As the door started to swing open, Ash rushed and slammed his shoulder into it, causing it to close on the person who had opened it. There was a muffled curse on the other side. Ash held the door shut with his shoulder.

“I’m not letting you in until you tell us who you are!” Ash shouted. He flicked his head to Sarah, who came over. She’d be able to tell if it were one of the agents or someone else.

“How about this? All the agents are dead and we have your captain and doctor. You lot can stay in there and we’ll just be on our way with them.”

It wasn’t one of the agents, that much she could tell. Ash looked back to Heather and Clair, who nodded. There didn’t seem to be many options available at the moment. Ash backed off and the door swung open, straight into Sarah’s nose. She rubbed it, but it didn’t hurt that much, most of the impact being absorbed by her shoes.

“Everyone out.” The pirate ordered. "And don't get any ideas, Mr. Big Man. As far as the Captain is concerned, we're still enemies."

Sarah had her doubts that Yager was in much of a position to give orders and the pirates were probably just doing what felt right to them. But everyone cooperated because they were anxious to see the condition of the remaining two crew members.

Dave hadn’t accrued any new wounds and he was holding himself against the wall by his own volition. He looked more tired than anything. But he was flanked by two pirates, one of them being the one who came in earlier that she recognized. Maybe his name would come to her soon enough.

Mel sat next to Yager, squinting and holding a cloth against the pirate captain’s foot. He seemed uninjured too, though he had blood on him. Blood smears were leading toward the door. Sarah tried to not think about it too much. Mel looked to one of the pirates.

“I trust one of you brought medical supplies.” He stated. He was in doctor mode, so his nervous stutter was once again gone. “I’d prefer to treat it somewhere a bit cleaner, but I don’t think we’d have time for that. He’s not in danger of bleeding out, but I’d rather take care of it now than expose it to what’s out on the street.”

“Here Doc.” A pirate limped up to him with a box. “It’s the same kind of kit you put together when you were with us, so it should have everything you need.”

Mel pointed to the pirate next to Dave. “Bert, give me your coat. I need something for him to lay on. I promise he won’t get any blood on it or anything.” He opened the box and got out a few things. “All right, someone needs to hold down his leg while I sew this cut up. And someone needs to sterilize the thread and other things with the alcohol. And stand back.” He nearly pushed Toledo back. “You’re blocking the light.”

To Sarah’s surprise, the pirates backed up and allowed Mel to do his thing. Most of the pirates left him, taking the rest of the crew outside with them. Clair elbowed one that handled her rather roughly, wincing a bit as it jostled her recently recovered injury. She didn’t need the sling anymore, but Mel had advised against her using it too much for the moment.

“Come on gentlemen.” Dave protested as they practically carried him out to the vehicle they had come in, a truck with a canvas covering. Anyone who looked at it would think it was making a delivery of some sort. Sarah wondered if it was theirs or they had stolen it from the docks. “You don’t have time to deal with us with your captain injured. Besides, if you think about it, you owe us for Mel treating Yager so willingly.”

They dumped him and Ash into the back of the truck. One pirate threw Dave’s false leg and cane in after them before climbing in. Claire was banished to the back along with Heather. Sarah was about to climb back there when the door to the cab opened. She recognized Caspian, the pirate who had been with Bert when she hit him with a wrench.

“Put her up front,” he ordered a nearby pirate. He pointed to the open cab door with his thumb. “We don’t want her to get bumped out onto the road.” So she was shoved between Caspian and the other pirate who sat up front. It was a rather tight fit, but she could tolerate it.

Toledo came out carrying Yager with Mel being escorted by Bert and the other pirate who stayed behind to help. Toledo carefully set Yager in the back before getting in himself. Mel also climbed in the back, though Bert had to help him up when he couldn’t see the lip of the back thanks to his glasses missing. Once he was in, Bert went into the back and tapped on the small window that was between the cab and the back.

“All right, let’s get out of here before the police get here. With as many shots as there was, they’re sure to investigate, even in this part of town. We’re probably lucky that they haven’t shown up yet.”

Caspian nodded and started the truck. Sarah shifted a little. Theses seats were not made for comfort, that much she could tell. She craned her neck so she could look in on the rest of them. Heather sat next to Ash, leaning on his shoulder. Mel attended to Yager, who was unconscious. And Claire looked over Dave, who looked like he wanted to do nothing more than to go to bed. Sarah didn’t blame him. It had been a long day and it looked like it wasn’t over.

“Why are you taking us with you? Don’t you have what you need?” She questioned as the truck moved along. Caspian might not answer her and Yager probably hadn’t heard her. Still, something needed to break the silence.

“And have the crew report us to the authorities? We’ll let them go once we’re ready to leave.” Caspian replied as he turned the wheel. “With any luck, they’ll think the bodies of the agents are from the local Alemanian mob and that rivals killed them. A shut and close case to these Kingsgrove cops.”

Them go? Shouldn’t he have something like “you” or “you all” go? While she didn’t expect pirates to have perfect grammar, she didn’t think they would mix up pronouns like that. Maybe he didn’t know she was part of the crew now. After all, she had just decided to stay with them for an extended period.

“You mean all of us, right? Because I’m now a member too.”

“No, he means them.” The other pirate said with a grin on his face. “You’ll be joining us along with the Doc. After all, he still has a contract with us, even if it’s not official or anything and the captain decided a translator would be a good thing to have. And since we already know you…”

“And what if I don’t want to join?” Although she knew they probably weren’t going to give her an option, she felt like she needed to ask.

“You don’t have a choice. If you want to eat, you’ll work.” Caspian replied. His eyes flickered over to her briefly. “And I doubt someone like you can last more than a couple of days without a meal.”

“Besides, we’re not so bad to our crewmates.” The other pirate stretched out his arm, slinging it over her shoulder. “I mean sure, your a dame and we haven’t had one on the ship for a while, not that there are that many female pirates to begin with, but we promised the captain we’d be on our best behavior.”

Sarah nudged his arm off. The last thing she wanted was for pirates to get chummy with her. But one thing was clear, if she didn’t want to be pressed into the crew, she needed to escape and soon. It wouldn’t be as easy to get away from them as it had from Yager. They were both armed, though they didn’t seem to be paying much attention to her.

She looked down the road. The truck came to a stop at an intersection and started turning, though Caspian was taking the turn wide. Since no other cars were coming, it wasn’t a problem. Then Sarah made up her mind. She shot her hand out, gripped the bottom part of the steering wheel, and pulled it up as hard as she could. The truck turned sharper and Caspian didn’t have enough time to press on the brake to prevent it from crashing into the corner of the building.

Everyone was thrown forward when the truck suddenly stopped. Sarah’s shoulder rammed into the dashboard, causing her to let go of the wheel. She dashed the driver’s side door, crawling across Caspian’s lap and managing to open it. The other pirate grabbed her ankle.

“Oh no, you don’t.” He pulled her back in. “That little stunt is going to cost you, no matter what the captain says. Caspian, get this truck started, and let’s get going before…”

“Hey, you drunk or something!?” The building that the truck had smashed into had been occupied. People had come out of it and a burly man was at the forefront with a pipe. “Or maybe you just can’t drive.”

Sarah used the brief distraction the man provided to aim a kick at the pirate’s face with her free foot. The heel of her shoe caught his face and he let go. She scrambled out before Caspian could do anything. The crowd watched as she landed on the ground.

“They’re pirates!” She exclaimed, pointing at them. “And they’ve got my friends in the back of their truck!”

Even if they didn’t believe her, they would probably still investigate, giving them valuable time. Caspian slammed the door shut and started backing the truck up. As he started going forward, Claire and Heather flew out of the back, followed by a still restrained Ash and a screaming Mel. And just as the truck started to pick up speed, Dave landed on the concrete and his leg soon landed on top of him. The truck soon sped off and disappeared.

“Guess they decided to dump us since there were witnesses and they needed to get Yager back to the ship.” Dave groaned a little bit. “Good thinking, Sarah. How did you know that we were getting to a part of town where people investigate strange noises?”

“I didn’t.” She admitted as a group of people started to gather around them. “I just… panicked when they talked about keeping me and Mel. So I wanted to make sure we didn’t make it to the Steel Eagle. That was the only thing I could think of doing. I’m honestly surprised it worked since we weren’t going very fast.”

Sarah knew the truth. She had gotten lucky, once again. And that luck would eventually run out. Next time, all the pirates would be on guard. They certainly would never let her get near a steering wheel, that was for sure.

Fortunately, it didn’t take the police long to arrive since someone had called them shortly after the truck smashed into the building. The crew let Dave do most of the talking, even as he was examined and bandaged up by the medics that came with the police. He left out the part about their attackers being Alemanian agents, but the police didn’t seem to care too much about the identity of them. She had to wonder whose payroll these were on. They were all checked out before being released.

Heather and Ash elected to stay at her parents' house while the rest went back to the Echelon. Sarah grabbed something to eat and then headed to bed. She didn’t even bother to change into her pajamas.