Slocum and the Celestial Bones

by Jake Logan

  “What is it?”

  She looked at him with expressionless eyes. Slocum could not believe they had made love only minutes before and she looked so impassive now.

  “The crates are ready to open. The crown must be in one of them.”

  Slocum had nothing to say. He wanted that crown for reasons that Lai Choi San probably understood but would never allow to happen. She had her own uses for the crown and cared nothing about Ah Ming wanting her father’s bones returned to China.

  Slocum trailed her outside onto the deck. Four crates had been lined up. The crew hovered about the wood crates, pry bars in hand. Lai Choi San nodded once and four men set to ripping open the crates.

  Lai Choi San walked over and looked into the first crate to be opened. She began rummaging through the excelsior and removed several pieces of jade that had been displayed at the museum. She treated each piece with reverence, but her obvious apprehension mounted as she emptied the second and third cases and had not found the jade crown. Slocum stared into the fourth crate, as if he could see through solid wood and locate the crown.

  She worked methodically and soon had taken out everything within this crate, too.

  “Where is the crown?”

  “Not here,” Slocum said, answering because she had spoken in English. He was the only one likely to understand.

  “You do not know where it is. I watched your face. You thought it was in one of these crates.”

  “Only because you did,” Slocum said. “I’m proving to be a lousy tracker. I lost the trail some time ago.” He said nothing about being the one to lose the jade crown. The lump on the back of his head still throbbed where he had gotten clubbed.

  “Get her on deck,” Lai Choi San snapped.

  For a moment, Slocum did not understand who the woman meant. Then he remembered. Tess Lawrence had been aboard the Portobello to watch over the crates around the Cape to Sir William’s exhibition back East.

  “This is the jade from the museum—what remained after the jade crown was stolen,” Slocum said. “She can’t know what happened to it.”

  Lai Choi San spun from Slocum and spoke rapid-fire Chinese to Sung. The first mate replied in the same rapid fashion. The pirate captain turned back to Slocum.

  “Sung says he watched as the woman and her lover took the crown aboard the ship. He was unable to steal it, so he did the right thing. He rode down the coast until he saw my ship, then told of the crown being aboard.”

  “But it wasn’t,” Slocum protested. He was confused about the part of Tess having a lover and having the jade crown. If he had been able to talk to Sung directly, he was sure the mistakes could be cleared up. The only one Tess had ever shown any affection toward—other than the single time with Slocum in the curator’s office—was Sir William. And he had no time for her.

  “It was.”

  “You said she boarded the Portobello with her lover. Sir William?”

  “No, not the pompous ass who stole the crown from my emperor,” Lai Choi San. “Another.”

  Slocum tried to remember seeing Tess with another man. While she had spoken to many during the course of the exhibit at the museum, there had been no one who had produced that spark of sensuality he had found when they had made love on the curator’s desk. She had been harried and all business and a lot of other things, but never sexual.

  Except toward Sir William. Slocum still wondered if the British explorer had any idea that Tess had set her cap for him.

  “Bring her on deck. I want the crown!” Lai Choi San screamed in English, but her crew understood. Sung hurried to drop into the hold. In a few minutes he returned, carrying a bound Tess over his shoulder like a sack of suet. She struggled, kicking and trying to get away but he was too strong and her bonds were too tight.

  Sung dropped her unceremoniously onto the deck at Lai Choi San’s feet. The pirate captain glared down at her captive.

  “Where is it?”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “The emperor’s crown. You stole it, you and your lover. I want it or you will pay dearly!”

  Slocum watched as Tess wiggled about and got her feet under her. With her hands tied behind her back, she wasn’t as steady as she might have been. The pitch and roll of the junk added to her woe. She almost got to her feet when a particularly strong swell unbalanced her again. No one offered to help her rise, and Slocum held back. She had not seen him yet.

  When Tess finally got up, she thrust her face into Lai Choi San’s.

  “Go to hell!”

  “You are wrong,” Lai Choi San said softly. Slocum had never heard such menace in a woman’s voice before. “You are the one who will experience hell.” She snapped her fingers. Sung and two others grabbed Tess and spun her about.

  A large hook had been fastened to a rope dangling from the lowest yardarm. Slocum had seen hooks like this used in slaughterhouses to hold sides of beef. He started to speak, then realized Lai Choi San did not intend to impale Tess on the hook. In a way, her intentions were even crueler. The hook slid under the ropes binding her wrists. At Sung’s order, two men tugged on the other end of the rope.

  Tess let out a squeal of surprise, quickly followed by one of stark pain as her feet left the deck. She dangled inches above it. Her entire weight was supported by her wrists. The pressure on her shoulders had to be excruciating from the way she had turned pale with shock.

  Slowly turning, she swung back to face Lai Choi San.

  “You will remain this way until you tell me where the jade crown is.”

  “No, never,” spat Tess. Slocum admired her courage. Once she told Lai Choi San what she wanted to know, there was no reason for the pirate captain to let her live. As she twisted back and forth, Slocum came into her view. Her eyes went wide. Then she spat at him. “You—you—traitor!”

  “She sees you for what you are, Mr. Slocum,” Lai Choi San said, grinning wickedly.

  Slocum did not answer. The pirate knew how to manipulate people. With one sentence she had turned Tess against him by confirming the bound woman’s suspicions. Even more, she had added to Tess’s sense of isolation. She would find no allies aboard the junk.

  “How could you?” Tess tried to kick at him but the movement sent new lances of pain into her shoulders and upper body. She swallowed hard to keep from showing it. She failed.

  “If you do not tell me what I want to know, you will be tortured.”

  “Will be? Will be?” cried Tess. “What are you doing to me now?”

  “Preparing you.” Lai Choi San walked over and ran the back of her hand over Tess’s cheek. “You are so fair. The sun never touches your lovely, smooth skin.” Lai Choi San whipped out a knife and slashed. Tess’s blouse parted all the way to the waist. More quick moves completely cut the garment from her body so she was naked to the waist.

  Slocum saw the Chinese sailors nudging one another and trying not to smirk. He wondered if they had been promised Tess after she told Lai Choi San what she wanted to know.

  “The sun will burn your flesh. All of it,” Lai Choi San said, pressing the tip of her knife into Tess’s nipple until a drop of blood formed. “You will find it quite painful. You will beg for death but will be denied. Until you tell me where you hid the emperor’s crown.”

  Tess clamped her mouth tightly shut and glared at her tormenter. Lai Choi San stepped away, then barked orders in Chinese. The crew rushed to obey. She turned, stopped and looked at Slocum with cold eyes.

  “Get to work. The upper deck needs scrubbing.” Then she disappeared into her cabin.

  “You son of a bitch!” Tess shouted at him. “How could you throw in with them? They’re pirates!”

  Slocum felt eyes on him. Sung watched, as did several of the crew. They might not speak English but he believed they understood it well enough to report to Lai Choi San if he said anything that might give Tess comfort. He walked away, the woman screaming curses at him. When her voice turned hoarse, she stopped yelling and began sobbing.<
br />
  As he worked scrubbing the upper deck, Slocum watched Tess swing to and fro in her misery. Occasionally a crewman would come by and touch her. She flinched away, but there was nothing more she could do. Slocum seethed at the indignity heaped on her, but he had to bide his time. He knew Lai Choi San watched him as closely—more closely—to see what he would do.

  The one thing in Tess’s favor were the heavy clouds moving in from the ocean. A storm was building and cut off the sunlight, saving her from slow roasting. Still, being half naked on a ship this late in the autumn turned her flesh blue from cold. Burn or freeze. Neither was a decent fate.

  Even as that idea crossed Slocum’s mind, he harkened back to his ill-fated crossing of the Sierras. Freezing to death. Not a fit way to die by accident. It was certainly no way to die intentionally.

  He scrubbed harder on the deck and waited.

  Dinner was the usual bowl of rice. This time the crew sat on deck, using their chopsticks to slide the gummy rice into their mouths, but their eyes were fixed on Tess.

  Slocum used the diversion the woman afforded to slip into Lai Choi San’s cabin. He had thought hard about the layout and where she might have put his holster and six-shooter. A cabinet opened to reveal not only his six-gun but several others. Slocum emptied the other pistols, then made sure his own was ready for action. It was twilight outside, and the junk moved closer to the land, hunting for a harbor to weather out the storm.

  He left the captain’s cabin and hung his pistol in his holster over the railing. It would be exposed to the salt spray lashing against the landward side of the junk but would not be noticed by the crew in the dark. Slocum sat and watched as Tess swung like the pendulum in a Regulator clock. Every swing put that much more strain on her wrists and arms, but there was nothing he could do about it at the moment.

  The night turned blacker than the inside of a coal sack when the storm hit. Rain pelted the deck and tossed the ship about. At times, Tess was swung so far that she was over the water. This gave Slocum an idea. Rescuing her would be dangerous, but he doubted either of them had long to live if they stayed aboard the pirate ship.

  Lai Choi San came from the hold barking orders. Crewmen scampered into the rigging with surprising skill. The wind and rain did not bother them at all as they furled the sails and made them fast. Lai Choi San called again. Sung ran up. She pointed to Tess, then gestured. Slocum decided she wanted to know where her pet deck scrubber had gotten off to. He hunkered down in the shadow near the railing.

  Both the captain and her first mate disappeared into the hold, giving Slocum what might be his only chance to save Tess. If the Chinese pirates found him, they would lock him up—or worse. Slocum grabbed his six-shooter and holster, strapped it around his waist and pulled out the small blunt knife he had used to scrape the decks.

  Tess did not see him approaching, but the men in the rigging did. They yelled out a warning to Sung.

  Slocum drew his six-shooter as he strode forward, aimed and fired point-blank, hitting the man in the middle of the chest. For a split second, Slocum thought he had missed. Then the first mate dropped to his knees and clutched at the wound. There was no turning back now. If Slocum failed, he was a dead man.

  Even if he succeeded in carrying out his harebrained plan, he might die. At least that death would happen while making a bid for freedom.

  Slocum jumped to the railing, then leaped over, grabbing the rope above Tess.

  “What’re you doing?”

  “Save your breath. You’re going to need it.” He pressed close to the half-naked woman as the tossing ship sent them gyrating around wildly. He began sawing at the rope with the blunt scraping knife. Strand by strand the thick rope parted, but Slocum had to be exactly right when he cut the final strands.

  He wrapped his left arm around Tess’s waist, then slashed down savagely as the junk rolled to the side.

  Tess let out a scream as the rope parted and they plunged downward, past the railing and directly into the churning water.

  They hit the water. The cold drove the breath from Slocum’s lungs. He felt Tess react to the sudden icy immersion and suck in water. Kicking hard, he got them to the surface. She sputtered and retched to get the water from her lungs.

  Slocum immediately saw the flaw in his plan. Tess was still bound with her hands behind her, and he was weighted down by the six-shooter around his waist. A wave rose above them and smashed down with a power that should never have existed in the world.

  Once more Slocum and Tess were driven underwater. This time, Slocum had no strength left.

  18

  Slocum lashed out with the knife still clutched in his hand. Tess yelped and he knew she was still alive, but a wave washed over them again, carrying them around and around for what stretched to an eternity. When they broke the surface again, Slocum was gasping for air. He stabbed out again, this time finding the ropes holding her wrists together. A powerful slash. Then the blade slipped from his fingers and he dropped it into the churning sea.

  “Try to get free,” he shouted in her ear. He clung to her fiercely, but the strength was flowing from him like the very water pouring from above. He felt Tess strain and then nothing.

  “My arms. Free,” she gasped out. “But they’re dead. I can’t feel anything with my hands.”

  “Relax and lie back,” Slocum said. “I’ll pull you along.” He hoped he was not making a promise he could not keep. With powerful kicks, he got himself under her so he could partially support her weight. With his left arm still curled around her, he began kicking and stroking with his right arm. Not sure what direction he went, he only rode with the waves.

  They both let out loud cries of fear when the ocean rose under them and tossed them high into the air. Slocum landed with impressive force, Tess atop him. For a few seconds he lay stunned. Then the wave swept over him again, trying to pull him back into its watery bosom.

  “Land, we’re on land. Gotta get farther inland.” Slocum tugged and pulled what was little more than dead weight. He felt Tess trying to help, but there was no strength left in her.

  He stubbed his toe and fell heavily, taking her with him. This time when the pursuing wave clawed wetly at them, it found no purchase.

  “We made it,” he said. “We made it!”

  Tess shivered violently. Slocum kept his arm around her until he could muster enough force of will to stand. Even then he was as weak as a kitten. Together they managed to walk a dozen yards into the shelter of tall trees. Here, protected from the blast of the wind and the worst of the spray from the surf, they sank down.

  “I’ll build a fire,” he said. “You’re going to die of…chill.” Slocum stared at Tess Lawrence. The woman had shrunken into a fraction of her usual vital self. Her teeth chattered, and her skin was blue from exposure. Anne came unbidden to his mind. He had lost one woman to freezing. He would not lose another.

  “H-how’re y-you going to build a fire?”

  Slocum fumbled in his pocket and came out with the tin holding his lucifers. He might be drenched but the matches would be dry in their watertight tin. A few minutes later he had collected enough firewood and brush to start a small fire. It sputtered and hissed and burned quickly. He hastened to add larger twigs and then finally a dried limb the size of his wrist.

  The heat was welcome but not enough. He built the fire higher and hotter until Tess stopped shivering so much. She huddled near the heat and looked up at him.

  “I’m naked,” she said.

  “Halfway,” he allowed.

  “Isn’t there something you can do?”

  “Not right now. My own clothes are sopping wet.” Slocum took off his shirt and wrung it out. He tried to dry it for her but did not get very far.

  “The hell with it. Hold me. I need you to hold me or I’m going to die,” she said.

  Slocum realized she was right. He piled more wood nearby, then sat with Tess, his arms around her, his wet shirt covering them both. Eventually the heat dried the
shirt and afforded them a little more comfort. Sometime in the night, Tess nodded off. Slocum forced himself to remain awake to feed the fire. Without it they both might die from exposure.

  This time it was different. By morning, he was stiff and cold but both of them were still alive.

  “You saved me. Why?”

  “I couldn’t let Lai Choi San torture you to death,” he said.

  “You’d thrown in with them. You and the pirates. I don’t understand.”

  “I was their prisoner, too. I just had a little more freedom to move around.”

  “I’m so confused,” Tess said. Slocum fed the fire until it blazed again. While she sat and soaked up the warmth, he went hunting and clubbed a pair of squirrels for breakfast. Although Tess’s nose wrinkled at the sight of the scrawny animals, she ate most of them after Slocum had done as good a job cooking as he could over such a hot fire.

  Only then did he ask, “Lai Choi San’s first mate said you had the jade crown with you on the ship. How’d you get it back?”

  From the way she averted her eyes and stared into the fire, Slocum knew part of the answer.

  “You stole it,” he said. “You and your boyfriend.”

  “How’d you know about Jason?” Tess looked up at him, frightened. “Does everyone know everything?”

  “I don’t know squat,” Slocum admitted. “That’s what I heard. Was it Jason who slugged me and stole the crown?”

  Tess nodded.

  “So you two were in cahoots to steal the jade crown from Sir William all the time?”

  “Not exactly. The idea didn’t spring full-blown like Minerva from the head of Zeus. A small seed of an idea just sprouted and grew until I knew we could get away with it.”

  “After Lai Choi San’s pirates tried to steal it at the opening of the exhibition?”

  “If we could place the blame somewhere else, we could get away scot-free,” Tess said. “When Sir William left everything about the shipping in my hands, I thought we might be able to steal the entire collection.”

  “I saw the crates. They were marked as being shipped to New York.”