Free The Raft by Christopher Blankley Page B

Horus?”
    “I am.”
    “Good girl. You be careful, you understand?
Anyone who could do such a thing to Meerkat... he might be capable
of anything. Well, this iced tea isn't improving with age. You'll
excuse me, dears.” And Tiger Print started towards the golf course,
shimmying in her bare feet.
    “Chemical?” Rachael asked.
    “It's taken care of,” Maggie replied.
    “So. What do we do now?” Rachael watched
Tiger Print hand out iced tea to the Gray Beards and Arrowsoft
employees.
    “Now?” Maggie said. “We get some
breakfast.”

 
     
     
     
     
     
     

Chapter 8
     
    “Tiger Print mentioned,” Rachael began as
they waited for the waitress to prepare a table, “back on the Kalakala , something about the Shane boy kidnapping. I
remember that, two or three years ago. Did you have something to do
with it?”
    They were stand on the spacious open-air rear
deck of the Smiling Geoduck , next to its blatantly
pornographic sign. The Smiling Geoduck had once been a
Parisian riverboat restaurant, before being towed halfway around
the world to serve as the Raft's only public eating establishment.
It still had much of its French charm, with a rear deck filled with
cast iron bistro tables and an inner lower deck that doubled as a
disco. Even at ten in the morning, the Geoduck was busy with
patrons finishing up their breakfasts of omelets and French
toast.
    “I didn't kidnap him, if that's what you
mean.”
    “No, it isn't.”
    “It's a long story,” Maggie replied,
distracted, looking for their waitress.
    “Tiger Print called you a hero.”
    “Yeah, well...” Maggie hedged.
    The waitress returned after clearing a table.
They were seated at the railing overlooking the Geoduck's companion vessel, an old barge covered in topsoil and planted as a
floating vegetable garden. The summer was far enough along that the
corn was waist high and the beans were growing appreciably up their
guides. The morning clouds had cleared and the Cascades could be
seen over the skyline of the city across the Sound. Rachael took
off her coat, hanging it on the back of her chair.
    “Well?” Rachael said after they were seated.
Ice water was poured and large, single-sided menus arrived.
    “The Times must have done a story on
the Shane kidnapping.” Maggie began looking over the menu.
    “Sure. The father was a rich Wall Street
inside trader, right? Who fled to the Raft to escape arrest? His
boy was kidnapped. Held for ransom. I forget how it ended, though.
Didn't he pay the ransom?”
    “No,” Maggie said, not taking her eyes of her
menu. “That's just it. I rescued the boy.”
    “You did what ?” Rachael dropped her
menu.
    Maggie winced, “Well, not just me, but...”
Maggie seemed to have decided something. “I think I'll have
lunch... chowder.”
    “Screw the chowder.” Rachael had forgotten
about food. “I don't understand. How did you rescue the
boy?”
    “Rescue? Rescue. As I said, it's a long
story.”
    “Well, now you have to tell me.”
    Maggie seemed annoyed. “We don't have
time.”
    “But we have time for chowder?”
    “Alright,” Maggie sighed. She put down her
menu. “You see, the boy's father was – is – one of my members. I'm
his Magistrate. I have his franchise. Just like Horus, just like
Meerkat. I guess, in a roundabout way, that made the boy my
responsibility-”
    The waitress arrived. “Can I take your
orders?” Rachael panicked and returned her menu to eye level.
    “We'll both have the chowder. And a green
salad,” Maggie ordered. The waitress wrote something on a notebook
and stepped away from the table.
    “Thank you,” Rachael smiled. Then realized,
“No more vegan?”
    “No. It's not really practical out here on
the Raft.”
    “No, of course not...” Still, Rachael was
surprised.
    “Anyway,” Maggie got back on track. “That's
how everyone else saw it: the boy was my responsibility. When those
dryfoot kidnappers came out to the Raft and took the boy, they
asked for fifteen