Somehow he must have had a hand up to deflect it. The can bounced aside, a great plume of water leaped hissing into the fire, but not a drop touched him. A huge steamcloud boiled up around me, and it smelt not dank and oily as you might have expected, but soft and salty and warm as a tropical seawind. Fynn snarled and sprang up, and I saw with a thrill of horror that even without the firelight his eyes glowed yellow as amber. At my side I heard the rasp of sword leaving scabbard – and the sharp click as it was thrust back. Jyp’s hand landed on my shoulder.
‘Easy, lad!’ he hissed. ‘Keep off the shoals! You don’t know the lie of ’em! Give me the helm a minute!’ He turned to Stryge. ‘You said you’d help, old man, and so you have. Okay, damfino, but that’s just the easy part, making sure what anyone could’ve guessed. Not the kind of work we need to come to Le Stryge for, that, is it? Not enough to level any scores, is it? And not at all like the great Stryge to leave a job halfway done …’
I held my breath, as the steam dispersed into the darkness, and the old man huddled over the last embers of the fire. Fynn stood tense, ready, rigid except for the constant opening and closing of his fingers and his panting breath. He relaxed only when the old man spoke, and his tone had changed to a complaining whine. ‘You young folk, never ready to show any spirit! Never ready to go out and do, want everything laid out before by us who’ve had to work for it! Thought better of you, pilot, but you’re just like all the rest. No balls.’ He glared at me. ‘Though there’s some with no soul, either. And precious little brain. What d’you expect me to do when they’re off and away already? Why d’you think they hurried? Afraid of you?’ He snorted, and blew his nose on his fingers. ‘Once out of harbour, safe, and well they knew it.’
I looked aghast at Jyp, who shook his head angrily. ‘Lay off it, Stryge. There’s plenty that can be done so far off – and you can do it. As we both know!’
‘Not without damaging your precious little bit of skirt as well. Your sweet little Clare. So otherwise it means fitting out a ship, doesn’t it, and going after them! You wealthy? Hah?’
‘No,’ I said unhappily, thinking how much I could raise on my flat at short notice, and the car, and the sound system – though that was last year’s, and unfashionable with the reviewers these days. ‘How much would it cost?’
Jyp clicked his tongue. ‘A lot, Steve. I’d help with my mite of savings, but it wouldn’t make much odds. A decent ship, why that’d cost nigh on two thousand, with another thousand for a crew, five hundred or so on supplies.’
‘Thousands of what?’
Jyp blinked. ‘Why, guineas, of course.’
‘Guineas? You mean, one pound five pence? In modern money?’
‘What other kind is there? Money’s money.’
I gaped at him an instant, and then suddenly I burst out laughing in sheer disbelief. ‘Jyp, you can’t be serious! I earn more than your two thousand in a month! My savings –’
‘No kidding? Ah, but it’s got to be gold,’ he warned, tapping the side of his nose knowingly, ‘and it’s a hell of a poor rate you get for it when you’re in a hurry –’
‘Never mind the rate!’ I barked. ‘If I could lay hands on that sort of money in a couple of hours, can you find me a ship? And a crew? And how soon?’
‘You mean it?’ Jyp slapped his scabbard a ringing blow. ‘The best, pal! And by sunup! Starting with the best pilot afloat if you’ll have him, namely me! I was getting kind of bored ashore, anyhow. And you’re setting your course for strange waters –’
I was nearly speechless. ‘Jyp – it’s far beyond anything I’ve ever done for you! I’m more grateful than I can say –’
But Jyp had already rounded on the Stryge. ‘Satisfied, you old polecat? You ready to help now? Or have we just called your bluff?’
The old man snuffled noisily. ‘Get you your ship, and I’ll come along.’ Jyp blinked again; evidently he hadn’t expected that. He was just about to object when the Stryge added ‘Provided, of course, I can bring a brace of friends –’
For the first time I saw real alarm cross Jyp’s face. ‘Not on any ship of mine!’
‘Jyp!’ I whispered.
‘You don’t know, Steve! He’s ill enough company, but lordy, any friends of his’ll be worse –’
‘Take it or leave it!’ growled the old man.
‘We need him, Jyp,’ I said. ‘You couldn’t think of anyone else.’
Jyp ground his teeth. ‘But shipping out with us! He hasn’t never done such a thing that ever I’ve heard of! Why now, for this? He doesn’t care a fig for you, and little more for me! So what in all the hells is the old devil really up to?’ He shivered, and then sighed. ‘But if you really believe we need him, Steve –’
‘I … I don’t know. I suppose you could say I … feel it in my bones.’
‘I just hope Fynn don’t end up pickin’ em.’ Then he surprised me again, adding thoughtfully ‘But we’ll play it your way, Steve. Any feelings come to you, I’m inclined to trust.’ He slapped me on the shoulder. ‘So, you just hop back into your closed auto and get raising that money sharpish! If we miss the dawn-tide and the land-wind we’ll needs wait till sundown, and give the Wolves a full day’s lead.’ He looked back over his shoulder. ‘We’ll sail at dawn. Be aboard well before; I’ll send you word where.’
A sour chuckle floated after us. ‘Save your breath, cabôt. I’ll know.’
It was getting hazy and chill as I drove back into town. My first stop was at my flat, for a number of reasons. I wanted to change and pack, choosing the best clothes for what could be a pretty rough-and-tumble voyage. That done, I went through the rigmarole of opening my little wall safe and rummaging in it for my modest hoard of slightly illegal Krugerrands. Then I locked the place up, not without wondering whether I’d ever see it again, and set off for the Liberal Club. I knew that was one of the likeliest places to find Morry Jackman this time of night. Morry had sold me the coins, and I knew that within five minutes of finding him he’d inevitably be trying to sell me more. I liked Morry, and hoped his heart would stand the shock when this time I agreed.
‘Tonight? You mean, like now this minute?’ He put down his drink, and looked at me like a kindly owl. ‘What’re you doing, Stevie boy, flying the country?’
The truth can be best at times. ‘I’ve got a deal going – a chance at a Caribbean charter, very cheap if it’s in the ready. Guineas, yet.’
Morry nodded sagely. ‘Caribbean for four grand? Don’t blame you. On a night like this I’d pay pieces of eight, yet. Isn’t an extra share going, is there? Ah, never mind. One more sticky and we’ll go open up the shop,’
I drove back to the docks very carefully. The haze was turning to fog, and I didn’t want to risk any accidents with that little bag of coinage chinking and chuckling unlawfully to itself on the seat beside me. Morry had come up with an amazing assortment, everything from quarter-angels and Jersey crowns to Austrian imperial half-thalers in modern reissues and, like the good lad he was, he had been quite ready to take my cheque for a fair five thousand pounds’ worth at his untaxed prices. If the police found me with that they’d be bound to get suspicious and delay me, maybe fatally. So I contained my impatience, let the drunks go roaring past me into obscurity, and concentrated on finding my way. I made a couple of false turns at first, and began to sweat a little; the tendrils of the mist pointed this way and that like thin mocking fingers. But it was only shortly after midnight when a mellow gleam at street’s end caught my eye, and I pulled up outside the Illyrian Tavern. So I was beginning to find my way around, was I? To fit in. Oddly enough, that idea made me feel almost more uncomfortable. I glanced nervously into the night as I climbed out of the car. I’d never been scared of the dark in the world I knew – but here?