Apocalyptic Pirates 6, page 4
“What did you see on the drone?” Shannon asked me.
“Not much,” I replied. “There’s a little village not too far from here, but it’s in the area that’s by the river– Rio Naranjo– rather than this estuary. So I think we’ll be able to avoid it perfectly well. Aside from that, it’s just trees. Oh, and some cool parrots.”
“Nice.” Ally smiled. “Pity you can’t film those, but your doting fans will probably only be interested in dragons now.”
“Dragons and my head on a spike.” I grimaced.
“We should see if your video has been repeated on the news,” Letty suggested.
“Good idea.” I scrolled through YouTube to find the news channels that we regularly watched for updates.
Sure enough, they’d all recently uploaded new videos.
I clicked on the first one, and it showed the same news anchor who managed to look incredibly bored no matter what fantastic and unprecedented news she was delivering.
“In today’s breaking news,” she began, “a video has surfaced from rogue YouTube account The Good Pirates which appears to show the United States Coast Guard heading up a military operation to collect and transport dragon eggs and full-grown adult dragons to an unknown location. The full particulars of this mission have yet to be revealed. Some experts have theorized that the Coast Guard is collecting dragons to sell on illegal black market internet forums, others have speculated that the government itself requires these specimens for an as yet unknown political scheme. Whether any of these theories are true, and whether they have anything to do with the current crisis, is still up for debate.”
“How is it not to do with the current crisis?” Shannon scoffed. “She’s making it sound like the dragon apocalypse and the dragon eggs are two entirely different disasters.”
After that, the news anchor just cut to a clip of the video, which I’d already seen a thousand times and didn’t need to see again.
I clicked on another video, and this time the news anchor was practically frothing at the mouth.
“Evidence of a widespread military conspiracy?” he demanded. “A botched attempt to send military aid to affected countries along the meteorite belt? These are just two theories that are taking the world by storm after a video posted online showed the United States Coast Guard shipping adult dragons and their unhatched eggs to an unknown location. The video, posted by viral YouTuber The Good Pirates, has racked up impressive viewing figures in the millions, and its reach is growing with every passing minute. Very little is known about the shadowy figures running this YouTube account, but they have made a name for themselves online and offline for their stark, no-holds-barred, tell-all videos that seem determined to bring a grain of authenticity and truth to an increasingly mismanaged situation.”
“That makes us sound very cool,” Dia commented.
“But also a bit like a celebrity gossip channel,” Shannon said and wrinkled her nose in disgust.
“Shh,” Ally urged. “He’s still talking.”
“How far does this conspiracy reach? Is this a matter of corruption within one organization, or has the entire United States armed forces been infected with whatever crazy notion the Coast Guard has fallen prey to?” The news anchor’s eyes were wide with fervor, and he gestured wildly with his sheaf of notes. “How can we trust the people in power when this is the result? What can we learn from this mishap? Do we dismantle the military? Do we defund the police? Or do we take matters into our own hands? This is America, this is the goddamn US of goddamn A, and I, for one, am convinced–”
The video abruptly ended.
It wasn’t a fault of the connection, it literally just cut off short.
“I think someone realized that he was going rogue and took him off air,” I said with a chuckle.
“He was very intense,” Letty agreed.
“But maybe he was right,” Shannon suggested. “I mean, from what those women in the boat told us, the Navy might be mobilizing.”
“Yeah, but we don’t know that for sure,” Ally objected.
“And even if they are,” Dia added. “They might be mobilizing to help stop the Coast Guard from carrying on. We don’t know.”
“Dia’s right,” I said in a firm voice. “We don’t know, and we’re going to wear ourselves out if we keep going round and round like this. Let’s just go up on deck, get some fresh air, and enjoy the evening. What do you guys think?”
“I think that’s a very good idea,” Ally told me with a smile.
Letty brushed back my hair, and Dia dropped a quick kiss on my jawline.
“You take such good care of us all,” Shannon said with a fond look in her eye.
“Well, hey,” I said with a chuckle. “You guys are important to me, you know. I kind of like it when you’re happy and taken care of.”
“Isn’t he a sweetheart?” Letty said to the others with a chuckle.
I laughed, and we all headed back up on deck.
It was a beautiful evening. The sky was darkening in the east, and the sun was slipping below the horizon in the west and leaving bright, vivid streaks of orange, pink, purple, and red across the sky. There were already a few tiny white points of stars peeking out, and the moon was a thin, crisp sliver of silver hanging from a cloud.
The river water was turning a dark, mysterious navy blue, but where it lapped against the shore and broke against the side of the yacht, it seemed to splash open with all the colors of the sunset trapped inside. The white sail was painted a rosy pink in the dying light, and as the women went to stand by the railing, their faces turned gold and bronze, like precious metals, under the sunset’s glory.
I looked at them without speaking, and for a moment I just took in the sight of them all lined up there. They knew they were beautiful, of course; there was no way that humans as gorgeous as they were could move through life without some awareness of their own attractiveness, but they didn’t wear their beauty with any self-consciousness, and that became so apparent in moments like this, when they seemed to forget the power of their own appearances in the face of the beauty of nature.
But these were the moments when I thought them the most beautiful of all.
“Hey, Drew.” Letty looked at me over her shoulder, and the sunset painted her dark skin with golden highlights and kindled amber flecks in her tiger’s eye gaze. “Are those the parrots you saw earlier?”
I went to stand next to her by the railing, and I followed her pointing finger to see where a flock of blue and pink birds had suddenly broken out of the treetops and taken flight.
“Yeah, that’s them,” I replied.
“They’re so pretty,” Letty breathed.
“I feel like I know what they’re called,” Dia mused. “But to be honest, that was probably something my Papi told me and I just zoned out and forgot it.”
“Of course,” I said with a chuckle. “Is your grandfather into birds?”
“Kinda.” Dia pulled a face. “He likes trying to get me to remember how a whip-poor-will is different from a nightjar, and my eyes just glaze over after two minutes.”
“You lasted two whole minutes?” Shannon teased. “That is impressive.”
Dia stuck her tongue out at the Indian woman.
I smiled and looked up into the burning sky to follow the path of the startled birds as they wheeled and dipped across the clouds. They’d come from a clump of trees not too far away from the yacht, and I leaned over the railing to see if I could spot exactly where they’d come from.
And then I stiffened.
“Guys,” I hissed. “We’re not alone.”
Chapter 3
From my vantage point at the yacht’s railing, I could see the rustle of people moving through the bushes and greenery along the riverbank.
“Get the guns,” I hissed.
We all scrambled to grab our weapons, and within moments we were all armed and ready. I touched the knife at my belt to reassure myself that it was secure there.
“Guys,” Ally whispered.
She’d gone back to the railing, and now she turned around with the tip of her gun lowered toward the deck and pointed along the bank.
I hurried to her side to see for myself.
It was an old woman and a little girl.
They were walking slowly and carefully along the muddy riverbank, and every few steps, they stopped as the old woman pointed at some plant or root or flower that the little girl then bent to pick up from the ground and place carefully in the woven basket she held in the crook of her elbow.
The woman could have been in her seventies or eighties. Her brown face was weathered with deep wrinkles, and her long iron-gray hair was caught in a thick braid that hung over her shoulder. She moved slowly and painfully, and every so often she paused to press her hand against her spine.
The little girl was maybe seven years old, but she was painfully thin. Her huge dark eyes strained out from a face that looked prematurely old due to the sharp hollows under her cheekbones and the prominent dark circles underneath her eyes. But her fingers moved nimbly, and she looked up at the old woman with such a sparkling smile that it melted my heart to see it.
And then the little girl looked up, and her mouth dropped open as she spotted us.
She grabbed hold of the old woman’s arm and began chattering excitedly in Spanish to her, but when the woman saw us, her face changed into a mask of terror.
She let out a high-pitched gasp that was somehow even more full of fear than a scream would have been. She grabbed hold of the little girl’s arm and dragged her close.
The little girl gave a little cry of alarm.
The old woman shouted something at us in a trembling voice.
I realized two things at once. Firstly, the only thing that was stopping this woman from running away from us was her age and infirmity. And secondly, she was using her own body to shield the child from us.
She’d seen our guns, she knew that we were armed, and her first instinct was to protect the child with the only tool she had: offering up herself first.
“Dia,” I said in a quick low voice. “What is she saying? Can you tell her that we’re not going to hurt her?”
“Esta bien,” Dia called. “No te vamos a lastimar.”
“Porque tienes armas?” the old woman shouted back.
“She’s asking why we have guns,” Dia translated. “Which is a fair point, I guess, we do look pretty threatening.”
We dropped our guns, and I stepped forward with my hands raised in the air.
“Dia,” I murmured. “How do I tell her that she’s safe and we’re not going to hurt her?”
“Estas segura con nosotras,” Dia replied.
I managed to call out the words, although from the amused look on Dia’s face, I guessed that my pronunciation left something to be desired.
The little girl’s face peeped out from behind the woman’s legs.
“Is that your granddaughter?” I asked. “We have treats that she might like. Cookies?”
I winced as I realized how much that made me sound like a weirdo hanging around a playground, but when Dia had finished translating, the little girl’s face lit up with delight, and she turned to the old woman eagerly. I didn’t need to speak Spanish to recognize the anxious pleas of a kid who really wanted a sweet treat.
The old woman hesitated still.
“I’ve got cookies that I baked earlier,” Letty said. “Shall I bring them out?”
“Yeah, that’s good,” I replied.
“What flavor are they?” Dia asked.
“Chocolate chip,” Letty replied.
“Mmm,” Dia crooned. “Don’t give them all to her, save some for me.”
“Literally how old are you?” Shannon demanded.
“What, I like cookies,” Dia responded. “Tell me that you don’t want some of Letty’s chocolate chip cookies.”
“Okay, fine,” Shannon sighed. “Letty’s chocolate chip cookies are the best, okay?”
“Maybe if you ask nicely, then the little girl will agree to share them with you both,” Ally said with a chuckle.
Letty came back up on deck holding a plate of cookies.
The little girl’s eyes opened wide, and she tugged on the old woman’s sleeve pleadingly. The old woman sighed and nodded, and the little girl gave a squeak of delight.
Letty leaned over the side of the yacht, and the two strangers approached. The old woman was still cautious, and she held on tightly to the little girl’s hand to prevent her from rushing on ahead.
Letty saw the problem just as I did. The old woman was too stooped over to reach up the side of the yacht, and the little girl was too short, so Letty carefully climbed over the side of the boat and jumped down onto the bank and held out the plate of treats.
The little girl carefully took two cookies and gave one to the old woman, and then, after a gentle nudge, she looked up into Letty’s face with the sweetest smile and chirped something in Spanish.
“She says thank you very much,” Dia translated. “And she says you’re very pretty.”
“Why, thank you, honey.” Letty smiled down at the little girl. “What’s your name, then, sugar? Uh… Como te llamas?”
“Soy Marisol,” the child replied. “Esta es mi abuela.”
“Mucho gusto,” the old woman said. “Me llamo Eva.”
Her eyes were still darting around the group, and the tension was still clear to see in every line of her body.
“Mi nombre es Letty,” the Southern woman said carefully.
“Nice,” Dia approved.
“Oh, so what, Letty gets a compliment, and I get a patronizing smile?” I complained in a light-hearted tone.
“Yep.” Dia smirked. “The difference is that Letty’s pronunciation is actually good.”
“You’re brutal, you know that, right?” I told her.
“Always.” She preened. “Letty, throw me a cookie.”
“Come down and get one yourself.” Letty rolled her eyes and smiled at Marisol who had already devoured her cookie and was looking eagerly at her grandmother’s.
Dia jumped down onto the bank and took a cookie from the plate, shoved it into her mouth, and then took another and held it out to Marisol.
“Te gustaria?” she asked.
Marisol was almost beside herself with glee, and as soon as her grandmother nodded approval, she crammed the cookie into her mouth.
Dia spoke to the grandmother and from her tone of voice, she appeared to be asking her questions.
Eva replied, and the two of them were soon gesturing and speaking with their hands as much as with their mouths.
Letty crouched down to be on Marisol’s level, and the little girl started showing her what was in her basket. Despite her thin stature and the sickly cast to her naturally dark skin, the little girl was still clearly trying to carry on with as much normalcy as she could, and it was very sweet to see the care and attention that Letty gave her.
“Cute kid,” Shannon commented.
“Yeah.” I smiled as I watched Letty exclaim over the plants and flowers that the little girl had gathered. “Reminds me of when Sammy was that age. So much energy and curiosity. Asking questions all the time about every single little thing.”
“Why is the sky blue? Where do babies come from?” Shannon chuckled. “I know that’s the part of parenting you’re supposed to dread, but honestly that part seems so exciting to me. You’ve got a whole curious little person, and the world is brand new to them. You can help them keep that wonder and delight for as long as possible. I mean, look at Sammy. It doesn’t seem like she’s lost that yet.”
“No, she hasn’t,” I agreed in fond tones. “The questions might have changed, and of course she’s got the internet and her encyclopedias now so she doesn’t need to ask me everything anymore. But I love that she’s still so thirsty for knowledge. She’s always searching for answers.”
“She’s a really special girl,” Shannon agreed.
There was a smile on her face that I thought I recognized, and an answering smile spread across my face.
“You want kids, then?” I asked.
Shannon looked around at me quickly. She opened her mouth, closed it, and looked away again with her cheeks flushing.
“Is it that obvious?” she said with a rueful laugh.
“You just have a light in your eye.” I nudged her gently. “I’m a bit surprised, I guess. I would have thought you’d want to focus on your career as a lawyer.”
“Oh, yeah, I mean, I want that, too.” Shannon paused. “Well, I did want that. I’m not sure what the legal landscape is going to look like in the years to come. But no, I want a family, too. I’ve always wanted that. I just love babies, and I think it’s one of the most amazing things we can do to create more little humans. Families are just great.”
She broke off with another rueful laugh.
“Listen to me.” She shook her head. “Ranting about babies.”
“I think it’s cute,” I told her with a smile. “I can totally see you as a mom, too.”
“Thanks, Drew.” Shannon gave me a soft smile in return.
Ally had been standing by the railing silently during our conversation. Now she turned around, and I was surprised to see a pained look on her face that I couldn’t quite read.
“That little girl is sick,” she said. “I don’t know if Dia’s asked about that.”
“Ask her to ask the grandmother,” Shannon suggested.
“Yeah.” Ally hesitated. “Would you mind doing it?”
“Sure, babe.” Shannon shot the redhead a puzzled look, but she leaned over the rail and called down to the Latina below. “Hey, Dia. Have you asked if they’re okay? The little girl’s so thin, do they need any food or anything?”
“Yeah, give me a sec.” Dia said something to the grandmother, and then she climbed up the ladder and rested her elbows on the railing. “I did ask because, not going to lie, I thought they might be starving or cut off here without any food. But they live in a village nearby, and they’re actually doing okay. They seem to be flying under the radar when it comes to dragon attacks, and they were pretty self-sufficient here anyway even before the storm, so they don’t need any food. They were out foraging just now.”
