Bogg looks around the tent. It contains a table and a few chairs. A number of muskets ly on the table and in the corner stand a few powder kegs. Not really a place where you'd leave a prisoner alone. No wonder Swedes won.
"You asked to see me." A man enters the tent. Bogg turns around.
"I asked to be taken to their leader."
"I am the leader. Who are you?"
"Phineas Bogg."
"Bogg. Your name sounds Swedish, but your tongue doesn't."
"Foreign influences. I travel around a lot."
"Hmm. What did you want to see me about?" The man sits down and indicates to Bogg he can have a seat too.
"I have some information for you, you may like to hear."
"What kind of information?"
"I know how expensive fighting a war can be. Particullarly when fighting a guerilla war. No one to officially back you up. Can be tough to keep the men motivated this way."
"I already know that. Do you also have some information for me that is new?"
"Possibly. A train containing a Swedish war chest, and the king's tent, will halt at Loshult tomorrow. You can use the money to fund your war efforts for at least a couple of months."
The man sizes him up. "Why can I trust this information? It could be a trap. Why would the king bring his train to Loshult, but not bring enough men to guard it?"
"Well, the king. The king is only 19, a child. He's not educated in running a state, and I hear he can barely read. He's not fit to be our king. It's time we got back under Danish rule."
The man nods. "Very good. Now, tell me more about this train."
Bogg smiles. Phase one is completed.
------
After a while Kate moves closer to Jeffrey.
"I don't like the way that guy is looking at me," she whispers to him.
"Which one?"
"Anyone. Take your pick. It feels like he's undressing me with his eyes."
"As long as it is just his eyes you don't have anything to worry about." Normally Jeffrey wouldn't have said a thing like this, but right now he's a bit pissed with Kate for not telling him Council knew their home button doesn't work. What did she think? That he couldn't handle that kind of information. On top of everything else. Ha. He is the expert of handling bad news. He's been handling bad news since he was twelve.
Before Kate can start yelling at Jeffrey that she finds his comment completely useless and if it was meant to reassure her than it has utterly failed, the staring man gets up and starts talking to her.
"Those boots belong to my friend."
"What?"
"Those boots you are wearing, you took them from my friend."
"There was no man in these boots when I put them on."
"Take them off, they belong to my friend."
"Can your friend prove that these are his boots?"
"Nils!" the man shouts without taking his eyes of Kate. "Nils, can you come over here? There's something I want to show you." Half a dozen or so men answer his call. "Nils, are those your boots?"
"They can't be his," Kate interrupts. "He's already wearing boots."
"Yes, those are mine," Nils replies. "Look, that's where I tore them and stitched them back together."
"And I'll bet those are my pants," another man says.
"Right," the first man says. "Are you gonna give Nils back his boots, and Petr his pants?"
"That depends, are they going to ask nicely?"
"I know a way," Petr says and picks Kate up by her shoulder.
A few others try to grab her legs. Kate manages to kick one of them where it hurts the most. Jeffrey jumps up, shouting at them to stop. He hasn't been able to follow the conversation as it was held in a language foreign to him, but he knows he doesn't like the outcome of it. He tries to pull a man away from Kate.
The commotion that is going on attracts others and also Bogg comes running out of his meeting.
"What is going on here?" he demands to know. He grabs what seems to be the leader of the pack by the shoulder and gives him a good shake.
"She stole Nils' boots and we're getting them back for him. And Petr's pants."
"Which one is Nils?" Several fingers point in one direction. "Nils, you're already wearing boots. Why do you need those as well?"
"They're mine and I want them back. If that's okay?" He buckles a little under Bogg's stare.
"No, it is not." Bogg throws some coins at him. "Here's some money. Buy yourself a new pair if you need a spare pair of boots that badly, and leave my daughter alone."
Nils picks up the coins.
"What about my pants?" Petr starts. Bogg glares at him. "I'll just ask Nils for some money."
The men still holding on to Kate put her back on her feet. Some mumble apologies. Someone gives her back the boot they managed to take from her. All return to their previous occupations.
"Are you all right?" Bogg asks his daughter.
"Sort of." She hops on one foot to put the boot back on. "Have you told them about the train? Can we go now?"
"There is still a red light. I have told them about the train, but I think we have to stick around to see if they execute the plan accordingly. They've assigned us two tents for the night."
"No way am I sleeping alone tonight."
"Of course not. We're all sleeping in the same tent." Bogg puts his arms around the shoulders of Kate and Jeffrey, pulls them close and kisses them both. Kate wraps her arms around her father in respons. Jeffrey feels Bogg is getting a bit too close for comfort and tries to pull away, but Bogg's grip on him is strong. "Have you two troublemakers any idea how worried I have been about you? Huh? What on earth possessed you to take off with an omni like that?"
"I don't know. Maybe Jeff can explain."
"Jeff?" Bogg turns his head to him in surprise.
"I guess I forgot how sensitive the triggerbutton is."
"But I was very worried I would never see you again, Dad." Kate tightens her grip. "And right now I'm worried you have lost your mind a bit with worry over us. What's with the cleavage?" She pulls on his shirt.
"I have you know this is an authentic pirate's costume. Leave it."
"Aren't you worried you could catch a cold with so much chest exposed?"
"Bogg likes to wear it that way to impress the women he meets," Jeffrey offers.
"There aren't any women here," Kate replies. "But I saw a few of the men raize their eyebrows and look quite pleased with what they saw."
"Will you both cut it out before I start regreting coming after you? In stead, tell me what you have been up to. I know where you have been." Bogg gives Kate's shoulder a squeeze. "But there was no sound, so I don't know what you did."
"Well, first we landed in 1963," Jeffrey starts. "Although landing is not exactly the right word."
"Yeah, that's a great feature," Bogg replies. He directs them to a place where they can sit down while the 'troublemakers' recount their adventures.
"Not much to do in 1963," Jeffrey continues, "there was already a green light, so we went on. Stopped over in 1989 for a short spell, and after that we went to Miami where we were instrumental in making Woodstock happen."
Kate is surprised Jeffrey doesn't tell more about 1989. But perhaps he doesn't like to talk about loosing his parents again. If he doesn't like to be reminded, she's not going to bring it up.
"Woodstock? Should I know about that?" Bogg asks.
"Three days of Love, Peace and Rock Music," Jeffrey replies.
"Did you go there?" Bogg asks Kate.
"Just for the rock music. There were too many people around for the other two." Kate still has her arms wrapped around him. She rests her head against his shoulder and yawns.
"Kate played quite an important role in bringing about a few green lights," Jeffrey says. "She practically designed the first Ferris Wheel herself. And she gave Columbus a push that really rinsed the obstructions from his mind." Kate chuckles. "Very impressive for someone on her first voyage."
"Not unlike someone else I know on his first voyage." Bogg nods knowingly to Jeffrey.
"Yeah, but mine where just lucky guesses. She actually looked like she knew what she was doing." Jeffrey scratches his head a little embarrassed. It has been so long since he received any kind of compliment that he doesn't know how to respond to it anymore.
"She should. She is trained as a Voyager. You weren't."
"Is she sleeping now?"
"I guess she is."
"She sure sleeps a lot. She also napped a couple of hours this afternoon."
"I think she has some sleep to catch up. She sat up with you when you slept for 30 hours straight after I first got you form the plantation."
"I didn't know that. Thanks for getting me out."
"No thanks required. I'm sorry I couldn't have gotten you out five years sooner."
"That's okay. I spent five years on a plantation, you kept looking for me for 21; I'm just glad it wasn't the other way around."
"I guess you're right. You wanna talk about your time there?"
"Not really. I want to put that whole period of my life in one of the darkest corners of my memory, lock the door behind me and throw away the key."
"I understand."
"What about you? What did you do in those 21 years?"
"Look for you mainly. I've combed a large part of history in search for you. And I had Kate."
"You had the family you've always wanted."
"Yeah. For a short time. It was never a complete family, though, without you."
Jeffrey gives a little smile. Bogg kept looking for him for all these years, wanted to make him part of his family. He feels a bit disheartened to tell him he found his own family. He doesn't want to disappoint Bogg.
"I see you finally got rid of the girlish haircut," Bogg says.
"Hmm." Jeffrey pulls on a curl and straightens it out down his forehead. "According to the plantation master there was a law in Ceylon that said that slaves that didn't speak Dutch couldn't wear their hair long."
"Did that encourage you to learn Dutch?"
"A little, but I don't think master would have let anyone wear their hair long unless they spoke Dutch like a native. Like I said, I don't want to talk about that time."
Bogg nods. They sit in silence, each with their own thoughts.
"I think we should go to bed. Busy day tomorrow to see if these snapp-hane can pull of a heist."
"But it isn't even dark yet," Jeffrey protests.
"Summer in Sweden, it only gets dark for a couple of hours a night. And I think I, and you too, need a little more sleep than that." Bogg gets up carefully not to wake up Kate. He hoists her up over his shoulder. "This way to our tent."
"What did you just say about snapp-hane?"
"Snapp-hane were Swedes who fought on the Danish side. They were, are a bit of a guerilla army. The Swedes thought them bandits, Danes called them freedom fighters. The Loshult Raid was one of their biggest successes. After the war, however, most of them had to flee the country, the ones that didn't were killed."
"Hmm. How come you know so much about this Loshult Raid? I've never heard of it."
"I used to be a pirate, Jeffrey. I know about looting."
Jeffrey considers this to be a fair reason.
They go into their tent. Bogg carefully lays down Kate on their matrass of straw and stretches out next to her.
"'Night, Jeffrey."
"'Night, Bogg."
