A Trip To Tuanaki

Chapter 16

"And how do you know this?"

She shrugs. "I've done a lot of jobs for Benny," she says, hoping it's vague enough he'll accept it. "If I can't get us out of here in twenty minutes, we can go out the front all guns-blazing," Alice says. "It's not my favorite method, of course, but..."

Mal sighs. "Fine," he says. "You've got ten minutes to find us a way out of here."

She opens her mouth to protest, but his glare cuts her off. Instead, she strides off towards the exit she's confident she'll find.

#

The two of them are crushed in a tiny alcove after a door unexpectedly locks behind them. Unsurprisingly, they're bickering about it within seconds, and not just because there's barely enough space for them to stand.

"Move your elbow!"

"I can't! There's nowhere else to put it!"

"Well, find somewhere! I can't get us out of here with your elbow in my gut!"

"I'm not exactly sure why you need your gut to pick a lock..."

"Oh, excuse me, did you want to get us out of here? Oh, and let me guess. You need your elbow to kick down the door."

"Do you want me to kick down the door?"

"It's made of stone," Alice says dryly. "I mean, if you want to break your leg, by all means..."

Grumbling under his breath, Mal shifts out of the way. Eventually he finds a position where his elbow isn't occupying the same space as Alice's stomach. She doesn't waste time thanking him before fiddling with the lock.

Finally, Alice engages the last tumbler. With a satisfying clunk the mechanisms engage as expected and the door swings open. She stumbles through the opening into the awaiting chamber, which appears to be carved into the very hillside their prison abuts. Mal stretches out a cramped arm with a groan.

"Come on," Alice says. "Let's hope this leads us somewhere we actually want to be."

Not having many other choices, they let the underground tunnel deposit them back outdoors on a near-empty gravel path. They follow that until it becomes a quiet back alley. As soon as they can, they break away to weave through city streets until they reach the Nameless.

The dock is fairly deserted as they approach. Remembering that Mortimer had been able to name his ship, Mal waits until he's nearly on board to call out. "Gunny," he hisses loudly, but there's no response. "Gunny!"

After a moment of silence, he glances at Alice, and then pointedly at the pistol strapped to her thigh.

"Can I trust you not to shoot me with that?" he asks.

"So long as we have mutual enemies," she mutters. He rolls his eyes but heads towards the edge of the ship, easily pulling himself over the railing. He lands on the deck with soft feet, Alice a few steps behind him.

There's no one about, not even on the decks of nearby ships. It sets Alice on edge, and makes Mal outright concerned. So the first thing he does is carefully approach the edge of the hatch and hiss for Gunny. Again, he gets no response.

"If you hear shooting, wait til it's over," he tells Alice, drawing his own pistols.

"And if it's quiet?"

He gives her a look she finds unreadable. "Follow as you'd like," he grunts, and then jumps through the hole in the deck. Alice listens for gunshots, but before she's made up her mind about whether it's safe to climb down, Mal shouts out. "Alice!"