Sarah expected Heather to be angry about Captain Yager somehow being in her house. But she never thought that she’d step right up to the pirate captain and give him a right hook to the jaw. It wasn’t hard enough to knock him out of his chair, but he did have to put all the feet of the chair on the ground to not tip over a bit. One of his crewmen went to interfere, but Ash quickly blocked his path to her and started to grapple with him. Sarah found herself being grabbed in a chokehold from behind. She kicked back, but the pirate stood far enough back that she couldn’t reach him.

Yager held up a hand with the knife. The cheese had fallen onto the table. “Stand downwind!” He ordered as he rubbed his jaw where Heather hit him. Sarah was let go and the one grappling with Ash backed up.

“What did you do to my parents and Hawthorne?!” She demanded to know as she fearlessly got in the pirate captain’s face. She then shoved his feet off the table. He winced as his bandaged foot hit the floor. “And get your feet off the table! You’re getting dirt on it.”

Yager rubbed his jaw for a couple more seconds before chuckling and looking to Ash. “You’re one lucky sonofaduck, Ashwood, to have such a passionate frawn.” Then he answered Heather’s questions. “Your parentales and butler are fine, as far as I co-know-ce. They were gonzo when we got here. Casina locked also.” He glanced at the direction of the back door. “You will need a new-a back door.”

Heather let out a loud sigh and stepped back. She crossed her arms. “They probably went to the country for the weekend and forgot to leave a note. I’ll check with the neighbors later. And why did you feel the need to break into my parents’ house, again?”

“Because I knew that after such an exhaustion journey, you would return-a here.” He nearly put his feet up on the table again, but a glare from Heather stopped him. “As for the quesy…” He grabbed the cheese. “I got hungry. And you always have gouda food around.”

Sarah missed the pun until he held up the cheese. Though given his...unique way of speaking, it was hard to tell that he made a joke. It fell completely flat. He looked at his crewmembers, who let out a pity chuckle. He shook his head and muttered something before cutting off another slice.

“As I was dictatoring, we came here to collect what is mio.” He bit the piece of cheese before looking around. “Wait, where is wooden-legged pilot, the doctorate, and the wrench chucker?”

“If you’re talking about Dave, Mel, and Claire, they’re not here,” Ash replied, giving the one who had grabbed Sarah an evil eye. “You know that though. After all, you had someone following us. This has something to do with the thing that Recke gave us, isn’t it? There’d be no other reason for you to risk showing your face in public if you didn’t think it was worth it.”

Yager blinked. For once, he looked genuinely confused instead of willfully ignorant of what was being discussed.

“Followed? I did nata order you followed. Why would I necessita that? I know where you go and live.”

“Then if you weren’t having us followed, who was?” Heather lowered her arms. Yager shrugged.

“Describme the personage. Maybe rival crew I know.”

Ash nodded and described the man who had seemingly followed them on the bus. Yager listened intently.

“Of cours-a…”He nodded enthusiastically. “I have no idealogical who he ist.”

An unheard sigh ran through the room, even among his men. Yager seemed to be the only one not disappointed by his lack of knowledge. How this man managed to run a successful pirate crew was a mystery to Sarah. He either had really good luck or was very good at playing the fool.

“But as Mel said, maybe we weren’t being followed.” Sarah felt the need to point out. “After all, Dave still has time to call before you go looking for him and we know what stop they got off at. Maybe we should wait and…”

Yager got up. “No, we go now with pastry haste! I cannot losa the pacquino!”

“Yes, Cap’n.” One of the men with him stated. “I’ll just get the rope so we can tie them up like we planned and…”

“No, there is no timo for that! They comonos with us!” He pointed to the trio as he grabbed his cane, which was Dave’s cane he had been forced to abandon when they escaped from the Steel Eagle. “Tell us where they got offa! Your frimgos could be in gravy danger.”

“Who do you think is following them?” Ash questioned, showing no sign that he was going anywhere with the pirate. “Tell us, Yager. It’s not like you to be this panicked about… anything.”

“That’s Capitan Yager to you, Ashwood!” He pointed a finger in his face. “And think abouta it. That wooden-legged pilot is carrying something from an Aliman libadom fighter. Who do du think would be interesanted in that?”

“An information broker, someone who would be willing to sell such a thing to the Aleman government for money,” Heather replied. “But they aren’t usually that dangerous. They’d rather pick your pockets than risk a confrontation and Dave knows better than to carry something like that where it can be plucked from him so easily.”

Yager shook his head. “Nein, you aren’t seeing the grande-er picture. Why doesn’t the…” He pointed to Sarah and stopped. He stared at her for a bit and blinked. “What are you doing here, Libraian? You’re supposed to…”

“You just now realized she was here with us?” Ash asked with a shake of his head. “I know she hasn’t said much, but still…”

Yager waved him off. “We can take care of detailers later. I’m still upsgry about my foot that you shot, mi frienda, but that can wait. We must go save the wooden-legged pilot or at least the paquino.”

“And what makes you think we’re going anywhere with you?” Heather pulled Sarah out of reach of any pirates so she wouldn’t get grabbed again. “And how are you going to go anywhere without being recognized? Even outside of the port you have a reputation.”

The pirate captain held up one finger. “Un, du will come with us because you don’t want to get hurt.” The men with him (which had gone from two to four) raised their weapons at them. That was a convincing enough argument for Sarah. “Dun, I have disguise.”

His masterfully disguise was a trench coat, a fedora, and a scarf. Which while that did cover him up pretty well, it was too warm to be wearing a scarf, which would attract attention, and it wasn’t raining (for the moment), so the coat would attract attention. But it had gotten him there, so maybe it was more effective than it appeared. Now how a group their size wouldn’t attract too much attention, she wasn’t sure.

“Now Ashwood, tell us where the rest got off the autobus.” Yager stated before he pulled the scarf over the bottom half of his face and made sure that the coat was button all the way. “With any fortuna, we’ll be able to relocate them before someone-a else.”

“You have yet to say who else.” Ash pointed out as they were all herded to the door. Heather locked it behind her. Hopefully, no thieves would notice the broken back door and take advantage of it. “I won’t tell you what stop they got off until you do.”

“And here I thought you were all of the smarty veritas.” Yager sighed in exasperation as they all started to walk down the street. “But I see that I have to spill it out for du. I believe the wooden-legged pilot, spectated doctor, and wrench jacky are being followed by an Aliman-mian agent.”

“In Aboloan?”

“They’re everywhere. I would nae be surprised if there are some even in Libarache.”

That wasn’t even close to the name of her home country. He had to be making such mistakes on purpose. But for once, what he said made sense. After all, even if Aboloan was on Aleman’s approved list, it didn’t mean they liked or trusted them.

Ash relented and gave the location, though Sarah could tell that he wasn’t buying Yager’s explanation. It still wouldn’t hurt to check on them. They could handle Yager and his crew. She wasn’t sure how the other three would fair with an Alemanian agent, or maybe more. Something told her that the agent wasn’t alone in this endeavor.

The bus didn’t take too long to arrive and they piled on. Yager claimed he had no money, forcing Heather to pay for the bus fare. Sarah almost volunteered to carry part of the money so she wouldn’t have to worry about keeping up with it all, but that would not be a wise thing to mention around the pirate captain. And the foot. She wouldn’t mention that either.