<br/><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: verdana;"><strong>Emily</strong></span><br/><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: verdana;"><strong>In the boat</strong></span><br/><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: verdana;"><strong>Starting to babble a bit</strong></span><br/><br/><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: verdana;">“I’m not calling anybody,” said Emily.  She'd probably been sounding a bit bossy; she wasn’t at her best, it had to be said.  “I’m just pointing out it’s not in any of our interests to try and sell each other out to one gang or another.  If I tell my people about this it’s bad for me and probably bad for Susan as well.  If you try and sell me out my people will come after you, and even if you don’t tell us your name you’re not exactly hard to describe are you?”  That was a massive understatement: this was a girl people would notice, and remember; even if she wasn’t in a bikini and a tiara…</span><br/><br/><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: verdana;">“I’m solid with my people anyway, how much do you think this boat cost?  I’ve been with them a long time.  But I could do without them knowing you two are here. And so could you.”</span><br/><br/><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: verdana;">She turned the boat round and drove it slowly back towards Surprise Lake, feeling a bit lightheaded.  She didn’t know anything about all the gangs, so what did she know? Well…</span><br/><br/><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: verdana;">“So, anyway,” she continued, “you’re not that old are you?  Nix had four bodyguards in suits round him and you were minding the kids by the pool in a princess outfit.  And you’re not on about taking us back to his organisation, which I think you would be if you were like a long-term member of his staff.  So I reckon you don’t really belong there.</span><br/><br/><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: verdana;">“He gave you no chance to protect him anyway, standing there like that, it was up to the senior protection people to cover the landing stage properly and they didn’t, so it’s nothing you should feel bad about.  Anyway I’ve been doing this for six years, it’s no disgrace to be got past, to be honest, I’ve got past a lot of very expensive protection screens.</span><br/><br/><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: verdana;">“Anyway so here we are, all together…” she got up, walked to the back of the deck and took the rifle off the roof, not looking at the girl but starting to dismantle it straight away.  She fished her special shoulder bag out of a locker and took it all back to the wheel, where she stowed the rifle away, feeding the end of the barrel up the strap.  Then she took her pistol and put that in as well.  She was a bit dizzy.</span><br/><br/><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: verdana;">“There.” she said. “All gone again.  I hate guns.  People shoot animals with them.  Really we’re a pestilence on all the other species on this planet aren’t we?  Not everybody; some people are kind to animals, and are fine just to watch them doing their own thing.  But overall…well, nice people are nicer than animals, you could say, and bad people are the worst living thing of all.</span><br/><br/><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: verdana;">“You know women in Africa have over six babies EACH?  That means every generation TRIPLES in size, except for all the dyings, the famines, with their cattle screwing up the landscape, people killing all the gorillas and everything that moves.  Wild dogs almost gone already… ”</span><br/><br/><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: verdana;">They were through into Surprise Lake.  Emily picked a likely spot and dropped the bow anchor; it was so cool to be able to do that from the wheel. Then without consulting the others beyond an 'excuse me'  she palmed the key and went below, closing the hatch after her.  A shower, wash the blood off, and back into her normal clothes, then she’d see if Susan had been able to make any headway with her Brazilian beauty.  A bit, she hoped.  Not TOO much, she also hoped.  That was not even trying to be reasonable, if she was honest.  </span><br/><br/><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: verdana;">Anyway…how to wash her hair without opening the scab…</span>