Race to the Bottom of the Sea by Lindsay Eagar

Author:Lindsay Eagar [Eagar, Lindsay]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780763693923
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Published: 2017-10-29T04:00:00+00:00

Admiral Bridgewater stood at the window in his cabin as the Mother Dog cut across some undisclosed stretch of sea. His crimson velvet curtains were drawn back, the lamps in his quarters dimmed. Outside, night was chilly as a Molvanian jail cell — but still, the admiral stood. He watched. He wouldn’t miss a ripple.

A huge round moon cast shadows on the decks of the Mother Dog, which were empty save for the few men assigned to first watch. The rest of the crew was stacked in their bunks like minnows in a tin, asleep. They didn’t have his appetite for justice, the pathetic souls. The pansies needed their beauty rest.

Admiral Bridgewater’s own bed was not yet turned down. He wouldn’t sleep. Not tonight — not until he had caught that miserable scallywag.

Winter patrols didn’t begin until next week. That meant Bridgewater had seven days to find him, seven days to search every wave of the nine seas.

He checked his personal compass against the presentation of the stars from his window. Suppose they headed west. Would that be closer? Or should they continue their slow patrol of the cocoa route — Merrick’s favorite playground — and hope that their winds crossed?

Admiral Bridgewater smoothed his mustache, which twitched and bristled in his frustration. It didn’t matter what direction they sailed; it didn’t matter how carefully they planned and schemed and plotted courses. Over the years, Merrick had proved to be as slippery as a moray, and just as skillful at hiding; whenever Admiral Bridgewater spotted him, Merrick disappeared between the cracks.

“Where did you disappear to, Merrick?” Admiral Bridgewater muttered. “Back to your hidden cave of treasure? Or did you finally sail straight to hell?”

The Mother Dog sailed south aimlessly. The admiral barked orders at his men. He tried to do this at least once an hour, to keep them soft and afraid. Every day Admiral Bridgewater endured without Merrick behind bars felt like an eternity, felt miserable. Felt like he could hear someone laughing at him and the Queen’s Own Navy.

Other pirates had met their fates. Other pirates, he had crushed like fleas under the boot of the law. But getting rid of the fleas one by one did nothing when the whole mangy dog still roamed free.

“I’ll find you,” he vowed to the open sea. “If I have to drag the entire ocean, if I have to storm every shore. If I have to swim to the bottom of the sea myself — I will find you.”

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