39. Chapter Thirty-Nine #3
“Not quite,” Val admitted finally. “He’s bent some of the bars, and he did manage to get hold of Rune the other night. Nearly choked him to death.”
I mock-pouted. “Aww, poor Rune.”
If I remembered correctly, he was one of Val’s boyfriends. The look she gave me confirmed this—no longer placid or emotionless. I saw irritation in her eyes, bordering on contempt, before she managed to blink it away.
“We need you to calm him down,” Tobago informed me briskly. A captain’s order, not a request.
But he wasn’t my captain, not anymore. I rolled my eyes. “Why haven’t you been drugging him? I thought that was your master plan. Before your two goons tried to rape me, that is.”
I thought I might get another wince out of that, but it seemed that both Val and Tobago were steeling themselves against me now, refusing to let any emotion show.
Imagine how terrifying I was for them to have to make such an effort.
Under other circumstances, I might have been positively giddy at the power I wielded.
“Ursa is refusing to eat or drink. So even if we wanted to . . .” Val trailed off, leaving the unsaid hanging in the air.
Any of my glee at the situation immediately dissipated. Ursa hadn’t been eating or drinking? Anything? Surely he must have at least had some water. The passage of time had been confusing, cooped up in my quarters as I was, but at least four or five days must have passed. Possibly even a week.
“We need you to calm him down before we let you off on Elba,”3 Tobago said curtly. “Get him to eat and drink. Get him to stop trying to break out of the brig. Keep him from harming himself before we can get him to Haven 3.”
I shook my head. “Even if I can do that for this one visit, he’ll go back to it once he realizes I’m gone.”
“Not if you convince him otherwise.”
I scoffed, not bothering to hide my derision for Tobago or for this plan—which seemed to essentially entail me convincing Ursa to submit to captivity to ensure the crew got their reward money. “And why in the Havens would I do that?”
“Because you love him,” Val said, “and you don’t want to see him come to harm.”
Damn her. I hated them. I hated both of them as I’d never hated anyone before, except for Rawley, and that’s who they were going to be delivering my Ursa to if I played along.
How dare they try to coerce me into making this easier for them.
I would rather die. I most probably would die, as a matter of fact, and I wouldn’t let the last thing I did be tricking Ursa into being more compliant.
“Fuck off,” I said with all the venom I could muster.
Val took in a breath, looking to Tobago for help. With a sigh, he reached into his pocket, taking out a small cylindrical shape.
It took me a moment to realize what it was: the vial of bear algae I’d given to Zenny and asked for her to give to Ursa.
“We confiscated4 this before it could get into Ursa’s hands,” Tobago informed me. “Once we drop you off on Elba, we’ll find where you’ve hidden the rest.”
No, they bloody well wouldn’t. I was going to drink every last drop of it, just so they couldn’t get their grubby hands on it.
“If you cooperate now, convince Ursa to calm down, to eat and drink so we can keep him placated”—sedated—“then I’ll save this sample and give it to him right before we get to the Havens. Give him some sunlamp treatment, too, so he’ll be as strong as possible when we turn him over to Rawley.”
Give him a fighting chance, in other words.
Once the crew got their money from Rawley, I suppose they wouldn’t care much whether he was successful in mining Ursa’s genetic material or not.
And if Tobago kept his word, Ursa would be at his strongest when he faced Rawley and whatever lackeys he had doing his bidding. It might even be a fair fight then.
But that was hinging on an awful lot—if Tobago kept his word. At one time, I would have trusted him completely, without reservation. But here we were now.
Either way, Ursa and I were going to be separated. Either way, I was going to be left on Elba with whatever meager rations they would spare me, hoping for a rescue that would likely never come. Either way, Ursa was going to be turned over to Rawley once they reached Haven 3.
At least this way I could see him one last time. I could calm him, help relieve some of the fear and misery I knew he must be feeling. And I could ensure he would have his strength when he finally reached the Havens.
With a sharp intake of air, I nodded. “Fine. Fine. I’ll talk to him.”
It might be the worst thing I had ever done. And it was likely the only thing left I could do.
1. Except for Holden Caulfield, naturally. What a whinger.
2. Listlessness, refusing to eat, smashing people’s faces into walls, etc.
3. “Let me off,” as though they were taking me to do some shopping at a tourist destination.
4. I’ve thought quite a bit about Tobago’s phrasing of this. Confiscated. Does that mean Zenny hadn’t turned it over willingly? Somehow I still hope that might be true, even to this day.