The second lieutenant grovelled on the floor in front of Upchuck. "I'm sorry!" he wailed for the umpteenth time. "We don't know how he got away! We-"
Upchuck interrupted. "When did you notice he was missing?" he asked.
"Three hours after leaving Chora Luna, Upchuck sir!" The second lieutenant was frantic with fear. Marko had been right in the centre of the fleet, but nobody had had wits enough to check their scanners for him. This looked like becoming a fatal indiscretion.
"What did you do when you noticed he was missing?" asked Upchuck.
"Um, we immediately switched on the long-range scanners. We couldn't see anything. None of us know how he got away so fast! It's not possible to get that far away so quickly!"
"Thank you," said Upchuck. "You may leave."
The second lieutenant looked at him, too frightened to hope. "Sir?"
"GET OUT!!"
The second lieutenant hurriedly stood up and left Upchuck alone.
Upchuck sat there, brooding. Suddenly he slammed his fist down on the desk, dinting the wood. He stood up and kicked at the wall, punched it, and screamed obscenities. A bookcase went tumbling to the floor.
Soon he calmed down, and sat back down at his desk. The rage out of his system, Upchuck was starting to think. And it soon became obvious that this development explained quite a few things.
First of all, it explained what the red stuff had done. Upchuck had always suspected something like this. Which was why he'd put Marko in charge of the operation - up until now, he'd been the most trustworthy of the pirates under Upchuck's command.
It also explained Guybrush's disappearance. He must have found a lump of red rock somewhere. Upchuck put this on his list of things to talk to Guybrush about.
Now, what to do. He already had a bulletin out on Guybrush's ship - it was time to add Marko's. Plus their tactics would need to be advised, to counter this secret weapon up the sleeve of their opponents.
Upchuck turned his attention to their informer. He must have gone behind Upchuck's back and contacted Marko directly. What really bugged Upchuck was that they didn't have any idea of their informer's identity. He'd made the initial contact with Bozna, head of Upchuck's intelligence office. Maybe it was time to reassign Bozna.
Upchuck pressed a button on his desk. A door slid open, revealing a worried second lieutenant, who saluted.
"Put out an bulletin on Marko Bent," said Upchuck. "Bounty of five hundred thousand credits. Every pirate under my command is to devote their whole time to finding Marko and Guybrush. Do I make myself clear? I want the most intense search ever mounted in space."
The second lieutenant saluted. "Yes, sir!"