“Not that. I got no interest in who stole what from who. I meant it don’t seem right that you ain’t invested in such a sizeable scheme.”
But Alice merely shrugged. “Sometimes you just have to do what’s right, even if there’s nothing in it for you.”
Ned snorted and whacked the table with the rolled-up map. “Never took you for a fool, girl. Don’t make me start. Now get out there and get your engine working.”
* * *
GLORIA MERIWETHER-ASTOR was possessed of much wealth, some beauty, and few skills. Among the latter, such as they were, one could include flawless taste in clothes, some talent for the arrangement of flowers, and the ability to make anyone, no matter their social standing or background, feel comfortable in conversation. She was also an excellent shot, her father having deemed it practical that his daughter should be able to use the products of the family business in demonstrations without embarrassment. In his more optimistic moments, he had hoped she would demonstrate such skill while riding to hounds and grouse shooting in Scotland and as a consequence, bag herself a title.
She had disappointed him in that last, but she could recite the specifications for, load, and shoot nearly everything the Meriwether-Astor Munitions Works produced in its factories, with the possible exception of the cannon. The balls were too heavy for her to lift.
Among the qualities she wished she possessed were those that Claire and Alice had in spades—namely, a mechanical aptitude that had saved their lives on several occasions. Gloria might be able to shoot a gun, but she could not build one with her own hands, though she had seen enough design diagrams that she was quite sure she could learn if she had to. Another quality she often wished for was patience—the ability to wait for something without fidgeting and flibbeting about a room. Waiting was agony, even when she’d been a child at Christmas, when the presents were right there before one, and one could not have them.
Now she stood at the viewing port aboard Swan, hours after Alice and Evan had gone, and while she might have a gun in her pocket, she had no patience left whatsoever.
“What has become of them?” she groaned, her forehead on the cold isinglass as though sheer will would bring the sight of them walking back along the dry riverbed.
“Do you expect me to give you the same answer as I did the last three times you asked, or are you looking for a different one?” Jake inquired through his teeth. Patience was not one of his attributes either.
“What if they’ve been captured? What if they’re dead, Jake?”
“If they’d been captured, the Captain would have fired a bolt from the lightning pistol straight up to tell us so before they took it from her, and we’d have attempted a rescue already.”
“And if they’re dead?”
“They’re not.”
“How do you know?”
“Because the captain is too smart to be dead, that’s why.”
“It will catch up with her someday,” she said darkly.
“Don’t say such things, you ninny!” he snapped. “Are you trying to bring down trouble on us?”
“I am not a ninny, and I’ll thank you to be civil.” While this crushing setdown might have rendered one of her Philadelphia swains into apologetic jelly, it had no effect on Jake except to make him crankier.
“And I’ll thank you to give the captain credit for the brain in her head. Now stop flapping your trap and give a man some peace.”
Affronted, she turned her back on him and did not mention that since he was pressed to the other port with just as much concern as she, there was not much point in wishing for peace. Until they saw the return of their companions, neither of them was likely to get it.
Benny Stringfellow came in from the engine room, where as ordered, the boilers had not been shut down and therefore needed periodic attention. “What do you suppose they’re doing out there?”
Gloria and Jake both turned on him with such glares that he retreated a step.
“I’m just asking. No sign?”
“If there had been, we might have lifted by now.” Jake’s uncompromising gaze returned to the empty view.
“But it’s been three hours.”
Three hours in which nothing had moved among the distant buildings except slinking, dust-colored creatures that Gloria suspected were not dogs. They’d seen Alice and Evan go into a building on the edge of town, and then emerge to go into the taller one a few hundred yards away, and then nothing.
“Captain hasn’t fired the signal,” Jake said. “Our orders are to stay put.”
“It’s two o’clock,” Benny pointed out. “Sun’s on its way down soon. If they don’t come back before dark, we must go find them.”
“They’ll be back.”
“We must have a contingency plan if they are not, Jake,” Gloria said with what she thought was a very reasonable tone, considering he had just accused her of flapping her trap. “What do you suggest?”
A contingency plan meant that they might not survive, and it was clear Jake didn’t want to think about it. He ground his teeth and said nothing.
“I believe we have two contingency plans to consider,” she went on. “What to do about Alice and Evan … and what to do about the train if they are not successful.”
“Don’t wish them dead!” Jake blurted, his face reddening with rage.
She would have snapped an equally angry retort if she hadn’t seen the slightest hint of tears in his eyes—if she hadn’t suddenly realized that he was not angry at all.
He was terrified.
Her stomach plunged as the depth of the danger was borne in upon her in a way it had not been up until this moment. “I do not—could not,” she said softly. “But I see now how brave she was to go alone, with only Evan at her side, so as not to risk all of us.” She swallowed. “Me.”
“You don’t know what it’s like down there,” Jake rasped, his throat clogged. “They don’t value anyone’s life—your only value is in what you have, and how fast they can take it from you. They’re wreckers, Gloria—do you know what that means?”
“I do. Alice told me.”
“They make their living on the deaths of others,” Jake said bitterly, “and I don’t aim to let them make it on ours. Do you think I haven’t been standing here running contingency plans through my head these three hours past?”
“Of course you have,” she said. How foolish she had been to think otherwise. How foolish and childish.
Claire would never have acted like this. Gloria straightened her spine. “What are our best options?” she asked again.
But before he could reply, a roar beat against their eardrums, as though a locomotive and a lion had combined. Benny flung himself against the viewing port next to Gloria and, mouth open, watched the strangest vehicle imaginable trundle out of a barn behind the tall house.
“That’s Alice’s tower,” Jake said in tones of disbelief. “I didn’t think it would ever run again.”
It chugged down the street. It had once been a train locomotive, but the wheels were now mounted on a circular track that propelled it forward. Bolted on top was a tower, and mounted to the front was a huge assembly that seemed to bear an enormous propeller of the kind usually found on airships. Gloria did not want to speculate on which unfortunate vessel that had come from.
“The propeller is new,” Jake commented. “What is she doing with it?”
They could not see who was steering the monster, but it was clearly heading out of town. Behind it came a ragtag group of various chariots and vehicles piloted by a rough lot of men, some of them bearing picks and shovels.
“You’re sure it is Alice piloting that thing?”
“I believe she’s the only one who can,” Jake said, watching it crest a small hill and labor down the other side. “They used the tower for unloading passengers and cargo—they don’t let captured ships moor on the ground.”
“The captain helped take prisoners?” Benny sounded as though he couldn’t believe it.
In the distance, the tower stopped, and in a moment, with a grinding roar that reached them half a mile away, a huge cloud of dust and sand puffed up around the machine, nearly engulfing it.
“What in the name of …?” Gloria said in wonder.
It moved slowly across the desert floor, groups of men working ahead of it and behind, well out of the way of the spewing, roiling dust storm. After a quarter of an hour of watching the spectacle, Gloria could see that they worked in a line that was unnaturally straight. How could that be? The only features in this inhospitable landscape that were straight were the tops of the mesas and the railroad tracks to—
“Is there a rail spur buried under there?” Gloria asked suddenly. “Can it be that they are clearing the track?”
Jake shot her a glance that might have held admiration if that had not been completely unlikely. “You could be right. I do remember mention of a railroad into Resolution that was never finished. I wonder if they mean to bring the munitions train in here.”
“It’s a brilliant plan if they do,” Gloria said. “If there’s a switch off the main line, that is. There must be, mustn’t there? They would have to have built it in the beginning, to run supplies to the end of the line.”
“How do you know so much about trains, miss?” Benny asked.
“I suppose I must have picked up a thing or two in my travels,” she said, feeling rather pleased and trying not to show it. “Papa was not a railroad baron, but he made me act as hostess while he entertained any number of them, and their conversation tended to include things like that.”
“If you’re right,” Jake said slowly, “there will be an almighty battle a lot closer than we thought. If we’re making contingency plans, we ought to think about what we’ll do when the shooting starts. I’ve no desire to have Swan shot full of holes. Who will be on that train besides the Californios, Gloria?”
At last, something she could contribute!
“If they treated this shipment as they did the others—and I read the manifests—there will be a full contingent of mercenaries to defend the cargo. There were twenty on the last payroll six months ago.”
“Ned has at least that many miscreants under his thumb here,” Jake said, “so odds might be even. Who else?”
“The Ambassador did not come all this way without a full escort,” she said. “I do not know precisely how many, but easily a dozen, plus his personal entourage. They are all trained in the arts of war, but how much experience they have in the actuality of it is up for debate.”
“So there could be as many as forty armed men on that train?” Benny asked, his tone uncertain. “Do you think Alice knows that?”
CHAPTER 8
“N o,” Gloria said. “I do not think we got as far as counting heads. It was enough to reach this side of the world ahead of the train—we did not have time for further speculation before she went to find her stepfather.”
She could see now the mistake they had made in taking the journey a step at a time, and not thinking about what lay at the end of it. But how was it possible to take absolutely everything into account? Gloria herself had simply assumed they could drop an explosive on the track, stop the train, and that would be that. The manifests had not even entered her head until now.
How very shortsighted of her. “They are going to make the train disappear,” she said aloud. “We thought they would simply blow it up, but do you see how dangerous that is? And how easy to discover?”
“What difference does it make?” Jake asked gruffly. “We’re still up against forty men, whether it’s blowing it up five miles from here or bringing it right to the doorstep.”
“But they can allow none to escape if they do not want the Viceroy to find out and send his army into the Territory seeking vengeance. If the train simply disappears without a trace, it will be much more difficult to find the responsible party, since it could have done so anywhere along a route thousands of miles long.”
“The captain must have come up with the plan,” Benny said with satisfaction.
“She may have indeed, but someone needs to tell her and her accomplices that the train will be manned and well armed by men who know their business. I do not think the air pirates are expecting a fight—and we just downed two of their ships.”
“You won’t find me sorry for that,” Jake said. “But the fact is that even if we throw in our lot with the pirates, we are undermanned.”
“We have bombs,” Benny pointed out. “Twelve incendiaries and half as many pressure bombs. I counted.”
“The trouble with bombs is that if you drop them in the middle of a melee, you’re as likely to kill your friends as your enemies,” Jake told him, ruffling his hair. “Me, I’d be happy to collect the captain and Mr. Douglas and scarper before the train realizes where it’s going, and let Ned Mose and his lot fend for themselves.”
“I agree,” Gloria said promptly. “The question is, how shall we tell them of their danger without being taken prisoner?”
“I’ll go,” Benny said promptly.
“You will not,” Jake told him. “The captain would never forgive me if I sent you out there to be shot.”
“Nobody’s shooting yet,” Benny pointed out with what Gloria thought was admirable logic. “I can go out to the tower, climb up, and tell Alice, quick as a wink.”
“They’re two miles off, Benny. There’s nothing quick about it.”
“The longer we sit here arguing, the farther away the captain will get.” Benny’s young face set in stubborn lines, and for an instant, Gloria had a glimpse of the man he might someday become—brave, loyal, and resourceful.
“If anyone goes, it will be me,” Jake said quietly. “I’ve had some experience with this lot, and they know I’m flying with the captain.”
“That won’t save you if someone wants a bit of target practice,” Gloria pointed out.
“But it’s a leg up over a stranger they’ve never seen,” Jake said. “And a youngster at that. At least I can pretend to offer my services as an ally, if push comes to shove.”
“I can too!” Benny wasn’t going down without a fight.
“I know you can, lad. But they don’t. No, it’s got to be me. I’ll take a rocket rucksack—that’ll land me closer than two miles off, I hope.”
Fuming, Benny gave in to his superior officer’s greater logic, but Gloria could see how much it cost him. She wanted to slip an arm around him and assure him that time would take care of everything that irked him now, but a female passenger presuming to put herself between two crewmen would likely net her only the disgust of both.
Jake wasted no time. He fetched the rucksack and ignited it, and in less than ten minutes was blasting through the air in the direction of the far-off plume of dust smudging the sky. The rucksacks were notoriously difficult to control, being old-fashioned and unwieldy, but it was all they had, and for short distances such as this, Gloria hoped it would do well enough.
“So now we are down to two,” she said, gazing after the trail of burned air that was all that remained of Jake’s departure.
“Miss?”
“We began with five, and now we are two,” she said. “I hope you are able to teach me how to pilot this ship if the worst should happen, Mr. Stringfellow.”
His eyes widened. “The worst, miss?”
“If our friends should not come back.”
“Don’t put about ideas like that, miss. I’ve never been one to borrow trouble, and I don’t intend to begin now.” As though for emphasis, he turned and made his way back down toward the engine room, no doubt to check on Alice’s boilers.
So much for contingency plans.
Gloria chewed on her lower lip and turned back to the viewing port, unable to reason away her anxiety.
* * *
THE SUN WAS two hours off the horizon, the track was cleared, and Alice and everyone else in the rail crew was covered with a
grimy crust of red dirt. It ground between her molars, turned into mud in the corners of her eyes, and she was quite sure it would still be irritating her for days to come, no matter how many baths she took.
As she and Jake clambered down from her poor old tower, turned into a giant bellows for today’s purposes, she saw Ned Mose and the boys waiting for them on the ground.
“Can you move any slower, missy?” Ned shouted as she edged past the firebox to the iron ladder.
“What’s your hurry?” she demanded, the dirt making her a little less gracious than was probably wise. “There’s no sign of them yet.” She jumped to the ground and swatted at her canvas pants and blouse. Puffs of red dust settled slowly but left her feeling no cleaner.
“I was just informed that I’m short two ships,” Ned shouted, though she was within speaking distance. “And that I’ve got you to thank!”
“They were firing on me, Pa,” she said reasonably. “I sent you a pigeon, and I didn’t take kindly to being held up, especially when they didn’t answer any of my flags.”
“You didn’t have to crash them, missy. I’ve a mind to take your ship in exchange.”
“You can fix those boats as soon as look at them,” Alice said, settling both hands on her hips, comfortingly close to her pistols. It would take a little doing for Ned to bring the dead engines back after the lightning cannon had done for them, but now might not be the time to mention that. “Maybe the boys will mind their manners next time.”
“Don’t backtalk me, girl.” She didn’t like the look in his eye. “Since I’ve got no ships and no indication of when this mythical train might arrive, I’m going to send a couple of my boys up in yours to spy out where it is.”
“I can do that, Pa.”
“Sure you can. You’ll lift and sashay away, leaving me with an angry bunch of Californios with a train full of mechanical monsters in who knows what stage of readiness to fire on an innocent man.”
“And you think one woman, her passenger, and her navigator will make much of a difference to those odds?” Evan, being thus named, did his best to fade into insignificance in the shuffling, stinking group. Which was quite easy, since except for Jake, who had brought news of what they were up against in direct contravention of her orders, they were all covered in dust and looked much the same.
Fields of Air: A steampunk adventure novel (Magnificent Devices Book 10) Page 8
