“Is he always like that?” Andre said.
“No,” said Martingale. “Sometimes he can be pretty abrasive.”
“If he ever perfects that process,” Finn said, “the warp disc will be as obsolete as an electric train.”
“That’s if he ever gives it to anyone,” said Martingale.
“Why wouldn’t he?” said Lucas.
Martingale shrugged. “Why should he? He’s got an ego bigger than the whole damn planet and he really doesn’t care all that much about what happens here. He lives somewhere on the other side of the galaxy and only drops in when he feels like it or when he needs something. He’s a very hard man to figure out. If I were you, I wouldn’t even bother trying.”
11
It was all they could do to get to sleep that night, knowing that in the morning they would be leaving Barataria for Drakov’s island base. There were still unanswered questions and the frustration they had been feeling at being unable to do anything, combined with the anticipation of it all coming to a head at last, made it impossible to relax.
Verne didn’t make things any easier when he returned from his night out on the town. They had been given rooms upstairs in Lafitte’s house. Verne and Land shared one, Finn and Lucas shared another and Andre had been given a room of her own. Land had still not put in an appearance, so Verne, lacking for company, ensconced himself in Finn and Lucas’s room and talked endlessly about his trip to New Orleans with Drakov and Lafitte. Paris nightlife, he had thought, would have prepared him for anything, but he was not ready for New Orleans. He had resolved early on to drink very sparingly, so he could remain sober and observe with his writer’s eye, but that went the way of so many resolutions and he came back roaring drunk. Unfortunately, while he was quite a pleasant drunk, he was one of those who cannot shut up and even feigning sleep was not enough to put him off. Finn, miraculously, finally managed to fall asleep, but Lucas remained wide awake, his eyes closed, breathing heavily, hoping Verne would notice that his audience had departed for the realm of Morpheus and take the trip himself.
Frustrated, Lucas finally was reduced to timing Verne’s sentences, which kept getting longer and longer, though they remained perfectly grammatical. To his astonishment, Verne, his accent growing thicker, launched into an extensive mono-logical sentence which went on for forty-five minutes without a break, ending finally, incongruously, in a question. Verne actually paused at that point, awaiting an answer. None was forthcoming. Please, thought Lucas, for God’s sake don’t start up again! The silence became lengthy and finally broken by a window-rattling snore from Finn, and Verne belatedly became aware of the soporific effect of his conversation.
“Oh, well, never mind,” he said, and fell asleep the very next instant, slumping forward in his chair, chin on his chest.
“That’s one for the books,” Lucas mumbled to himself. He was just starting to drift off when there came a faint knock at the door and it creaked open slightly.
“Lucas? Finn?”
It was Land.
“Oh, no,” said Lucas.
“Are you awake?” said Land.
“Ned, whatever it is, can’t it wait till morning?”
“No, no, I must tell you now,” said Land. “I will not be here in the morning.”
Lucas came fully awake. “What are you talking about?” The others slept on, both snoring loudly.
“I am leaving,” Land said. “Tonight. Within the hour.”
“What do you mean, you’re leaving? Where?”
“I’m going with Marie,” said Land. “We are running away together.”
Lucas sat up in bed. “I thought she didn’t want to leave Lafitte,” he said.
“That was before,” said Land. “All that is changed now. I love her. And she loves me.”
“Ned, she’s young enough to be your daughter.”
“She doesn’t think me old,” said Land. “And she’s no child, believe me. She knows her mind.”
“Perhaps, but it does seem changeable,” said Lucas. “You realize this is very foolish, don’t you?”
“I know what you’re going to say,” said Land. “There’s no point in running off. Lafitte was willing to make me a present of her before, why not just ask if he still stands by his offer? No. I will not have any man make a present of a woman as if she were a horse.”
“So you’ll steal her as if you were a horse thief,” Lucas said. “Ned, don’t be an ass. Where would you go?”
“She knows her way through the bayous,” Land said. “She’s getting some things together. She’ll meet me on the back side of the island in a pirogue and we’ll paddle to New Orleans. Then we’ll make our way to Boston. I can get work as a harpooner. I’ll buy a house and we will marry. She’s very light, no one would think she was a Negro. We can have a family.”