‘What about these?’ he said, pointing to the things she’d acquired on the boat. ‘Were these lost?’
Blossom made a sullen face, but said nothing.
‘You can’t steal their stuff,’ Pod said. ‘That’s rule number one.’
Blossom nodded, not meeting his eyes.
‘I mean it. Not even little things. Not even if you think they’ll never ever notice. Are you listening?’
‘Yes!’ Blossom said crossly.
‘Do you promise?’
‘Yes!’
Pod hoped he could believe her. ‘Okay,’ he said. ‘Can I take these?’
‘They’re offerings!’ Blossom protested. ‘You can’t take back an offering!’
‘Which is worse,’ Pod countered, ‘taking back an offering, or giving the Lady something which isn’t yours?’
While Blossom was still thinking about this, he scooped up the missing objects.
‘Some people have so much, and other people have nothing,’ Blossom burst out bitterly. ‘It’s not fair!’
‘I’ll tell you what’s not fair,’ Pod said, beginning to lose his temper. ‘It’s being here on their boat, eating their food, never lifting a finger to help and then stealing from them.’
‘I never asked to come here,’ Blossom shot back.
‘But you are here,’ Pod said, ‘and you can’t do stuff like this. Not to my friends. Not to me.’
Blossom looked at him defiantly, but her chin was starting to quiver. ‘You care more about them than you care about me.’
‘That’s not true,’ Pod said.
‘This is just like being back on the ship,’ Blossom said bitterly. ‘Someone’s always taking your stuff away from you.’
‘It wasn’t your stuff!’ Pod said, for what felt like the millionth time. Then he thought about what she’d just said. ‘Is that what used to happen on the ship? People would take your stuff?’
Blossom nodded. ‘Anything good you got, someone was always trying to take it away from you, unless you hid it real good.’ She paused. ‘Stealing was a big crime. Get caught stealing, they’d put you off the ship, send you to jail. Sometimes they did dorm searches in the middle of the night. Tore everything apart looking for stolen property.’
‘Did they find any?’
‘Found all sorts of things. The other girls said security did it to take all our stuff for themselves. Sometimes people just did it for revenge—snitch on someone you didn’t like, get them into trouble, get them sent off the boat.’
‘That’s terrible,’ Pod said.
Blossom shrugged, then looked at him, defiance mixed with fear. ‘So what are you going to do to me?’ she asked.
Pod was baffled by the question. Then he realised she meant was he going to punish her. ‘Nothing,’ he said.
‘You’re not going to send me away?’
‘Why would I do that? I risked my neck to get you back.’
‘Maybe now you wish you hadn’t,’ she suggested, her voice wobbling.
Pod felt a twist of sorrow and guilt. ‘You’re my sister,’ he said. ‘Getting you back is all I’ve thought about since the day they took you.’
Abruptly, she put her arms around his neck and hugged him fiercely. Slightly surprised, but relieved, Pod hugged her back. ‘Tell them I’m sorry,’ she said in a harsh whisper.
Pod went back up on deck and handed out the missing objects.
‘She won’t do it again,’ he said. ‘She’s sorry.’
‘Why did she do it?’ asked Essie.
Pod thought for a moment about how to explain it. ‘Cruise ships,’ he said finally. ‘Lots of poor people locked up with lots of rich people.’
‘We’re not rich,’ Will said. ‘Except for Essie. She’s rich.’
‘Don’t tell her that,’ Essie said with a grin.
Pod looked embarrassed all over again.
Annalie felt sorry for him. ‘She just needs to get to know us a bit better,’ she said. ‘Let’s forget it ever happened.’
Graham makes a contribution
Nothing more did go missing, and the weeks that followed were marked by a series of storms which made for some less-than-pleasant sailing. But the strong winds that brought the storms also helped them on their way, and one day they came unexpectedly on their first sign that Sundia was close by.
Will was the first one to spot the floating object. ‘What do you think that is?’ he asked.
‘Some sort of buoy,’ Annalie said.
‘Pretty big buoy,’ Will said.
‘Is it for fishing?’ Essie suggested. ‘Some kind of marker?’
‘It’s got a solar panel on it,’ Pod pointed out. ‘Why would it need a solar panel?’
‘Is it a scientific instrument?’ Annalie suggested. ‘Maybe it measures the waves or something.’
‘I know what it’s for,’ Will said suddenly. ‘It’s part of Sundia’s coastal defences. I read something about this in that stuff you found, Essie. There’ll be more of these, up and down the coast. I think they’re all emitting a signal, and if you cross the signal and interrupt it, it sends a warning to the coastguard.’
‘Then how are we going to get to shore without letting them know we’re here?’ Annalie asked.
‘Do we risk it and hope that by the time they can send a ship after us we’re already gone?’ Essie suggested.
‘Pretty big risk,’ Annalie said.
‘Maybe we could disable the beacon,’ Pod suggested.
A thoughtful look appeared on Will’s face. ‘Maybe,’ he said.
Will paddled out with his mask and flippers to look at the buoy. He didn’t dare take the Sunfish any closer, or even the dinghy, for fear of tripping the alert, but he guessed a swimmer in the water would probably go undetected.
He swam around the buoy, wondering if it would be possible to simply detach it from its mooring. A solid metal chain held it in place, and he had nothing on the boat that would cut through that sort of metal. He began to examine the buoy itself. There was an access panel in the side, but it had been tightly sealed. To get it open, he’d have to rip out the side of the buoy, and he was still hoping he could disable it without creating any obvious signs of sabotage.
He turned his attention to the solar panel on top. Perhaps there was some way to damage or disable it to stop the buoy from recharging. He knew it must have a battery so it could keep running at night when the sun wasn’t shining, but
