A Trip To Tuanaki

Chapter 3

"You were trying to escape from someone you robbed who was chasing you."

"Was not," Alice says.

The decoy raises his eyebrows. "No? Was it not your pursuer who I heard shouting 'stop, thief!'? Because I could have sworn—"

"You can have it!" Alice says quickly. She rummages in her pockets for the purse and jangles it enticingly. "Everything that's in here could be yours."

"And what makes you think I'd want stolen gold?"

"This gold isn't stolen," she says. "It's mine — I had used it to barter passage somewhere I didn't really want to go so we'd end up here."

"And I suppose you got a refund from your backup out there since you're not making it to that final destination."

"So I may have taken the refund, if we want to be strictly precise. But a refund's still a refund, and this ain't Tuanaki."

She gets a strange look for this comment. "Why would you want to go to Tuanaki?" he asks.

"It was the only place I could think of that would require a stop here," she says. "I wasn't really looking forward to the prospect of going to Tuanaki for real, if the captain I hired turned out to be crazier than I expected, but we've got what we've got and for now I think it'll be time for me to discuss the terms of my giving you this money, hmm?"

"What terms?" the decoy asks suspiciously.

"Well, I'm not going to give you any gold for no reason. I'll be paying — for information, that is. That way, even if that backup finds her way here, she won't be able to deny your claim to the gold. It weren't hers to begin with and you got it proper-like."

Alice watches the corners of the decoy's eyes as she slips into the dockside drawl that was her second language. Skin folds into crows feet as he fails to bite back a grin. She is much better at hiding her glee that he's fallen for her trap. "What is it you want to know?" he asks.

"Your — uncle. The real Professor. How do I find him?"

"Why do you want to know?"

"You're not going to start with that again, are you?"

"Only as long as you don't answer," he says. Alice sighs.

"Fine," she says. "I was being truthful, you know. I'm looking for my father."

"Uncle Benji hasn't taught anyone in decades," the decoy says. "What makes you think he'll remember your parents?"

Alice sighs. This is one of the things she's been afraid of, and truth to be told, she hasn't come up with an answer that she herself is willing to accept, so she's not exactly sure what she's going to say now. But she can't exactly say nothing, either. "I don't know that he will," she admits. "But he's the last chance I've got."

"And what if he can't help you?"

"Well, I won't know that until I see him, will I? If you're not gonna help, well, I s'ppose I'll have to track him down myself. But surely you wouldn't mind a nice big sack of gold? And all you've got to do is tell me something that I promise to keep a secret from everyone else."

"And what's to stop me from shooting you, right now?"

"There's nothing stopping you from doing that, of course," Alice says, a grin slowly forming on her face. "But then, I haven't told you who I am yet, have I? And, you know, I don't suppose I will, until you tell me where the real Professor is."