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"I was born at night, ht," he said I didn’t like the confidence of his smile "You show o, take her below" The guy who’d copped to being a corabbed my arm and hustled me down the narrow space between the wheelhouse and the railing, toward the stern of the boat "Hey, Thiago?" I asked "I could use some help here Talk to your boss, would you?"

"Shut up," he said "You won’t like eek solidarity

Two hatches later, I was shoved across a rusty threshold and into so like the vast, spacious warehouse of the Grand Paradise ; this was a craavevessel

I swore I’d never eat tuna again

"Hey!" I yelled, as the hatch banged shut behind ret this!" And that sounded so stock B-movie that I shut up and found a place to sit and restcrossed ar torch on my back throbbed in ti back through the aetheric, a sli me to the dark side

"Keep your shirt on, Bob," I ot to sleep so material from one of the crates, and fell completely unconscious

Not a care in the world, strangely enough Too tired to have one

When I woke up, my whole body ached less, but that only e-wise No way could I swim far in my current state I needed the ship if I intended to stay alive

Well, if I couldn’t buy it, there were other ways They were as dangerous to ed on the hatch until I got attention, and was dragged back up on deck It was ainst the glare

Josue was once again lounging at the rail "Don’t you ever work?" I asked him

"Don’t you ever shut up?" He nodded to the crew- intoto tell me the account number of all this mythical money you have to share?"

I shook o, as holding me "Shoot her and put her over the side Do it in the stoe her lad this guy wasn’t a Warden

Thiago tried to follow orders, but when he pulled the trigger, it resulted in a dry click He tried again, frowning

"Here, let me see," I said I took the pistol fro slag that ran through ers and in streams across the deck "Oh, there’s your probles like they used to"

I heardparty, but I’d disrupted the firing un aboard the ship in one fast burst So ood blunt object "Don’t make me blow up your ammunition," I said "It’ll take your hands off with it when it goes up Classic choice, though Who wants a hook to coe?"

Guns hit the deck and tumbled, metal on metalWeapons skidded from side to side in the pitch and roll of the waves, and an Uzi nudged my foot I kicked it to the rail, where it hesitated on the edge, then tipped over

"Good boys," I said The captain - no coward, even if he didn’t understand as happening - pulled his knife, the better to filletyou off the island Thank you for playing Say hello to the sharks" I blew him over the side of the ship, out into the water He hit with a trenored hiht," I said "Your captain had an attention problee now?"

They all looked at each other Nobody dared affed fish, although their gazes frequently cut in his direction One o, who I suspected was the second in command anyway "You are," he said

"Miss"

I s suy

Thiago, do you want to make some money?"

"Sure"

"Same deal I tried to make with your ex-boss You take me in that direction" - I pointed tohere I knew Bad Bob was, as the torch on my back throbbed when I faced that way; no clue what the nautical course was, and I didn’t et one hell of a great payday out of it Better than holding up unlucky pleasure boaters, anyway"

He exchanged looks with his fellow scavengers - okay, pirates - and one by one, they nodded The sound of their captain’s increasingly desperate calls for rescue off the port bow probably had so to do with their quoruo asked, like it was an afterthought, and pointed toward their captain I turned my head and looked at him The daind blew my damp hair over my face, but I was pretty sure he could see my expression even at that distance, with that concealment

"If he points so much as a dirty look in my direction, I’ll shoot him in the stomach and let him tell it to the sharks," I said "Make sure he knows that I don’t feel like giving second chances right now"

Thiago nodded He had a good poker face, but there was a shadow of uneasiness in his dark eyes "What do you want us to call you, miss?"

I smiled "You can call -terave some orders, the content of which was lost on me, but the ten or so men that crewed this rusty scow snapped to it Soot hirowl, shift, and surge beneathtoward a destination that wasn’t visible in any way on the horizon - except tothe view for a while, I went down to the hold, where I found the captain enjoying the hospitality of the rotting tuna I pulled up an empty crate "So," I said "How about you tell me who hired you to fish me out of the water, Josue?"

"Vai pro Inferno,"he said "Foda-se"

"Want to see ain it I turned it pal the skin, clung to led fro

Josue sat back

"You know anything about Tasers? This is the sa, only without the delivery system

Oh, and the batteries And you know the best thing?" I leaned forward and smiled "It never runs out of juice"

There’s no such thing as a loyal pirate "He was a man," Josue said