Dead Man's Hand
Chapter Three The Ringleader"Captain Foote was a model officer until the War ended. Something in him couldn't handle losing, and he went badly. Now he's worse than a criminal." Lieutenant Masterson said as we stood outside the town jail.
"If I were Foote, I'd hide in the old Hang 'Em jail, in the Dusty Vortex – I bet he's there. Go find him and stop him." Lieutenant Masterson said. We nodded as we left for the Aquila to set sail east to the Dusty Vortex on the other end of the skyway.
"Batten down the hatches, men!" I shouted, and the men assigned to the guns on the Aquila's two dedicated gun decks went down below while the men assigned to the guns on the weather decks tied themselves down onto the railings.
Ducking down as we passed through the winds of the vortex, we saw the old jailhouse in the eye of the storm. As we drew closer to the docks, renegade Chicken soldiers fired their rifles at us from behind the cover of flour sack piles.
"Starboard battery, fire all guns!" I shouted, and the starboard broadside fired all thirty of their guns, scattering the renegades.
As we drew to a stop next to the dock, my trusted associates and I leapt off the Aquila's railings onto the dock. "David, Richard, keep them busy! We'll go after Foote!"
Keeping our heads down, we hurried to the cellblock, and once inside, we ran past two rows of cells to the stairs, where a Chicken dressed in a gray captain's uniform stood amongst more renegade soldiers.
"Did Masterson send you?" Captain Foote asked, and as we slowly nodded, Captain Foote said angrily, "That coward! He never fought his own battles. And he's insulted me by sending such puny little runts. Defend yourselves!"
We leapt out of the way of the renegades' rifles, and I rolled onto the floor to break my fall before drawing my pistols and returning fire.
Bonnie fired her new rifle, and a renegade soldier fell over from the force of the blast. Ratbeard fired his pistol, and another renegade fell down.
Captain Foote led his men in a charge with their bayonets, and as the cracks of gunfire went off, I got hit in the shoulder but managed to do the same to one of Foote's renegades.
The battle was now at close quarters, and holstering my pistols, I drew my swords to engage them. Deflecting a bayonet to my left, I lunged forward with a sword blunted by blue energy and hit the attacking renegade in the stomach.
The renegade bent over in pain as I knocked him out with the hilt of my sword, and I was nearly skewered by Captain Foote's bayonet from the side. Had he had just aimed his thrust an inch to the right, his bayonet would've passed through my ribs.
I spun around and slammed my left sword into Captain's Foote's hat, knocking it off. He then kicked me down onto the floor, and I just barely deflected his bayonet thrust to the side of my head.
I kicked him hard in the stomach, and Captain Foote was sent reeling backwards right into Rena's pistol. "Thanks, Rena."
Rena smiled at me as she held up her smoking pistol, and the remaining renegades were rapidly routed by the others. A voice then said, "We meet again, pirates. Next time I run afoul of some vile marauders, I'll be expecting you to fight your way in!"
Standing inside a large cage was Corporal Sanders, a soldier we had founded inside the Red Sashes' hideout, Hidden Valley Ranch. Rena brought out her lock-picking set, and soon Corporal Sanders was free of his cage.
"This war goes on and on and the price gets even higher. I am adrift in the sky and want this to end. This was my final battle." Captain Foote said as he came to, and we dragged him away to the Aquila's brig so we could take him back to Fort McMurtry.
"You've got one more prisoner for the stockade, eh? Good!" Lieutenant Masterson said as Corporal Sanders and another soldier took Captain Foote away to his old cell. "Colonel Church sent you, am I right? Go tell him your work here is done, and done well."
"You've taken a load off of my shoulders, young pirates. I will rest easy. Until the ghost ships return that is." Lieutenant Masterson added, and we said goodbye as we reported back to Colonel Church inside the fort, which had been repaired recently.
"You helped Masterson sort things out? Outstanding! While you were away, I learned a thing or two about Sabatini." Colonel Church said as we approached him, and I asked him, "So what can you tell us about Sabatini?"