Still not mine; still just messin' around.

*****

Mal stood shaking his head as Aldershot and Isabel Warrick departed.

“Cap, I think she’s sweet on you,” Jayne called. “’Course I’d sooner take a pair a pliers to bed than that coatrack.”

“Be shui, Jayne. Keep a civil tongue in your head,” Mal answered. “Kaylee, you got that whistler ready to go?”

“Yes, Captain, I do.”

“Jayne, Zoe, we ready?” Mal looked at Jayne and Zoe. They nodded.

“All right, Kaylee, let’s call these bad men home. We all clear about what happens when we land? Jayne, you take the shuttle and head for the hospital or whatever passes for one, in as obvious a way as you can, park it and start walking home brisk-like; you keep an eye on Serenity and follow our esteemed visitors in; Zoe and me’re ready when they show up. Dong ma?”

“Ma shong,” they all replied.

“Gowan, you’re sure you’re ready to be the bait?” Mal asked the boy.

“Yessir. I wander out onto the ramp lookin’ real sick as soon as it gets dark. I keep doin’ that until they grab me. I’m ready, sir, thank you.” Gowan answered

Wash set them down sweetly in slip 19. The shuttle departed immediately, after Wash waved the control tower on as public a channel as he could find, asking directions for the nearest hospital. Within an hour, Jayne called in on his comm link to say that he was watching Serenity from the next slip over.

After that, it was just a question of waiting. They expected that whoever Wing had sent would wait until well after dark, but they couldn’t be sure of that. Gowan went out regularly and staggered around artistically, coughing and wheezing loudly, but it wasn’t until almost midnight, Halcion time, that their visitors arrived.

Gowan was outside, breathing loudly, when two men walked out of the shadows and grabbed both his arms.

“Hidy, boy. Everything shiny?” Bothner asked him.

“Everybody’s pretty sick,” Gowan answered in a thready voice. “The mechanic and the pilot’re gone to the hospital.”

“Lovely, lovely. Can you open the door for us?”

Gowan made a show of entering a security code and the inner doors opened. The men walked from the dark into the well-lit cargo bay, leaving Gowan in the open door behind them

“Gorramit boy, why’re all the lights on?”

“All the better to see you with, granny,” Mal said, stepping out from behind a support, gun trained on the strangers.

“And you,” said Zoe, stepping out onto the catwalk.

Jayne cocked his gun suggestively from the ramp; Bothney and his partner whirled around.

“Put your hands way up high,” Mal ordered. The men turned back towards him and complied; Jayne disarmed them both.

“Welcome to Serenity. We’re fully booked tonight, so we won’t be asking you to stay. Or do you have a reservation?” Mal stared hard at the men. “Was it you who made the reservation to kidnap me and Miss Serra? ‘Cause we’re not gonna be able to accommodate you, after all. So sorry, I’m sure you’re disappointed.”

“Wha, what’s goin’ on here?” Bothney stuttered.

“My understandin’ is that you had a plan to put this boy on my boat to poison me and mine, then take me and Miss Serra to your employer. I don’t like your employer and I don’t want to go visit with him. It’s not a plan I care for overmuch, so we’re done with it. Here’s the new plan: you hand over the cash Mr. Wing paid you and we don’t kill you. How’s that strike you?” Mal raised his eyebrows questioningly.

“I don’t have any idea what you’re talking about,” Bothney said. “Gerard, you ever heard such a thing?” Bothney’s partner shook his head, seemingly hypnotized by the sight of Zoe training a gun on him.

“Gowan, you ever see these men before?” Mal asked.

“Yessir. They’re the ones, Bothney and Gerard,” Gowan answered, a little shakily.

“Okay, then, don’t bother with the ‘you got the wrong man’ song. I don’t need to hear it. You carryin’ that platinum on your person? Cause I know it’s platinum, Wing’s not gonna chance a credit with you wangaba dans,” Mal said.

Neither man spoke, although they did exchange glances.

“Uh-uh, no lookin’ at each other. Although why you’d want to beats me. Jayne, go ahead and search them,” Mal said.

Jayne began to go through the men’s pockets, non-too-gently, when booted footsteps sounded on the ramp.

“Ahoy, Serenity. Don’t shoot, please, I’m a friendly. Oh, good. I’m not too late. Jayne, it is Jayne, isn’t it? Jayne, if you’re looking for the money, it’s not on them. I’ve got it right here.” Isabel Warrick announced in a carrying voice from the ramp, holding a small bag over her head.

“Good evening, Captain Reynolds. I’m Isabel Warrick,” Isabel called to Zoe, “I don’t think I had a chance to introduce myself this afternoon. You must be the Zoe Washburne Daddy described. Lovely to meet you. Welcome to Halcion.”

“Miss Warrick, what in tian shiao de are you doin’ on my boat again? Go, please.” Mal was white-faced with fury.

“Surely you don’t mean for me to return the money these scoundrels made from offering to kidnap you, do you?” Isabel asked.

“No, I don’t want you to return the money. I want you to quit meddlin’ and go home.”

“Whyever would you want that. I simply thought it made more sense for me to collect the money while you dealt with these thugs. Are you going to shoot them?” Isabel asked interestedly.

“No, I’m not gonna shoot ‘em, at least not while you’re standin’ there.”

“Of course not. I’m in the line of fire,” Isabel said.

“Miss Warrick, would you either go away, or come in and get off the ramp? You can go sit in the galley or you can go to the spare shuttle or you can go to hell, but get off the ramp, so I can take these hundans home,” Mal shouted.

Isabel came on into the cargo bay and began walking among the horse stalls, slapping flanks and handing out peppermints from her coat pocket.

“Zoe, shut the doors behind me. Jayne and I’ll walk these wangaba dans back the way they came. Try not to shoot Miss Warrick before I get back. I wanna do it,” Mal said. Mal and Jayne walked Bothney and Gerard down Serenity’s ramp, guns drawn.

“Which way?” Mal asked Jayne.

“Slip 24. Little beat-up Lynx-class.”

“So what if we call the dockmaster when we get back to our ship and tell him that Malcolm Reynolds robbed us?” Bothney asked. “Maybe I’ll just do that thing. Quite a bit of platinum in that bag your skinny doxy took.”

“She’s not my doxy, and she’s the reason you’re not gonna do that. Or one of the reasons, anyway. That is Miss Isabel Warrick and she is the daughter of a rich and important man. I don’t believe that the local constabulary is gonna to have much interest in a story that involves her breakin’ and enterin’ and robbin’. Somehow I just don’t think so. Go ahead, though, if you think it’s a good idea.”

“We never did say we were the ones you were lookin’ for,” offered Gerard.

“No, but Gowan did. He identified you as the men who hired him to poison me and mine. Now, I could just shoot you and dump your sorry carcasses on your boat and send it right on out into the black. I’m a little disinclined to do so because I know you didn’t dream this up yourselves, you’re just hired guns. I hate to kill a workingman, even a dishonest one.” Mal paused.

“We could just go,” said Bothney. “I don’t have any pressin’ need to return to Persephone, do you, Gerard? We could just go. Tonight.”

“What’d you fellas do before you took up a life a crime?” Mal asked.

“Dockhands,” Bothney said.

“And how’d you get caught up in this? Who provided that mess you put on my boat? And who’s flyin’ for you?”

“Badger sent us to Wing. Wing sent us to somebody he knew to get the boxes. I don’t know who it was, he told us how to use it and what it was supposed to do,” Bothney said. “I c’n fly, learned in the war.”

“Badger. I mighta known. Ex-Alliance flyboy. I mighta known.” Mal shook his head. “All right. Go. Start running now before I change my mind.”

Bothney and Gerard didn’t hesitate.

“Gorramit, Mal, what’d you wanta do that for? They’re gonna run right back to Badger and Wing. I keep tellin’ you we should shoot more people and we wouldn’t haveta spend so much time watchin’ our backs.” Jayne was incensed.

“I don’t reckon that’s so,” was Mal’s only reply.

***

“Miss Warrick, what possessed you to search that ship for the money? Don’t you realize you could have been shot?” Mal asked as he and Isabel stood in the cargo bay, his hands clenched in his pockets

“I knew there were only two of them, and I saw them leave, so it was really perfectly safe It seemed like a very good idea to take the money while they weren’t there. Here it is, by the way. So stupid of them, it was in the first place I looked, top drawer of one of the cabins. It’s quite a lot – it’s too bad, but I think it’s probably only half what they would have gotten altogether. If they’d succeeded, of course.” Isabel tossed Mal the small leather bag..

“How did you know there were only two?” Mal asked, catching the bag abstractedly.

“Oh, I asked around. Because I ship beef fairly often, I know the dock people. Also, Edgarton is a small place – strangers who hang around without a stated purpose are remembered.”

“Still, it wasn’t safe. Did you ever think about that? What was I gonna tell your father if you got shot or killed? Sorry, Lord Warrick, your daughter got shot while I was tryin’ to deliver her horses? Where’s that leave me?”

“I was armed, Captain Reynolds. I’m not stupid.” Isabel reached into her inside coat pocket and produced a serious little handgun. “It’s a proper gun, not some lady’s trinket. And, as I said, I am a perfectly good shot.”

“I’m all manner of relieved. What’s your plan for the next 24 hours? I can’t leave Edgarton until Aldershot signs off on my papers,” Mal said.

“I keep a room in Edgarton’s only decent hotel. Now, Captain Reynolds, I have another proposition for you. My calf crop went to slaughter this week. The processing will be finished in about ten days. Would you be interested in delivering to Persephone for me? I imagine you’re planning to stop in anyway, and I’m willing to pay well for reliable transport.” Isabel looked inquiringly at Mal. “You don’t have to answer tonight. I’m happy to put you and your crew up out at my place until the processing is complete or they could do whatever cargo ship crews do on shore leave. I don’t think Mrs. Washburne is quite well, yet, and it might be good for her to have a little respite before you resume your travels. You think about it. I’ll see you tomorrow.” Isabel turned to leave.

“Miss Warrick, I’ll walk you to your hotel,” Mal said suddenly. “I don’t entirely trust that our visitors are gone. I know, I know, you’re armed. Humor me.” Mal started toward the cargo bay doors, Isabel following.

“Truly, it’s not necessary. But if you insist. May I buy you a drink when we get there? The bar is open all night for the port crews,” Isabel said.

“More than one, Miss Warrick, I think I need more than one.”

*End of part 15*