Chapter 10

Quite a Sight

Dola's Farm, Dunn's Crag, Scotland

Dola was thinking about the kids as she wolfed down a "snack" of three very large mince-pies. She was coming to the realisation that she could never harm these kids, and that made her frustrated.

"No good if you can't show them you mean business! But those kids are the only ones around here who call me captain! I couldn't raise a finger against anyone of them! Well, Sokka deserves a good smack, but that's it!" she ranted to nobody in particular. She had also been contemplating what to do as far as the New Glasgow situation. She was thinking that if she assisted the government in fighting them, then she could get an amnesty! Then she could let those kids go, and everybody would be happy. She picked up the speaking tube to the kitchen and yelled,

"GERALD! GET UP HERE!"

"All right!" No need to shout!" he said anxiously. He bustled up the stairs to their spartan room and walked in.

"We obviously cannot carry through with the ransom threats." she said bluntly.

"No we cannot."

"So what do we do? We are in possession of hostages and our amnesty has been repealed! How can we get out of this alive?"

"Easy! Fight those barbarians who burnt down that outpost! Then we get Orders of the Garter, a healthy pension, and live out our lives in Tahiti!"

"It's obviously not that simple!"

"What has to be so difficult about it?"

"It's just not that simple!"

"It is that simple!"

"ARGH! ALL RIGHT! IT IS THAT SIMPLE!"

"That's better," he said smugly.

"Get the boys and the kids. We're going to the South Pacific!" she yelled as she ran through the house, collecting the inhabitants for lunch and a battle plan. They assembled in front of the huge teak table heaped with food. Katara brought out the third pot of stew and sat down."All right! You must be wondering why your all down here and stuffing your faces!"

"Not really!" one of Dola's sons said.

"Shut up! After we finish eating, we're piling into the Tiger Moth and taking off for the Anomaly gates! Understood?" she demanded. A roar of approval swept around the table. Gerald stood up in his filthy tank-top and yelled

"For loot and booty!"

"Hurrah!" the assembled group yelled.

"All right! We leave here in five minutes!" Dola yelled. The house became a buzzing hive of activity as people rushed to gather their possessions and get aboard the Tiger Moth. The Scottish farmhouse was empty in four and a half minutes, and in another forty-five seconds, the Tiger Moth was loaded up and ready to go up. Dola took the helm and yelled through the speaking tube "GERALD! GET THE ENGINES GOING! AND STEP ON IT!"

"ALL RIGHT!" he yelled back. "AANG! FIRE UP THE ENGINE CYLINDERS!"

"Right!" Aang crawled up and yanked a lever. The engines started whistling, and the cylinders chugged up and down. The outside propellers started to rotate, and the Moth slid out of the hangar into the glistening Scottish Sky. The Tiger Moth charted a South-by-Southwest course to the South Pacific, leaving the British Army scaling Dunn's Crag in the dust. The brown, vaguely bird-like airship sped into a cloudbank covering southwest Scotland.

...

The War Ministry, No. 18 Whitehall, London

"Minister, I need the Third Fleet of the Royal Navy sent to the South Pacific immediately." the PM demanded of the War Minister, a wispy, elderly man with a long nose.

"Yes, well.." the Minister uttered helplessly.

"The Lord-Admiral has been here hasn't he! He's talked you into not giving me the fleet!" the PM roared.

"The Admiral is a good friend!" He protested.

"Who signs your bloody pay-cheques? Who posted you to your position! Who raised you up from lowly strategist? Not the Admiral!"

"Are you threatening me?"

"I bloody well am! The fate of the entire bloody Empire rests in your hands! Give me the fleet, otherwise I will have you thrown out of the government!"

"So be it! I resign!" he stormed out of the room, his coattails swinging behind him as he went.

"Damn and blast!" the Prime Minister yelled as he turned beet-coloured. He stormed out of the room, down the ornate hallway decorated with paintings of great British victories and generals. He thundered out the door to his waiting car, a Rolls-Royce '66. He slammed the door and roared to his driver, "Buckingham Palace! And hurry it up!"

...