Pete awoke to the pleasant sensation of a gun being jabbed roughly in his ribs.1
'Come on, git up, boss want see you,' said the huge man with the gun, he obviously had more brawn the brain. 2
Pete rolled out of bed well rubbing his bruised rib and glaring at guard.3
Charles opened one eye, on seeing the guard, promptly rolled under the bed.4
'Where other one?' asked the guard, having glanced around the room and not seen him.5
Pete looked at the mattress which Charles had so recently occupied. 'Dunno, left I guess.' 6
'Where he go?' growled the guard, the thought of a missing prisoner clearly troubling his three brain cells.7
'Well, maybe he climbed out the window,' suggested Pete dryly.8
The guard thudded to the wall, and started searching for the window, which wasn't there.9
Charles rolled out from under the bed and quickly went to stand beside Pete. 'Umm, shall we go?' whispered Charles to Pete, indicating to the open and unguarded door.10
Pete smiled slightly and causally strolled out the door, with Charles a step behind. 11
Out the door, Pete turned right, and continued further into the depths of the zeppelin. 12
They got thirty metres before they heard the; thud thud thud, of a rather irritated gormless guard rushing after them, they stopped, turned around, and waited for him to catch up.13
'We were just having a stroll well you looked for the window he climbed out,' said Pete causally, indicating to Charles. 14
'There no window!' thundered the irate guard.15
A look of shock appeared on Charles face and he turned to Pete. 'No window? But you told me there was a window. How could you lie to me like that, and I went and climbed out it!'16
'Well, if you want to believe I told you that, be my guest.' He turned to look at the guard. 'Well what are you waiting for? Take us to your leader.' 17
As Gormless, so Charles had christened him, ushered them down the hall to wherever it was he was ushering to, Pete and Charles kept and eye out for anything useful.18
So far, the only useful thing they'd seen was closed doors, and blank walls. Whoever had made this place was not going for style.19
Pete was getting a pretty firm idea that this was some sort of military zeppelin. But for which country he had no idea. Pete had a feeling he would soon find out though.20
'Halt!' snapped Gormless.21
They halted. Gormless walked in front of them and opened the door they'd stopped by, he waved his gun, indicating for them to entire.22
They did so. It was a small room, about two metres square. there was a row of buttons by the sliding door.23
Gormless stepped in after them, and pressed one of the buttons, the door slid shut. There was a jolt followed by the feeling that the room was moving. 24
Pete looked around in surprise. 'Are we moving?'25
It was Gormless's turn to look surprised. 'You never been in lift?26
'Lift? Is that what this is? Oh, I've heard of them, but never been in one,' explained Pete. He looked at the walls suspiciously.27
'Gee, you are a bit out of date aren't you?' said Charles, snickering. 28
The lift stopped moving, and the door slid open.29
'Out,' Gormless said.30
They stepped past him and into another hallway. Which was a vast contrast to the previous one they'd been in. This one looked like the hallway of a five star hotel.31
Thick blue carpet on the floor, various paintings (which if one was well versed in the world of art, would see that they were very famous paintings) lined the wall. Over all, it was obvious someone with very good taste had chosen everything that coloured this hall. 32
Two guards stood either side of the lift doors, as soon as they were out the door, the two guard immediately escorted them down the hall. Gormless stayed in the lift, and went back down to the lower levels.33
They reached the end of the hall, and another door, with two sentries on either side.34
On seeing them, one rapped sharply on the door.35
There was a faint 'What is it?' from inside.36
'The prisoners are here Sir,' called the sentry.37
'All right, send them in,' said the voice from inside.38
The sentry opened the door, and Pete and Charles were ushered in.39
They found themselves in a large room, lavishly furnished, intricately carved wooden chairs and matching desk. Wooden panelling on the walls. More thick carpet on the floor. But the easily most stunning feature of the room was the massive curved glass window behind the desk.40
Pete guess they where at the front of the zeppelin, and the view was astounding. They were high in the air, above the clouds. To there right the sun had just begun to rise, and the sight of cloud sea was magnificent, as far as the eye could see was cloud. It struck Pete that it must be pretty dreary below. 41
'Whoa, I got to get me one of these,' said Charles in awe.42
There were two figures already in the room, moustache man, and another Pete had never seen before.43
Moustache man didn't appreciate Charles's comment, and expressed his feelings on the matter very clearly. 'Shut up unless you a spoken too!' he screamed.44
The other man in the room was tall and built like a tree, his oval and balding head on a thick ox like neck. A huge bushy eyebrow overshadowed his eyes, one which was deep green, and other was pale grey, unfocussed, clearly unseeing.45
'Hexter, calm yourself, the man was offering a complement,' said the tree trunk in a smooth drawl, a slight hint of a German accent audible. 'Allow me to make some introductions. This, as you may already have gathered, is Hexter,' he said, indicating to the man formally known as Moustache Man. 'And I am Sir Eric "Dragon" Lagson the third. And you gentlemen are?' 46
'Charles Pigeon at you service, and this is Peter C. Hayward the first, probably not at your service,' said Charles with his usual flair.47
'I'm surprised you don't already know, I mean, you must have if you go hauling people out of their boats in the middle of the night, unless you do it at random?' said Pete, ignoring Charles comment.48
'Shut up!' screamed Hexter.49
'Hexter, why don't you go clean the barnacles of the hull,' said Sir Eric coldly.50
'Bu–'51
'Oh, to menial a task for your greatness?' sarcasm oozed from Sir Eric's voice.52
Hexter's eyes narrowed slightly as he said, 'No Sir, of course not. I'll get onto it right away.' He strode past Pete and Charles, glaring at them as he went.53
They heard the door slam behind them.54
'You can go to,' Sir Eric said to the two guards.55
They nodded curtly, turned heel and left, the door didn't slam this time. 56
'Now, were where we? Oh yes. Indeed, you are quite right Peter, I do indeed know who you are, but for the sake of curtsy, I asked,' explained Sir Eric.57
'I see. That leaves you to explain why you saw fit to... kidnap us, what you've done with my boat, and where is John,' said Pete icily.58
Sir Eric laughed. 'Questions, questions, questions, all which will be revealed in due time. But before business, would you like something to eat? I know you've not eaten in awhile, and must be hungry.'59
Pete opened his mouth to make a sharp retort, but paused when Charles lay a hand on his shoulder.60
'Not worth it matey, and we are hungry, got to keep our energy up for our escape eh?'61
Pete glared at him, but as he was absolutely right, didn't reply. To Sir Eric he said, 'Alright, but first, you will tell me what have you done with John,' it statement, not a question.62
'Ah, you see, I am under no obligation to tell you anything, however, I see that if I do not, you might do something stupid, so I will oblige you. He is safe, and will come to no harm. He is staying in some of our nicer quarters. Now, shall we eat?'63
Pete nodded, seeing that he would get no further information out of Sir Eric without annoying him, and that might get John hurt.64
Sir Eric pushed a button on his desk. 'Send in the food.' He got up from his seat behind his desk and walked to a door to his left.65
Pete hadn't noticed it before, he realised now that the zeppelin really was massive, this room its self was about fifteen metres wide, and if there was another room beside it, he glanced at the wall on his left, yes, there was a door there too.66
'This way gentlemen.' Sir Eric stood by the door which he had opened.67
Pete and Charles walked to the door, and into the new room. Sir Eric followed behind them and shut the door.68
They now stood in a dinning room, a huge banquet table stretched down it's length, though it could seat fifty people, it was only set for the three of them. 69
'Please, take a seat.' Sir Eric walked past them, and stood by the head seat.70
Pete and Charles followed, and took a a seat either side of him, one on each side of the table. Sir Eric then took his seat.71
Pete stared out the window, dumbstruck by the shear scale of the zeppelin. The room seamed to be build out slightly from the rest of the zeppelin, with windows along all the outer wall, it meant that there was a two metre wide window down the far end of the room, so Pete could see the entire length of the zeppelin, and it was massive. He made some rough calculations in his head, and the numbers he came up with where unbelievable. The housing area of the zeppelin was as close as he could work out, about 250 metres long, and if his calculations were correct about thirty metres wide. He had no idea how large the balloon section would have to be to support that sort of mass.72
But before he could ask, the food arrived.73
'Hoo boy, that smells Bee-u-tee-full,' said Charles, a dreamy look on his face.74
The servants set the first platters down, there was everything one could imagine, fried spam, boiled spam, roasted spam, spam garnished with parsley, spam and eggs, spam eggs saus' and spam, spam bacon and eggs, spam eggs spam and ham, eggs saus' bacon and spam, spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam and eggs, spam saus' spam spam spam spam spam spam spam and bacon. And the list went on.75
Charles's face fell somewhat at the sight of the food, but before he could say anything, Sir Eric spoke, 'Yes, the finest spam in all the world,' he said proudly.76
'Spam...' Pete's tone was incredulous, 'The best you can serve on this giant airship is spam?'77
Sir Eric looked slightly puzzled, then annoyed at the out burst, 'Spam is a delicacy, you should consider yourself lucky to be served it. When I was a youngster, I never saw spam, it was very rare that I got any.'78
Charles stared at him in a look of stunned disbelief, 'Never had spam? You lucky sod, me mum force feed me. Never had the money to buy nothin' else.79
'Aye, same as him,' agreed Pete.80
It was Sir Eric's turn to look at them in stunned disbelief. 'You had to be force feed this beautiful food? I would have thought such cultured men as yourselves would have relished a chance to eat such a food.'81
Pete and Charles stared at him, then at each other, then burst out laughing, 'Woohoo! Classic! Relish a chance to eat spam! Whahahahahaha!'82
Well they laughed, Sir Eric's face slowly started to turn red.83
After a minute Pete and Charles finally calmed down enough to speak again.84
Pete wiped his eyes with the back of his hand, and sniffed. 'Oh, that was good, I haven't laughed that hard since, since... I don't remember, ages.' 85
'Since you fail to appreciate the finer foods, you will have only peasant food,' said Sir Eric coldly. He turned to one of the waiters, 'Get these two gentleman a soldiers meal.'86
'Yes Sir.' The waiter bowed and left.87
Charles stuck his hand by his mouth and whispered to Pete, 'Uh-oh, if this is high class food, I wonder what cheap is?'88
Pete ignored him and said to Sir Eric, 'My humblest apologies for our outburst–'89
'Apologise for your own out burst, I'm not sorry,' interrupted Charles.90
Pete glared at him. 'For our outburst. You see, in our country, spam is food for the people who can't afford anything else, it is the cheapest of the cheap.'91
'I see you have been feed many lies in your youth, spam is expensive, a delicacy fit for kings.'92
'We're feed a lot of spam in our youth too,' muttered Charles dryly.93
Before anyone could say anymore, the waiters appeared again, with the "peasant" food.94
As they set it down on the table, Charles and Pete mouths dropped. There was a roast beef, roasted potatoes looking beautifully crunchy. Gravy by the bucket load, every sort of sea food you could think of, crumbed, fried, battered. Roasted chickens, salads, rice, everything.95
'This is peasant food?' Charles was almost drooling.96
'Yes. You can eat that, well I, one who appreciates spam will feast on it,' said Sir Eric haughtily.97
'Well, I must say, I could live on this stuff without much trouble,' Charles said, delight evident in his voice.98
He and Pete started piling the plates full of food.99
Sir Eric watched them, and shook his head. 'You poor people, who where you brought up to enjoy this food?'100
'Poorly,' said Pete between mouthfuls. 'Very poorly.'101
'Once you have finished stuffing your faces, we will take a little tour,' Sir Eric told them.102
They ate in relative silence, mainly 'cause Pete and Charles had their mouths so full of food that it was hard to talk.
Author notes
Chapter 10
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