by Alan Austin
For just a heartbeat, he was stuck, staring at the place where the mutilated man had just fallen. He’d seen a lot of things in his day, but that had been truly disturbing. Navada! The name pierced his mind, snapping him out of his momentary shock. He turned his focus to her. She was still in danger; he didn’t know whether she had the flying expertise to handle this situation. Navada looked like she was about to crash, but she pulled the charge lever and managed to straighten out for another approach. Her eyes were wide and she looked like she might have pissed herself, but she was alive and had another chance.
Having learned the same lesson Sam had learned on his first landing the last time they’d done this, she nailed the landing the second time and was quickly out of her diver and on the deck, providing the same support for the others as Sam and Rosalyn had for her. Sam’s job was now to make sure no one snuck up behind Navada, and Rosalyn should have turned to watch their back in case anyone came at them from the very front of the train. The sound of a gunshot a moment later told him that Rosalyn had found a target and he smiled. He had to keep his focus on the others, but knowing that Rosalyn was helping them a killing English soldiers to do so was satisfying.
One by one, the other divers landed, following the same steps as the others. Guards kept climbing up to try engaging them for the first few minutes, but after taking out nearly a dozen, they seemed to recognize that their strategy wasn’t working. The gliders had shifted their focus further forward, taking out some of the guards and placements that could cause issues for the next phase of the operation. Just as Ben set down at the back of the line of divers, Sam turned and watched one of the gliders swing wide and turn in for an attack pass when a stream of gunfire from the left side of the engine cut right through the canopy of the glider. It was a way off, but Sam could see the blood fill the canopy and knew with certainty that the pilot was dead. The glider veered off and broke into a million pieces as it skipped and rolled over the waves.
Another glider zipped past, unloading everything it could in the direction of the turret that had taken out the last glider, and then Sam noticed that all the gliders were pulling away. They had a very limited amount of speed and distance they could cover. It must have been time for them to depart, but one of them turned back. What was it doing?
A scream rang out from Rosalyn, and Sam turned in her direction. She was staring wide eyed, and he saw something rolling over the side of the engine in front of them. It looked like a giant cannon and had several men behind armored plating on either side of it.
“RUN!” Sam yelled as he and Rosalyn dropped their rifles and took off in a dead sprint toward the back of their car.
Rosalyn had already started to run while he was still processing the scene, and she slid over the edge of the car onto the ladder, but Sam wasn’t sure he had time to slow down. He jumped, flinging himself toward the ladder on the next car. He hit the metal hard, but held on. A second later, he heard a loud explosion and watched as his diver, or what was left of it after they’d fired whatever that weapon was, rolled off the side of the car and splintered on the water.
‘Not again!’ Sam thought to himself, wondering why his divers never survived the mission. He climbed the ladder high enough to peer over the edge of the front car just as the glider which had turned back sailed overhead, not quite as fast as they’d been moving earlier. It had one rocket still strapped to the bottom of the hull, and Sam watched as it let it rip right into the cannon. The explosion broke the long metal barrel free from the engine and it rolled to the side, crushing one of the guards manning it before it jammed with a heavy thump into the car behind it and then spun into the water, creating a big enough splash that Sam was drenched as he sailed past, still clinging to the ladder.
The pilot, who’d just saved the other divers and the team members still standing with them, pulled up, and Sam saw that it was none other than Mac. Coming to their aid meant that he couldn’t get back to his airship – Sam was sure of that – what was he going to do?
Mac pushed his glider high up into the air where it eventually stalled and rolled back over on itself in a backflip. Now plummeting to the water, Sam feared that his friend might splash out, but he should have known better. Mac pulled up just above the surface of the water and then vanished as he lined up right behind the train. He’d been catching up, and Sam expected to see him rise up over the rear car, but he never did. Mac was gone. Sam’s legs went weak at the knowledge that he’d just lost a good friend, and that Mac had died to save them. He wanted to scream, but there was no time for that. He could not let his grief interfere with the mission. He allowed himself two seconds to catch his breath again and then focused on the next steps he needed to take.
Sam went down the ladder to get to the platforms they’d use to move forward, but before reaching the bottom, several guards rounded the corner of the forward car. He pulled one of his pistols and managed to kill one of them while someone around the side of the car he was on killed the other. It was Ben. He came around the corner just a second later and Sam slid down the rest of the ladder. It was only a few moments later before the whole team was together and moving around the side of the first car behind the engine.
A large shadow over the water to the side told them that the carrier was approaching the engine and was about to land.
“I need to get to the top,” Sam shouted at Ticks and Navada, who were running along the left side of the train with him.
“Go through the car at the front,” Ticks yelled. “More cover!”
Sam nodded and Ticks stopped at the side door nearest the front of the car and entered. Navada ducked in right after him and Sam rounded the corner just a second later. Both Ticks and Navada were on the ground behind wooden tables they’d flipped over as guards fired at them from further back in the cabin. Sam pointed the pistol already in his right hand back and shot the first guard in the face as he drew another pistol with his left hand. With both guns in hand he walked from left to right across the car, firing both guns and dropping all four guards.
Navada rose, observing the fallen bodies behind them and then turned with her jaw hanging down in shock.
“How the hell did you do that?” she asked.
“No one’s as good a shot as Gears,” Ticks said with a laugh. “The only thing scarier than him with a gun is him with an idea.”
The look in Navada’s eyes changed a little and Sam felt a stirring in his pants at what he perceived as a look of lust. Women loved a dangerous man!
An unexpected gunshot ruined the moment and Sam caught sight of a guard over Navada’s shoulder. He raised his gun and shot right past her head, hitting the man between the eyes as Navada seemed to droop and clutch her body.
Sam stepped toward her, intending to catch her if she fell. She inhaled sharply, then examined her hands. No blood. She hadn’t been hit. Their eyes met, and her mouth opened in the beginnings of a laugh, but their relief was cut short by a gurgling rasp. Ticks was on the ground, grasping his throat, blood pouring from between his fingers. His face was contorted by fear and he sputtered as he tried to speak.
Both Navada and Sam ran to Ticks, but he was gone before either of them arrived.
“NOOOOOOO!” Navada screamed, pulling her brother to her chest and sobbing over him.
Sam felt tears coming as well, but before he could grieve, another gunshot rang out as two guards entered from the far side of the room. Sam only had three shots left and there wasn’t good cover here to reload. He fired one shot back to send both men into cover for a second and pulled Navada, trying to get her to her feet so they could run.
“WE CAN’T LEAVE HIM!” she screamed at him.
“We have to!” Sam yelled back, pulling even harder at her arms.
He had her up to her feet when she threw herself back down to the floor. Sam wasn’t going to leave her, but he was afraid she was going to get them killed as well in her grief. She grabbed Ticks’ silver pocket watch, which was laying on the wooden floor besid
e his body, and ripped it from his pocket where it had been clasped to a loop inside. With the watch in hand, and one final sob, she pulled herself back to her feet and fired two shots of her own back toward the guards as Sam helped lead her to the stairs only a few paces further in front of them.
She was sobbing the entire way as they ascended all six stories of the train. She was supposed to have stayed below with Ticks, but everything had changed now. Sam wasn’t sure what they were going to do. He couldn’t complete the mission without cover below, and he wasn’t sure he could even go on. His mind kept replaying the scene of his best friend dying right before him. Why had he agreed to this mission?
Chapter 9
He’s Alive
Even with the modifications that were last minute and hardly a part of DaVinci’s intended design, the carrier handled well. Worries about the others were much more nerve wracking for her than flying this machine was at the moment. The train was scarred with gunfire and holes from explosions and she could see that one of the divers was missing. She feared the worst, but when she’d passed over the final car before the engine, she could see one of the landing struts was still attached to the top of the train, telling her that Sam and Rosalyn had at least landed. If Rosalyn ended up in the ocean, that would be just fine with Grease, but losing Sam would be devastating.
The only man she cared about more than Sam was Ticks. Seeing his diver set on the car was a relief, and she was shocked at how much more she had been worried about him after the night before. She’d known she cared deeply for him for a long time, but something about finally acting on those feelings had stirred them up even stronger and the thought of anything getting in the way of that was almost unbearable. She eased the struts down onto the engine and felt herself lock down to the train with a slight jolt. She was in position.
Unlike the last time, she would not be deploying the carrier’s full wings on this mission. In fact, she pulled the base wings back in to give the others more room to work on either side of the ship once they were ready.
Boomer ran up along her ship’s right side almost immediately, but Sam wasn’t in position yet. That wasn’t good. Grease popped the canopy open and slid it back to talk with Boomer.
“Where’s Sam?” she asked.
“No clue,” Boomer replied and then immediately added, “Oh, there he is.”
Grease leaned over the side of the ship and looked back to see Sam walking, not running, with Navada at his side. That wasn’t right. She was supposed to be down with Ticks to cover for Sam. As Grease was thinking through what that could mean, she noticed the pain on both their faces and the tears streaming down Navada’s cheeks. Sam’s eyes met Grease’s and she knew. Ticks was gone.
Her heart felt like it shriveled up right inside her chest and she couldn’t breathe for a moment as she gasped for oxygen.
“Oh shit,” Boomer said solemnly.
Tears came before her breath finally returned and Grease buried her face into her hands as Boomer reached up and put a hand on her shoulder.
“I’m so sorry, Grease,” he offered weakly.
Sam finally arrived and could see that Grease had figured it out. Nothing needed to be said.
“What are we going to do now?” Boomer asked.
“I don’t know,” Sam admitted.
Without coverage on the platform below, he was all but sure to get shot on his way down with the cable.
“It will take longer, but you’ll have to go first and then have the others cover my side,” Sam finally suggested, thinking that it might still work.
Boomer was about to respond when a gunshot rang out from the left side of the train.
“What the hell?” Sam muttered before walking to the edge and peering down.
“It’s Mac,” he shouted. “He’s alive!”
Grease had no idea how Mac had gotten on board the train from his glider or why Sam had thought he was dead, but this was good news. She watched as Sam took a deep breath and then pulled himself together as best he could.
“We can do this now,” he announced. “We can mourn later. He wouldn’t want us to fail.”
It pained her to hear him say it out loud, but Grease knew that Sam was right. They needed to get this done – for him now.
“Release the cables,” Boomer called from the other side, and Grease started working the new controls that had been slapped to the interior of the cockpit in such a rush that they rattled the entire way down.
She heard a click when she released the cables and Boomer started pulling his toward the edge before clipping it to his belt and then walking right over the edge of the car. There was a built-in resistance to the cable spool and it lowered him slowly down the side. Grease could only imagine what he looked like walking down the vertical side of the train.
Sam was uncharacteristically slow, but he too pulled his cable out and clipped in before looking back at Navada one more time with an apologetic glance and then walking over the edge. Gunshots rang out from either side, audible, but masked mostly by the wind. Grease could only pray that it was the gang’s guns finding their targets. Navada was a heap on the roof of the engine car, sobbing and holding her fist to her chest. Grease wanted nothing more than to join her. She was little more than a stranger, but their shared grief over the man they both loved would have brought them together.
Grease fought back another wave of tears at the thought of her newfound love for Ticks. She’d been interested in him for some time, but being with him the other night had brought to light just how amazing a connection they had. It was new, but she didn’t doubt for a second that it had been love and that he’d likely felt the same way. How cruel of God to rip him away from her so suddenly. She certainly didn’t want anyone to die, but he was the kindest, gentlest and sweetest of all of them. Why did it have to be him?
Navada finally seemed to pull herself together some and walked over to the edge of the train to look down and see what was going on. Grease wished she had the ability to better track the progress. Both men had to succeed or the plan was a failure. DaVinci had told her that she’d feel the tension if it worked, but she had no idea what that meant. She thought she felt some pull a few times and gently adjusted the stick, but it was slack and she knew that she was only making it harder on one of the guys as she did that.
All she could do was wait and hope that they were able to pull this off.
Chapter 10
Hooks
The wind seemed stronger over the side of the cars than it had over the top. Sam walked forward, step by step, closer to the walkway below him where Mac was fending off guard after guard from both directions. There was a reason that he was supposed to have two people covering him, but Mac was pulling double duty and doing a damn fine job of it. Aside from Sam, who was the best shot of the group, only Ben was better than Mac, but he was on the other side covering Boomer with Rosalyn, neither of them having any idea that Ticks was dead or that Mac was alive.
Sam finally reached the platform just as a guard came running out up ahead of him. He was able to get his pistol drawn and take him down, but not before he got a shot off that Sam heard pass by his head, far too close for comfort. He looked back to see if Mac was hit, but a quick nod was all he needed to see to confirm that all was well. With that, Sam took the most terrifying step of all.
Tossing his legs over the side of the railing, he felt the cable go a little slack and knew that he only had a minute or so to get this right before he’d be skipping over the waves. The cable lowered him past the railing and he was now just hanging out over the side of the train as he passed under the body of the engine. The sight was more than he was prepared for. Three massive structures under the front of the engine dropped down into the water, two ski-like struts on either side, and the massive steam engine in the middle. Behind the engine, raging water and clouds of steam looked more than ready to swallow whatever might fall into their path. Behind the wide triangle of those structures at the front was an even larger strut
that dropped down in the center at the back. That was the rudder-ski that steered the ship once it was up on its hydrofoils. That was Sam’s target.
Looking across the bottom of the train, Sam could see Boomer dangling just as he was, having gone over at just about the same time. Same pulled the small cable from his belt and folded the hooks out of the end. Latching one end back to his belt to make sure he didn’t drop it; he tossed the hook out and made contact with the metal railing that ran along the underside of the engine on his first try. He pulled himself in toward the railing and was soon climbing over. Just as he was about to unhook the smaller cable he’d used to pull himself to the platform, he felt tension on the larger cable still attached to the carrier up above and it pulled him back over the railing. Almost as soon as it pulled him back, it released, but he was now dangling over the side again.
Fortunately, he still had the hook attached and was able to pull himself back in once more. He left the hook on the railing, just in case, and got to work. He attached the magnetic clamp to the bottom of the train, trapping the larger cable underneath it, and then pulled the magnesium strip along the top just like DaVinci had shown him. These were something the engineer had cooked up months back, but it was the first time they’d needed them.
A bright blue light flashed from the loop as it welded itself to the hull of the train. Sam released the clip from his belt and let the excess cable begin to gather on the walkway. He’d need more length to reach his target still.
He looked back across to Boomer and was alarmed to see that the other man hadn’t managed to get to the platform yet at all. He was still dangling and was getting dangerously close to the water. He tossed his line and it hit the railing, but bounced off. He gathered it up and tried again, but with the same result. Sam could see the panic in Boomer’s face and watched as he reached around to unclip himself.
