Touch the Sky (Young Underground #8) by Robert Elmer

the back, sending him scrambling for balance.
                  “ Great, ” he gulped, trying to get his breath back.
                  “ This is the bridge, Peter, ” Matthias said, pulling him gently to the side, out of the way of two men in uniforms only a little less raggedy than the captain ’ s. One man, a lanky beanpole with a fearsomely pockmarked face, gripped the spokes of a giant wooden steering wheel and stared straight ahead without a word. Another, a darker man with a beard, kept a pair of binoculars glued to his eyes and scanned the blue horizon ahead. Three other men were studying a map in the far corner while one was plotting a course with a two - pointed compass. No one looked their way. Peter shook his head gently.
                  “ How many in your crew, Captain? ” Matthias looked curious.
                  The captain stood on his tiptoes to peek over the shoulder of his tall helmsman, the man who steered, before he looked back to his visitors. He counted quietly on his fingers for a moment before answering.
                  “ Five in the engine room, ” he began. “ Ten on deck crew, three in the galley, five up here on the bridge. See? I give you the best crew in the Mediterranean. No finer ...”
                  “ Twenty - three? ” asked Matthias.
                  The captain poked his pudgy finger in Matthias ’ s chest. “ Good arithmetic, secret agent man. ”
                  Peter looked quickly out the row of small windows at the back deck of the ship, where the seaplane was sitting, and did his own counting. He could see eight men out on deck, some sitting on the plane ’ s floats, or pontoons, while others leaned against railings and looked out over the water. With five in the bridge, five in the engine room, the one in the dining room, and three more in the galley, that made twenty - two.
                  The captain said twenty - three , thought Peter. Where ’ s the last man?
                  “ How many out there, Peter? ” Matthias asked, looking back in the direction of the plane.
                  “ What are you worried about, eh? ” asked Captain Papanikolas. “ Same cost to you and your Jewish people with three crew or thirty. ”
                  Matthias nodded politely at the captain.
                  “ I still see only eight out there, ” Peter reported quietly. “ That makes twenty - two. ”
                  “ Right. Well, Captain, could you have your men help me with my plane once more? I ’ ll need to get it back into the sea so I can take off. ”
                  “ So soon? ” The captain flashed another one of his toothless smiles. “ You come back with the woman next time. I can hitch you up good. Then you take her to that promised land of yours? ”
                  “ I ’ m working on it. ” Matthias shook the captain ’ s hand before backing down the ladder once more in the direction of the galley. “ I ’ ll meet you in Bremen. ”
                  “ You come back visit again, boy? ” inquired the captain before Peter had a chance to follow Matthias. Peter could only nod and smile.
                  “ The seas, they are bigger now, ” the captain warned from above them. “ You will be more careful with that airplane. ”
                  Matthias and Peter huddled in the hallway once they had made it past the galley and far enough away so no one could hear them.
                  “ Did you add it up? ” Matthias asked seriously.
                  “ Twenty - two, ” reported Peter. “ There ’ s one more somewhere. You think he ’ s the one I saw before? ”
                  Matthias held up his hands. “ You tell me. Look, we can ’ t even tell the captain who we ’ re