The Ill-mannered Door (humorous sci-fi)

36.1: Flight of the Hornets

Derek rounded on me, a cold look in his eyes as he said, "She got away, and I blame you for that, Thomas."

He then walked past me and went back into the mall, but I was barely paying attention.

I couldn't be sure, but just before the Esmerelda pulled out of sight, I thought I saw Isabella standing on her deck.

Wishful thinking I suppose, but was it? What if she was onboard the queen's ship? She had stolen from me, and what would she be doing on the Esmerelda in any case? It didn't make any sense to me, and I didn't know what to make of it, so I decided to follow Derek back into the mall before I was soaked to the skin by the heavy rain.

I was just about to open the door when I heard the sound of sirens approaching.

"Oh bloody hell."

I ran back inside and saw Higgins carrying Derek's duffles toward us, with the king walking beside him, munching away happily on a sausage roll.

"A sausage roll?" I said to the king. "You said back at the mobile kiosk that you didn't have any money!"

"Not enough for a phone," said the king, "but I always bring a few quid for emergencies."

"An emergency sausage roll?"

"Well, I was hungry," he said, taking another bite. "Now, where is Esmerelda?"

"Got away, thanks to him," Derek said, hooking a thumb in my direction.

"What does he mean, Thomas?" the king asked.

"Never mind that, we need to get out of here. I just heard sirens approaching, and they're because of him," I said, pointing back at Derek.

"Well, we need to be going anyway," Derek said, taking his duffles from Higgins and heading back toward the exit at a jog.

"Off we go then," I said, following after Derek.

The king sighed, but did his best to keep up.

I could hear the sirens faintly even from inside the mall now, which probably meant that they were close.

We exited the mall and began running across the car park toward the Bounty.

I could see the flashing blue lights of the approaching police vehicles. They were still a ways off, having just entered the car park, but were now racing toward us at a good clip.

We were getting close to the Bounty when Derek began yelling at the sailors onboard, "Lower the ship! Lower the ship!"

Thankfully they had been taught how, and after scraping the keel across a few unfortunate automobiles, they managed to get down low enough for us to begin climbing aboard. Higgins was first, and then he began trying to help pull the king up.

"Oh dear, here they come," I said, pointing toward the rapidly approaching police vehicles.

Derek looked at them and waved them away dismissively, "Yeah, I'm really worried about a bunch of unarmed police."

"Actually, those are armed response units. You can tell by the yellow dots on their windscreens," I said helpfully as Derek tossed his duffle bags up onto the deck.

"Armed?" Derek said, turning back to give the approaching vehicles another look. "I thought they didn't carry guns here!"

"Oh, most police don't, but you've stirred things up just a bit by using that," I said, pointing at the rifle hanging from a strap in front of his chest.

"Come on, Barry, get up there!" Derek shouted at the king as he struggled to climb over the gunwale, Higgins pulling desperately from above.

Both Derek and I were shoving the king's bottom upward when the first police vehicles stopped nearby and police in tactical gear toting assault rifles began to deploy.

"Oh, I was wrong," I said to Derek as the king finally flopped over the rail and onto the deck beyond. "It looks like those might be the counter-terrorist blokes."

"Get on the ship, Thomas!" Derek shouted at me, flinging my luggage violently up onto the ship before taking a knee on the wet pavement and raising his rifle toward the police.

I jumped and caught hold of the gunwale and was just climbing over when I heard gunfire erupt from where the police had taken up a position behind some vehicles a few hundred meters or so away.

Derek returned fire, throwing bolts of energy that punched holes in the vehicles the police were using for cover, which sent them scrambling to find more adequate shelter.

More police began to deploy and take up firing positions, so with a few final bolts fired back, and a word I couldn't make out, Derek jumped up and scrambled onto the deck, shouting, "Go! Get us out of here!"

The sailors were quick to respond and apparently anxious to depart because we began to climb even before the wind caught the sails.

Derek ran below decks, and when a police round struck the side of the ship nearby, I thought it might be best if I laid down on the deck for a bit.

As the wind filled the sails and we began pulling away, I could hear the sound of Derek's rifle firing, likely from a porthole or the like in the side of the ship.

I could hear the sirens of more police vehicles approaching as we cleared the car park, and it was then that I realized that for the first time in my life, I was fleeing from justice. Me, a fugitive. Perhaps even considered armed and dangerous. I didn't know what to feel about that, other than frightened as more rounds fired by the police whizzed over my head. So I kept my head down, not to mention the rest of me, and waited for it all to go away.

The rain was still falling, and I was utterly soaked and shivering, but I was alive, at least for the moment. I listened to the sound of sirens fade into the distance somewhere behind us as we sailed up and away into the stormy sky.

After a while, the sirens grew quiet and I breathed a sigh of relief.

A few moments of blissful silence passed before I began to hear something new. It sounded very much like the buzz of angry hornets approaching.