Back to the ship

James was visibly excited to see Sasha as she came out of the Drunken Sailor Brenan three paces in front of her and Julien following a few paces behind, though he was apparently so eager to show Brenan that he could obey his orders that he still refused to move from the spot that he had assigned to him.

For her part, Sasha had become more at ease upon seeing for herself that Julien was with Brenan and even more so upon finding out that the same was true of James, and Brenan found himself wondering if she had anyone else upon the island that was closer to a friend to her than the two brothers as they all gathered by the side of the road, with Sasha looking tired but happy as she scratched the piece of cloth that Brenan had insisted she’d tie around her head to hide her red hair, hoping that that would make her a little harder to identify by any Veer agents that they might happen to walk past on their way back to the ship.

Said Veer agents would probably spend a lot of time down in the docks, both because they would most likely conclude that Sasha would attempt to get off the island and because they had arrived aboard a ship, not military-issue or anything but definitely one with a crew loyal to them and a lot more skilled at **** than normal sailors would be, so anything that might help to make them look less conspicuous would help, and hiding Sasha’s hair was at least something, even if Brenan would have preferred it if she had had some more baggy clothes to wear, as her blouse and tight jeans made it perfectly clear to anyone who gave her even a cursory glance that she was a woman, and a beautiful one at that. And to make things worse, Red would be coming down in a few days time, and while that of and in itself was a very good thing, even if he did think about her a little more than he was comfortable with, her physical appearance was quite similar to Sasha’s, so much so that a Veertorian agent might spot her and report it, leading those bastards to come sniffing round his ship and finding not one, but two redheads, one of which was the one that they were looking for.

Forgetting about Sasha’s appearance for now, which he felt was required if he was function as well as he ought and not be impaired by the tension brought on by the recurring unsatisfied sexual stimulation of the last couple of days, from seeing Red and turning down Cindy’s advances to doing the same to the barmaid back at the Drunken Sailor and accidentally getting a very good look at Sasha’s breasts, Brenan instead turned his attention to the dual questions of how they were to get back to the ship and if there was anything that he could do to throw a spanner in the Veer agents’ works.

The first issue was the most pressing one, and Brenan had soon directed James and Julien to walk in front of him and Sasha, after first complimenting the brothers on their ability to follow his orders to the letter, keeping a lookout for any potential trouble up ahead and pretending once more that they didn’t know him.

The other one would have to wait, as Sasha interrupted his thoughts by asking him “What’s going on?”, a question that was no doubt brought on by the tension radiating from all three of the men whom were escorting her.

“You’re being hunted,” Brenan responded without looking at Sasha, scanning the street in front of him for any potential threats and finding none as it dawned on him that she might not have a good idea of who it was that was after her.

“Then why are you helping me?” Brenan had to admit that that was a very suitable question for her to ask him, and he tried his best to come up with a good answer to it, one that didn’t involve either his past or his fears that Red was being looked for by Veer agents.

“Those two vouched for you,” Brenan said of the Caruthers brothers and found himself surprised by not feeling as though he’d just told a lie.

“Anyway,” Brenan didn’t wait for Sasha to say anything before voicing his next question, one which came as a result of him not perceiving Sasha as an immature airhead who’d drink herself utterly wasted first chance she got, “what happened last night?”

“I’d rather not talk about it,” Sasha threw a glance at James and Julien, “at least not out here.”

“Fair enough,” Brenan admitted, allowing their conversation to peter out as he instead focused on how to deal with the Veer agents, hoping to come up with a way in which to sow a little dissent and conflict within their ranks, which would be easy enough if they were plagued by the sort of intrigue that usually prevailed amongst them. Not only would doing so provide Brenan with an immense amount of satisfaction, messing with the Veer was almost as good as sex as far he was concerned, but it would increase the chance of him and his crew getting to raise anchor and leave the island without having those bloodhounds follow them.

Spotting few potential threats on their way back to the ship, although there was always a healthy amount of suspicious character moving about in the vicinity of the harbour, Brenan now began to ponder how to deal with the fact that his crew, although consisting of people that he felt that he could trust and perhaps even like, was not one cut out for fighting. Apart from him and Red and maybe Julien, whose technical skill but lack of real experience led Brenan to peg him as someone who would one day be quite dangerous to his enemies, the crew consisted of people who would be of little worth in a fight, and he should try and do something about that if he was to make Sasha a part of his crew, rather than to be content to rely on the speed and nimbleness of his schooner to get them out of harm’s way. As such, he would be wise to focus on finding a gunnery officer straight away and perhaps even look for one more crewmember who could carry himself in a fight.

Either way, he could now see the comforting shape of his ship as they got to within twenty feet of it, with Tyler waving at them from where he was working up on deck.