by Nico Rosso
Song turned toward the door and hurriedly reached for whatever was recording the message. The image went black for an instant, then resumed.
“I’m leading him the long way around to an abandoned mine near Mineral City.” He chuckled. “Abandoned because they didn’t know what they had …” Shaking off the thought, Song leaned closer to them. “He thinks it’s the answer to becoming the most powerful. For all our sakes, stop him …”
The message ended, the image of Song frozen in the flickering light.
Jack stopped cranking. “We’re supposed to stop the Man O’ War or save Song?”
She took the silver dollar from her pocket. “Sides of the same coin. The Man O’ War won’t let Song go without a fight. We’ll have to kill Charron.”
“And I thought I was doing this just for the money.” Quick like a rattlesnake, he snatched the coin from her hand before she could close her fingers. “Mineral City’s a ghost town.”
“Can you find it in the dark?” She took the glass spindle from the lathe.
Jack thought for a second, then nodded. “North. We follow the foothills. Mineral City is at the base of jagged peaks; that’s where the mine will be.”
Bullets with deadly intentions had flown at her. Exploding shells from the swivel gun meant to send her pieces to the afterlife. She’d given some back. But it wasn’t enough. “This job’s getting to be more about payback than the payoff.”
Jack grinned, predatory. “Let’s fly.”
He pulled the metal from the beaker, extinguishing the flickering light. The message had been received. Now they had work to do. They hurried out of the infirmary and collected their tanks of tetrol.
The soldier sat on a bench outside the telegraph building. He wrapped a fresh bandage over his wounded shoulder. Wincing, he gave a little wave when he spotted them.
“They’re sending a detachment,” he said. “Sky Chargers’ll get here first. It won’t be more than a half hour.”
Jack asked, “How you holding out?”
“Aces.”
“It hurts now, but think of the nurses.”
It seemed to ease the pain a little. Then the soldier furrowed his brow. “You want I should send another wire, get a detachment to help you two?”
Anna spoke, just for Jack. “I’ve never needed the army’s help before.”
He clicked his tongue. “I’m not sharing my bounty.”
“Or revenge.”
His eyes were steady on hers. “We can do this.”
No one had ever backed her like this. It was new and exciting territory. “Together, there’s a shot.”
Jack turned back to the soldier. “Save it. Ain’t letting you uniformed types take all the glory.”
The soldier nodded. “Put a couple bullets in those sons of bitches for me. Finish them off for Newell.”
Anna called back, “Count on it.”
Then she and Jack exited through the side door. Just before they stepped from the yellow light of the fort, she saw a frown crease Jack’s eyebrows.
“He doesn’t know it was a Man O’ War. I didn’t tell him and he must’ve been shot before Charron showed up.”
“I don’t think a man in uniform would let a rogue Man O’ War fly around our territory without letting someone know.”
Jack paused, outside the light of the fort. “Last chance to call in reinforcements.”
Her eyes slowly accustomed to the darkness. He was a dark shadow against the black night. “Hell, no.”
He turned to start walking again, but stopped. Twisting back to her, he leaned down and brought their mouths together. The kiss lasted a little longer than the one before the shooting started. But it meant the same thing. Words wouldn’t cut it. Some things only their bodies could say.
She gave him her mouth, took from his. In the fight, they moved without words, knowing their tactics and hardly missing a beat. This kiss, this trust in his body, took more learning. But it was worth it.
They slowly pulled away from the kiss and continued walking into the darkness. She wasn’t alone. Strange feeling. It was new and unique. It came with questions, but not all of them bad. No answers, though. And she couldn’t figure out how to explain it to herself. That’s what the kiss was for. Where words failed.
The angular shadows of their vehicles emerged in the shadows. They quickly refueled their fuel reservoirs and prepped for flight. Everything was strapped down on her trike. Her guns were loaded. A cool wind cut across the plain. It would be colder the higher they climbed, so she unrolled her duster and buttoned it up snugly.
Jack did the same at his engine-cycle, pulling his slicker on his broad shoulders. He silhouetted against the light of the fort. A potent hunter. An angel of death. A hell of a lover.
All of the shooting and fighting hadn’t exhausted her. Her body still glowed, ready for another spark to set her off.
She gripped the handle of the starter cable on her trike. “I need to get you alone again.”
The darkness wasn’t enough to keep his searing gaze from her. “We ain’t done.”
One pull of the cable and her trike came to life. Jack mounted his cycle and kicked the starter. Their thunder rumbled across the plane. She climbed onto her trike and set the ether to humming. The ground drifted away and the stars drew closer.
With the shadowed shape of Jack flying next to her, she turned north. The dark mountains slid by to her right, like storm clouds. Cold wind bit at her cheeks. The smells of earth and trees rose up with it.
Climbing higher, she and Jack pushed through wispy clouds. Their moisture quickly thinned. A sliver of a moon jabbed sharply into the sky. She could wrap a leather handle around one end and use the edge to cut the throat of that rogue Man O’ War. She understood a life on the outside of society, but not kidnapping, or killing soldiers. Charron had to pay.
It might take something as mythic as the moon to take him down. Even someone as professionally deadly as Jack couldn’t kill the Man O’ War. But the shootout on the coast had been a different fight. Things were personal now. And she and Jack understood how they fit together in combat. And otherwise. Seemed that together they could take anything on. She hoped the feeling was genuine. Otherwise they were in a heap of trouble.
Arms outstretched to his handlebars, Jack turned his head, scanning the dark landscape and star-marked sky. “We could run into that Rat O’ War anywhere out here.”
“Detector isn’t buzzing. Seems to have a pretty good range.”
“Holler if you feel a tingle.”
They had shared sex in the lodge, fought and killed men together, surviving. They were a thousand feet over the ground, flying toward a ghost town. She’d never been herself with anyone else before. “I’m feeling it, Hawkins, but it’s not from the device.”
He swung his cycle next to hers, but they were still too damn far away. “I got a detector that tells me when you’re close.”
“Does it buzz?”
“More like a compass needle.”
“Reliable?”
“Never fails.”
Part of her wished the conversation was in the dark of a bedroom, quiet and intimate. But this was them, on the hunt, guns loaded and a fight ahead. There would be quiet later. She made herself believe. She would make it happen.
Their engines droned on. Wind whistled past her ears. The propeller fans hummed and the ether tanks buzzed. It was too late for birds. She and Jack were the only predators in the sky. Them and the Man O’ War, somewhere in the darkness.
The glow of the fort was long behind them, not even as big as the North Star. Some lights flickered below. Towns or ranches, homesteads at the edge of farmland.
Jack angled his cycle to look down at the little flickers of civilization, then tilted back toward her. “Most hard-working folks are sleeping by now.”
“No one works as hard as I do.”
“One guy does.”
“Just one.”
The scant lights beneath them passed
. The dagger of the moon plunged into the distant horizon. Shades of black defined the world and the sky. Foothills collected like a prizefighter staggering to his feet. They turned to mountains, then grew taller. One particular jagged range caught Jack’s attention. He pointed down to them.
“Mineral City. No lights. Even the ghosts deserted it.”
He dove his cycle in a gentle descent. She angled to follow. Warmer, dusty air rose up to meet them. The town was aptly named. Heavy and salted minerals spiced the air.
Smelled like blood.
The straight line of a one-road town became visible on the flats before the mountains. Two rows of buildings faced each other, like tombstones. There was enough starlight to navigate, so she kept the front quartz lanterns of her trike off. Their engines already made enough noise; there was no sense in letting anyone know exactly where they were.
Jack pulled off his goggles, letting them rest around his neck. “Hotel’s the tallest building on the street. Land it on the roof, we’ll go down from there.”
“How do you know so much about a ghost town?”
“When it was still up and running, the crooked mayor had a price on his head.”
Vague names and dollar amounts drifted up from the back of her mind. “Petty, Patterson, something like that? I was doing business in Los Angeles at the time, didn’t pay it much mind. You bring him in?”
“Patterson thought he could fight his way free. He went down with one shot, but that bullet cost me fifty dollars.”
“I’ve been there. Sometimes you have to kill a fool just to prove a point.”
Three stories tall, the hotel loomed over the other buildings. She throttled back and eased toward the flat roof. Jack killed his engine and coasted the rest of the way on momentum and the ether tanks. Her motor sighed when she turned it off. The hum of her ether tanks was just a little louder than the ringing in her ears.
Suspension springs squeaked as she and Jack landed on the roof. They rolled to quiet stops and locked down their vehicles. He dismounted and rolled his shoulders, throwing some punches at an invisible foe. The legend of Jack “Iron Hand” Hawkins had come alive, more potent than any tall tale. She stretched her back and legs, wishing she could have the hot wet of that bath with him again.
“This road leads right to the mine.” He drew a line with his hand, along the road and up into the mountains. “If that Man O’ War has business here, we’ll see it.”
She walked to the edge of the roof at the far corner over the road. Only a howling wind moved through town. Dozens of buildings, dead and empty.
“Let’s take a room on the corner.” She tapped her foot, hearing a hollow room below. “Covers the street and the mountain.”
He untied a couple of saddlebags and joined her. “It’s an easy jump to the balcony below. Or we can use the door.” On the other side of the roof was what looked like an angled cellar door, most likely leading to stairs.
She collected her rifle, a box of shells, and her buffalo cape from her trike, walked right past Jack, and dropped from the roof to the balcony. Her impact cracked some of the weathered boards, but they held strong enough. Dust from the dry wood rose up, then hurried away in the wind.
A shadow slipped from the roof and landed easily on the balcony. Jack was steady on his feet, but the wooden structure shook. Some startled birds flicked from the eaves and disappeared into the night. Even in the darkness, she could tell that nature was taking the town back, grinding whatever the animals didn’t need into dust with sun and wind and cold.
Wood groaned as Jack opened a window to the corner room. He climbed in and put a hand out for her. Not quite like stepping out of a fancy carriage on the way to the governor’s ball, but she took his hand anyway and stepped over the sill into the abandoned hotel room.
They left the window open, allowing the musty smell of the rugs and furniture to clear. Whoever left did it in a hurry. The bed was still made, the sideboards had their basins, and the fireplace was complete with screen and irons.
Jack took off his hat and waved it through the room. “Nobody’s breathed this air for years.”
His movement seemed to bring the place alive, stirring the atmosphere with his energy. He hung his hat on a wall peg and dragged two heavy chairs to the corner, facing both windows for a complete view. She leaned her rifle there, placing a box of cartridges next to it. Her buffalo cape took up the whole seat of one chair.
“High-roller suite?” Her voice echoed off the high ceiling.
“Only the best for you, Miss Blue.”
The corners of the large room were completely black. Seeing wasn’t the only way to sense, and she could tell from the stillness that nothing threatened them. She removed her hat and hung it on one of the chairs. Jack disappeared into the darkness for a moment, then returned with a short wooden stool. He set it between the chairs and put out his hand.
“Let me have that device.”
She fished it out of her pocket and placed it in his palm. The night’s cold hadn’t robbed him of his natural heat. He rapped the corner of the metal plate on the stool, sounding it like a drum.
After placing the device on the center of the stool he stepped back, satisfied. “If this detects the Man O’ War, it’ll buzz like a diamondback. As sensitive as it is, it’ll give us at least one minute to load up.”
“And we’ll be keeping watch.” Long nights lying in wait were part of the job.
Jack shook his head, slowly approaching her. “At that theater. The founder’s day parade when we were both going after separate bounties. It was like there was no one else in the world. Just you and me. I know you felt it, too. Didn’t give a damn about anyone else around us.” He reached her and put his hands on her shoulders. “And now that I finally have you to myself, I ain’t going to let you go.”
She brought their bodies closer. He leaned down. She closed her eyes. The darkness was welcome. There was nothing but Jack. They kissed. With the dead town stretched out beneath them, it truly felt as if they were the last people on Earth. What a perfect place to be with him.
WITH NO CLOCKS ticking in Mineral City, time stopped. He had a pocket watch, but hadn’t wound it in days. These moments were all his and Anna’s. Danger was coming, but it wasn’t there yet.
Jack savored the kiss. He’d been parched from the trail. Hungry since the unique meal in the Chinese neighborhood. She filled him back up.
And he needed more.
“Let me undress you.”
Her breath was hot on his neck. She nodded, her temple against his cheek. He undid the buttons of her slicker. Hooking his real and mechanical thumbs in her slicker and jacket, he pulled both off together and draped them over a chest at the foot of the bed.
The buttons of her shirt were smaller, but if he could hand-cast the pellets for his shotgun shells, he could deal with this. As the shirt opened her skin became exposed. Just the top of her chest before it was hidden by the chemise. But it already seemed as if a fresh moon had risen, casting light into the night.
Her shirt joined the other clothes. She gave a little shiver as he started to pull up her chemise.
“Cold?” They couldn’t risk a fire. It would get them spotted, or burn down the whole town.
“Not at all.” She proved it with another kiss. They only parted when he pulled the chemise over her head.
Her skin was warm. He glided his palm over her arm, her shoulder. Graceful like a strung bow, her collarbone arced into the pretty hollow of her throat. She softly sighed as his hand moved to her breast.
The soft curve was the most sublime feeling. Years of hardship and struggle meant nothing as he touched her. He traced a line around her with his fingertips, then brought them to her hardened nipple. She leaned into the touch. Her soft moan threaded through his body, strumming his nerves to life.
His body remembered. Their sex still resonated in him. A fall from a roof in Tacoma was easier to forget than what they’d shared. But the memory wasn’t enough.
He needed more. Now.
The next kiss was a message, telling Anna how much he wanted her. She understood, breath rising faster in her chest. She unbuckled his harness, then plucked at his buttons and snaps, bearing his chest. He quickly threw off his harness, along with anything else covering him from the waist up. Her skin met his, chest to chest.
They might finally level that collapsing town.
“This,” she whispered, “this is just for you.”
She ran her hands over his chest. Her palms were hardened from work, but it took that strength to get through his thick skin and to the heat at his core. His cock thickened, needing inside of her. He rolled her nipple between his fingers, gave it a small pinch. She moaned again and brought their hips together.
Gunmetal clanked heavily. They pulled apart and undid their rigs, hanging the weapons carefully on the back of a chair next to her hat, close enough to grab if trouble dared interrupt.
He moved to bring them back together, but hesitated when she stood off a bit. Was she having second thoughts? They’d been through so much without a hitch; what brought it on?
“First the breeches.” Enough starlight filtered in through the old windows to reveal her sly smile.
He obliged, quickly kicking out of his boots and shedding his pants and drawers.
His erection strained forward.
Bold, she stepped forward and wrapped her hand around his cock. His hips made an involuntary surge, meeting her. She raked fingernails down his chest as she stroked along him. Before he’d thought it might be the steam and water in the lodge that had made him run so hot. But it was all Anna.
He found her breast again, shaping it, feeling the smooth skin. They moaned together. She moved her hand along him, he thrust forward, as if he could part her clothes and bury himself in her heat.
Between breaths, he managed, “Need you naked.”
Without her touch, it felt like he’d detached from the ground, lost to drift away in the wind. Seeing her shadowy shape swiveling her hips to undress brought him back to Earth.
In fact, she brought him to his knees. With his hands on her hips, he pulled her toward him as he knelt in front of her. Careful to keep his metal fingers from hurting her, he caressed over the curves of her ribs, her waist. Her strong thighs. He kissed her belly. She ran her hands over his head, down his neck, and gripped his shoulders.
