Somehow, the rest of the crew managed to make it over to their location before the police did. Mel immediately started tending to Dave and Hawthorne the best he could while Ash and Claire assisted Sarah and Heather. Ash naturally fussed over Heather’s skinned hands.

“It’s all right, Ash. I just need to put some treatment on them and bandage up the more exposed parts,” she assured him as he turned her hands in his. “And that was from me getting pushed down and catching myself. Worry more about Sarah, she got pushed face first into the concrete.”

“A little treatment and bandaging and she’ll be fine.” Claire stated as she poked some of the worst wounds causing Sarah to flinch. “Nothing’s bleeding at the moment and nothing looks very deep.” The mechanic backed up a bit. “Though your face hasn’t been having much luck lately, has it? At least you’ll probably be able to take the bandage off for the burns soon. I bet they’re already faded enough that you can’t tell they happened.”

Sarah nodded and sniffed a little. She had stopped crying a while ago but her nose was still clogged up and she hadn’t had the chance to blow it. Claire didn’t seem to notice as she gave her a hearty pat on the shoulder.

“Just think, if it does scar, you’ll have quite a story to go with it. Besides, no one messes with anyone who has a scar. So cheer up! You survived your first mugging without much damage and they only stole a piece of paper.”

“They stole her probationary work visa,” Heather reminded her as she leaned against Ash. “That’s what we need to get out of trouble in Paradis. Now the Thespian did say he would return it, but who knows?”

Ash slung an arm around her and kissed the top of her head. “I’m just glad you two are relatively unharmed. The Thespian might have somewhat of a code but those goons of his can be hard to handle. They don’t go down after a couple of punches.”

They went to the back of the alley where Mel was with Hawthorne and Dave. Hawthorne had a few bruises visible on his face and a busted lip, but he was standing under his own power. Heather pulled away from Ash for a moment to give him a hug.

“I’m so sorry, Mistress Heather.” The butler gripped his cap tightly in his hands. “I tried to fight them off, I really did, but there was more than one of them and…”

“None of that now.” She told him as she returned to Ash. “I’m sure Mom and Dad will give you a nice long vacation, or a short one if you prefer.”

Sarah went over to Mel and knelt next to him while he attended to Dave. Dave looked like he had been run over by something, not punched. How had those goons been able to do so much damage in that little amount of time? They were truly professionals.

“How is he?” She asked the doctor. To be honest at the moment, she wasn’t sure if he was unconscious or he just had his eyes closed because of the pain. But she couldn’t help but feel that somehow, his condition was her fault. If he hadn’t been there…

“Surprisingly, nothing’s broken.” Mel sat back on the balls of his feet and ran a hand through his head. “But he’s going to need to take it easy for the next few days. I have something that’ll help the bruising but he’s going to be quite sore for a while. I’ll get a better look at him at a hospital.”

Dave’s arm shot up and grabbed Mel’s sleeve. His eyes shot open. Despite what he had been through, they didn’t look defeated or tired, though there was a hint of pain in them.

“No, take me back to the ship. The hospital will want to give me pain killers. I’m not going through all of that over a small beat down. And not the Dyer’s place either. I don’t want to inconvenience them.”

“Go grab his cane,” Mel told Sarah. “We’re going to try to help him up on his feet.”

Sarah mutely nodded and searched around for the cane. At first, she couldn’t locate it in the car, so she thought that maybe one of the goons had walked away with it. But no, she found it in the trash pile beside the car. She pulled on the handle. A long, thin blade came out while the rest of the cane remained rooted in place.

“Sorry, should’ve told you not to pull it out by the handle!” Mel called when he saw her stumble back a bit. “Forgot that it was the cane with the sword in it!”

Once she recovered from that shock, she retrieved the rest of the cane and put the blade back in it. Wasn’t it just the other day that he told her that cane swords were illegal to carry? Perhaps he hadn’t seen any other option. She returned to the spot where Mel and Dave were, then handed Dave his cane. Mel went over to his right side and put that arm over his shoulder.

“You get his left. He won’t need as much support there.” The doctor informed her.

She copied him and they both stood up. It took Dave a couple of seconds to steady himself, but soon, he took a few steps without much trouble, though he was moving slower than before. It was about at that time the police pulled up. An officer approached them with a notebook.

“All right, so someone called us about a mugging. Good to see that everyone is alive. We’ll do our best to get any stolen possessions back. What was stolen?”

“A work visa.” Heather told him. “It was stolen by the Thespian.”

The officer stared at them all for a second before closing his notebook. Sarah could hear Claire sigh from her spot in the alley way.

“You’ve got to be kidding me! Some officer of the law you are! I bet you’re one of his paid agents.”

“Your car will be towed to get the tire replaced.” The officer explained. “And I can take you where you need to go in my car. Well, the most injured ones that is. But that is all. I’m sure he won’t keep that visa for long.”

Sarah noticed that he didn’t deny Claire’s claim, which probably meant that there was some truth in it.

“I’ll ride with these two men back to the port,” Mel stated as he came forward.

“Fine, then hop in.” He opened the back seat for them. “As for the rest of you, I suggest you keep quiet about all of this. Just say it was a mugging, don’t specify who it was that did it.”

Sarah joined Claire in glaring at the officer as he drove off once the other three got in his car. Claire spat on the ground.

“You’d think at least one officer wasn’t a goon being paid off by someone. But I suppose there’s not much we can do about that.”

“Not at the moment, no.” Heather confirmed. “Let’s go to my parents’ house. No doubt they’re worried sick about all of us. Besides, I’m sure Sarah’s starving by now. It’s very well past lunchtime.”

--

The next day, an envelope with no return address with Sarah’s name on it was delivered to the Dyer’s doorstep. Upon opening, she found her temporary visa along with a note. The handwriting was very neat. It read:

“Dear Ms. Hidalgo,

I hope this letter finds you well after our meeting the other day. True to my word, I have returned the document to you. Normally, I would slip you some money for your trouble but I have a feeling that you would not wish for money. So instead, I have donated medical supplies to Dr. Whitmore. I figured he could use them and probably wouldn’t refuse them.

And if you could tell Mr. Letterman that the next time we meet, he gets one free swing at me. No guarantees I won’t dodge though. Give everyone my compliments and offer my condolences to Mr. Sherman. And tell him to visit his father before he leaves. I know the man is extremely worried about him.

Sincerely yours,

The Thespian”

Upon reading this letter, Ash promptly threw it into the fire. It went up in flames and soon turned into ashes.

“I’ll make sure I won’t miss.” He swore as he looked into the fire. “He’ll regret giving me a free shot at him. Not only did he hurt you and Heather, but his men injured Dave in an unfair fight. No amount of sweet words or bribes will make me forget that.”

And Sarah believed him. A small part of her was eager to see the confrontation between the two, though most of her hoped it never happened. Chances were that someone was going to have to be carried from that encounter.

--

A couple of days after that, Dave finally felt well enough to embark on another trip and Heather snagged them a small delivery. It wasn’t as small as when Sarah had first rode with them, but the hull wasn’t even half full of boxes upon boxes of inkwells.

“So, are you ready for your first day on the job?” Dave asked as he made his way to the captain’s chair. His face was still covered in bruises, but some of them had lightened in color. He only looked like he got run over by a bicycle instead of a truck.

Sarah nodded as she took her seat by the radio. She had spent the last couple of days cramming on the proper radio lingo and learning how to operate the thing. She knew she could probably at least get them taken off safely. Taking off was pretty easy. It was operating it in the air and landing procedures that could get pretty tricky.

“Aye aye Captain!” She replied as she threw up a salute. It was the wrong salute for the wrong country, but it got a smile from Dave.

“None of that now.” He chided gently as he pressed the intercom button. “Now is everybody ready to depart?”

A chorus of confirmations came over the intercom. He nodded and went back to the chair. He sat in it and leaned the cane agains itt. His hands rested on the yoke of the ship.

“Sarah, are we clear for takeoff?”

“Let me check.” She flipped on the microphone to the radio. “Echelon to Kingsgrove Flight Control. Come in, over.”

“We read you loud and clear, Echelon. You are cleared for takeoff in lane two, over.”

“Roger that, Flight Control. Over.” She turned off the mic. “We’re clear for lane two.”

“Roger,” he replied. “Do we have our heading, Heather?”

Heather nodded and gave him the direction and number of degrees their heading needed to be. Sarah was good with numbers but she had never really understood how to read coordinates. But fortunately, Dave understood what she said and got them into position. Sarah radioed flight control again.

“Echelon taking off, over.”

“Roger that, Echelon. Good luck out there and safe travels. Kingsgrove over and out.”

She felt it when the ship lifted out of the water and started to climb into the air. It was a lot different viewing it from the cockpit rather than one of the rooms. Yes, she still had that nervousness, but it was as strong as she watched the water become further away and the clouds get closer. Heather called for a course adjustment and Dave obliged. After a few minutes of flying, he locked in the steering.

“We’re on our way!” he declared. “And if you need to get up, Sarah, feel free to. There’s two of us up here that know how to work it. Besides, the flight to Paradis is pretty typical up until a certain point. At least we won’t be flying into Alemanian waters again and I have a feeling that our good friend Yager won’t be showing up this time.”

This time, she had a feeling that he was right. Now, all they had to do was get to Paradis and hope that the Colonel would accept her visa. Though that rumor about the blockade was troubling her. Perhaps the good Colonel would let something slipped if asked very, very nicely.