotilla
. I think he actually wants us
to get attacked so he can use her.”

“He’ll get over
it. He still has the
HMS
Hampton
.” David turned back to the
others, all business. “Now about the crew. I think it’ll have to be a hijack
job.”

Marianna shook her
head, hair whipping dramatically. “They will fight you every step of the way.”

Esther nodded. She
thought David was onto a good plan, but they couldn’t deal with a mutinous
crew.

“We don’t have
time for that kind of complication,” she said.

“You don’t need
them,” Dax said. “There are enough people who want to leave the
Galaxy
anyway
.”

“What do you
mean?” Esther asked.

Dax shot a quick
look at David, as if deciding how much to reveal. “I have a friend who talks
about it all the time—leaving. Mind you, he wants to go to land, not
another ship.”

“And there are
others?” Esther asked.

Dax shrugged. “Why
wouldn’t there be?”

“So, that’s the
alternative?” David said. “We gather a bunch of disgruntled teenagers and hope
they can figure out how to operate a sophisticated vessel like
Lucinda
?”

“You got a better
idea? And they’re not all teenagers,” Dax said.

Esther was
thinking fast. “How many people does it take to sail the
Lucinda
?”

“Normal crew is
twenty-eight,” David said, meeting her eyes. “At the bare minimum, we’ll need
fifteen besides us to keep the thing moving, unless we’re prepared to take
twenty-four-hour shifts.”

Esther nodded.
“That’s fifteen people who know what they’re doing. What about a captain? Are
there any proper seamen who know how to sail a warship
and
want to bail on the
Galaxy
?”

She addressed Dax,
but it was David who spoke. “That’s why I’m coming along.” He looked at her
steadily. “I don’t spend all my time just chatting with the captains. I’ve
learned a thing or two about sailing from Boris.”

Esther felt a jolt
of something. Excitement? Fear? It was like her body was connected to a
lightning rod with a storm on the way.

“Hold on a minute.
Why are you helping us?” Neal asked.

Marianna was
watching David suspiciously too.

David arched an
eyebrow above his broken glasses. “Maybe I’m sick of all this ‘new
civilization’ rhetoric. Does it matter?”

Neal tugged on his
tie, frowning. “What happens when we reach the
Catalina
? Are you going
to drop us off with the stolen parts and sail the
Lucinda
back to the
Galaxy
?”

“And hope the
captains welcome me back with open arms?” David scoffed. “I don’t know what
I’ll do then, but I’m finished with the
Galaxy
,
if you’ll accept my help.” He kept his eyes on Esther, waiting for her
reaction.

What did it mean
that David wanted to come with them, to abandon his position and his former
life? Was this about her, after one night together? There had to be more to it.
Still, this development actually made her more willing to believe David would
not betray them. It was too strange to be an act. In any case, she wasn’t
confident she could sail the
Lucinda
herself. She knew Neal couldn’t.

She nodded.

“Well, I’m coming
too!” Dax stared defiantly at them all.

“Oh no you’re not.
You can’t abandon your parents,” Marianna said.

Dax drew himself
up. “I’m a grown man now. I live in my own cabin. I can choose to move to
another ship for the girl I love, can’t I?” The effect of Dax’s declaration was
spoiled somewhat when his voice cracked.

Marianna sighed.
“This girl you love,” she said. “What if she doesn’t want you to come after
her, huh? Maybe she was just having a little romance and wants to go back to
her
Catalina
boyfriend. What then?”

“Esther?” Dax
turned to her, eyes hopeful as a seal pup’s.

“I don’t know,
Dax. Cally likes you, but you don’t know anything about the
Catalina
.
It’s a hard life there. You wouldn’t have a proper library or a cinema or most
of the food you’re used to eating.”

“That stuff
doesn’t matter,” Dax said.

“And you won’t be
able to do any Guest Services–type work. You’d probably end up cleaning
decks for the first few years because you don’t have any useful skills.”

“I’ll do
anything.” His voice had lost a touch of bravado.

“This whole thing
could still be a disaster,” Esther said. “I doubt you’d be allowed to go back
to normal if you get caught. It’s a big risk.”

Surprisingly, Dax
smiled. “That’s the good thing about having high-status parents. They’ll get me
out of trouble if it comes to that.”

He reached up to
tug on his hair, then forced his hands to be still.

“All right.”
Esther turned to the rest of the group. “So let’s say we find enough people to
sail the
Lucinda
.
What kind of
weapons do you have?”

Neal blanched at
the implication, but Esther knew where this course was taking them. She didn’t
like it either, but she’d do anything to help her family. She’d even risk betrayal
by David Hawthorne.

“The
Galaxy
has weapons,” David said, “but they’re kept under guard in stockpiles around
the
Flotilla
. We’ve received reports
of piracy groups becoming more aggressive in the last few years. It’s unlikely
they’d attack the
Flotilla
, but we’re
prepared just in case.”