The pirate dinghy burst out into the channel behind him. Will glanced back, hoping the presence of the Admiralty ship would deter them from chasing him any further. It didn’t. The three pirates in the dinghy were so intent on him they didn’t seem to care that there was an Admiralty ship right there. They turned their engine up full throttle and came after him, guns at the ready.
Will’s heart sank. He’d been sure the presence of the Admiralty would frighten the pirates off. It had certainly frightened him when he saw them yesterday. But nothing seemed to scare these guys. He would simply have to try and outrun them.
Now it was just a speed game—who could go faster? The two boats were identical, and both drivers were equally determined. Will’s dinghy, with only one person in it, sat a little higher in the water. Will headed for open sea once more.
Essie took one trembling step down the stairs, then another. The saloon smelled horribly of gunpowder and blood. She knew Pod must be down here somewhere, but she couldn’t see him. Glass was strewn over the floor. Blue Hat held her tightly, the knife prickling against her throat.
‘Pod?’ she said. ‘Please don’t shoot.’
‘You try anything,’ Blue Hat called, his voice very loud in her ear, ‘I cut your friend. I’ll do it!’
For a long moment there was silence, then they heard a muffled banging coming from the cabin. Blue Hat called something in his own language, and some other voices responded from the other side of the door.
‘You got four of my people,’ Blue Hat warned. ‘But I got two of yours. Better come out now, or bad things gonna happen.’
Still there was silence. Blue Hat kept swivel-ling cautiously, not sure where Pod was hiding in the narrow space, knowing he had to be close.
‘I count to three,’ he said, ‘then I cut. One…Two…’
There was a sudden eruption of feathers and squawking from behind the cabin door. Graham flew at Blue Hat, screeching and furious, his ferocious claws extended. Blue Hat momentarily relaxed his grip on Essie as he fended off Graham. She twisted away from him and stumbled into the saloon, glass crunching underfoot, only to see Blue Hat swing viciously at Graham with his knife. Suddenly there was blood on feathers, Graham was tumbling to the floor, and Pod erupted from the cabin door with a great cry of ‘No!’ Blue Hat lunged for Pod, grabbing the other end of the gun he held and wrenching it from his grasp. The pirate swung it around and covered both Pod and Essie with the gun, and suddenly it was all over.
Blue Hat grinned. ‘Kids shouldn’t play with guns,’ he said.
He took a step over to the other cabin and unlocked it, setting free the other four pirates, who were bloodied and damaged but alive.
‘Now,’ he said to Essie. ‘What you say about a rich daddy?’
Up on deck, Annalie waited tensely. There had been no more shots fired, but she could hear voices. What was going on down there?
Suddenly, there was movement beside her. Red Bandana, who’d been felled by Will’s first and only spray of bullets, was clambering to his feet. Blood seeped from a wound on his head, but it didn’t seem to be troubling him. His eyes glinted with greedy malice as he looked around the boat, trying to understand what had happened.
His look swivelled back to Annalie, now alone at the mast. He looked thoughtfully at the door that led down to the saloon, then came to a swift decision. He walked towards her, pulling his knife from his belt.
Will could see the Sunfish now, dead ahead. The sails were down and she was adrift. He peered up ahead, trying to see what was going on. There was no one on deck, and the first pirate dinghy was missing. Was that a good sign? A bad sign? Had Pod somehow, miraculously, managed to retake the boat from the pirates by shooting his way out of the saloon?
Or was he too late, and the pirates had already taken the others prisoner?
He zoomed up to the Sunfish and slewed to a stop, his mind already racing ahead. At least some of the pirates could still be aboard, so what could he use as a weapon? His speargun, which had proven itself before as a weapon against the Admiralty, was unfortunately secured in a locker down below. The slingshot was also somewhere below, probably in the girls’ cabin. Essie had used it very effectively on the pirates who’d come after them yesterday, but he wondered if the same trick would work twice, even if he could get to it.
He tied up the dinghy and crept up the ladder, sticking his head up for a cautious look around. Nope—definitely no one on deck. He went over to the doorway that led to the saloon, hoping he might be able to hear what was going on down there.
Voices. Not Pod or Essie or Annalie’s voices.
The pirates were still here, then.
Moving as quietly as he could, he crept across the deck to an equipment locker, pulled out some heavy metal weights, quickly tied them to the end of a rope, and then moved into position.
The roar of the third dinghy grew louder and then the engine stopped. Will got a firm grip on the rope. The first pirate head came up—and Will let fly with the rope. The heavy weight smashed into the pirate’s arm and he yelled in pain and fury, dropping back out of sight. A second pirate head appeared, this time with a gun. Will swungagain, but missed; the second pirate recovered and trained the gun on him. The pirate shouted something; answering shouts came from below, and a third pirate came climbing up the ladder. He grabbed Will
