It sure was nice having rich friends.
Sullivan found Captain Southunder on the bridge, readying the Traveler to leave the airfield. Before meeting Southunder, he had sort of assumed that a pirate captain would have been loud, barking orders, wrangling a group of rowdy privateers, that sort of thing, but Pirate Bob, as he was affectionately known by his crew, was a quiet and understated man. There was no drama with Pirate Bob, he simply had no tolerance for the stupid or lazy, so every man on his crew learned his job and how to do it without him having to babysit them, or they got tossed over the side.
Southunder had been easy enough to convince about the threat of the Enemy. This was a man who had spent a big chunk of his life protecting part of the Geo-Tel from the Imperium, so the concept of a world-ending event wasn’t that farfetched for the good captain. “Welcome back, Sullivan,” Southunder said without turning away from the window. “We lift off in thirty minutes.”
“How’s it shaking out?”
“It? Ships are she. Not it. Don’t hurt her feelings, Mr. Sullivan.”
Sullivan chuckled. “Aye aye, Captain.”
“Any problem picking up your psychopath?”
“Sociopath,” he corrected.
“There’s a difference?”
“Well…” Despite his addiction to reading scholarly texts, psychology wasn’t one of the fields Sullivan had ever bothered to study. If it hadn’t been for Bradford Carr’s morbid fascination over Wells’ supposed effectiveness, he wouldn’t have bothered with an alienist at all. “I actually don’t know.”
Southunder turned from the window. “With the bunch you’ve put together, one more crazy shouldn’t hurt.”
The captain’s tone suggested that there had been trouble. “Toru again?”
“Your Jap is a popular fella, but no. He’s been quiet, probably trying to avoid ticking my men off enough so that they won’t put a knife in his back.”
“Good luck,” Sullivan said. “Stabbing Toru’s likely to upset him some.”
“I’ve warned them… Still can’t believe I’m on a ship with an Imperium Iron Guard.” Southunder moved closer to Sullivan and pretended to check the navigation chart. Some other members of the crew were coming up the ladder, so the captain lowered his voice so only Sullivan would hear. “You’d be hard pressed to find one of my marauders that hasn’t lost family to those cold-blooded bastards. If somebody doesn’t try to do him in by the time we get to Canada, I’ll have vastly underestimated their restraint. ”
Having a former Iron Guard on the crew wasn’t good for morale, but Toru Tokugawa was the expert on the Pathfinder, and for that fight at least, he was theoretically on their side. “Keep them focused, Captain. That’s all I ask.”
“I’ll do my best, Sullivan, but I’d recommend you learn everything you can from that Imperial sooner rather than later… You know, just in case he has an accident. The sky is a dangerous place.”
“More dangerous with us in it, I imagine,” Sullivan said. “You get us there in one piece. I’ll take care of the rest.”
“Speaking of there. Most of these men don’t know your plan. They know bits and pieces, so they’re filling in the blanks with bad guesses and rumors, even your fellow knights. They need to know. This one ship is going to declare war on the entire Imperium soon. Once we cross that line, there’s no going back.”
“They’ll be all in. There’s too much at stake not to be.”
“When are you planning on briefing the whole crew?”
“Right after dinner. It’s harder to mutiny on a full stomach.”
Southunder smiled. “I’ll have the cook prepare something hearty.”
The Traveler’s crew was made up of one hundred men. Correction, men and one woman. It might be offensive to some or scandalous to others, but Sullivan was too pragmatic to dwell on it. The idea of having women in what was fundamentally a military unit was completely foreign to him. Sullivan was of the mindset that the fairer sex should be protected, kept from harm whenever possible, but the lone woman aboard the Traveler was here for a damn good reason. Hell, Francis had even named the ship in honor of one of the most dangerous Actives anyone had ever known, and she’d been a girl. Not to mention Sullivan’s last girlfriend could pick up and toss an automobile, so he wasn’t one to underestimate the fairer sex.
Nonetheless, having men and women serving on the same boat was an odd concept to somebody old-fashioned, but Pirate Bob’s marauders had a woman onboard for years without any problems. Though, it probably helped that Lady Origami had been their only Torch and had kept the Bulldog Marauder from being engulfed in flames and crashing into the ocean on several occasions. Plus, nobody was going to get fresh with a girl who could set you on fire with her mind.
There were a few women he knew who he would’ve loved to have along on the expedition. Jane was about the best damn Healer there was, but was one of the backbone members of the American knights, and she and her husband Dan were now stuck serving as something akin to ambassadors for their kind, dealing with all of the liars and rats in Washington. Sullivan didn’t envy them and would much rather go battle Iron Guard any day.
The other woman he’d thought about asking had been Pemberly Hammer. As a Justice, her magic was rare and powerful, but she was a BI agent now, and answered to J. Edgar Hoover. Even though Hoover was technically almost an ally, maybe on a good day, all the Grimnoir knew he’d turn on them the instant the winds blew wrong… Or maybe that was just what Sullivan had told himself, so as to justify not dragging Hammer along on a mission this dangerous. He knew damn good and well that if he’d asked her, she would’ve volunteered. Hammer was as tough as anyone, had a Power that was half polygraph and half perfect compass, yet he hadn’t asked for her help. That said a lot more about what he thought their odds of surviving were than any commentary on Hammer’s abilities. It was difficult for a man like him to admit that he might be soft on someone.
Sullivan leaned against the wall and took the opportunity to enjoy a cigarette while he waited for the crew to finish their chow. Because of the fire danger on board the Traveler, and considering that their Torches were still only human, smoking was only allowed in certain areas, the galley being one of them. Because of that, the air was thick with smoke.
One of the reasons the whole damn hydrogen-filled ship wasn’t a complete death trap walked past him carrying a tray of food. He could tell that the diminutive Japanese girl had to resist the urge to bow when she saw him. Old habits die hard, but Pirate Bob’s Marauders weren’t big on any habits born in the Imperium. “Hello, Mr. Sullivan.”
Sullivan tipped his fedora. “Lady Origami.” He didn’t know her real name, doubted anybody did actually. “Good to see you.”
“And good to see you, Mr. Sullivan,” she answered. “Captain speaks highly of you. Our journey is very important. I look forward to this journey.”
Either she was lying, or she was a lot harder than she looked, which would be easy, since she looked like a porcelain doll. But rumor was she’d escaped an Imperium school, and she’d certainly spent the last few years keeping a gang of rowdy pirates alive, so looks could be deceiving. “Your English has gotten a lot better.”