31. JIM
Martigan lowered his looking glass. He turned to the crew, which was mostly gathered with him around the railing.
“Is this the place, Jim?”
Jim nodded. The fishing village was just visible in the early morning fog. It was the only meaningful settlement on Patusan outside of the capital, Allang. The captain had made it clear he didn’t want to make an approach on Allang until he knew what was going on, so the first stop was the village.
“All right,” Martigan said, “I don’t expect a welcoming committee, but Jim speaks their language, so hopefully they won’t kill us. Let’s grab the dinghy. Jim, you’re with me and Mo. Mr. Candiru, you have the conn.”
“Any orders, Captain?” Butch asked.
“Yeah,” he said, begrudgingly handing the telescope to his chief mate, “if you see us ge
