scooped up Do It Yourself Electronicsand flipped it open.

Kit jumped, startled, when the captain whooped for joy.

Karnage flung the headphones aside and rushed out of the room, shouting at the top of his lungs, “Get up, you very stupid pirates! Get up! I have a very important-type announcement! ”

“Wait!” Kit cried, chasing after him. “What is it, Captain?”

“We are going to plunder Cape Suzette, and this time it willwork!”

“But...but how?” Kit couldn’t see how a they could plunder Cape Suzette with a mere jewel.

Karnage smiled fondly down at him. “I will not tell you at this momentous moment, my boy, but you can be very ensured that it will give a whole new meaning to the word ‘piratical proceedings’.”

End of part 3

Hopes and Schemes
part 4

TaleSpinand its characters are the property of Disney/Buena Vista Television and are used without permission. All other characters are mine and cannot be used without permission.

Pirate Island
The Next Afternoon

Rays from the setting sun filtered down through the clouds, transforming both the sky and the sea into a brilliant orange. Kit, sitting cross-legged on the floor with his back to the cave wall, glanced up from polishing his airfoil to admire the beautiful scenery. It looked just like a picture surrounded by a jagged, rocky frame.

This small cave, complete with a ‘window’ overlooking the ocean, was one of his favorite thinking places. Since it was far from the caverns utilized by the other pirates, he could sit undisturbed amongst the shadows and drift into the land of daydreams. He folded his airfoil with a press of a button and concealed it beneath his sweater. Propping his head in his hands, he gazed out over the sparkling ocean, filled with a restless longing to fly to the horizon and beyond.

And once he got his hands on that jewel mentioned by the pilots on the radio the night before, his dream would become a reality.

There was only one catch: His plan for escaping the pirates hinged largely on the pirates.

A million questions crowded into his mind as he absently stared at a point on the horizon. Would Karnage steal the jewel? And if Karnage stole the jewel, how could he, Kit, get it? And once he got it, how could he get away? And once he got away, where would he go?

Frankly, Kit really didn’t care where he went as long as it was away from the air pirates.

He was sick of being kicked around. Sick of being bossed around. Sick of the brutality. Sick of the pointless plundering. Honest Kit hated stealing. Stealing to survive was one thing, but stealing just to steal was wrong. He was tired of being bullied, of being surrounded by crude, rough, ignorant pirates, of constantly having to be on the defensive, of having to fight for everything he had, of not being able to trust anyone. He was just sick of being a pirate.

Once he got the jewel and had gotten away from the pirates, he’d somehow find Shere Khan and return it to him. Surely the richest man in the world would reward him for recovering his precious jewel. That way, everybody would win. He’d have money and his freedom and Shere Khan would regain his property.

Don Karnage and his band of pirates would be the only losers in the deal, and Kit knew from experience that they wouldn’t take the loss of the valuable jewel well. But he had to escape and he wasn’t going to go back to being a penniless street urchin, not when he had the chance to have a few dollars and a plane of his own.

Kit gritted his teeth in determination. He was no quitter. He’d escape from the pirates somehow or die trying...which he knew might very well be possible.

His thoughts were interrupted by an ear-splitting klaxon horn that signaled the Iron Vulture’s return.

The boy roughly brushed his hand across his eyes. A second later, his usual tough expression had replaced his fleeting look of despair.

He sprang to his feet and hurried out of the cave, into the dusky, narrow, winding passageway that led down, down, down towards the cove where theIron Vulture was moored.

At the tunnel’s end, Kit slammed into Hal, causing the fat feline to drop the box he had been carrying.

“Why don’t you watch where you’re going, shrimp?”

“I was watching where I was going, and if you had been watching where I was going, I wouldn’t have run into you,” Kit said rudely.

Confused, Hal stammered, “Oh...sorry.”

“No problem. I’ll let it slide this time.”

Hal picked up the box, pondering what the boy had said. “If he was...and I was...”

Kit grinned and jogged towards the Iron Vulture’s open beak where the other pirates were unloading their recently stolen loot.

As he approached, he heard Mad Dog saying, “Flagpoles and wire? Has the captain gone crazy?”

Don Karnage, breathing heavily with anger, stalked over to the lanky ferret and smacked him across the face. “Never...call...me...that...word!”

Mad Dog rubbed his sore cheek. “A thousand groveling apologies, Captain.”

“Vhat do ve need with all dis junk?” Dumptruck wondered.

Karnage bristled with indignation. “Junk? Junk?JUNK? This is not junk! These are the finest flagpoles and wires that pirates can steal. And once we have everything, we will be able to steal the finest whatever whenever we want. Do you not see? Si?”

“No...” droned the confused pirates.

The pirate captain sighed. Just once, he’d like to meet a pirate who had the slightest glimmer of brains. “Of course you can’t, because only I can do what I do the way I do it.”

“Huh?” A few of the pirates scratched their scruffy heads.

“Very well. Let me let you fooligans in on a little, tiny secret.”

The pirates leaned in closer, eager to hear what their captain had to say.

“This...thingy...” he said, for lack of a better word, “is a need-to-know thingy and only I need to know about it, you know?” With a little chuckle, Karnage walked away, feeling vastly pleased with himself.

“Vhat did he say, Mad Dog?” Dumptruck asked.

“Search me. I still think the captain is...” Mad Dog made sure Don Karnage was far away before mouthing: “Crazy.”

Khan Towers
Two Weeks Later
3:00 AM

Clouds, driven by a tempestuous wind, scudded rapidly across the sky, foreshadowing an approaching storm. The intermittent shafts of moonlight that pierced the clouds turned objects that were familiar and friendly by day into forbidding, fearsome monsters. In downtown Cape Suzette, a lone withered leaf skittered across the deserted street in front of Khan Towers where it took shelter in the warm glow at the base of the streetlight.

High above the streets, Shere Khan sat behind a raised podium in an amphitheater-like room. Khan Industries’ departmental managers - all middle-aged, grey male panthers wearing almost identical grey suits - sat in a semicircle around him.

The manager furthest to the right stifled a yawn, then whispered to his neighbor, “These late-night meetings are ridiculous.”

His colleague murmured, “Business waits for no man, especially Shere Khan.”

When their boss looked sternly in their direction, they turned their attention to the speaker.

Jenkins, the head of Energy, was saying, “All coal-burning plants are at one hundred percent capacity and...”

Just then, Owen, Shere Khan’s right hand man, burst into the room. “Mr. Khan! Mr. Khan, sir!”

Khan frowned down on the interloper from his lofty height. “I thought I told you never to interrupt me during a meeting.”

Feeling about two inches tall, the scrawny tiger stammered, “Y-yes, sir, but this is important!”

Khan sighed. If it wasn’t more than a million dollars, he didn’t consider it important. “What is it?”

“Air pirates have hijacked one of your cargo ships, sir.”

The podium gained a few more claw marks courtesy of Shere Khan. “And what did they steal this time?”

“You aren’t going to believe it, sir.”

“Try me.”

Owen cringed and tugged nervously on his tail. He hated to be the bearer of bad tidings. Shere Khan always made him feel as if it were somehow his fault. His voice trembled when he said, “Railroad track.”

The departmental managers muttered confusedly amongst themselves. “Railroad track?”

Khan quirked a disbelieving eyebrow. “Railroad track?”

Owen nodded. “Meant for your railroad in Zambeezee.”

“I am aware of their intended destination,” Khan said dryly. “What about the diamond-tipped drill bits that were also in that shipment?”

“Don Karnage said that they were worthless.”

“One point five million dollars of diamond-tipped drill bits...worthless?”

“Yes, sir,” said the yes-man.

While Khan silently mulled this over, he absently scraped one claw against the desk. After a few tense moments, he said impatiently, “Is that all, Owen?”

“Yes, sir.” Owen, realizing that that was his cue to leave, scurried out of the room.

“Continue, Jenkins,” Shere Khan said curtly.

Pirate Island
Two Weeks Later
Night

Glancing over his shoulder every few steps, Kit purposefully, yet furtively, made his way from his bedroom through the Iron Vulture. Karnage had recently

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