A face that I recognized, though I couldn’t grab a name to go with it.
How could I know anyone so far west?
Marisol introduced us. “Cathy, this is Nikola Nichols. She takes care of me.”
The world stopped moving. Of course I knew her face.
Nikola gazed on me with hard, fierce eyes, bright with intelligence. “So, you’re the new Mormon girl everyone is talking about. You and your sisters are married to the genius who thinks he can improve on my design.”
I’d found the master engineer in Glenwood Springs, and she wasn’t man at all. And outside in the world, she was positively famous.
(iii)
Before I knew it, I tumbled into a stutter. “You—you—you’re Nikola Nichols. You worked with Maggie Jankowski. But you disappeared. You were in all the newsfeeds.”
It was true. I didn’t have a picture of her on my wall like I did Maggie Jankowski, who had perfected the Eterna battery and changed the world, but Nikola had been an engineer at GE and part of Maggie’s original team.
“Disappeared?” Nikola said the word sharply. “No. I was researching the EM field in Utah when Aces captured me and brought me here to think for him and his apes. I sincerely hope the irony of this place isn’t lost on you.”
“Not one bit, ma’am.” I sat down next to her on the edge of the pool and leaned in close. If I couldn’t trust Nikola Nichols, imprisoned here against her will for years and years, well, who could I trust?
Still, I knew it’d pay to be careful. “I ain’t Mormon, ma’am. And we’re not married at all, to anyone. We came up with a story so they wouldn’t divide us up. We have to get out of here. And when we do, we’ll take you with us. And you too, Marisol.”
Nikola closed her eyes. “I’ve tried. Believe me. There is no escape from this place. I’m sorry.”
“They said the same thing about the Eterna battery. Such a device was impossible, but what you and Maggie and Martha Espinoza and Marie Chu ...” I listed off the names like some people would list their favorite baseball players. “You all did the impossible. So can we.”
A smile opened Nikola’s eyes. “You really are a fan. Those ladies ... we really did work miracles, didn’t we?”
“Yeah, and we can do it again. Actually, I came down here to start a revolution. How many of these women would join us?”
Nikola shook her head. “Some have been here a decade or more. They have been cowed, as I have been. Aces will kill you if you try anything. Other women who tried to escape have been executed. Publicly.”
“I’d rather die than marry any of these men,” Marisol said. “I’ll join you. And some of the others will, too. There are some of the girls from Grand Junction that Aces grabbed last year.”
“Not enough,” Nikola said.
I got angry. Didn’t mean to, but this was Nikola Nichols, named after Tesla, whom her parents had adored. She needed a good kick in the dress.
“I got help on the outside,” I said. “One is Sino trained, the other strong, fast, and smart. Both might be watching for a chance to come and get us. I recognized you, but you don’t know who I am, do you?”
“I’m sorry, but I have no idea who you are,” Nikola said casually. Her eyes darted up to the guard on the roof. I knew what she was thinking—could knowing something about me get her killed?
She was smart; it could. But I was out of options.
I leaned in close and whispered, “My name ain’t Cathy. I’m Cavatica Weller. My mama was Abigail Weller.”
Marisol gasped at my name. Even Nikola’s eyes lit up in surprise.
“You know what we Wellers are best at?”
“What?” Nikola asked.
“Doing the impossible. We brought three thousand head of cattle west all the way to Wendover. We got captured by bad women there, but we got away. And now we’re heading east with the fate of the world in our hands. You wanna know more?”
Both Marisol and Nikola bent closer. I had their full attention now.
“Tell us,” Nikola said before she could stop herself.
“Only if you swear you’ll help me get out of here.”
“Not just get out of here,” Nikola whispered. Her eyes went far away, full of some plan. “We have to burn this place to the ground. We have to kill Aces and his followers so no woman is ever again imprisoned here.”
“So you have thought about it,” I said, with a grin.
Nikola appraised me with those clever dark eyes. “Really, I’ve thought of little else. But instead of telling you, I want to show you what I’ve been working on. I’ll show you and your genius husband tomorrow. Be ready.”
I took her hand in mine, her dark skin, my light skin, our fingers entwined.
“I’ll come,” I said. “And I’ll tell you everything.” I wanted to ask her about possible ARK spies in Glenwood, but I didn’t know where to begin. And I didn’t want anyone to overhear us. I figured I’d ask when we met again.
Instead, I asked, “Ms. Nichols, why would Aces start a city like this? Out in the U.S., a ton of women would be chasing after him. Why fight for ’em here?”
Nikola’s eyes flickered over to some children playing. “Aces isn’t viable. At least he doesn’t have any babies of his own. But even if he weren’t sterile, men like him want power. Real power.”
And for him, real power meant wielding fear and force over the lives of those around him. Even if Aces were living in Washington, DC, even if he spent every dime on a political campaign, not one woman in a thousand would vote for such an animal.
And I bet being sterile galled him as much as it did Dob Howerter, who had decided to take over the Colorado territory’s cattle industry ’cause he too was sterile. It was a common joke.
If Howerter had had a big family, he might not have tried to drive us out of business. My whole life might’ve played out differently. As it was, we owed Dob Howerter millions. We had to pay him back. First, though, we had to make it out of Glenwood Springs alive and with the chalkdrive.
Nikola watched me put the pieces together.
“Yeah,” I muttered. “I see it now. Most of the men are sterile, and they hate it. And the viable ones?”
“Sooner or later,” Nikola said, “someone is going to kill Aces and take over. And if that someone has sons? Suddenly, there’s a kingdom to consider.”
A bell rang. Our time together at the hot springs was over.
But now my heart was full of a blinding hope. With me, Micaiah, and Nikola together, I felt there wasn’t anything we couldn’t do, even bringing down an evil place like Glenwood Springs. Maybe Sharlotte had been right about the thistle thrones of evil men.
But you know what?
Thistles burn.
(iv)
Nikola didn’t call on me the next day, which set me on edge. Micaiah disappeared until evening, but he returned with chits for food. I went through the deck, noting the face cards, which counted for ten, like in blackjack.
Wren had slept most of the day. With her bottle empty, consciousness was too much for her. Sharlotte worked on re-caning an old wicker chair, face closed in concentration on her work. Her mask was firmly in place.
I had to get us out of there. Both would die if I didn’t—Wren in a fight and Sharlotte would eventually run out of projects, and the buckhorn inside her would destroy her heart.
We were getting ready for bed when a knock came on the door. I went to open it, but Micaiah pushed me back and whispered, “No. I have to open it. To use an expression I hear often, I am the man of the house.”
“Won’t be much of anything if you push me again,” I fired back harshly. The sexism of the place was getting to me.
He patted me as if to say sorry, but it wasn’t much of an effort.
Micaiah opened the door and there was Aces, and Nikola. Knew it was Nikola ’cause she wasn’t wearing her veil, though the rest of her was covered in dark material.
Aces stood in biker leathers, Tina Machinegun hanging off one
shoulder.
I’d been betrayed.
Chapter Seventeen
Vegas idols and Vegas odds
Been throwing cards at Vegas gods.
Diamond aces don’t love me,
but a queen of hearts will do
Found a dark deuce in my pocket
And it reminded me of you
— Debra Alan Walker
(i)
GUARDS FLANKED ACES, scowling men with guns. If not for the extra men, I might have gone for him—killed him before he killed us. Yeah, Nikola prolly shined me on to get close enough for me to trust her.
Aces ignored me and addressed Micaiah. “You wanted to see our master engineer. Well here she is, Nikola Nichols.”
Micaiah grinned. Oh, he could feign emotion when he wanted. Slippery jackerdan. “A woman. Surprising.”
I kept my tongue still. Damn them all.
“Yes, very surprising,” Nikola said, sighing. “I spoke with Cathy yesterday, and she wanted to see one of my projects. She’s a bright girl and had such nice things to say about you, Michael.”
Those damn fake names. It was hard to keep track of who she was talking about. How did con artists manage it?
Micaiah shrugged. “What can I say? She’s easily impressed. I would like to see more of your work. I’ve found some places for improvements, but not many.”
Aces stepped forward. “Out in the world, Nikola was on the team who designed the Eterna batteries. Switching to thermal pneumatics was hard for her. At first.” He smiled at her, showing even teeth, stained yellow from his cigars.
Nikola smiled back. Oh, how we were all so comfy. I wanted to pull a Wren and scream and cuss.
But I couldn’t.
Instead, I put on my biggest, fakest smile. “I’m such a fan of Nikola and Maggie Jankowski. It really is a miracle of science.”
“Well, let me show you another thing I’m working on,” Nikola said. Our eyes met, but I couldn’t read her, not a bit. Why would she bring Aces to what I thought would be our secret meeting?
I said goodbye to Wren and Sharlotte.
“Have fun,” Sharlotte said, distracted by her weaving.
“Don’t do anything I would do,” Wren’s voice came out in a slur. “Get you killed, that will.”
Ugh, the Weller girls at their best.
Outside, men held torches to light our way. I guess getting sapropel out here would’ve been hard. The torches gave off more smoke than light, making me cough and my eyes water.
The betrayal still stung me, but I had to play the subservient girl, so I didn’t say a word as we walked to a big Conoco gas station surrounded by Cargadors, trucks, trailers, and big rigs. Copper pipes hung overhead suspended from power-lines by metal cables. Hot water for her steam engines and piping for the pneumatics. Nikola motioned to the Conoco. “This is my workshop. Aces has been kind enough to give me everything I need for my work.”
The old Conoco held four bays separated by shelves stacked to the ceiling with machine parts—AIS engine mechanisms, piping, boilers, coils, cogs, pistons. Car parts and big engines hung, organized and catalogued, on wall hooks. Trucks filled two of the bays. The other two sat empty, though not for long.
Nikola grabbed a lever set in the floor next to a nest of gears. When she pulled the lever back, pneumatic pistons sighed and two automatons rose from the sub-basement and into the empty bays. The juggernauts had been welded together from old car parts like salvaged Autobots from those classic Transformer videos.
The Conoco’s high ceiling was tall enough to accommodate the war machines, but just barely. Around six meters tall, the robots were divided into two sections with two windshields, one halfway up the body, at the chest, and another at the very top, at the head. The one on the right had been fashioned from two Porsche Boxsters, while the one on the left had been built from BMW sedans. All the doors, four of them, were still intact, both in the chest and in the head. Greasy arms of gears, pipes, and pistons hung down. And they didn’t end in hands, but gun barrels and rocket launchers. The legs had been cut from the drive shafts, but hinged so they could walk. The feet were heavy hunks of cross-hatched metal.
I circled around them, noting the boilers, the water tanks, and the weapons.
“What do you think of my Stanleys?” Nikola asked me. She didn’t ask Micaiah, no, she asked me. Of course.
I turned and looked into her eyes. This was our secret meeting after all. Of course. There was no other way. She was the most watched woman in Glenwood Springs. She couldn’t talk to me in private, not a chance. We’d have to talk right under the nose of Aces and his goons.
I had to smile. I couldn’t help it. “Stanley Steamers, like those old steam cars that never caught on. Sure.” I climbed halfway up a ladder welded to the side of the vehicle and glanced into the chest cockpit, which turned out to be the driver’s seat. The controls were simple—two central joysticks, pedals to regulate the steam engine, gauges for the steam pressure. Climbing higher, I saw that the top cockpit was for the gunner. Two grips with yellow buttons and red triggers would move the arms and fire the guns.
Micaiah peered in from the other side. “The pistoning is brilliant,” he said, more analytical than excited. “Fully articulated arms and legs for optimal movement. The top section can pivot so the gunner has a full three-hundred-and-sixty degrees of motion.”
“Yeah,” I said, “she used those titanium coils from the AIS 15.0.4. The pressure will be better, and it will take less water, and really, that’s the only reason why these could ever work in the first place. If not for the advances in steam technology since the Yellowstone Knockout, these would’ve been impossible. Still, I’ve never seen anything like them. Have you?”
“No.” Micaiah said simply.
We dropped back down. Nikola pointed at the Porsches, “That’s the Marilyn Monroe.” She motioned to the BMWs, “And that’s the Audrey Hepburn.”
“Who are they?” I asked. “I don’t recognize the names.”
“They were actresses in ancient Hollywood video.” Nikola’s eyes never left my face. “They were mostly forgotten, like so many of us in the Juniper.”
I nodded ‘cause I understood about being a relic from a better age.
Nikola then sighed. “I have a warehouse full of prototypes, but I haven’t perfected the design yet. Most of the engine is figured out, but there’s a problem with the horizontal maneuvering of the arm cannons. And the leg joints rust quickly. Also, the struts aren’t as stable as I would like. The Stanleys are so top heavy.”
Both me and Micaiah jumped on her problems like two dogs on leftover steak. Joints allowed for movement on both the vertical and horizontal plane, and yeah, the knee joints might need lubrication, but not any more than was necessary. And the legs were fine and stable.
Nikola came over to me and touched my arm. “I would appreciate any help you could offer.”
We looked into each other’s eyes. Micaiah had gone quiet.
I knew the deal. I turned from her to rub my chin and frown. “Yeah, I see your issues. I’ll have to ponder the stability problem. What do you think, Michael?”
Ha, I remembered his fake name. I knew there was nothing wrong with Nikola’s Stanleys. They were ready to fight. Load ’em full of ammo and unloose them on the foul men of Glenwood Springs. Nikola had told me her plan while Aces listened, clueless. He stood there, smoking a cheroot, breathing out smoke in devilish clouds.
She’d said she had a warehouse full of the battle machines, more than enough for my righteous war. And like the two in front of me, I had the idea they were equally as ready for battle.
Micaiah frowned, playing it perfectly. “Yes, any structural enhancements we make would exacerbate the weight issue. We do not want to make the Stanleys less maneuverable. You need as much mobility as possible in combat.”
“That is the problem,” Nikola said slowly. “I’ll give you my original blueprints. Maybe we can come to a solution together.”
Mic
aiah turned on Aces. “Why all the firepower?”
“Soldiers came by a couple of months ago,” Aces said. “I believe they’ll return and in greater numbers. Besides, the women in Grand Junction are getting smarter. If we had a battalion of the Stanleys, we could conquer Grand Junction and spread out all the way to the SLC. That is the duty of men, to build empires on the backs of the vanquished.”
Nikola got quiet. So did Micaiah. I didn’t. I busted open. “That’s idiocy. Do you really think it’s the destiny of humans to kill and rob and hurt those who are weaker? What about Christian charity and gentleness?”
Aces pointed at me with his cigar. If I’d been closer, I’d no doubt he would have burned me with it. “Religion brings peace to the weak, sick, and old. That is powerful, I’ll grant you, but it doesn’t mean much to a man like me. In this world, the strong rule the weak. If you have a problem with that, ask God why He created this world in the first place.” He turned on Micaiah. “Shut your woman up, or I’ll shut her up for you.”
“What about that chalkdrive you wanted me to look at?” Nikola asked out of the blue.
Her question sucked the wind from my lungs. The whole place filled with a bad tension.
Aces turned on her.
He gave her a long look, full of suspicion and mean, so foul and mean I wanted to crawl up into the Marilyn or the Audrey and gun him down.
Nikola, however smart, had made a critical error asking about the chalkdrive in front of us.
(ii)
Micaiah tried to soothe things. “I told him it’s been wiped clean by the Yellowstone EM field. It’s junk. I just like it because it was a gift from my father before he died.”
Nikola pulled an ancient slate out of the pile of junk along with an Eggdrop Eterna battery and a power adapter. It ran an outdated operating system, and I knew it might light up for a second or two, but no way could it really boot. Nikola, however, didn’t say any of that. Instead she asked, “Do you want me to confirm what the kid is saying?”
Aces shrugged. “Might as well.” From around his neck, he brought out the chalkdrive attached to a metal chain.
Inferno Girls Page 22
