‘I already told you,’ she stalled. ‘I don’t know where she is now. If she’s not answering her shell, I have no way of getting in touch with her.’
Red Bandana didn’t need this translated. He was already talking.
‘Then you’re no use to us,’ the boy translated. ‘We contact the other buyer now.’ Red Bandana was already reaching for his own shell.
‘Wait!’ Annalie said, trying not to panic. ‘Did I give you this call ID?’ She reeled off her own.
Red Bandana gave a nasty smirk.
‘No, you didn’t,’ the boy said. ‘Whose is that?’
‘It’s mine,’ Annalie said. ‘I left my shell behind on the boat. Hopefully someone’s still there to answer it.’
‘Your brother?’ the boy said. ‘The other kidnapper?’
‘That’s the one,’ Annalie said faintly.
‘Will he be willing to talk business?’
‘I expect so,’ Annalie said.
She was taken back to the room, her mind reeling. The pirates knew who she was; they had recognised Essie. The fact that Red Bandana was still hoping to convince the others to hand Essie over to him had to mean that the pirates had not managed to capture the others. They were still free!
This was the first good news she’d had, and she felt a surge of joy as she thought this through. But if they’d managed to escape, where were they now? And why wasn’t Essie answering her shell?
She decided not to worry about that. There were a million reasons why that might be, including the most obvious: they were somewhere at sea with no signal.
She hoped it didn’t mean they’d given her up for dead and sailed away. But she didn’t think they’d do that.
No, they were probably somewhere nearby, planning their next move. For a moment she felt hopeful at the thought that they might be planning a rescue attempt, but that hope was quickly replaced by the fear that they might be planning a rescue attempt. If it went wrong, they could all wind up as prisoners.
She wished she could remember exactly what the kidnapping article had actually said. It had certainly mentioned a ransom demand. She didn’t think there had been anything in there about a reward. Or had there?
If the pirates had smelled the chance of a reward, they wouldn’t just be after Essie. They’d want to capture all of them.
There would be no exchange, she realised. That was just a ruse to get them all in one place. Then Red Bandana would capture the lot of them and sell them off for as much as he could, to Essie’s parents, the Admiralty, the Duxan government—whoever was willing to pay the highest price.
Annalie put her head in her hands, realising she had just made things a thousand times worse. Why didn’t I lie to them about who I was? she thought. She’d assumed that because the pirates were poor that they were technologically backward. But the links worked, even in Brundisi, and information was highly valuable.
I wish there was some way I could talk to the others myself, she thought. Send them a message. Warn them not to come.
But she couldn’t imagine how she could convince the pirates to let her do that.
‘You’re very quiet,’ Cherry said, from a corner of the room. She looked up; he was watching her with a rather penetrating look. ‘How did things go in there? Any new developments?’
Annalie hesitated. There had been plenty, but not many that she wanted to share with an Admiralty officer. ‘They still haven’t been able to contact my friends,’ she said. ‘They wanted me to come up with more numbers.’
‘Did you have any?’
She nodded. ‘I had to. They were threatening to sell me to this other buyer.’
‘Is it a real number?’
‘It’s real, but I don’t know how much help they’re going to be.’ She paused. ‘I think it’s possible my friends escaped.’
Cherry looked pleased. ‘That’s great! Do you think they’ll be able to help you get out of here?’
‘I don’t know,’ Annalie said uneasily. ‘I guess we’ll find out.’
She lapsed into silence again, returning to her thoughts.
Perhaps she could convince the pirates to pass on a message? Something that would give the others a clue that this was a trap? She thought and thought. Then an idea came to her.
She went and knocked on the door. ‘Hello! Excuse me! I need to talk to someone!’ She kept on banging and calling until the door opened. Red Bandana himself stood there. ‘We need to talk,’ Annalie said.
‘So you see, my brother still thinks he can get the money out of Essie’s parents himself. He doesn’t believe it’s hopeless. Personally I think it was time to give up months ago. We’ve done all we can and we failed. So I’m happy to let you have her and see what you can do. But my brother’s not going to give her up so easily.’
Annalie waited while the boy translated all of this. Red Bandana listened carefully, his frown deepening. When the explanation ended, Annalie continued. ‘He might agree to hand her over, or say he agrees to it. But he won’t actually mean it. So when you talk to him, you should tell him Annalie told him to remember Gloradol.’
‘Remember Gloradol? What does that mean?’
‘He’ll know what it means.’ Annalie could see that this explanation did not satisfy them, so she elaborated. ‘We had a chance to make some money in Gloradol, and he stuffed it up. He won’t want to make the same mistake twice.’ Red Bandana listened to the translation, studying her, his eyes narrowed. Annalie gazed back at him, hoping she sounded convincing. ‘I don’t want this dragging on any more than you do,’ she said. ‘Just tell him to remember Gloradol. He’ll get the message.’
She hoped and prayed she was right.
The trade
‘Is this Will Wallace?’
‘Yes,’ Will said cautiously. The Sunfish rode at anchor in Doria harbour. The three of them plus Graham were gathered around Annalie’s shell.
‘We have your sister,’ said the voice on the shell. ‘Do
