Read Online Icebreaker by Lian Tanner - Free Book Online

very formally, “Thank you, Missus Slink. Thank you, Mister Smoke. I’ll get those answers for you, see if I don’t.”

 
    CHAPTER 7
    ESCAPE!
    It took the remainder of the night to set up a distraction for the brig guard. First Petrel stole two pairs of outdoor trousers and a couple of jackets and gloves, picking them off bone pegs while their owners slept. Then she crept around all her hidey-holes collecting certain treasures that she had hidden in case she might need them one day.
    She brought back a broken saucepan, a bit of rope, the remains of a chain, and a feather that looked very much like the ones on Orca’s jacket. She tied the saucepan to an overhead pipe halfway between the brig and Albie’s cabin, right in the heart of Grease Alley.
    â€œThis’ll make ’em jump,” she whispered to Mister Smoke, who was crouched on top of the pipe next to the rope.
    â€œYou sure you know what you’re doin’, shipmate?” asked the rat.
    â€œCourse I do. I told you, I’m gunna get Fin out. And maybe pay Albie back for all the times he’s shouted at me.” Petrel grinned at the thought.
    â€œThat’s a good thing, is it, shipmate? Payback? You don’t think it’ll make things worse?”
    â€œNot for me, Mister Smoke. If it makes things worse for the rest of ’em, I don’t care.”
    She tucked the chain and the feather into the saucepan. Then she stood back and eyed them. “You gunna help me, Mister Smoke?”
    â€œWhat if it don’t work?”
    â€œThen I’m sunk, and so’s Fin.”
    â€œYou need a backup system. Gotta have backup. And if it’s not there to start with, you gotta build it. Just in case.”
    â€œToo late for that now,” said Petrel. “Are you gunna help me, or not?”
    â€œSomethin’ tells me I shouldn’t, shipmate. But seein’ as you is an honorary rat…”
    A tiny knife appeared in Mister Smoke’s paw, and he tested it against the rope, snipping through the first few fibers.
    â€œWait for the word,” said Petrel, “or I’ll have wasted all that creeping around. This ain’t the sort of trick I can pull twice.” And she hurried towards the brig, where Missus Slink was waiting for her.
    Many of the lights in the Oyster ’s passageways had broken years ago, but the ones that still worked were always on, powered by the spinning of the wind turbines above the bridge, which fed into a bank of batteries. So there was no question of Petrel trying to get close to the brig guard without being seen. Instead, Missus Slink did a reconnoiter at deck level, and came back with the news that the guard was wide-awake, sitting upright in his chair with his fingers tapping out an uneasy rhythm on his knee.
    â€œHe’s worried about Orca, I bet,” whispered Petrel.
    Missus Slink nodded. “Border guards are edgy too. Expecting an attack day or night.”
    â€œGood,” said Petrel. “That’s what we want.”
    There were hardly any hiding places in the passageway that led to the brig. But Petrel had learned to climb before she could walk, and she was as nimble as a cockroach. Using nothing but the bolts and hooks set into the bulkhead, she swarmed up to the overhead pipes and tucked both herself and the outdoor clothes on top of them.
    â€œPssst!” she hissed to Missus Slink, who was squinting at her from below. “Go!”
    The rat hobbled away, her green ribbon wagging. Petrel clung to the pipes, wondering how long it would take Mister Smoke to slice through the rope, and if their trick would work, and what she would do if it didn’t.
    All that talk about backup. Maybe I should’ve thought of TWO plans, just in case!
    The crash, when it came, was all she could have wished for. Chain and saucepan hit the deck with a clang that echoed through the passageways. To ears that were already on the alert, it must