“In a few hours,” Polk said. “I wish we were going together.”
“Me, too, but I’ve got to get these repairs done if I’m going to set sail by tonight. I want to be in Sydney Harbour in time to see the fireworks.”
The plan was for Polk to go down and complete the preparations on the Centaurus. After the gas was launched, he would transfer over to the Marauder.
“What about the antidote?” Jin asked.
“I’m not sure whether to believe this guy’s story. It might be better if we split up the doses. I’ll take half with me to the Centaurus, and we’ll put the other half on the Marauder.”
“A sound move.”
Jin turned as a strikingly handsome man with a bloodied bandage on his left shoulder was escorted into the room. She nodded and the two guards sat him forcefully in a chair.
“You must be MacD,” she said.
“The one and only.”
“Your boss has been trying to call me.”
“Ah told your husband that he’d make a deal with you.”
“To leave us alone?”
MacD shook his head. “We’re not mobsters running a protection racket. The Chairman’s got connections all over the world. He can make a market for you.”
“A market for what?”
MacD shrugged. “Plasma weapons, Enervum gas, the antidote you’ve got. Whatever you want to sell.”
“We’ll see about that.”
She took out her satellite phone.
“They blocked their number when I talked to Acting Captain Linda two days ago. How do I call your Chairman?”
MacD told her the number.
“I am going to put this on speaker,” Jin said, eyeing MacD. “If you say one word without my okay, I will kill you. Do you understand?”
“Couldn’t be clearer,” MacD said.
She dialed the number that he gave her.
“Is this April Jin?” a voice answered.
“Yes, it is. Is this the Chairman?”
“Speaking.”
“Your man here, MacD, says you might be interested in a business
proposition.”
“I might be.”
“Before we get started, I don’t do business with anyone if I don’t know their name.”
“Juan Cabrillo, captain of the Norego.”