FB: You know how it is: sometimes you get a surprise spa vacation day, and then literally fifteen minutes later you’re being forced into a war. Mondays, am I right?

I don’t think the question of what happened to the co-pilots is too much of a dangling plot thread. The machine looks like it might be unstable, Taro is definitely unstable, and so they may as well run, because who’s going to prioritize catching up to them? Even if victorious, Taro would have other people to flog. I imagine they weighed their options and made their choice, and I imagine Mich and Franz would do the same if they ever made it out of Taro’s sight.

Kind of karmic justice, now that I think about it, that Mich and Franz are the ones who get stuck with Taro at the end, since they started their criminal careers by throwing in with him at the expense of their people. Yeah, you guys sure ended up picking the right “friend.”