Page 2 of Company of Thieves
our ... er ... quality time together?” Octavia’s words were spoken with her usual crisp British delivery, but there was real warmth behind the words that did much to take the sting out of them.
“I want something to do.” I let my hands drop and pinned them both back with a look that should have curled their respective hair. “Ineedsomething to do. Back in our old world, I was a champion fund-raiser. I volunteered at three different animal shelters, a woman’s shelter, and a memory care facility filled with former biker chicks who are hair-raising even in their declining years. Jack will tell you that our parents raised us to devote our lives to others.”
Octavia looked a question at him. He nodded. “She’s right. The folks were very big on giving back to the community, and Hallie took that to heart.”
“That’s why I’m going crazy just wandering around the ship being a glorified gopher.”
“A gopher?” Octavia glanced again at Jack.
“It’s someone who does a variety of menial tasks,” he explained, then knelt next to me, his hands on my knees. “I’m sorry you’re feeling out of sorts, Hal, but you are doing important work with the autonavigator.”
“Temporarily. Until Mr. Christian gets back, and even then, Mr. Mowen could do the job ten times easier than me. He’s just letting me do it because I begged him. What will I do when Mr. Christian gets back, and there’s not even a pretense of a reason to have me doing that job?” I looked into his eyes, but found no answer there.
“There are lots of things you can do around the ship,” he said slowly.
“Oh? Such as?”
“Well ... Tavy must have tasks you could help with. ...”
Octavia made a frustrated gesture, and sat on the edge of the big bed that dominated the cabin. “I wish I did, but the crew is so efficient ... and you do everything else that’s complicated, Jack. ... Hallie, you know the crew are happy to have you train on any or all of their jobs—”
“But they don’t reallyneedme to be their backup,” I interrupted, having heard this explanation all too often in the last few months. “Other than Mr. Francisco, Mr. Christian is the only one who’s chosen to take a vacation in the whole year we’ve been sailing around being thieves.”
“Pirates,” Jack and Octavia said at the same time, then sent each other adoring looks.
“If you name your organizationCompany of Thieves, then you have to suck up being called a thief,” I said grumpily, then immediately felt ashamed. “I’m sorry, that was rude.”
“I thought you liked the name,” Jack said, looking mildly offended.
“I do. I like what you guys stand for. I like that we’re basically three airships full of Robin Hoods helping people who need it, but that doesn’t mean I enjoy having no part in that do-gooding. I need a cause, Jack, something I can sink my teeth in. You and Octavia are always so busy, what with planning where we’re going to raid next, and delivering the supplies, and picking up gossip about whose ships are where, but I don’t have anything to do.”
“What is it you want to do?” Octavia asked, her brown eyes serious.
“Well ...” I gnawed on my lower lip for a few seconds. “I’ve been thinking about it. I don’t have the mechanical wherewithal to help Mr. Mowen with the machinery. Besides, that’s kind of Jack’s forte.”
“I do have a nanoelectrical engineering degree,” he agreed.
“And I’m not into cooking, so steward is out.”
“Do you enjoy the navigating?” Octavia asked, hopeful.
“Not really. The machine hates me. So that leaves just one thing,” I said, giving them both a nod.
“Bosun’s mate?” Jack smoothed down his hair. “I think Dooley would have a thing or two to say about that.”
“No, silly. I’ll be the ship’s fighter.”
They both stared at me like they’d never seen me before.
I was quite pleased to explain my reasoning to them. “See, it makes perfect sense. You can train me how to use the plasma gun, Octavia, and Jack can teach me all the martial arts stuff he learned when he was doing secret stuff in the army, and someone else can teach me how to use a sword, and bingo! I’ll be the fighting expert, and the next time we run into those Black Hand revolutionary guys, I’ll beat the stuffing out of them. I’ll be the group meat shield.”
“The groupwhat?” Octavia looked confused.
“Sorry, it’s a gaming term. It means warrior. Jack and I used to play video games together, and he was always the warrior, but it’s my turn ... er ...” I stopped at her look of obvious incomprehension.
Octavia pursed her lips and turned to Jack.
“It was after your time, sweetheart,” he told her. “They were games we used to play on a device like the autonavigator.”
