Freedom Forged

by Alan Austin

“Calm down, little brother,” Ben said with a smile. “I doubt they’ll give us too much credit. They’ll add more security to their trans-Atlantic trains no doubt, but I don’t think they’d admit having suffered such a blow, let alone hunting us publicly over it.”

  “I don’t know,” Sam replied. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”

  There was nothing to be done about it now. Only time would tell if things were as bad as he feared.

  Chapter 5

  Reception

  Planning an airship landing always felt like a poker game with Mother Nature. The wind was perfect when the gang arrived back home and set down in a field about five miles outside of town. They arrived under the cover of night to avoid anyone passing by from spotting them and discovering their current location. Sam never kept the gang in one place for long, but Elmwood had become their staging ground for large operations, and they couldn’t afford drawing any attention to it, either from the British, or from others who would love to pilfer their tech and machinery.

  Gladys, from the inn, was in the clearing, having lit the torches for them to spot their landing zone. DaVinci guided the ship down under Mac’s supervision for the practice in the fair conditions. Mac was the superior pilot, but he was also much more useful in a fight and wanted to have the option to leave DaVinci at the helm as often as he could on jobs.

  The familiar, unpleasant bump of the large cabin structure bouncing slightly off the ground at first impact was followed by another as gas was quickly released from the bags housed in the upper frame of the ship. The metal riggings along the bottom that held the divers and carrier up creaked and groaned, and then all was silent. Ticks pulled the lever to open the doors which opened flat out to the divers again and now sat only five feet above the ground. Sam jumped down to the grass below, but Rosalyn spun to the outer wall of the cabin and lowered herself down the ladder.

  “Is everyone okay?” Gladys asked as she ran over to meet them while the engine slowed. “You’re missing one of your little ships. Did someone crash?”

  “We’re all fine,” Sam said, giving the woman a big hug. “We actually picked up an old friend on the way, but we did lose a diver. I think we might be able to replace it though,” he said with a beaming smile.

  Gladys looked past him into the main cabin of the airship and saw the stacks of crates.

  “You did it!” she cried gleefully. “You got the whole car, didn’t you?”

  Everyone shared the wild stories of the robbery with Gladys and then rolled one of the cargo loaders out of the barn to start offloading their haul. By the time the sun rose over the horizon, their entire take from the job was stacked in the barn and they had compressed the airship’s upper gas section and rolled it through the large doors and out of sight from any passing British air patrols. They were very rare out here, but any sign of an airship the size of theirs would bring a raid for sure.

  The gang made their way back with Gladys and found warm rooms, good food, and waiting beds to give them some rest. Gladys even had an extra room available for Rosalyn. The gang was exceedingly generous with all the towns they stayed in and had earned more favor from the people than the British could ever hope to command. Small towns like Elmwood were home to simple people who just wanted to be given the chance to prosper. The British taxes and their restrictions on technology only served to hold these communities back.

  As soon as Sam’s belly was full, he stripped down to his underwear and tossed himself into bed. When he awoke, sometime later, it was still dark. He thought he’d woken too early at first, but when he glanced at his timepiece that was set on the bedside table, he could see that an entire day had passed. He’d only been awake about five minutes when he heard a knock at his door. He recognized the knock and knew it was Rosalyn. Even after everything she’d put him through, he couldn’t help but hope that there was still hope for them. It felt like only yesterday that such a visit would have led to hours of pleasure.

  He pulled his pants on and answered the door without his shirt. Rosalyn had cleaned up and was wearing her signature white shirt, bundled and tied above her belly button along with some tight black pants. The woman knew how to show off her body, and it was just as hot as ever! Try as he might, Sam couldn’t help but let his eyes wander down between her breasts. They were held up in front of her perfectly by her plain black bra which her open shirt did little to cover. How many of her cons only worked because the men she was conning couldn’t think straight while trying to maintain eye contact while her bouncing tits begged for their eyes to drop and give their lust away?

  “Can we talk Sam?” she asked.

  “Of course,” Sam replied, stepping back inside to let her enter the room.

  Rosalyn walked over and sat on the edge of the messy bed. Sam pulled a chair from the corner into the center of the room and sat down, facing his former love.

  “I’ve missed you,” she spoke softly. “I’ve spent the past two years thinking about what could have been. I should have given you more time. I know I can’t undo the damage I’ve done, but I couldn’t let this chance to tell you how I felt pass. I don’t know what I think will happen next, but that’s how I feel.”

  Sam just sat, completely stunned at Rosalyn’s words. It was everything that he’d dreamed she would say if they ever found each other again. Despite everything she’d done – there was no denying that he still loved her. She’d been everything he ever wanted in a relationship. Every day with her had been better than the one before, right up until the day she walked away. Both of them thrived on danger, were risk-takers, and they loved each other fiercely and passionately.

  “I’ve missed you too,” Sam replied. “I wish you’d talked to me rather than just leaving. If you needed something more, I could’ve given it to you. I thought everything was perfect, and then you were just gone. I felt like you’d just been playing me like one of your cons.”

  “Never!” Rosalyn exclaimed. “I loved you. That was real.”

  “I loved you too. I still do,” Sam admitted as his eyes went down to the ground.

  “Me too,” she echoed.

  Sam wanted to move across the gap between them and scoop her up in his arms. Nothing would have made him happier than to just take her back and return to the life he’d known with her in the past, but he couldn’t take joy in her affection. There was too much that was still broken.

  “Roz – I can’t just jump back in with you,” he said with a tear in the corner of one eye. “You didn’t just hurt me, and I can’t put everyone else in that position. They stood by me and pulled me up out of my grief when you took off.”

  “I know,” she replied with a sniffle and tears beginning to roll down her cheeks.

  “I don’t know what to say. Do you really want to try again? Are you going to stay if we can make it work?”

  “Yes,” she answered, wiping her face. “If you would have me… If all of you could manage to forgive me – then I would stay.”

  “Holy shit, Rosalyn. This came out of nowhere,” Sam groaned. “If you felt this way, why didn’t you reach out sooner? It seems strange coming off meeting you like that on the train.”

  “I might not ever have said anything otherwise. I wanted to, but I could never get the courage to come and see you. When it happened this way, it was like it was meant to be.”

  Sam just shook his head. “I need some time.”

  “I understand,” Rosalyn replied, standing and walking past him toward the door.

  Sam stood as she passed and acted on a whim. He grabbed her hand and pulled her back, spinning her into his body for a kiss. Her lips were the same, just as he remembered. The soft, sweet kiss lingered and he felt the same heat that had been there in the past. He also felt her body soften in his arms. She hadn’t been lying. This was what she wanted.

  He released the kiss and both of them opened their eyes slowly to look deep into the other’s gaze. Anything more would be a mistake Sam couldn’t afford to make. He could not ris
k getting conned, no matter how convinced he was that she was telling the truth. Before they could go any further, Sam needed to talk to his brother and think on what she was saying. Already, he was trying to figure out how he might be able to bring her back in without betraying the love and trust of everyone who’d watched her tear his heart out once before.

  Rosalyn showed a small smile and squeezed Sam’s hand before turning and walking back out his door. There was no other woman on earth that could turn his entire world upside down in an instant quite like Rosalyn.

  The door to Sam’s room didn’t close and he looked up to see Grease passing Rosalyn on her way in to see him. The two women exchanged a glance. Sam couldn’t see Rosalyn’s face, but Grease was shooting daggers from her eyes on the way in.

  “What did she want?” Grease asked with urgency before the door was even closed. She didn’t care if Rosalyn heard her.

  “She just wanted to talk,” Sam replied.

  “Bullshit!” Grease exclaimed. “I’ve seen shattered charging locks that looked more put together than you do right now. What did that snake do to sink her fangs back into you this time?”

  “It’s not like that,” Sam insisted. “It’s not that simple. What do you want?”

  Seeing that he wasn’t in the mood to talk about this, Grease just shook her head and said, “There’s a big group of men who just rode into town. They look like military to me, but not British. Gladys said she’s never seen them here before. Most of them came on horseback, but they brought a few armored wheels in too. It could be trouble, but we wanted you to come and check them out before we panic.

  “Who else is up?” Sam asked.

  “Everyone, sleepyhead,” Grease answered, finally smiling as she turned and walked back out. “Put a shirt on before you give a girl any ideas,” she called out over her shoulder.

  Not wanting to waste any time, Sam grabbed his jacket and slid it on without zipping it up. He locked his door behind him and made his way across to the bar where everyone else from the gang was seated at the same table. Rosalyn had gone over as well, but she was sitting on her own at the bar. Sam spotted the group of men that Grease had been talking about as soon as he walked in, and one of the men looked up at him when he entered.

  The man wore a pinstripe jacket with a grey vest underneath and a very practical hat that had a spotter’s scope rolled up over the rim with the mechanism to lower it to his right eye. Sam looked down the right side of his body and found the bulge in his jacket that must have been his pistol. Whoever this man was, he was sizing Sam up at the same time, his eyes moving up and down Sam’s body to try and find his weapons. Sam’s gun was in his boot at the moment. He’d left his full-sized pistol in the room, but his boot had a concealed pistol that shot up through the seam if he hit the inside of his right boot to the left. Only four shots due to its size, but it would be enough in a pinch.

  “Sam Rosecrans,” the man’s voice boomed as he shouted across the bar.

  Everyone else in the bar already knew who Sam was, but to have someone call out an outlaw like that was rarely a good sign. Was this man an Imperialist sellout? Several militias had formed in the past few years comprised of men born in the colonies who were aligned with Britain and willing to sell out their own countrymen for the crown. Ben was the first to rise from their table, but neither the man in question, nor anyone else at his table seemed fazed by the threatening motion. Several of the men with Sam jumped to their feet and took a few steps toward the other group.

  “Sam Rosecrans,” he said again. “My name is Isaac Adams and I am a general with the American Resistance Army. We aren’t here looking for trouble, but we very much wish to speak with you.”

  Sam had figured it was the resistance from the look of them, but he had no idea what they might want with him.

  “About what?” Sam asked the General.

  The man’s face was like stone, never changing from its flat, emotionless expression as he looked around and then replied, “Not here.”

  Sam turned and led the way back out of the bar and the man followed. Ben caught Sam’s eyes and wordlessly asked if he needed help, but Sam shook his head, letting his brother know that he had everything under control. They stepped out into the open air and walked several paces over to some barrels on the side of the road. Sitting on one of them, Sam looked back at the other man, waiting to hear what it was exactly that he’d come all this way to talk to him about.

  “Thank you for talking with me,” Isaac said as he leaned on a barrel of his own. “I’ve been looking forward to meeting you for some time now, and it would seem that our timing may have been quite good. I just received a messenger bird with word that someone attacked the British docks. The details didn’t make much sense to me, but I think you might be able to fill some of those in for me.”

  “What makes you think I know anything about that?” Sam asked.

  “Please don’t play games with me, Mr. Rosecrans. You and I both know that it was you and your gang who hit those docks, but what I don’t know is why. It isn’t your normal style of operation.”

  Sam narrowed his eyes as he looked back at the other man, doing his best to assess his intentions.

  “Let’s say that you were right,” Sam responded. “If we did something like that – it likely wasn’t the purpose we’d set out to accomplish.”

  “That makes sense,” the general said, finally cracking a small smile to break his previously unchanged seriousness. “If that were the case, what might your actual operation have involved? Could it have something to do with the trans-Atlantic?”

  “Perhaps,” Sam answered.

  There was no way to know what this man was after. Did he know about the robbery somehow? If so, he could have been after the haul. The other option could be that he was here to arrest Sam. Many had tried, but they always underestimated his ability to evade them or the support he had from the towns in which they stayed. General Adams had brought an impressive force. Sam knew he still had a chance, but if anyone was going to succeed, it just might be this man.

  The general continued, “I am not here to cause you any trouble. Frankly, I admire what you’ve done with your gang and could care less about you deserting. It was a losing war and, despite how I feel about it, I can appreciate the temptation.”

  “Then what is it that you want, exactly?” Sam asked.

  “I want your help. Not to enlist again, but to do exactly what you are doing, with our support and a full pardon. You’ve done more damage to the empire in a few months than we’ve managed in years. I was already on my way to find you when word of your last operation reached us, and it only cemented the value you can add. The Rosecrans gang could be the difference maker we’ve been looking for.”

  Sam was floored by the offer, but still a little more than skeptical. This could just as easily be a trap as a genuine offer.

  “How do I know I can trust you?” Sam asked through narrow, discerning eyes.

  “I will offer a show of good faith. I’ve been monitoring all activity between your gang and the British for some time now, and I can tell you that you have a problem.”

  The general showed no signs of deception. What could he possibly know?

  He lowered his voice and continued, “Rosalyn was not on that train by mistake. When she left you, she ended up working for the Brits. She’s a spy for them now. She has her ear to the ground and found out you had an op planned from someone in this town. They never told her what, but she figured it had to be the train if you were launching from here at that time.”

  As much as the information he was hearing made his blood boil, Sam kept his cool and did not give any indication that he believed a word the man was saying. There was no doubt it was possible, but he wasn’t going to take the word of a soldier over someone he knew, even if the history wasn’t perfect with her.

  “That’s a big story,” Sam said.

  “But ask yourself,” The general replied quickly. “How did I even know she was
here with you?”

  It was that detail that caused Sam the most concern. Concern that others knew about the gang’s movements and that word was leaking, and concern that he had brought a spy back into their midst and that she may already be working him with her charms. He wouldn’t let that happen.

  “She won’t be a problem anymore then,” Sam said, fully intending to have her escorted to the edge of town and left to fend for herself.

  “Might I advise a different course of action?” the general inquired with the undertones of a scheme in his voice.

  Sam calmed himself enough to hear the general out. “I’m listening,” he said.

  “Well,” the general began, “I think you’d be better served using her to your advantage. Give her information to take back to them that will serve your purposes. You have an opportunity to steer the Empire’s focus with misinformation and strike even more effectively as a result. Between that, and the support that the resistance forces can offer you, I think that you can find an even more lucrative and effective method to operate under until her usefulness has run its course.”

  “Support you can offer me,” Sam echoed back to the general. “You’re willing to do things my way?”

  “You’ve proven your methods effective. All I want is success, and at the moment, you are the surest way forward. I will name you a colonel in the army and offer my men to serve you in your operations in whatever capacity they are able.”

  This was not the conversation Sam had been expecting. Getting a full pardon and having more men to add to his operations was a very tempting offer, but it felt too good to be true, and in his experience, that usually meant that it was just that.

  “I’ll need some time to think about it,” Sam replied. “You understand that I’ll need to discuss this with my crew too.”

  “Of course,” the general replied. We will give you until tomorrow to respond. If you don’t take our offer, I will be forced to arrest you as a deserter still.”

  Sam flashed him a look of surprise.