Being shut into close quarters with Mr. Waters was cruel and unusual, Ace decided. It had been a week, and Mr. Waters hadn't stopped his pretentious yammering. Ace now knew many intimate details of Mr. Waters' family business doings, and while he filed the information away for future study, he had to practice extreme restraint not to snap the man's neck.
"Just how long are we supposed to be contained in this cage like animals?" Mr. Waters raged. Ace laid still in his hammock, his eyes closed, in the hopes that the man would shut up soon. "It's disgraceful! Completely reprehensible. Locked in a cell without any decent amenities. Nowhere to wash, no room to stretch. Not even a change of clothes!"
Ace sighed. It really wasn't going to end. "We're here," he said, sitting up. He leveled a withering look at the man and received a glare in return. "There is nothing we can do except wait. So why don't you just try to do so quietly?"
Mr. Waters thumped his cane on the floor. Why had they let him keep that thing? "How can you be so accepting of this sort of thing? These ruffians take away your freedom, reduce you to mere cargo, and you just lie down and take it?"
He growled in irritation. "They also outnumber me. They also have weapons. But if I just lie here and do as they say, I may get out of this alive and mostly unharmed. Which is more than I can say for you if you don't clam up."
"Why I never!" Mr. Waters puffed himself up. "How dare you threaten me? Do you not know who I am? Of the influence my family has? I could have you fired from whatever company you work for and have you evicted from your place of living. So don't think you can threaten me. I'll have you living in the gutter before you can even report back to your superiors!"
Ace sank back into his hammock with an exhausted grunt. "You, sir, have an over-bloated sense of importance. But none of your family influence is going to get you out of here any faster, so why don't you take a few hours and get some sleep. Or at least be quiet long enough for me to get some sleep."
The hatch banged open before Mr. Waters could respond, and Ace lifted his head enough to see the pirate approaching with their food. As much as Mr. Waters complained, the pirates had treated them decently so far. They were even being given the same food the sailors ate.
Ace slid out of the hammock and stood at the bars as the pirate approached. "Dinner's a little early today, isn't it?"
The pirate snorted and handed them their bowls. "Be grateful. Captain's orders for an early dinner for you both today. We're going to be too busy later to bring it down. So be glad you're getting dinner at all."
"Indeed." Interesting bit of information. "And I am. Most grateful. For pirates, you fellows are sure kind."
The man snorted again, turned, and stalked out, banging the hatch closed.
He held his bowl of stew, as Mr. Waters grumbled under his breath. If the pirates were going to be busy later, then that could mean they were planning another attack, or that they were going to be docking in a harbor to unload the goods they had grabbed from The Sugarcoat.
"The nerve of them," Mr. Waters was growling. Ace rolled his eyes and settled down to eat his stew. "Treating me like a common prisoner. Don't they know who I am?"
"If they don't, I'm sure they will soon enough," Ace answered him. "They'll most likely be arranging for our ransom soon enough."
Mr. Waters harrumphed. The next few hours were spent in mostly silence, finally. Ace dozed in his hammock, one ear listening for clues. Mr. Waters stalked back and forth in the cell, occasionally thumping his cane.
Almost three hours after they had been given dinner, his ears caught a sound over the thumping beside him. He perked up, listening closer. The waves made a different sound. Distantly, he heard the call of seagulls.
