Skyjackers: Episode 1: A Proper Nuisance (Skyjackers: Season One) by J.C. Staudt Page B

this
condition to begin with?”
    “That’s just it, you see. I was hoping you could use your
newfound influence to sort of… clean all this up.”
    “What kind of power do you imagine I have?”
    “You’re a man of the cloth. I’ll wager your testimony ought
to be worth its weight in gold chips. Which I am more than willing to pay, of
course. Not to mention I thought you might see fit to consecrate the body
before she joins the great beyond.”
    Jonathan was hysterical. “This is not a body. It’s a woman.
When you first called, you thought I was a pilot. What did you suppose I could
do for you then?”
    “Why, fly her to the hospital, of course.”
    “Alex, come on. This is… even for you, this is… I’ve gotten
you out of some pretty big jams, but…”
    “So you’ll do it, then?”
    “Do what? I’m not a priest. I’m a sky marshal captain.”
    “Dear gods, man. How many hobbies have you picked up in the
last five years?”
    “It isn’t a hobby. It’s my job. It’s how people who don’t
have money pass the time.”
    “Like a dare, you mean?”
    Jonathan ignored him. “Madam. Madam, can you hear me?”
    The woman opened her eyes, but didn’t speak.
    “I’ll have to move you. Can you tell me where it hurts?”
    She flicked her gaze onto him. When she moved her lips, what
came out was only a whisper. “Every… where.”
    Alex was still trying to figure out what a job was. “No? More
like an allowance then, is it?”
    “For cripes’ sake, Alex. Shut up and help me with her.”
    “Are we burying her already?”
    “Lift her into the back seat of the car. Not this one. The
red one over there.”
    The woman groaned when they hoisted her up. They laid her
along the wide bench seat in the back of an apple-red sedan. Jonathan bundled
the blanket beneath her head to make her as comfortable as he could. “Get me
the keys.”
    “What, to my father’s favorite auto?”
    “Frankly, right now I wouldn’t care if this motorcar belonged
to the Regent himself. This poor woman needs help. Give me the keys and get
in.”
    Alex went over to a box on the wall and opened the engraved
wooden door. Inside were row upon row of keys on small metal rings. He wiggled
his fingers until he came to the right one. “Ah. Here we are.” He returned and
handed the key to Jonathan.
    “Right. Now get in.”
    That was when Jonathan realized Alex wasn’t coming. He could
see it on Alex’s face; a half-scared, half-stubborn look of resistance.
Jonathan had neither the time nor the energy to scold Alex for his cowardice.
The look he shot back at his boyhood friend said everything it needed to.
    The car started up like a charm. Jonathan peeled the tires
and sped out into the rain, leaving behind the friend whose lack of sense had
often baffled him, but whose loyalty had never faltered. Jonathan thought of
the crown jewels still aboard the Maelstrom , and of the dying woman in
the seat behind him, and of his crew, whose loyalty he hadn’t yet earned, and
who would almost certainly doubt his return if he stayed away for more than a
few hours.
    ***
    Mandrake Hollow was not a happy place for Junior Caine,
Poleax Longworth, or the crews of their respective airships. Benedict had the
crews of both the Hummingbird and the Stratustarian lined up like
convicts at a prison welcoming. He strolled from end to end with his hands
folded behind his back. Every man and woman present did their bravest not to
flinch whenever Caine came near.
    “That was the most magnificent cock-up I’ve ever witnessed in
my life,” Caine said.
    “Thank you, sir,” said Poleax, nose still pinched shut with a
clothespin.
    Caine yanked off the clothespin and tossed it away. “Perhaps
if you weren’t plugged up like a drainpipe, you might’ve listened better and
this whole disaster could’ve been avoided.”
    No one spoke. Off to the side of the formation stood a pair
of tall brown stallions, bound by rope to a large boulder and