“Oi, cabana boy!” she hailed Ma?l who was busy practicing his knots over on the sun deck.

  “How might I serve you, se?orita?” he answered with a wide grin and an exaggerated flourish of deference, covering the distance to the helm in a few eager leaps.

  “How about you get us a couple of drinks? We need to do a bit of planning,” she said heading down below.

  The kitchen’s fridge was a fancy one and made crushed ice on demand. Ma?l fixed two ice teas which he brought to the aft deck. He’d even found tiny umbrellas in a drawer.

  This is the life, she thought. Kaori sat on the sofa and he squeezed next to her, peering over her shoulder at the tablet.

  “The ship is making great time, we are almost past Osaka,” she said, tracing their trip over the map. “Now would be a good time to figure out where we want to go. If we keep that pace, we’ll be in Taiwan in five days or so, or we could head further east and sail to the Philippines—that would take about 6-7 days. Otherwise, there are several deserted islands near Guam. Always wanted to visit them and they are about the same distance as the Philippines. What do you think?”

  Ma?l looked intently at the map. “Well, we’re good on food for a week, and there is some dry food and cans in the pantry, if it comes to that, but we will run out of bottled water in 3 days. There’s plenty of fresh water in the tank but it doesn’t taste that great, and I’m not sure we should be drinking it if we have another option.”

  “Water should be fine; we have a filtration system, I’ll turn it on later.”

  “In that case, the Philippines is our best bet. Taiwan is a tightly regulated country. I think it would be easy to track someone over there. In the Philippines, we can just slip someone a fiver and they’ll forget we were ever there.”

  “Why not Guam and the islands?” Kaori asked, pouting. This was the first time Ma?l hadn’t gone along with her wishes so far, and she hadn’t expected it. “What’s not to love about playing Robinson for a while on a desert island?”

  “Nothing, it would be amazing. My first choice too, really, but I worry about the navigation. Those are small islands in a big ocean, and we didn’t really prepare the trip; if anything goes wrong, anything at all, we’d be stuck in the middle of ocean without food, and unless we decide to stop showering now, water could also become an issue fast. Heading south toward Taiwan and the Philippines gives us better opportunities to bail out if something happens. Even if we run out of water, mainland China is only 2-3 days out and the wind is usually blowing in that direction.”

  Ma?l is right, she realized. Going further out in the ocean with a ship two years out of proper maintenance could be a disaster.

  “Food’s not really a problem, we can always fish enough to survive, but you’re right about fresh water, and I am also not too confident about the ship itself. I guess we’ll have to settle for the Philippines. Have you been there?”

  “No, but actually, if we restock and prepare properly in the Philippines, it would only take a week to go over to those islands. Plus we could get all the gear we need to set up a base on the island, and save ourselves the unpleasant parts of trying to live on a desert island. Nowadays, there are filtration systems that work directly on seawater—if we get one of those installed, we could stay as long as we want at sea.” he said.

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  She perked up at the idea. “Sounds like a decent plan. Any objection to Port Irene on Luzon, sailor?” she said, plotting a nice straight path to the Philippines.

  “Whatever happened to first mate Arairu? I have experience now, I’m due for a promotion!” Ma?l said.

  “Is this mutiny, Mister Arairu?” she said elbowing him softly in the ribs.

  “No, of course not, oh Dread Pirate Kaori-sama!”

  They both laughed and Ma?l looked over the chart plotter. It seemed so very straightforward. A straight line going southwest, clearing Taiwan and continuing on down to Luzon. Navigating at sea was so much easier than on land, it seemed. No roads, no dead ends, no traffic, you just picked where you wanted to go and that was that. For hundreds of years, piloting a ship was of unfathomable complexity, but with GPS and maps showing every yard of coastline, it was almost disappointingly simple.

  “I think that’s a pretty good plan for now. You said we can fish out here? Do you have a fishing rod?”

  “Why, do you see a river? I’ll have you know that dread pirates don’t fish; they troll. Come here,” she said walking over to a compartment. She pulled a carrying case and opened it on the table. Inside were a multitude of lures, most as large as Ma?l’s hand.

  “Fish really bite on that?” Ma?l asked, puzzled.

  “Sure they do, we aren’t stopping the ship, so when they are in the water, they just look like smaller fishes swimming in our trail, near the surface. Perfect prey. This one’s best for tuna” she said, handing him one of the lures. It was just a wooden stick with a large hook on the back end.

  “You can pick the fish you want?”

  “Nah, not really, but I feel like tuna, so you better get to work,” she said with a cheeky smile, hauling a couple of trolling rods, a smaller but sturdier version of the fishing rods Ma?l had used during his childhood.

  “That’s called a trolling rod. You fix it here on the holder behind the ship and let it do the work.” she explained.

  “That’s cheating!” he said.

  And cheating it was. Fish seemed to be on a feeding frenzy and they were hauling the catch of a lifetime.

  “I can’t believe it; we are so freaking lucky. ” Kaori said.

  “We work well together,” Ma?l replied, fighting to haul a yellowfin tuna with the gaffer hook. The beast was shockingly strong, but it was no match for his steely thews and he enjoyed the battle. Men fish. That too was axiomatic.

  “We’d better stop now or we won’t have any place to store the catch. Besides, the weather is getting a bit overcast.” he said with regret, pointing to the sky. Somber clouds gathered overhead at a distance.

  “I guess we’ll have some rain tonight,” Kaori said. She had taken a pair of knives from the kitchen and they were now hard at work slicing fishes. Soon, they were covered in blood and slime and smelled just the way they looked. Thank God they decided on a route that allowed showers!

  She sure isn’t squeamish, Ma?l reflected in admiration. He’d expected that, a spy couldn’t be afraid of getting her hands dirty, but he had not been expecting how it would make him feel. No makeup, her hair bunched up and covered in fish blubber, she remained amazingly feminine and alluring.

  I’m falling in love, ain’t I? Oh you poor fool!