“Ned, has it occurred to you that you don’t belong in this time? It’s 1812. You haven’t even been born yet.”
“What does that matter? I don’t care. I’m leaving, I tell you and nothing you can say will change my mind. I only came to say good-bye. You will say good-bye to Finn and Andre for me, won’t you? And to Jules.”
“Well, if you’ve made up your mind…”
“You can’t talk me out of it. There’s no use trying.”
Lucas got out of bed. “All right, Ned, I won’t. I wish you the best of luck. I hope you won’t regret this.”
He offered Land his hand and the harpooner took it. “I will have nothing to regret, I promise you.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure,” said Lucas and, still holding onto Land’s hand, he gave him a savage kick in the balls.
Land wheezed and doubled over and Lucas nailed him with an uppercut to the jaw. The harpooner dropped to the floor, unconscious. Verne and Delaney kept up their steady cadence of snoring.
“Marie’s going to have a long wait by the boat,” said Lucas. “And by the time morning comes around, I don’t think she’ll love you quite so much.”
He pulled down the curtain cord and proceeded to tie up the unconscious Ned.
Lucas woke up with someone shaking his shoulder gently. He opened his eyes to see Finn bending over him.
“Is it morning already?”
“Rise and shine, Major,” Finn said.
“Time to get ready to hit the boats and weigh anchor.”
“It feels like I just closed my eyes,” said Lucas.
“What happened here last night?” said Finn.
“Huh?” Lucas sat up in bed, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.
Finn pointed.
Verne had fallen off the chair onto the floor, where he was curled up in a fetal position, dead to the world. Beside him, struggling against his bonds, glaring ferociously and growling into his gag, was Land. The door opened and Andre walked in.
“I must have missed a hell of a party,” she said.
“Verne passed out and Ned was going to run off with Marie and set up light housekeeping in Boston,” Lucas said, getting out of bed. “I tried to talk him out of it, but he wasn’t very reasonable.”
“He’s liable to be a lot less reasonable when you untie him,” Finn said.
“You’re probably right,” said Lucas. “Let’s not untie him.”
Land thrashed on the floor.
Andre stood over him, hands on her hips. “You cad,” she said. “The minute my back is turned, you’re playing around with another woman. You’re a heartless brute.”
Land rolled his eyes.
“Never trust a sailor,” Finn said.
“He was just going to go off and leave us in the lurch,” said Lucas. “Here we are, needing all the help we can get, and he’s sneaking off to hide under some woman’s skirts.”
“Ned Land, the great harpooner, running away from a fight,” said Andre. “I should have known he was all bluster.”
“The hell with him,” said Finn. “Let him go. Who needs a friend like him? We’ll just have to handle Drakov by ourselves.”