Page 11 of Aleko
“Good morning,” Lia said cautiously.
“I’m Trevor Green, and that there is my brother Colin. What’s your name, darlin’?”
Ordinarily, Lia would have answered—they might be in jail, but foreigners had money and often needed translators—butagain, she felt the tremor of unease.
“Don’t bother,” said Colin, but it was not in English. Lia always understood what was being said, but sometimes switching between languages took her a moment to catch up. “You’ll get your ears boxed like the Russian.”
It was Welsh. The Welsh language videos on BBC 4 had been hilarious, but she hadn’t watched many of them. She and her parents had only stayed two weeks in the UK on their way to Italy and Greece.
“Do not be impolite,” said Lia, stretching to remember any Welsh. “And your ears will remain unharmed.”
Trevor laughed. “A polyglot! Well, pretty Polly, please tell the coppers that we’re sorry, and we’ll pay the fine. We work for Ash Enterprises, and we need to get back before he kicks our arses.”
Lia nodded, glad now that she hadn’t told them her name. She turned to Ezio, but he was already hurrying toward her.
“Time to go,” he said. “The commandant is on his way in.”
“They work for Alekos Ash,” she said, grabbing her bag, and Ezio winced. “They say they’ll pay the fine.”
Ezio nodded and grabbed her arm, hurrying her toward the back door. She glanced back and saw that the Australians were watching her with bemused expressions, but the door swung shut before she could see if the commandant came in.
Episode 9
The Greens
Alex
The Greens turned up an hour later in a police car. Like wolves, selkies aged slower and looked young for a long time. They had been five and eight when their parents had died on theStrumwolke, but they looked no more than thirty-five.
Alex went out to meet them, expecting to at least lay out bribe money, but instead, the pair hopped out, shook hands with the police officer who was driving, and then waved him goodbye.
“Crikey,” said Trevor. “Sorry about that! Colin and I got a little tangled up with the constabulary last night. We did not know that’s what the booze bus looked like around here.”
“I notice you got out of it all right,” said Alex drily.
“Once the translator tossed your name around, we were out in two shakes,” said Colin with a grin. “Apparently, they don’t want to see you crack the shits.”
“I do tend to spread my unhappiness around when I’m annoyed,” said Alex. Trevor and Colin chuckled. Alex raised an eyebrow.
“Ah, right,” said Colin. “Again. Sorry. That fourth bottle of ouzo went down so easy, though.”
“It usually does,” agreed Alex. “Would you like to actually start work now?”
“Sooner we’re in the water, the better for my tastes,” said Trevor. “How did it go with the warlocks last night?”
“There were complications,” said Alex tightly. “We’ll try again tonight.”
“Well, count on us if you want extra hands,” said Trevor jovially. “We don’t mind knocking a few skulls together, andwe’re right handy with taking bodies out to sea.”
“Thanks,” said Alex, realizing Trevor was being genuine and appreciating the offer. Selkies had a reputation for being the idiots of the Shifter world, but Alex thought it was more that they were light-hearted. It wasn’t that they couldn’t be serious. It was that they didn’t like it. Culturally, they tended to express solemn emotions with a joke. If they offered to help him move bodies, they were serious, which wasn’t a small thing.
“I don’t like that they’re here just as you’ve turned up…” Colin’s expression was more solemn than his brothers.
“Neither do we,” said Alex.
“Do you really think it’s theSturmwolke?” asked Colin, fiddling with the strap of his bag.
“Come in and take a look,” said Alex.
