Tag: ROCCA JACK AND THE LIQUID GOLD JOB

Deliberations!

Jack leaned over. “There any channels we could get through?”

Gonzales shook her head. “Us? No. We’ll have to go in with golboats. But the Emancipation is shallow-drafted enough to manage some of the larger passages. If we don’t find her broken up on the islands, inside the Bay is the smart place to look next.”

“I can probably get a better scry, once we’re closer,” Charlie added. “It’d help if we had something that was off of the Emancipation itself. Can our employers help us with that?”

“I’ll ask him, when he shows up,” Jack quirked his lips. “Y’all will be shocked to hear that the Consortium wants a representative of theirs to come along for the ride.”

Robbie smirked. “The kind of money they’re putting on the table, skipper, can’t say I blame them. Hersheyan?”

“Nah, Yankee. August Mercer. Our employer told me Mercer’s an agent for the Emancipation’s owners; the Consortium’s hired him, too.” 

“So there’s no way to keep him from coming along for the ride?” Robbie didn’t look very thrilled about it. “Hope he doesn’t get seasick.”
“Like you said, Robbie: there’s a lot of money on the table.” Jack looked over the drinks cabinet, pulling out a decent-looking Orancala carnelisse and popping the cork. He took a moment to breath in the aroma of cherries and strawberries, so reminiscent of home, before pouring the ruby-red wine into four glasses. “Y’all know how the Hersheyans are. ‘Trust, but verify.’ If this keeps ‘em happy, we’ll just give him a bucket until the man gets his sea legs. Hell, he’s a Yankee himself. Maybe he’s been on a ship before?” He handed out glasses. “We’ll know soon enough; I’ve told him to be here at the top of the hour. Let’s see if he’s punctual.”

Characters!

The four of them met in Jack’s rooms. Someone of his rank rated the sort of hotel suite that came with a planning room, complete with decent maps of the East and Gulf coasts. Besides, you couldn’t hear the shouting and hammering from here.

“The ship we’re looking for is called the August Emancipation. Second Republic registry,” Jack drawled, “if you hadn’t already guessed from the blessed name. She’s a Chesapeake Ram schooner, one hundred thirty feet long, three-masted, gaff-rigged. The Emancipation was on the Providence-Baltimore run when she disappeared, somewhere around here.” His finger tapped the map, in the general area of the Barnegat lighthouse ruins.

His navigator peered at the map, still slightly owlishly. Sober or drunk, though, Arwen Gonzales knew her charts. “That’d be off course for the Yankees,” she noted. “They hate getting too close to Cursed Jersey. We sure about where they ended up?”

“The client said they were able to get a half-assed scrying off,” Jack replied, “although they didn’t use those exact words. You know how bad that area gets.”

The weathermage snorted. “No, you don’t,” said Half-Elf Charlie. “I know how bad that area gets. You can taste the Dominion curses up there, if the wind’s right.”