Tambu leaned forward with a new eagerness. The survivor might be able to supply them with the answers to some of the questions they had on how pirates operated.
“Is he the only survivor?” he asked.
“He’s the only one on this ship. There were three others who bought it when we chewed ’em up with our slicers. But you ready for this? There are six more on board the Infidel.”
“What?” Tambu was unable to contain his surprise.
“That’s right. A bunch of the crew took a shuttle over to check the Infidel’s cargo just before we showed up. One of them is the Mongoose’s captain.”
Tambu paused to think. On the one hand, the captured pirates could supply them with much-needed information. On the other hand, they outnumbered the Scorpion’s crew seven to four. That could be trouble–particularly if they still had their captain to lead them.
“Do you want me to take the shuttle over and check ’em out?” Egor asked, breaking the silence.
“No! Stay where you are for now. I need you there to make sure none of them try to sneak back on board.”
Actually, Tambu was afraid the pirates would overpower Egor if he tried to board the Infidel, but he didn’t want to say that. Egor was so proud of his brawling abilities that he might just take it as a challenge and try it on his own.
“Do you have any way of communicating with the boarding party?” Tambu asked.
“Just a second-I’ll check.”
There was a brief silence, then Egor spoke again.
“They’re using hand communicators, same as us. They’re on a different frequency though. I can hold mine next to theirs if you want to talk to them direct.”