“No, wait,” Jane had said. “See the beard? And the brown hair? I think that’s the guy who was coming after you when you were sword fighting. He’s the one I clubbed with a belaying pin. And he might remember me.”
They had continued to watch the waterfront until most of the buccaneers were in the taverns, drinking and singing. Then, having nothing better to do, they had begun to walk around again, hoping either to see or be seen by someone they wanted to find.
By midday, they had not seen any of the people or robots they sought, but the buccaneers began wandering out of the taverns again, looking for more excitement. Many were at the booths, crowding the waterfront and making any search more difficult.
“Look,” said Jane. “A lot of people seem to be heading for that one tavern up ahead.”
“Isn’t that where Morgan bought us dinner last night?”
“I think you’re right. It looks different in the daytime. Do you think he’s back there?”
“One way to find out,” said Steve. “Maybe he’s signing up those crews he mentioned.”
“Watch out for that guy named Nick,” said Jane. “He might want to finish that fight with you.”
Steve and Jane worked their way through the crowds to the tavern. The doorway was jammed with onlookers, but Steve stopped to peer through a window. Inside, Captain Morgan was seated at the same big, round table he had taken the previous night. A number of other buccaneers were sitting with him, talking.
“What is it?” Jane asked, coming up next to Steve.
“I’m sure he’s planning that voyage. But I don’t see anyone we’re looking for.”
“I guess we might as well keep going.”
“Yeah.”
They turned away from the window and walked on up the waterfront.
Late in the day, Wayne sat down at a small outdoor booth for a tankard of ale. It was on one of the side streets leading away from the waterfront Shortly after Roland had left him, he had seen Steve and Jane walking around, obviously looking for someone, and he had spent the afternoon avoiding them as well as searching for MC 2.
“Good day, friend,” Roland said quietly behind him.
Startled, Wayne turned and found Roland at the head of a small group of buccaneers. Roland was smirking; the others had suspicious, wary expressions. As Wayne looked at them, the group formed a semicircle around him, trapping him against the booth.
“Good day, Roland,” said Wayne cautiously.
“Your friend is well,” said Roland. “My mates found him for me, after I put out the word.”
“Well! That’s great. You had a real advantage over me, knowing so many people.”
“Aye, that I did. And we have your short friend in a place of our own.”
“Let’s go see him,” Wayne said with forced cheer, sliding off his stool.
Roland moved sideways to block his way. “Not just yet. You have my pay?”
“I will pay on delivery,” said Wayne.
“Indeed, you will,” said Roland. “We will accept his weight in evenly mixed gold and silver coin in exchange for him.”
“What?” Wayne stared at him. “I don’t have anything like that much.”
“Get it” Roland turned away.
“That’s crazy.” Wayne started to reach for Roland’s arm.
In response to the motion, five of the nearest buccaneers all tensed. Two reached for their swords and another drew a pistol from his sash. Wayne froze, his heart pounding.
Roland glanced back over his shoulder and laughed. Then, shaking his head, he walked away without deigning to turn. His companions followed him, first walking backward to watch Wayne before finally turning and hurrying away.
Wayne let out a quivering breath and relaxed. At least he had a lead on MC 2’s whereabouts. Roland probably had him imprisoned on the Hungry Hawk. However, Wayne saw no reasonable way that he could acquire the ransom the buccaneers wanted.
He remained where he was for a few minutes longer, then started walking in the opposite direction from the one Roland had taken. As he thought over his new problem, he saw two possibilities. He could either try to team up with Hunter and almost certainly lose MC 2 to him permanently, or he could enlist Captain Tomann’s help.
Captain Tomann was his first choice, but of course he was still on board his ship. Wayne would have to visit the taverns and find some crew members who would row him back out to the Old Laughing Lady as soon as he could arrange it. He headed down the waterfront one more time.
Steve and Jane sat on a couple of empty, discarded kegs at the shore end of a pier as the sun turned red in the west. They had spent the entire day searching for a familiar face from their own time and had not seen one. Their task had become more difficult as the day wore on, because of the increasing activity up and down the entire waterfront.
All day, buccaneers had brought supplies out of warehouses. Rope, pitch, and canvas were easy to identify as they were $tacked on every pier. Steve knew from his one previous voyage that food, fresh water, gunpowder, and cannon shot had to be in the barrels men rolled down the street and in the crates he saw loaded onto wagons. Even so late in the day, the men doing the work jammed the waterfront, shouting and cursing as they worked. Other buccaneers filled their longboats with supplies and rowed them out to their ships, then returned for another load.
“I count the nine ships Captain Morgan told us about,” said Steve. “I think that’s a very big voyage for a town this size. And I think he may have ordered them to be ready to sail by dawn.”
“Why didn’t they plan ahead? They could have loaded the ships in advance.”
“Remember how important secrecy was to him? He probably wants to get under way before word starts to spread to other ports.”
“Say, is that -no, never mind.” Jane shook her head. “I thought I saw Hunter, but it’s a false alarm.”
“Where?”
“It’s that guy I hit over the head.”
“Him again? We’ve been avoiding him all day. He might not even remember you.” Steve looked at the figure moving through the crowd, towering head and shoulders over the people around him. “There aren’t many guys that big, are there?”
Suddenly Jane gasped. “Steve, look.”
“Where?”
“At that guy. He just came through the crowd into an open space. You can see all of him.”
“What about him?”
“I think it is Hunter.”
“How can he be Hunter?”
“Ignore his face for a minute. Look at the rest of him-his build, the way he moves, his walk.” She shook her head. “Steve, in the excitement of the fight on board ship, I forgot-he can change his appearance.”
“He can?”
“Yes, that’s one of his more sophisticated abilities.”
“You mean he can actually alter the shape of his face like that?”
“Yes, that’s what I mean. Within limits; he can alter his body shape as well. And I clubbed him! Come on!” She jumped up and ran.
19
“Hunter! Hunter!” Jane ran toward him, shouting and waving.
Caught by surprise, Steve got up and followed her. Up ahead, the tall buccaneer had instantly turned at the sound of Jane’s voice. Then he waved back and moved to meet her.
“Hunter! So it is you.” Jane smiled with relief as she caught up to him.
“Yes, of course,” said Hunter stiffly, in a flat monotone. “I have tried to reach you both through the communicators I gave you.”
“We lost them,” said Steve. “We’ll tell you about it later.”
“I have an urgent question to ask Jane,” said Hunter. “What did I do wrong?”
“What do you mean?”
“Why did you strike me?”
“On shipboard, you mean?” Jane’s eyes widened in surprise. “Hunter, I didn’t recognize you!”
Hunter’s hesitation was barely perceptible to Steve, but that meant it was very long by robotic standards.
“I made a careless mistake,” said Hunter. “I altered my appearance so that I would not alert Wayne Nystrom or Rita that I was nearby on board ship.”
“And then you forgot?” Jane looked at him skeptically. “Robots don’t just forget. What happened?”