James Axler Deathlands 007 Dectra Chain

[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

Krysty and the others took over the captain's quarters, making sure that they
kept it secure with their blasters. But Deacon didn't seem concerned about the
way they had hijacked his vessel, going about his business with a calm,
unflustered efficiency.
And the crew took their lead from him.
The weather was kind, and Deacon knew from experience where Pyra Quadde was
likely to have gone.
It wasn't many days out from port before they heard the shout from the lookout
in the crow's nest, high above the deck. "Sail ho! Sail on the port beam! A
ship!"
Chapter Twenty-Six
"CANST THOU MAKE HER?" Captain Quadde shouted, standing with legs spread
against the pitching of the short westerly sea.
"No, ma'am. Dark hull. Can't make her ensign at this distance."
She bellowed him down, glancing around, her eyes falling on Ryan. Her face
lightened, her smile showing the hideous false teeth, which were worse than
any plas-dents he'd ever seen.
"Outlander Cawdor. Thou hast more seeing in thy one good glim than these offal
with their brace. Take the spyglass and get aloft. Tell me what thou seest
there."
Ryan slipped off his seaboots, taking the telescope with a muttered word of
assent.
file:///G|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/Ja...20Deathlands%20007%20-%20Dectra
%20Chain.html (208 of 276) [12/30/2004 2:00:51 PM]
d12
The ship was rolling in the swell, with an uncomfortable, chopping motion. But
he knew well enough what a refusal would mean. As he had no desire to be tied
naked to the mast for the woman to use for her pleasure, he climbed as nimbly
as he could into the spidery rigging. He drew a deep breath of relief as he
reached the relative safety of the crosstrees, swinging across to the narrow
barrel of the crow's nest.
"Quickly or I'll have thee flogged for it. What ship is she? What flag does
she fly, outlander? I can't hear thee!"
The shout rose almost to a scream. Ryan had heard the crew say that other
captains from the region took good care to steer well wide of Pyra Quadde. One
or two that didn't had been found floating belly-down among the fish guts of
Claggartville harbor. So another ship coming close to them meant something out
of the ordinary.
He steadied the glass on the flag that fluttered from the masthead of the
approaching ship, trying to make it out, fumbling with the brass focusing
screw.
"Fireblast! Can't& Ah, there it is."
From the earliest days, every ship out of New England had her own pennant, so
that she could easily be recognized at a distance by any of her fellows. Even
now, in the heart of the Deathlands, a hundred years after the skydark, the
practice was maintained by everyone.
Even by Pyra Quadde.
Page 112
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
Her flag cracked and snapped in the wind, only a few feet from Ryan's head.
It was a circle of crimson upon a rectangle of plain white. But as the wind
tugged at the ensign it distorted the circle, elongating the bottom half, so
that it sometimes resembled a bloody skull.
The oncoming vessel sported a flag of blue, with two horizontal white stripes
on it. Ryan hallooed that information down to the woman on the deck, cupping
his
file:///G|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/Ja...20Deathlands%20007%20-%20Dectra
%20Chain.html (209 of 276) [12/30/2004 2:00:51 PM]
d12
hands against the wind.
"Two slant whites on blue, thou sayest?" came the reply.
"Aye, ma'am."
"That be the
Bartleby under Delano. Old Preaching Biddy hisself. Does she show any signal?"
Ryan could hardly hear the woman's words, but he leaned half out of the iron-
hooped barrel and managed to catch them, "No signal. But she's heading
straight for us, ma'am."
Captain Quadde beckoned him back from the masthead, sending up another member
of the crew to replace him as lookout. Ryan sat on the deck and gratefully
pulled on his seaboots again. Though he had a good enough head for heights,
the rolling crow's nest wasn't the best place in the world to be.
The whole of the crew came out to watch the approaching vessel. Ryan recalled
again that such an encounter was very rare, particularly as most of the
skippers along the New England coast knew Quadde's reputation and kept plenty
of sea room between themselves and the ill-starred
Salvation
, Slowly, tacking her way against the breeze, the
Bartleby drew closer. As she did, the wind fell away to a mild zephyr, barely
breathing enough air to enable the two whaling ships to maintain their forward
momentum through the flattened waves.
Captain Quadde took her place at the port side of her ship. Ryan noticed that
she had buckled on the Spanish Astra short-muzzle .44 and wondered whether she
was anticipating trouble.
The ships would pass port side to port side. The crew of the
Bartleby was also lined up along the rail, staring in silence at the
Salvation and her crew. A short, skinny man in a bottle-green tailcoat stood
alone near the stem. He had a mane of white hair that made him look like
pictures of Old Testament prophets that Ryan
file:///G|/Program%20Files/eMule/Incoming/Ja...20Deathlands%20007%20-%20Dectra [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

Linki