John Big (escape)

"Come on, we need to hurry," you recognize the voice of the first mate through the door, "if you don't want to get lynched."

You grab your bag full of jewelry and rush to the door. The odds of them finding anything that can actually kill you are slim, but whatever they tried would still hurt. "I'm ready now," you open the door and start following when John turns his back and gets moving. "What's going on?"

"I slipped out during a vote... which was about what to try first," he growls, "...needless to say, cooler heads did NOT prevail. They're probably in the mechanical room trying to figure out a guillotine or some such. But you really don't deserve that, so we're stealing a lifeboat." You follow him up on deck, and he starts working the crane, "get inside."

You climb in as the boat starts to lower, John jamming the controls in place and hopping down onto the roof as it slowly descends. "Umm... but this thing doesn't have enough fuel to get far...." you remember why they were OK with you wandering the ship.

"It doesn't," he confirms, "but there's some rescue poles, rope, and canvas I can use to rig a sail, and I know how to navigate. I can get us to shore before the rations run out, at least." As the boat hits the water, he unhooks the specialized crane, heads over, and starts the engine up, "I don't expect they'll find us worth chasing."

You consider that as the man gets you both underway, "Did you do something?"

"Sabotage? Nah," he chuckles, "no time. I just left a few notes in different places asking them if they're feeling lucky. They'll spend time checking for sabotage that doesn't exist, every item confirmed clean making them even more concerned about exactly what I did. Eventually they'll decide that whatever I did was too subtle for them to find, cross their fingers, and get underway... by which point we'll be far enough away that no chase will be worth it. That part isn't illegal, technically."

"That part?" You frown as the engine sends you both hopefully to safety.

"Stealing the life raft is illegal..." he pauses, "...but significantly less so than the 'execution' they're planning that would never hold up in court as justified. If I get arrested for this I'm going to claim immediate defense of another's life and hope nobody looks too closely at the actual laws," he checks his instruments, and nods, "but I don't expect things to come to that: They'll have a hard time reporting the theft without getting into why it happened." He glances at you, "I should get started on the sail sooner rather than later... mind watching the bridge? Basically just call me if the radio says anything or if it looks like we might come close to another ship. Otherwise, just keep the compass pointed where it is."

"Happy to," you nod and and walk over to where he's standing.

The man then gets to work....