John Ringo - Against the Tide

“No, I’ve been in a brothel for the last four years,” Joie answered, tartly. “I don’t even know what ‘this’ is.”

“There you go, telling me things,” the woman said, throwing up her hands. “Although, I’ll admit that my description of you is distinctive.”

“So what do we talk about?” Joie asked.

“Nothing, by preference,” the old woman said grimly, standing up and picking up the dishes. “It will be dark in less than an hour. I will tell you where to go on the beach and give you a lantern. After that it is up to you.”

The selkie point popped his head above the water and glanced at the shore then dove again. He gestured at the team leader and signed: “Lantern.”

The team leader was less than thrilled. They’d used this drop-point before. Eventually it was going to be compromised. If it wasn’t already. But they had their orders. He waved the point in and the rest of the team followed, twisting through the water in the aquabatics that were their forte.

The point popped his head above the water again and watched the lantern for a moment. At first it was steady, then the light winked once, twice, three times. He dove again and headed for the beach, mentally saying his prayers.

When he reached the wave-line he poked his head out of the water again and looked around carefully. The lantern was out, which was right. But there was a white figure where it had been. He watched it for a moment, then looked around, reading the shadows, looking for anything out of place. It looked right, but one more time he scanned the beach, then humped forward as fast as he could, headed for the distant scree.

Joie had been told to watch for heads in the water but when the selkies came up she was surprised. She wasn’t sure at first if they were her contact but she uncovered the bullseye lantern. When the heads disappeared she covered it again. Then, when they appeared again, she uncovered it and sent the recognition sign, mentally preparing to take off for altitude if they were with New Destiny.

Her surprise was complete, however, when they burst out of the water in a welter of spray and started to cross the beach towards her. A small one was in the lead but right behind him was a huge specimen, at least three meters, with a crossbow on his back the size of a small ballista. As she watched, the big selkie reached the edge of the beach and started setting up the crossbow on a tripod as the smaller one scanned the darkness.

“You have something for us?” a selkie asked. He had moved so quietly, despite his ungainly method of travel, that she hadn’t even noticed him approach.

“A message tube,” Joie said. “And I was told to tell you this is very important. Nobody, nobody opens it but Joel Travante or Edmund Talbot.”

“I’ll pass that on.”

“I’m supposed to be free, now,” Joie said. “They said you would get me out.”

“ That is tough,” the selkie leader admitted. “I’ll pass it on, but I can’t guarantee anything. There are no ships in this area right now and the New Destiny fleet just sailed. And I doubt you could swim out.”

“I have to get out of Ropasa,” Joie said, desperately. “Technically I’m an escaped slave. They’ll cut off my wings if I’m captured.”

“Bastards,” the team leader said. “Look, we’ve had some contact with the McClure clan in Gael. Go there. I’ll pass on the word that you’re there and we’ll try to get pick-up in. Okay?”

“I can find Gael,” Joie said, grimly. “But where are the McClures?”

“West coast, just across from Hibernia.” The team leader used the fingers on his flippers to sketch in a map. “Here. Land in this area and ask anyone about the McClures. They’re either allied with them or fighting them or both. But they’ll know where you can find Laird McClure. Tell him Ryan sent you and to take care of you until we come pick you up. We pay our debts.”

“I will, Ryan,” the girl said, leaning down and kissing him on the top of his wet bullet head. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” Ryan replied. “Now we have to get the fisk out of here.” He put the message tube in a pouch on his harness and turned to the water. “You take care. Team, move it down to the water by the numbers.”

Joie watched as the team reversed its assault on the beach and then as they disappeared into the black water. It was only when the last selkie waved a flipper at her in farewell that she rubbed out the map and took off to the west, flying out and over the rapidly receding seal team.

“Admiral,” the messenger said after a tap on the door.

“Yes?” Shar and Edmund answered simultaneously, then grinned.

“It’s actually a message for Admiral Chang, Admiral.” The messenger gulped, nervously. “New Destiny fleet has sailed.”

“Which one?” Edmund asked.

“It was just that, sir, the fleet,” the messenger replied.

“Shar?” Edmund said.

“I’ll query for more information,” Chang said, getting to his feet. “But I suspect they mean it’s both.”

“How many of those devices of Evan’s do we have?” Edmund asked as the messenger shut the door.

“Only a half a dozen. More are being made on shore but getting them out to the area is going to be tricky, especially if the fleet is at sea. They’ll have to avoid them while moving into position. Tricky.”

“We’ll worry about that later,” Edmund said. “Let’s find out what’s going on.”

“Both fleets have sailed.” Major Steffani Viesseman was the fleet’s intelligence officer. Packing Shar’s staff onto the ship, especially with the addition of Edmund and his aides, had been a difficult proposition but they’d managed it.

Packing them into Edmund’s quarters was even harder.

“Right now the information is sketchy,” she continued, pointing to the large map on the wall. “But it looks like only one carrier is with the invasion fleet. The rest have separated and are headed south, between the Briton Isles and Ropasa.”

“What the hell are they playing at?” Chang asked.

“I don’t know, sir,” the G-2 admitted. “Converging columns comes to mind. They could stay to the south of the invasion force. That way if we attack the invasion force they catch us between two forces. Or they could be headed for another target.”

“Do we have anything on the composition of the attack force?” Edmund asked.

“Five carriers, anti-dragon ships, frigates and some clipper ships of a type we don’t recognize,” the G-2 said. “The mer that are shadowing them say they’re not rigged for gunnery, though.” She looked at her notes. “They say there’s an unusually large number of boats along the sides.”

“And they appear to be headed south?” Shar asked.

“At last word, sir,” the G-2 nodded.

“That’s a raid fleet.” Demetra Staffieri was the operations officer for the fleet, a petite brunette whose blue eyes turned almost black and cold when she was thinking hard, as she was now. “The clippers are carrying troops, five gets you ten, sir.”

“Blackbeard,” Edmund said, suddenly. “They’re going for Blackbeard.”

Mer children could not use their gills for the first two years of their lives. Thus they had to live an amphibian existence. Blackbeard Base had been built for the specific purpose of protecting the children and pregnant women of the mer. It was guarded by the largest force of Blood Lords outside of Raven’s Mill but there was no way that it was going to be able to hold out against the force being sent against it and everyone at the table knew it.