Yes

“It’ll be worse for her if we don’t get her out,” Brenan decided, not wanting to get into the gritty details of how the Veer would treat Sasha, his mind recoiling from the mere thought of what the red-haired sadist that had captured her would gladly subject her to, “the phrase ‘a fate worse than ****’ is a little worn out…”

“But you can’t think of one that’s more appropriate,” Michaels cut in, making it sound more like a statement than a question.

“Exactly,” Brenan assumed a fairly grim expression.

“Captain, you’re asking me to risk killing a woman,” Michaels protested without altering his voice, looking slightly taken aback at the prospect of violating his own private code of chivalry, a code which Brenan had begun to suspect was rather firm.

“Consider it a mercy killing, if it’ll come to that,” Brenan suggested, glad that each step that they took was bringing them closer to his ship, even if it felt like he was abandoning Sasha. Still, he couldn’t simply run back there, kill the guard and kick in the door to the outhouse, not unless he was hellbent on having her murdered by that scrawny little sicko.

“Besides,” he added after a brief pause, “you were acting on my orders so the responsibility’s mine, so feel free to hate me if things go wrong.”

“Captain?” Michaels seemed uncertain of whether or not Brenan was an expert on deadpan humour or if he was being serious.

“Forget it,” Brenan ordered him, “I’m taking you back to meet my crew, they’re good lads to a fault, but my guess is none of them has got any proper experience of this sort of thing.”

“How many are they?” Michaels asked.

“A grand total of four, not including me, though two of them will have to stay behind to guard the ship, just in case our inquiries into this whole sordid affair hasn’t gone unnoticed.”

“Four’s a fairly small crew for a schooner, do you want me to start considering how to ease the workload for each crewmember?”

“Well, there’s six of them actually,” Brenan felt somewhat ill at ease about handing out information on his crew to Michaels.

“I see, and are there any women aboard?” Michaels surprised Brenan through this revelation that he was actually aware of the fairer sex.

“There will be two of them, both members of the crew and not whores, though one of them is probably too young for a man of your age and the other’s… well…” Brenan struggled how to describe Red and why he didn’t want any other man to make a pass at her.

“Ah,” Michaels looked uncharacteristically cunning, almost as though he and Brenan now shared a secret, one which Brenan would very much like to know what it was, “say no more Captain…”

Ignoring the voice in his head that was screaming at him to request that Michaels said some more, a lot more, Brenan fell silent and led the eccentric gun officer back to his ship.

“Now,” Brenan addressed his gathered crew and Mr Michaels, who might or might not constitute a part of it, embarrassed about the fact that the group that he was speaking to wasn’t two or three times larger, “our task tonight is to free a woman by the name of Sasha.”

“She is being kept here,” Brenan pointed at the outhouse where it was located on the map that Michaels had drawn while introducing himself to the four younger men, “and is guarded by at least one man.”

“Two more are observing the location from over here,” Brenan moved his finger across the map to the spot where spider lady had left her cronies, “and will have to be taken out first, as silently and as quickly as possible.”

Both sets of brothers looked at Brenan as though they were expecting him to take care of that part of the plan, which was exactly what he was intending to do, though he was unsure as to the exact reason as to why that was the case.

“While that’s being done, I want Mr Michaels to move in and position a mine against the wall of the outhouse. Said mine will then explode and we will charge in before those inside will have had time to recuperate.”

“Julien and Tyler, you will move with Michaels while I deal with the guards,” Brenan looked up from the map to make certain that the two young men understood the gravity of the situation, “while James and Kyle are to stay here and look after the ship.”

“Right,” James had a look on his face as though he didn’t know if he should be disappointed or relieved at Brenan’s decision to have him stay on the ship.

“Once the wall’s blown, we’re going to have to move fast,” Brenan continued, “the rest of those filthy bottom-feeders are bound to have heard it in and will be closing in on our position with all the speed that they can manage. If we stay too long, we’re likely to be vastly outnumbered.”

“How are we going to get back to the ship?” Julien asked.

“If everything goes well, then we’ll move away from the outhouse as fast as possible and work our way back here through the alleys and backstreets, with me walking point and you three protecting Sasha.”

“A-a-and if it d-doesn’t g-go well?” Now it was Tyler’s turn to ask something, and Brenan took a quick glance at the other to make sure that none of them were rolling their eyes at his stutter.

“Then we’ll head for the waterfront, where you will swim back with Sasha while I, Michaels and Julien stay behind and fight our way out.”

“So, my intention is to go with Michaels and acquire the explosives and the firearms that we’ll need to pull this off, so are there any more questions?” Brenan added as the others sat silent and glanced down at the map on the table in front of them.