“Outsiders,” Shank translated for the rest of them. “But if that were true, I would have taken their bad orders instead of deciding I can handle things better than they can. And I know I can’t take your ship. I wouldn’t even try.”
Vi looked over to Caj, and they shared the sort of silent communication Allie had often seen her parents use. Caj sighed, but he seemed to have yielded on some vital point during the silence.
“We have two rooms, and you are confined to your assigned room unless you are under escort,” Caj said firmly. “If I even suspect you are trying to escape, I will gas you and deliver your unconscious body to your mother.”
“Yes, sir,” Shank agreed.
Allie opened her mouth to argue that she was not going to get locked in some six-by-nine cell for weeks on end, but Shank’s desperate look in her direction managed to make the words dry up in her throat. She would survive a little time in close quarters. Probably. She looked at Copta and Becca, and sighed. It was going to be a long voyage.
Ben spoke up. “Copta, do you want to stay with me and Becca in our room?”
“That would be nice,” she agreed.
Anger rose up like a wave as Allie realized she’d just gotten trapped into spending the whole voyage with Shank.
“Great, that’s decided then,” Ben said loudly while Allie was still trying to get all her indignant words lined up.
“We should show them to their rooms,” Vi said, chuckling as she reached over and patted Shank on the arm. “Welcome home, young wanderer, and I do hope you’ve gotten all this foolishness about cooperating with the government out of your system. Your parents never should have sent you to a government school. It gave you strange ideas.”
“Yes, Aunt Vi,” Shank said.
“It’d be nice if someone cut us free,” Allie said.
“Yes, it would be,” Caj agreed. “But since we’re not going to, that would mean we’re not nice. Imagine that.” He took her by the arm and pulled her toward the door and into the ship proper.
“Shank, this plan is terrible,” Allie complained over her shoulder.
“Yes, but it has the advantage of being better than all the other plans,” Shank answered.
Allie didn’t have an answer for that, so she fumed silently as a pirate captain or officer or something led her through a maze of inner chambers and hallways. Her wrists ached, and only then did she realize she’d been unconsciously tugging at the bonds. Unfortunately, nothing short of a hot knife was going to cut them, so she had to just go along and hope this all turned out for the best. Damn, she hated feeling helpless.
Chapter Five
Allie looked aroundat the quarters. If she had to be locked in somewhere, this was fairly nice. Large beds slid out from opposite walls, an open area in the center gave a feeling of space she wasn’t used to on a ship, and a huge data screen offered a wide menu of entertainment choices. For a prison, this was first-class. If she’d had a viewport out into space, she’d be tempted to call the ship a luxury liner instead of a pirate raider.
Shank sat on one of the stools bolted to the floor near a tall table. “Are we going to talk about this?” he asked. Allie stopped flipping through the movie choices.
