Mina stood tapping her foot in front of Karnage's desk. The wolf himself sat glaring at her from the opposite side.
"Look, I can't take her with me. She knows your crew and half of them like her. It wouldn't be fair to force her to go with a group of unknown people. She's been lucky so far with your guys. None of them has gotten it into their heads that she's a woman yet. And those that have already have someone."
"Hrmph."
Mina stifled a growl. He'd been 'hrmphing' at her since she'd suggested her idea.
"What do you want me to do with her?" Mina grumped.
"I am not knowing...drown her? Throw her overboard? Feed her to the fishysticks?"
Well, at least he wasn't 'hrmphing'. Mina looked at him.
"Is that what you'd do with her?"
"Well, it was obvious that she is not able to handle flying and shooting at the same time."
"She's never been in battle."
"Obviousamente."
"Give her some time. What else would you do with her?"
"I, in my brilliance, have told the radio men to teach her how to do what they do. She can do that."
"And never leave the ship? That's cruel, Diego."
"It is not. She is only here because no one is interested in carrying her off to be their wife."
"What gave you that idea?"
"It is always that way. She is a distraction to the crew. When you leave this ship, you either take her with you or she will be working the radio."
"She's a distraction to the crew, huh? The crew or you, Diego?"
Karnage's ears stood up and he leapt to his feet.
"I am not interested in that vicious vixen! Don Karnage does not need a foolish female to muddle his keen mind!"
Mina stared at him for a moment.
"She's a good pilot. Even you have to admit that she was still in control even if she was scared to death. I told you I'd never had her fly formations."
Karnage's ears dropped back to normal and he sighed. Mina would just keep going in circles with him until one of them cracked.
"What do you want me to do? Teach her to be a captain? That is what you were doing, yes/no?"
"I was going to try to teach her that, yes. But she's not cut out for it. I don't think she could send anyone in where they might get hurt." Mina answered.
"She is a coward."
"No. She's not. She just can't give orders. But I think she'd do anything you told her to, within reason of course."
Karnage was silent for a moment. He was contemplating the possible uses that he could put Camdyn to. He had to admit that she could be useful.
"Hm."
"What are you thinking about?"
"My crew are wise to Gibber and his spying trickery. They do not talk in front of him. They will not tell Will or myself of any problems. They just cry like little baby children in the night about it. Perhaps..." Karnage trailed off and Mina picked up on his train of thought.
"She could be a sort of liaison between the crew and you?"
"That sounds very dirty."
"No no...I meant that the crew could tell her what they was wrong and she could relay the message back to you. That way, if it was something unfavorable, you wouldn't know who had said it. She'd be like the quartermaster on a ship."
"So they keep me in the darkness of night about it?" Karnage frowned. Mina sensed that he wasn't liking this part so much.
"No, no...if they know you know that they said it, then they wouldn't say anything at all. Wouldn't it be better to know than to not know?"
Karnage shook his head as if to shake away the confusing sentence.
"If it was being anything terrible about their wondrous captain...I could hang them all by their pinkies!"
Mina sighed, but decided to leave it at that. She felt guilty about leaving Camdyn there, but there really wasn't much of a choice. If she could make herself useful for Diego, so much the better. Mina had never seen the articles that all of the crew members signed, but she'd heard that there was some sort of punishment for a male bothering a female crew member. She'd certainly never had any problems in that regard. Mina also highly doubted that anyone had ever been hung by their pinkies, but didn't say anything.
"Well, maybe we should see what-"
Mina was interrupted by a squawk from the intercom system.
Camdyn's voice came over it, sounding a strange mix of frightened, puzzled and nervous.
"Captain, could you come to the radio room? The rat is doing the watusi on the gouda, the kittens are in the basement and the wolf is on the roof."
Mina blinked.
"What kind of nonsense is that?"
Karnage shoved his way past Mina and ran down the hallway toward the bridge. Mina looked after him for a moment, then took off after him.
Jacques jumped up as Karnage entered the bridge and yelled out a set of coordinates so fast that Will tenuously asked him to repeat them. Which he did. Mina was still confused.
"Breaker Island? What's the rush, captain? If you don't mind me asking, that is." Will said.
"They are in danger."
"From the rat that's dancing on the cheese?" one of the others laughed. Karnage gripped him by the front of his shirt, lifting him to eye level.
"From the BOUNTY HUNTERS who have the CHILDREN hiding in the basement and my SISTER on the roof watching them." Karnage snarled out the translation. There was complete and utter silence as what he'd said sank in.
Karnage dropped the pirate and turned to go to the radio room. Mina did the sensible thing and remained on the bridge.
Camdyn jumped as Karnage stepped in and slammed the door. He took the microphone and headphones from her and said:
"The Vulture is circling the dying rat. Be keeping sure that none of the kittens lose their mittens."
Camdyn blinked. When the communication from Breaker Island had come through, Sam and Trent hadn't been quite sure what to make of it. All that Sable had said was what Camdyn had decided to announce to the Captain. Sam had grumbled at her about that, but Camdyn had insisted. Camdyn was curious, but the tone of Karnage's voice said that he had no time to answer questions. He looked at Sam as he tossed the microphone and headset back onto the table.
"This concerns you. There are bounty-type hunters at Breaker Island. If you are wishing to defend your family, you may go." Karnage said. Sam stared at him for a moment, then nodded. Camdyn looked at Sam, then back to Karnage.
"What about me? Can I go?"
"So you can lose what few marbles you have in your possession when the fur starts to fly? I am not thinking so."
"But...they're my friends!"
"This does not concern you vixen." Karnage snapped so viciously that Camdyn moved back. Without saying anything further he turned and stalked away.
Camdyn had no idea what to do with herself now. She couldn't go with the advance group who would hopefully get there in time. She saw Sophie in the hallway as she passed, having left the radio room in the more capable hands of Sam and Trent.
"You ought to go talk to Mad Dog. You think you've got it rough. He's been forbidden to go by Karnage himself and has done nothing but worry about Suki." the tigress mentioned as she walked by.
Camdyn had nothing better to do, so she ended up back in the kitchen where she found a more than agitated mutt stalking around.
"I thought you weren't supposed to be up."
"I don't give a rat's ass."
"Well, I can't go either. So I guess we can both sit here and worry together. The captain told me I wasn't allowed to go because it wasn't any of my concern." Camdyn said, she'd been getting used to Mad Dog's moods and language. She flinched as he slammed his fist into the wall.
"The hell it isn't."
Camdyn sighed and started to leave when she felt Mad Dog's hand on her shoulder.
"Waitaminute. You just said that he said you couldn't go?"
"That's what he said."
"That's the biggest load of horseshit I've ever heard. You didn't sign anything. You aren't under his command."
Camdyn stood considering this for a moment.
"If I hurry I can catch them." Camdyn started out the doorway and Mad Dog stopped her again.
"Take this." He shrugged off his vest and held it out to Camdyn. Camdyn wondered how it could possibly be so heavy as she took it and put it on.
"There's extra ammo in there. Here..." Mad Dog gave her his shotgun, now back to it's normal form. "Don't point it at anything you don't intend to shoot. And I expect it all to be in one piece when you get back. Oh yeah...one more thing...take my plane 'cause Ratchet's been fiddlin' around with yours."
Camdyn nodded, then turned and headed toward the hangar.
"Good luck." he muttered and started to look for something to snack on to take his mind off what was going on at Breaker Island.