‘Little thief back?’ He smiled unpleasantly. ‘You have rich daddy, too? Or do we just kill you now?’
He repeated what he’d said in his own language and the other pirates laughed. The pirate with the gun came closer, closer—
And then Will heard something.
Another high-powered motor. At first he thought it must be the first dinghy returning to the Sunfish. But then he noticed the looks of dismay on the pirates’ faces. Whoever was coming, it was not their friends.
He turned, and saw two large inflatable boats filled with Admiralty marines zipping towards them. They were exactly the same kind of inflatables that the Admiralty had sent after the Sunfish when they were chasing them across the Emperor Reef, but this time it appeared—or at least Will hoped—the marines might be on their side.
The pirates from the third dinghy abandoned the job immediately, practically shoving each other out of the way to get back to their dinghy and escape. They went zooming off back towards Brundisi and one of the two Admiralty inflatables peeled smoothly off and went after them, leaving the other one to come gliding up to the Sunfish.
Will ran to the side, his hands in the air, and shouted to the marines. ‘Quick! Please! Help us! These pirates attacked us!’
Behind him, he could hear some of the pirates talking to each other in quick, angry tones.
A marine was giving orders through a loudhailer. ‘Unknown vessel, stand down immediately! Lower your weapons and put your hands in the air!’ The same message was then repeated in Brundisan.
Will already had his hands in the air. He turned anxiously to see what the pirates were doing, hoping this wasn’t about to turn into a shoot-out, and saw them muttering and gesticulating angrily. None of them had put down their weapons.
‘Stand down now!’ the marine ordered.
Blue Hat was arguing with Football Shirt. Suddenly Green Shirt swung his gun and sprayed the Admiralty inflatable. He didn’t hit anything, but at once all the marines had their own weapons trained on the pirates. There was a single, sharp crack, and Green Shirt crashed to the deck with a yelp, his gun skittering across the deck.
‘Place your weapons on the deck and put your hands in the air now!’ the marine said again.
This time, there was no further argument. The pirates slowly and unwillingly dropped their weapons one by one and put their hands in the air.
The marines swarmed aboard, and while they were busy handcuffing the pirates, their commanding officer spoke to Will. ‘What happened here?’ she asked. ‘Was anybody hurt? Are you in need of medical assistance?’
‘I don’t know,’ Will said, starting to feel afraid that he still hadn’t seen any sign of the others. ‘I left the boat to try and lead the pirates away. I only just got back. My friends and my sister—I left them behind—they could be down below—’
He darted for the stairs to the saloon, but the marine commander stopped him. ‘Wait. We’ll make sure it’s secure.’
Will waited, filled with anxiety, as two marines went below, weapons at the ready. They weren’t gone for long before they quickly reappeared with Pod and Essie.
‘Are these your friends?’ the marine commander asked.
‘Yes, but—where’s Annalie?’ Will asked.
‘She was up here,’ Essie said, starting to look frightened. ‘When that guy made me go downstairs, he left her here on the deck. Didn’t you see her?’
Will stared at her for a moment, unable to make sense of this. Then he realised what must have happened. Either Annalie had somehow managed to get free, taken the missing dinghy and escaped, or someone had kidnapped her.
‘Is something wrong?’ the marine commander asked. ‘Is someone missing?’
‘Actually no,’ Will said. ‘I know where she is. We’re all fine here.’
Essie and Pod looked at him in astonishment.
‘Thank you so much for rescuing us, though,’ Will said, trying his hardest to sound sincere and trustworthy. ‘We were lucky you came along when you did. They just about had us. So are we going to be all right to go soon?’
‘Go? We can’t authorise you to leave yet. We’ll need you to come back to our vessel and make a report.’
‘Oh,’ Will said. ‘Sure. Very happy to make a report. Thing is, we’re just waiting for our other crewman to come back. She’s off getting supplies now but she won’t be gone for long. Would we be able to come and make our report as soon as she’s back?’
The marine commander looked at him through narrowed eyes. ‘We can stay and escort you back to our vessel. We don’t mind waiting.’
‘No, we don’t need an escort. Just give us an hour or so. Two, max. And then we’ll fill out a complete report. We definitely want you to throw the book at these guys.’
‘Right,’ the marine commander said. She obviously wanted to get back to processing the pirates, but she was still a little sceptical about what was going on here. ‘Are there any adults on board this vessel?’
‘My sister, the one who’s coming back. She’s the adult,’ Will said.
The marine commander gave him one final look, then nodded. ‘Okay,’ she said, ‘but don’t leave it too long. We’re shipping out ourselves soon.’
‘Roger that,’ Will said. ‘And thanks again for saving us.’
‘Yes, thank you,’ Essie said.
Pod was mute.
The marine commander nodded, but said, ‘You know, you shouldn’t be out here. These are dangerous waters.’
‘No kidding,’ Will said. The commander gave him a stern look. ‘I mean, yes, we know. We’ll go as soon as we can.’
The three of them waited in silence as the marines finished handcuffing the pirates and collecting up all their weapons. Then the pirates were separated into two groups and taken off the Sunfish, some in the pirates’ own dinghy, the rest on the Admiralty inflatable.
‘I wish they’d let us keep that dinghy,’ Will sighed as the marines pulled away, then he turned to the others. ‘Okay, now let’s get out of here.’
‘Go where?’
‘What are you talking about?
