No Safe Place by Deborah Ellis Read Free Book Online Page A

looking at another boat. They had drifted right into it.
    It was a cabin cruiser, a yacht, four times longer than their little boat and many times higher.
    Even in the dark, Abdul could see it was expensive. Tiny lights twinkled here and there along its sides.
    Abdul nudged Cheslav and Rosalia awake and motioned to them to be quiet. Jonah stirred but didn’t quite awaken. Abdul could tell from his fever and labored breathing that the boy was really sick.
    â€œShould we shout out for help?” he wondered.
    â€œWhy would they help us?” whispered Rosalia.
    â€œThey’re all asleep up there,” said Cheslav. “We go up, we get blankets, water and food. We take what we need, and then we get back on our own boat and row away.”
    â€œI’ll go,” said Abdul. “One of us is enough.”
    â€œWhy would I trust you? I’ll go.” Cheslav was already on his feet, securing their boat to the yacht.
    â€œI’m going,” said Rosalia. “I won’t waste time, and why would I trust you?”
    â€œSomeone should stay with Jonah,” Abdul said.
    â€œYou think he’ll run away?” Cheslav was already pulling himself onto the yacht after Rosalia. Abdul followed him.
    Empty liquor bottles littered the deck.
    On one of the cushioned benches they saw a man, passed out and snoring.
    â€œI’m going below. You go round the back,” Cheslav whispered to Rosalia. He told Abdul to check out the wheelhouse.
    Abdul didn’t like to be ordered around by Cheslav, but this was no time to argue. He went to the little covered deck that held the ship’s wheel and control panel.
    There were more bottles and paper plates with the remains of a meal. Abdul picked up a half-eaten chicken leg and finished it off in two bites. There was a roll, and some kind of cold potatoes in sauce. It felt great to eat, but then he felt bad when he remembered the goal was to get things they needed and get away.
    He spied some large bottles of drinking water. There were four unopened bottles and one that was still half-full. On the back of one of the chairs was a sweater, and two towels were bunched up on the floor. He used the larger towel to bundle up what he found.
    Abdul looked around carefully for anything else they might use. Whoever owned this boat had a lot of money. The console was full of fancy electrical equipment. He thought he recognized a radio and gears, but most of it was a mystery.
    They needed to find out where they were, and how far away they were from England.
    We could get there quickly in this, Abdul thought. The man who owned the yacht could take them to England easily, but Abdul knew he never would.
    He figured he’d taken all that was useful, and he was just turning to go back to the others when he heard a shout from below.
    He froze.
    There was another shout, then another. At first they were just shouts of surprise. Then they were shouts of anger.
    Up from below came Cheslav, and right behind him was a man with white hair and a thick body, wearing an open bathrobe over his boxer shorts. The man held a pistol pointed at Cheslav’s back.
    â€œWe have a thief,” the man said, in English with an American accent. “Came right up onto our boat, Harry. Right into my bedroom! Trying to steal my wallet!”
    â€œI was after your blanket,” Cheslav said. “It was on the floor. You didn’t even need it.”
    â€œAre you all right, Frank?”
    â€œI caught me a baby pirate,” said the man with the gun.
    Harry grabbed Cheslav and spun him around so that he leaned against the yacht’s railing, looking out at the black sea. The man kicked his legs apart and started to pat him down, searching him. It took no time at all to find the heroin packed away in Cheslav’s clothes.
    â€œYou worked narcotics, Frank,” said Harry, bending down to pick up the packets that fell out of Cheslav’s