Below Twisp, Bushka sat back on his heels, glaring at the captive Merman.
"You getting anything from him?" Twisp asked.
"They've taken the Chief Justice."
"Shit," Twisp snapped. "Let's haul that tow coracle aboard. Keep at him."
Even with the winch, it was sweaty work getting the first coracle aboard. Scudi opened a cargo compartment aft of the loading hatch and the three of them wrestled the boat inside. They lashed it against cleats in the walls.
Scudi stepped out onto the loading deck, glanced behind her and stiffened. "You better come out and look," she said. She was pale as a sun-washed cloud.
Twisp hurried outside, followed by Brett.
Bushka stood over the bound Merman. The man was no longer lashed to the coracle's bow. The naked Merman had been pulled to a hanging position, hung by the wrists, bound up behind his shoulder blades. His dive suit lay in ragged pieces about the deck and his knees barely touched the floors. Bushka held a fish-knife in his right hand, its slender tip directed at the Merman's belly.
The muscles of the captive's arms stood out red but his thin drawn lips were white. His shoulders strained at their sockets. His penis was a shrunken stump of fear tucked against his pelvis.
"All right," Twisp demanded, "what's going on?"
"You wanted information," Bushka said. "I'm getting information. Trying out a few tricks Zent bragged about."
Twisp squatted in the opening, suppressing feelings of revulsion. "That so?" He kept his voice level.
When Bushka turned, Twisp realized that this was not the whining castaway he had jerked out of the sea. This one talked slow and even. He did not take his eyes off the target.
"He claims the kelp makes them immortal," Bushka said. "They have to be fed to the kelp when they die. I told him we'd burn him and keep the ashes."
"Take him off the cleat, Iz," Twisp said. "You shouldn't treat a man that way. Haul him aboard here."
A sullen expression flitted across Bushka's face and was gone. He turned and cut the captive down. The Merman flexed his arms behind his back, restoring circulation.
"He says the kelp keeps your identity, all your memories, everything," Bushka said.
Scudi pulled Brett close and whispered: "That may be possible."
Brett merely nodded, looking down at where Bushka had been torturing the captive. He found the thought of what Bushka had done revolting.
Sensing Brett's reaction, Scudi said: "Do you think Iz would really have killed and burned him?"
Brett swallowed in a dry throat. Honesty forced him to say: "I harpooned the guy in the foil."
"That was different! That one would've killed you. This one was tied and helpless."
"I don't know," Brett said.
"He scares me," Scudi said.
The foil lurched slightly, and again. Something uncoiled into the sea behind them.
"Net," Brett whispered. "Twisp cut it loose." And it broke his heart, he thought. Fish dying for nothing always breaks his heart.
A chill wind passed over them and they both looked up. Thin clouds had begun a drift in from the north and there was a light chop to the water where the kelp opened that strange lane. The lane still pointed them directly toward Vashon.
"I thought it was going to stay hot," Brett said.
"Wind's changed," Twisp said. "Let's get this boat aboard. Vashon might be in for a bad time after all."
They secured the boat, sealed the hatch and joined Scudi and Bushka in the pilot house. Scudi took the command chair, with Bushka standing to one side, flexing his fingers. Rage still seethed in Bushka's eyes.
"Iz," Twisp said, his voice low. "Would you really have cooked that Merman alive?"
"Every time I close my eyes, I see Guemes and Gallow." Bushka glanced aft where they had left the Merman secured. "I'd be awful sorry, I know, but ..." He shrugged.
"Not much of an answer."
"I think I'd burn him," Bushka said.
"That wouldn't help you sleep any better," Twisp said. He nodded at Scudi. "Let's get this thing to Vashon."
Scudi fired up the ram and gently lifted the foil up onto its step. In a minute they were scudding along the kelp channel with a slight bouncing motion against the chop.
Twisp directed Bushka to a couch at the rear of the pilot house. Sitting beside Bushka, Twisp asked, "Did he say how they captured Keel?"
"Off another foil. They had two foils then."
"Where's Gallow?"
"He's gone to Outpost Twenty-two on the other foil," Bushka said. "That's the rocket pickup station. He thinks there's an army in the hyb tanks. Whoever opens them owns them. He wants control of both launch and recovery and obviously he thinks he can get it."
"Is it possible?"
"An army in the hyb tanks?" Bushka snorted. "Anything's possible. They could come out shooting for all we know."
"What does he want with Keel?"
"Trade. For Vata. He wants Vata."
"Gallow's crazy!" Brett blurted. "I've been downcenter and seen the Vata support system. It's big. They couldn't possibly ..."
"Cut out the whole support complex with a sub," Bushka said. "Seal it off, tow it out. They could do it."
"They'd need doctors -"
"They have their doctor," Bushka said. "When they snatched Keel they picked up Kareen Ale. Gallow's covering all angles."
Silence came over the pilot cabin while the ram pulsed around them. The foils slapped the seas in a well-absorbed rhythm.
Twisp looked forward to Scudi in the pilot's seat. "Scudi, can we make radio contact with Vashon?"
"Anyone could hear," she spoke without looking back.
Twisp shook his head once in frustrated indecision.
Without warning, Bushka yanked the lasgun from Twisp's pocket and jammed it against his ribs.
"Up!" Bushka snapped.
Stunned, Twisp obeyed.
"Very careful how you move," Bushka said. "I know how strong you are."
Brett saw the lasgun in Bushka's hand. "What's -"
"Sit!" Bushka ordered.
Brett sank back into the seat beside Scudi. She glanced aft, eyed the scene and jerked her attention back to her course.
"Whether we radio or take the message to Vashon in person, it's all the same," Bushka said. "Gallow learns that his secret is out. But right now, we have the advantage of surprise. He thinks this is his foil."
"What do you mean?" Twisp asked.
"Turn this foil around, Scudi," Bushka ordered. "We're going after Gallow. I should've killed him when I had the chance."
***
Don't call me her father. I was nothing more than an instrument of Vata's conception. "Father" and "daughter" don't apply. Vata was born more than the sum of our parts. I caution the sons and the daughters after us: Remember that Vata is more mother to us than sister to you.
Shadow Panille stood in the gloom of Current Control thinking that at last he had found the woman of his life. With Kareen Ale, he had the faith that only Merman-normal offspring could evidence.
Current Control was aswarm with work, the usual routines preempted by the impending launch and the code yellow grounding of Vashon.
"Too many people working too hard for too long," he muttered to himself. Impulses moved out into the kelp from Current Control, signals of drift sensors flashed in their cobalt-blue numerals. LTA reports were rolling on the number six screen.
Wouldn't get me up in one of those things, he thought. Lighter-Than-Air craft challenged a medium where unstable currents and the unforeseen were standard issue. Air was much more dangerous than water.
Safest down under, he thought. Safety had taken on a new attraction to him. He wanted to live to spend more time with this woman.