Four Pirates, a Little Lady, and Love
Chapter 10
by Technomad
"Come on in," the blonde girl said, her voice sounding like what Rachel thought an angel might sound like. "Don't be shy! We're all friends here, after all!"
Slowly, keeping their hands where the two terrible children could see them, Rachel, Revy, Roberta, Fabiola, Garcia and Dr. Zapatero entered the cabin. Rachel was calculating the odds, and a glance at her sister told her that Rebecca was doing the same…and that both of them were coming to the same conclusion. They were between a big rock and a very hard hard place, and this wasn't the time to try fighting back.
"Oh, you can dump your weapons on the deck. Dragul mea frate will take care of them!" the girl carolled. "You'll get them back later. If you're good!" She hefted the Thompson slightly. "And if not…" She giggled, as though she'd just heard a delightful joke.
They were covered, and while she hated it, Rachel knew what to do. She carefully laid her PPK on the deck, and noticed that Rebecca was doing the same thing with her precious Cutlasses, and the maids were also divesting themselves of various firearms. The boy gathered them all up carefully and stowed them in a handy locker, spinning the lock so that it couldn't be opened easily.
"What do you want? How'd you get back here so quickly?" That was Roberta. Rachel disliked the South American woman, mostly for her sister's sake, but she had never discounted the senior maid's courage.
"What do we want?" the boy asked. He laughed, sounding like a tipsy cherub. "What a silly question! What does the Black Lagoon Courier Company do?" He answered his own rhetorical question. "They provide transportation! And transportation is just what we want right now!"
"We're tired of the Cubans. We've got a better offer elsewhere, and the Black Lagoon can take us there. I had a nice time riding aboard it before…with a minor exception or two," the girl purred, giving Revy a look that should have had her lying dead on the deck. "This time we shouldn't have such troubles, now should we?" She gave them all a sunny smile, and Rachel felt like her guts were turning to liquid inside her. Their beauty seemed to conceal something fundamentally wrong, like a mask over putrifaction.
"So, you just want a ride out of here?" Dutch took control of the conversation. As captain of the Black Lagoon, and Main Man of the Black Lagoon Courier Company, he generally handled business negotiations, albeit often with Rock's assistance. "Where you planning to go?"
"We've got an offer from the rebels in Sarawak. That should be well within your range."
Dutch looked thoughtful, then nodded. "Perfectly do-able. And you're paying…just how?"
"Oh! You want to know what you'll get out of this!" The boy and girl looked at each other and giggled. "How does 'your miserable lives' sound? Is that good enough?"
Dutch raised one eyebrow. "I have no choice. You have a deal."
"Good!" For a second, the two children looked very grim indeed. "And this time, let's hope there aren't any little glitches. I don't think you had anything to do with that nasty little betrayal on the docks, but I didn't appreciate it." The girl smiled again, this smile looking like a hungry ghoul, and casually shifted the Thompson to a different position.
"That came of meddling with Balalaika. She's got tentacles all over Southeast Asia, and she was able to predict where we'd come ashore. No matter where we'd put you ashore, she would have had someone waiting for you. That woman holds grudges forever, and after they die, she stuffs and mounts them in her trophy room, to discourage others."
"Oh, what fun! We'll have to go back to Roanapur some day! Won't she be pleased to see us?" The boy laughed out loud. "And this time, we won't be involved with those stupid Italians!"
"We can strike and kill her before she even knows we're around! There's nothing like being thought to be dead to make it easy to move around easily, isn't there, dragul mea frate?"
"Oh, yes! And I've wanted to kill her even before she hurt me so badly!" The boy looked at his hand. "Getting this reattached and working wasn't easy! Good job we're both part mechanical, isn't it?"
"What?" Rachel couldn't keep quiet. "You're both…mechanical?" She couldn't believe it. She and the girl had been tussling in the dirt, and apart from having much greater strength than Rachel had expected, the girl had seemed like any other girl. "You're cyborgs?"
Rock and the Latin Americans stared at her. "What is a cyborg, Rachel?" asked Garcia.
Rachel spread her hands apologetically. "Sorry. I forgot you aren't native English speakers. A cyborg is someone who's part human and part robot."
"Oh! That's a good word! Thank you, whoever you are! Now, can we be on our way before the Cubans recover and start wondering where we've gone?"
Dutch nodded. "Sounds like a plan. This neighborhood really isn't healthy. Rock, Revy…could you cast us off?" Silently, Rock and Revy went out on deck to unmoor the Black Lagoon so that she could head back out into the river. A deep rumble from the engine room told everybody that the boat was about to get under way. In a few minutes, the Black Lagoon was backing out into the river, before Dutch could turn her around to go downstream. Benny went forward and manned his electronic sensors; the night was dark and full of terrors, and he knew that Dutch would want any foreknowledge he could get of what was out there.
Rachel's stomach rumbled. "I'm hungry," she muttered. "What do we have on board to eat?"
"That sounds like a good idea," said Garcia. "How about the rest of you?" A chorus of grunts and nods answered him, and he went on: "Rachel, why don't we go get some food together? Where's the kitchen?"
Rachel glanced at their two new passengers, who nodded. "Down here, Garcia…and we call it a galley. A lot of things on ships have different names in English from what they do on land. I don't know just why." Garcia nodded, absorbing the information in that solemn way he had. It was one of many things about him that Rachel found endearing.
Rock came down to join them. He had put himself in charge of preparing meals at sea, after sampling Revy's "cooking" once too often. That had met with general approval; Dutch had commented that if Rock ever gave up the sea, he could open a café in Roanapur and have lots of customers.
"What's available?" asked Rachel. She began opening cupboards. "Let me see…"
Garcia opened another cupboard. "Oh! Is this the medicine cabinet?" A small plastic bottle fell out as the Black Lagoon smoothly turned a corner in the river. "What is this?"
Rock took the bottle, and his eyes lit up. Then he smiled. It wasn't a nice smile. Rachel shivered; she'd seen that smile before, and usually it meant that someone was in for it.
About half an hour later, with nice smells from the galley pervading the cabin, dinner was being served. Involuntarily, Revy, Dr. Zapatero, the two maids, and the twins perked up. It had been a long time since any of them had eaten, and Rock had done his usual excellent job putting things together.
With a slight flourish, Rachel put down plates in front of their passengers. "Passengers eat first. That's the rule!" Meanwhile, Garcia served the others; Roberta and Fabiola looked slightly uncomfortable at this reversal of roles, but when he winked at them, they subsided. Soon everybody in the main cabin was tucking into food.
Rachel went up to the bridge. Dutch smiled down at her. "Hello, little lady. Any chance of me getting fed, being the captain and all?"
Rachel shook her head. "We hadn't planned on more passengers, and food's just a bit short. Just wait, and Rock'll have enough more cooked up for us. We figured we'd best get the others fed first."
Dutch nodded. "Good idea. Once we're out to sea, I can turn the helm over to someone else, and take a meal break. That sound all right to you, too, Benny?"
Benny's voice drifted up from his lair. "Sounds good, Dutch!"
A little while later, everybody except Dutch, Benny, Garcia, Rachel and Rock had finished their meal. The blonde girl smiled. "Thank you! That was very nice!"
The boy nodded. "We grew up eating horrible slop in the place where they raised us, up in the grey mountains. Life was difficult there."
"Sounds like juvie, doesn't it, Rebecca?" Rachel remarked. Revy nodded, spooning up the last of her meal and licking her lips. "One thing I did whenever I got out of juvie was head straight for a restaurant."
"What is this word 'juvie?'" Both of their passengers looked puzzled.
"It's what we call juvenile detention. Sort of kiddie jail. Both of us were in and out of it back in New York." Revy's face clouded as unpleasant memories passed through her mind.
"Oh, we weren't in anything like that. It was a sort of orphanage. That's where we had the modifications we now bear put in. It was a project of the government's; we heard that it was to counter something the Italians were doing." the blonde girl explained. A sad expression flitted over her face. "It was cold there. And lonely."
"The things they did were quite uncomfortable. But they taught us how to do what we now do. It's a good way to make a living, we've found." The boy smiled.
"Where was this?" asked Fabiola. "And…forgive me…but what are your names?" She blushed slightly. "It's a little uncomfortable, not knowing what to call you."
"Forgive our manners!" the girl smiled. "You may call me Gretel. My brother, here, is Hansel. They aren't the names we were born with, but they'll do."
"We're from Romania. We were in a government program there, under Nicolae Ceaușescu. When the program was ended after Ceaușescu fell, we started working free-lance." Hansel explained.
"But…that was years ago! How is it that you're so young?" Rock asked. "You couldn't have been older than five when the Romanian government changed!"
"We don't know." Gretel let out a howling yawn, and her eyelids began to drift shut. "As far as we can remember…we were always the way we are now." She slumped over on Hansel's shoulder; Hansel was already dead to the world.
Rachel looked around. Roberta and Fabiola were asleep in each other's arms; Rachel had to giggle at the way Fabiola snored. Revy was stretched out on her side, looking unwontedly peaceful. She and Garcia nodded at each other. Rock winked, giving them a triumphant, evil smile.
The three walked up to the bridge. "Oh, Dutch…you can set a course for Roanapur. The situation's back under control." Rock's casual statement startled the captain.
"What? I'll need to see this for myself! Rock, take the helm!" Rock saluted and took over the controls as Dutch headed below to check up on his human cargo. When he came back up, the big black man was clearly nonplussed.
"I can't believe it! How'd you do it?" Rock gave that evil grin again, and pulled out the small plastic bottle from his shirt pocket. He handed it to Dutch, who read the label, his eyes visibly going wide behind his glasses.
"What is that stuff, Rachel?" whispered Garcia.
Before Rachel could answer, Dutch, who had overheard them somehow, provided the answer. "It's a date-rape drug. We had some on board from the time we were transporting some people who, let us say, didn't want to be carried along. I guess this must have been left over."
Rachel smirked triumphantly. "I guess some people just can't hold their roofies. Right, Rock?"
"You got it, Rachel!" Rock gave her a thumbs-up as he steered the Black Lagoon towards her home harbor.