The rest of the plan

Aware that the raid on Carrotop’s hideout had led to at least three deaths, as well as considerable destruction to private property Brenan knew that even in laid back Freeport there were bound to be repercussions.

If he had allowed himself the luxury of waiting to nightfall at least he could have avoided the numerous witnesses that stood by gawking as Julien loaded Sasha's body into the wagon. However if had interpreted Spider Lady’s intentions correctly, he was pretty sure that she planned to be back before the evening tide. Waiting for nightfall could have been a fatal flaw. As soon as Sasha was safe under wraps Julien turned back to the building and raising his sword dramatically yelled out the words that Brenan had drilled into his head.

"Keep away from the Peregrine! And keep away from our women!" He was perfect, thought Brenan, a young good looking swordsman yelling threats about his ship's honor. Brenan felt a little bad about saddling Roland Carlin with his mess. By all accounts Captain Carlin had quite a bit more integrity than many of his peers, but Brenan knew he planned to sail in just a few hours. Two other factors made the Peregrine the perfect candidate to confuse both the Veer and the good townsfolk of Freeport who had (admittedly legitimate) strong feelings about people using gunpowder to blow up buildings in town. The first factor was Carlin's 2nd officer - Gene or Sean or something like that - who was a young swordsman whose appearance was not unlike Julien’s except for the color of his hair. Julien’s chestnut locks were mostly hidden under the black bandana because of the Peregrine crew's habit of wearing black bandanas on their heads, arms and necks.

“Come on Gene!” Brenan yelled to him and Julien followed him onto the wagon that Mr. Michaels had already had moving through the crowd of gawking onlookers.

As Brenan and his men moved out of eyesight of the original witnesses he ripped the dark cloth from his right arm. He wondered just how many enemies he had managed to make in this one raid to free Sasha. Certainly both Carrot top and Spider Lady would not be happy, but now possibly the burgers of Freeport and the pirate frigate Peregrine and all her crew once (or if) they figured out what he had done.

"OK men, take these bandanas off and try not to draw any more attention to yourself than you have to." Brenan took over driving the wagon as soon as everyone else had gotten off the wooden bed. As Brenan got the wagon moving again he caugh a glimps of Tyler and Sasha slipping into the water under the closest pier. He hadn't considered the added difficulties of Sasha being **** when he had drawn up the plan and decided with a shrug that it was too late to start changing the plan now.

At least the water won't be as cold as it was just a few months ago, he consoled himself with a grim smile as he slapped the horse into a slow trot and pulled away from the rest. If all went according to plan, Mr. Michaels and Julien would walk back to the ship together, Tyler and Sasha would take the slightly shorter but slower and much damper path, and he would take the wagon with the incriminating crossbows to the market where he would fill it with the rest of the supplies he needed.

Giving the horse a slight tap with the reigns he picked up the pace a little as he turned onto busy Market street. First stop was the coopers. He needed several more water barrels; the barrels on board seemed to have a permanent stench, and he’d seen signs of leaking from more than one.