Sarah’s stomach churned at the thought of what the Alemanian agent proposed and seemed determined to do to Yager. No, he wasn’t a pleasant person and she couldn’t say that she liked him, but she didn’t want his foot cut off for it. And even with Mel present, how would they make sure he didn’t bleed out? Plus something told her that Dave’s sword cane wasn’t made for slicing through bone. Even if they didn’t manage to cut it off, it would be severely mangled. If she had anything in her stomach, she knew she probably would’ve thrown up right then and there.

To Yager’s credit, he only seemed to be mildly panicked about the whole thing. He wanted out and the only thing keeping him from struggling was the blade pointed at his throat. He was probably used to such threats, though more on the giving than receiving end.

“If you’re going to start chopping off limbs, you might as well send Sarah away.” Dave began as he shifted some. The other agent eyed him. “She’s not going to be of use to you. You see, she’s very squeamish. Any sight of blood and she’s going to faint. So unless you want to be stepping over her all the time… I understand Yager pretty well so I can translate for you. Maybe not into Alemanian, but you seem to have a good grasp on Aboloanian, so Yager to that shouldn’t be a problem.”

The lead agent looked at her. “Is he telling the truth? Are you that bad around blood?”

Was Dave exaggerating about her general feelings toward blood? Yes. About blood coming from a lost limb of a human being, probably no. She nodded.

“Yes, I’m afraid I wouldn’t be of much use to you in that situation. My stomach isn’t that strong.”

If they were insisting on referring to her as a rabbit, she would be a rabbit times ten. After all, it had worked with Yager. The lead agent nodded.

“All right, when the Sniper comes back with the doktor, he’ll take you to the others. But the pilot stays here.”

“Fine with me,” Dave piped up. “Well, not really but you know what I mean.”

Yager glared at the man holding the blade to his throat. She didn’t know he was capable of looking intimidating with his out of date clothes.

“Sure, cut off my pita. And my handa or ear or anyting else. Willn’t do du any gut.” Despite his struggles earlier, he sounded confident in that fact. “But do nae underestimation moi or them, especially la chickena.”

“La chickena…?” The other agent was puzzled a bit. >

That one was a bit lost on Sarah too. But the lead agent didn’t appear to be so.

>

Sarah chalked up Yager’s statement to him being Yager. He was the very definition of hot air. But maybe, just maybe there was a reason behind his confidence. What it was, she couldn’t figure out.

The Sniper came back, dragging Mel by the arm. Fortunately, he was still fairly unharmed, though he smacked into the door frame and mumbled something. He squinted once he entered the room. Maybe he couldn’t tell who was in it.

“Is someone hurt?” he asked. “I’ll try my best, but without my glasses, I’ll need some assistance.”

“No, Doktor Whitmore, we don’t need you quite yet. But we will.” The lead agent lowered the blade some. “Have you dealt with limb loss before?”

“I-I don’t think I wan-ant to answer that question.” The Sniper grabbed him before he could go out the door and brought him over to the lead agent. “I d-don’t have the r-right tools to keep someone with a miss-ssing limb from bleeding out. I nee-need a tourniquet, something to sterilize the w-wound, and this place…” He looked nervously around the room. “Is n-nowhere near clean enough.”

“We just need you to keep him alive as long as possible. You can use some old shirts we found as bandages. Can you handle it?”

Mel shook his head. “I r-refuse to participate in such an act. I took an oath to save lives, not torture them!” Despite his trembling, he faced the lead agent. “Even if it’s Yager! It is Yager, right, and not one of the others?”

“For the moment, yes. If you don’t cooperate, we might move onto someone else too.” He nodded to the Sniper, who let go of Mel’s arm. “>”

“>”

“>” He shoved her toward the Sniper. “>”

Sarah didn’t appreciate being shoved. She’d been cooperating up until then, so there was no need to treat her so roughly. She followed the Sniper out, surprised he didn’t grab her. He probably felt no need too. It looked like they weren’t going to heed Yager’s warning about her. And why should they? With him, it was a fluke and because he was… Yager. These agents were much smarter, much more aware.

They came up to the first floor and the Sniper was beginning to go up the second flight when he stopped. Sarah ran into his back. He motioned her to be quiet and then pushed her aside as he unshouldered his rifle. She moved back, causing a step to squeak. The glare he tossed back at her told her not to move anymore. So, she nodded and stood as still as she could.

He headed toward the door, rifle at the ready. He stuck his head and looked around. Then a moment later, he started to come back. A pair of hands grabbed him, covering his mouth and pulled him outside. Sarah stepped forward, curious as to what had just happened. A familiar figure came through the door.

“>” Toledo cracked his knuckles. “>” If he saw the grimace on her face, he didn’t acknowledge. Two other pirates came in and she recognized them too, but their names escaped her at the moment. She just knew one of them she had hit with the wrench.

“Where’s the captain?" He asked, not even really looking at her.

She pointed to the flight that led to the basement. "Dave and Mel are down there too, so please don't shoot them." It was probably too much to ask that they didn't shoot the agents.

"We'll try no to. No guarantees though. How many agents?"

"Enough to handle you."

The two agents came up from the basement. The lead agent held Yager with the blade to his throat. There was some blood on it and his foot, but his foot was still there. The other three agents came from upstairs, weapons drawn.

"We thought that you might try something like this. Honestly, we expected you sooner, but since when are pirates punctual?" He tightened his grip on Yager. "I don't know if you have any loyalty to your Kapitan, but I don’t think I need to explain what I want from you right now.”

“That’s a very pirate thing to do, mate.” He admitted. “But then so is this.”

The one next to him aimed and fired his gun. The bullet went through Yager’s shoulder and into the agent’s. Yager, despite the pain that made his face contort, broke away from the agent. Sarah barely had time to dive out of the way before a full-blown firefight broke out. The pirates weren’t as outnumbered as they first seemed as so more came in. The agents merely stepped over Sarah on their way to get a better aim at the pirates. She didn’t stop until she got up to the second floor and found the room that the others were in.

“I heard gunshots. What’s going on?” Ash asked. He was bound, but neither Heather nor Claire was.

“The pirates are here to rescue Yager and started a firefight downstairs,” Sarah explained, examining the knot he had been tied with. They’d probably need a blade to cut it. “Mel and Dave are in the basement still, as far as I know. I asked the pirates not to shoot them, but…”

“There’s no telling if they could get caught in a crossfire.” He stood up, though his hands were still bound. “If we can get outside, I’m sure there’s a way into the basement from there that we can use to get them.”

“Yeah, we just have to get through all of that.” The gunshots continued downstairs. Claire rose to her feet. “And I don’t trust the pirates to accidentally not miss.”

“This building is bound to have a fire escape. We just need to find it. Surely one of the boards is loose enough on these windows to break out.”

Then things were quiet. Ash stood in front of the door. The knob started to turn. The question was who would be coming in.