Katarina vacates the steam car after a few moments of observing the sky ship from her seat in the back. As the workers move about, ants in comparison to the expanse of hull docked at the port, she waits for her luggage to be unloaded, tipping the clockwork driver not quite as handsomely as someone of her means could, but generously enough that it will be appreciated without drawing suspicion. That done, she looks about for the captain, checking her pocket watch. Seven minutes to eight, and he's nowhere in sight. Her expression is less than pleased, to say the least, but she hides it and the rest of her features in the heavy folds of her cloak.

"Does Captain Pierce always cut his lift-offs this close?" she asks a random passerby, and the young man blinks at her from behind his massive goggles, his eyes comically taking on the fishbowl effect.

"Everything is right on schedule," Goggle-face claims, pointing to a chart on his clipboard as if it were supposed to mean something to the redhead, then heading off to go about his work once more.

"Everything except Pierce," Katarina mutters under her breath. Standing about on the dock near her pile of luggage, she paints a less than discreet figure, all told, and more than one person moving about the dock casts a curious glance her way. Already impatient, Katarina moves back toward the curved road that connects the piers - only to catch wind of a whispered conversation nearby.

"That's her, the one from the poster. I 'eard she fetches a right princely sum, and look - there's nary a bandit t'be seen. Let's grab her, quick-like!" This from a skinny man with a hunched posture, spoken to his partner, a taller man of a more muscular build. He's obviously the muscle of the outfit, as it's quite clear he's not exactly blessed in the brains department. After a moment for the instructions to actually manifest into action, the larger of the two lumbers in Katarina's direction, arms outstretched toward her.

"What [b]do[/b] you think you're doing! Unhand me at once, you brute!" Katarina slaps at the approaching hands most ineffectively. "Let me go, I say - put me down!" This last is hissed most indignantly, as the man scoops her up off her feet and over his shoulder like a shapely sack of potatoes. "Unhand me at once!" she demands, to no avail, and her fists pound at the man's shoulder and back, seemingly with no effect.

"We're only 'ere to 'elp, my Lady," comes the oily voice of the skinny companion. "Your da will be so relieved to see you again, maybe he'll double the reward. Nay, triple it," he muses more to himself than anyone else, greed a glint in his eye. "Come on, Gallus," he prods his friend in the side, pointing toward a nearby alleyway. "We'll go this way, so's to avoid her kidnappers when they come lookin'." He trots off toward the alley, and Gallus follows suit, Katarina still caught up over his shoulder.

"Unhand me at once!" Katarina demands once again, desperation in her tone as she is carried away from the ship, the dock, and her belongings. In the course of her struggles, the poster in her cloak, crumpled as it is, falls free, drifting to the ground just before the unlikely trio disappears into the murky darkness of the alley. [b](Endangered by Key of the Paragon, 2XP)[/b]