Come With Me #3
Cal looked at the traveler line. Then toward the customs route. His jaw tightened. "Launch."
"All right."
He carried his sister toward the inner quay. Oliver watched him go. Senn returned to the skiff. "We need marker poles."
Oliver joined him. They made the crossing three more times. The second trip carried two convalescents and an orderly. The third carried Cal's sister, Cal and a cook who spent the entire journey insulting the navy at a volume requiring no supernatural assistance.
The fourth brought empty stretchers back. By then the main station had placed floating markers along the route Oliver and Senn had found. His sense of the water had become poles, rope and instructions other people could use without him.
He liked that better than he expected. The traveler took most of the annex population. The customs launch took eleven. Seven remained in the stone house. Talia and Lessa were among them. Oliver stood on the main quay when Kelm read the number.
"Seven."
"All choosing to remain?"
"Five are waiting for family or property. Two refuse naval evacuation entirely."
"Property?"
"One man has three cages of medicinal pigeons."
Oliver blinked. Kelm remained serious. "Apparently expensive pigeons."
"I support his principles."
"You will support nothing with feathers."
Marin came down from the signal platform. "Next bombardment window?"
Venn followed her. "Unknown. The gunboat pulled beyond the headland."
"Then send the launch again."
Kelm nodded. "Already turning."
Venn looked at Oliver. "You used it publicly."
"Yes."
"How many times?"
"Several."
"How many civilians heard you?"
"Everyone on the annex, probably both piers, your crews, Kelm's crews and at least one medicinal pigeon."
Venn's expression did not move. Oliver let the joke die. "Sorry."
She looked toward the evacuees climbing toward the ridge.
"I watched every head turn when you first spoke."
"So did I."
"At once."
"Yes."
"I have to report that."
Kelm exhaled sharply. Venn looked at him. "What would you prefer I write? That nothing unusual happened?"
"He told them they could refuse."
"I heard him."
"Then write that."
"I intend to."
Oliver watched her. "You're not accusing me."
"I'm trying to describe something I don't understand before everyone else decides they do."
That answer cost her some of his irritation.
"Fair."
Venn glanced at him. "Don't look so surprised."
"I expected more hostility."
"That can be arranged after the facts."
Marin's mouth almost moved. Venn continued. "The civilians may tell us they followed you willingly. I still need to know whether your voice changed how easy following felt."
Oliver looked across the water. "I can't answer that."
"Neither can I."
Kelm frowned. "We watched people refuse."
"We watched some people choose something other than the fastest route," Venn said. "That's important. It doesn't tell me what happened inside everyone who listened."
The sentence left Oliver less comfortable than an accusation would have. He nodded. "No."
A shout came from the Cut. The customs launch was returning. Seven passengers crowded aboard. Oliver counted automatically. One. Two. Three cages beneath an oilskin. Four. Five. Six. Talia. Seven. Lessa stood between her mother's knees wearing a sailor's coat much too large for her.
The launch bumped the quay. Kelm's people caught the lines. Talia came ashore without looking toward Oliver. Then changed direction and walked straight toward him. Venn noticed. So did Marin. Talia stopped several feet away.
"You said the stone house was an option."
"Yes."
"I stayed."
"I noticed."
"You didn't call me again."
"No."
"Why?"
Oliver looked at her. "You'd answered."
Talia studied him. Then she turned to Venn. "Who are you?"
"Lieutenant Commander Venn."
"Are you the one asking whether he bewitched everyone?"
Venn's jaw tightened slightly. "I'm asking what happened."
Talia nodded. "Then write this. I heard him. Too clearly."
Oliver suppressed a wince. Talia continued. "He said the blue line was fastest. I didn't use it."
Venn asked, "Why?"
"I didn't want my daughter hanging over open water."
"Did you feel pushed to change your mind?"
Talia looked at Oliver. Then down at Lessa. The girl had discovered one of Kelm's brass buttons and was testing whether it could be removed without permission.
"I was afraid," Talia said. "I don't know which part came from him and which part was mine."
Oliver's chest tightened. Venn only nodded. "Thank you."
Talia looked back at Oliver. "I still don't want you using that voice on her unless someone's dying."
"All right."
"You agree very easily."
"Only during emergencies."
Her mouth twitched. She took Lessa's hand. The girl looked up at Oliver. "I liked hearing you."
Talia closed her eyes. "Of course you did."
Oliver crouched enough to lower himself toward the child's height without moving closer. "I like being heard."
Lessa considered him gravely. "My mother says that's obvious."
"Your mother appears perceptive."
Talia took her away before the exchange could worsen. Marin watched them leave. Venn had already opened a notebook. Kelm looked personally offended by writing.
"This is absurd."
Venn did not look up. "This is my job."
"His voice got them off the annex."
"And I will write that."
"People refused."
"I will write that too."
Kelm frowned at the notebook as though it had insulted his family. Venn finally looked up. "If you want the report to say he controlled forty-six people, keep arguing until someone less careful writes it."
Kelm stopped. Oliver looked at Marin. She had the decency not to smile. "You're enjoying her," he said.
"Professionally."
"Disturbing."
Venn pointed the pen at him. "Hawkins."
"Yes?"
"I need your statement before you leave Saint Orra."
"How long?"
"Complete."
"You have mistaken me for a man who becomes concise under scrutiny."
"I have not."
She resumed writing. Kelm muttered something about governments inventing paperwork because imprisonment had become unfashionable.
Oliver looked toward the Cut. The western annex was empty now except for workers securing the damaged signal mast and one man carrying three pigeon cages toward a return shed.
No names remained on Kelm's missing list. He felt the knowledge settle slowly. Marin stepped beside him. Her fingers slid into his left hand. The gesture was small enough to disappear among uniforms, stretchers, wet rope and people calling names from evacuation sheets.
Oliver looked down at their joined hands. Then at her. "You still owe me this morning," Marin said.
There it was. The Riptide at three seventeen. The black cylinder. Corren's map. A version of himself who never had to live through tomorrow. Bhodi knowing something it should not have learned merely by standing in his shadow.
Oliver glanced down. His shadow lay beside him in the late afternoon light, darker at the edges than it had any right to be.
"I remember."
Marin searched his face. "After Venn."
He sighed.
"Cruel."
"You survived artillery."
"Paperwork has ended stronger men."
"Name one."
"I haven't met him. He died doing paperwork."
Her thumb moved once against his hand. Venn called his name from behind them. Oliver looked toward the upper yard. People had already begun telling the story. A man with a blanket around his shoulders said Hawkins had shouted across the entire Cut.
Someone else insisted the voice had come from the water. A sailor swore Oliver had sounded as though he stood directly beside him. A woman corrected that. No, not beside her. Inside the tide. Another man said everyone had followed the moment Hawkins called.
Talia turned from several yards away. "I didn't."
The man stopped. She kept walking. Oliver smiled. Marin followed his attention. "Do not become insufferable."
"I am appreciating the historical record."
"It is already inaccurate."
"History usually is."
Venn called him again. Oliver released Marin's hand and crossed the yard. A group of evacuated children ran past carrying blue signal flags someone had unwisely left within reach. One climbed onto an empty water barrel and waved his flag above his head.
"Come with me!"
Three children followed. Two ignored him and ran toward the kitchen. Lessa stayed exactly where she was. Oliver watched for one beat. Then he went inside to give Venn his statement.