Iron and Blood

by Gail Z. Martin

  “I do wish this whole matter were settled,” she said. “Bad enough what’s happened so far, but the longer this goes on, the worse it gets.”

  “It’s turned out to be a lot bigger than just avenging Father’s death,” Jake said. “But we’re in too far to change our minds now. I just hope we can stay a step ahead of the people chasing us until we can figure out how to bring them down, once and for all.”

  THE NEXT EVENING, an unlikely group gathered at the Desmet house. Three of the Logonje priests stood watch in the shadows across the street. Inside, Jake, Nicki, and Rick spoke quietly with Andreas and Renate, while Cady and Catherine Desmet chatted about books as they waited for everyone to assemble. Father Matija stood to one side, talking in low tones with Drostan Fletcher. Though he couldn’t see him, Jake was sure that Wilfred lingered nearby, on hand to provide support in nearly any situation.

  Kovach and Charles kept watch near the door. “I can’t protect you if everyone and his brother can just walk on in,” he muttered.

  “If everyone’s here, let’s get started,” Catherine said, calling the group to attention. “I thought it would be best if we could all hear what’s new together.”

  “Then let us get some scotch to settle our nerves, and we’ll fill you in,” Jake said.

  He and Rick laid the Alekanovo stone and Marcin’s book on the table. Nicki dropped the ruined listening device next to them. Cady sidled up to the book, eyeing it with a scholar’s curiosity. Renate and Andreas circled the stone, and Jake wondered if they were testing it with their magic, sensing its strength.

  “I don’t really know how that thing works,” Jake warned, “but the last two times it’s been around strong magic, it exploded. So if you’re going to poke at it with your powers, let’s not do it in the parlor.”

  Andreas’s expression changed, the nearest thing to a smile Jake had ever seen on the vampire’s face, then he and Renate retreated to a respectful distance. Jake poured a scotch for himself and one each for Rick and Nicki, and then settled into the big, upholstered chair that had been his father’s favorite.

  “The next time I complain about a black tie reception being boring, I hope someone reminds me of what it’s like to be exciting,” Jake began. The group listened intently to the recap Jake, Rick, and Nicki gave of the events at the reception and afterwards, ending with the perilous drive home.

  Drostan recounted what had transpired at the Vesta Nine, his tale leaving everyone looking queasy. “I took liberties in asking Mitch Storm and his partner for help,” Drostan said, “I’ve worked with them before, and they’re good at what they do. Jacob and Hans haven’t reported back yet, but Mitch confirmed that the Department suspected Veles and Thwaites were mining something other than coal.”

  “Tourmaquartz,” Rick replied. “Enough to make Veles and Thwaites even more powerful and wealthy. They can sell it for a fortune to arms dealers and despots in hot spots around the world and literally bring down kingdoms.”

  “At least we know what happened to Karl Jasinski,” Renate said. “No one deserves that kind of an end.”

  “And we know who was after the crate Jasinski asked Father to smuggle out of Poland, and what was in the crate,” Jake said, feeling the loss anew. “As well as who was responsible for his murder.”

  “We’ve also got a pretty good answer to the killings along the rivers,” Drostan said. “Once the gessyan are free, they gravitate to where they can feed the best, and spread out so there aren’t too many predators in one place. Mitch and I are speculating that Veles might not be able to control the gessyan or bottle them back up, but he might be able to work some kind of magic to keep them from eating all the miners. So the Night Hag followed the rivers, and the hell hounds moved toward the old cemeteries, as did the wraiths.”

  “Everything we’ve found out also explains Thwaites’s involvement, and the Oligarchy connection,” Rick said after a moment to consider what Drostan reported. “Veles contributed his magic, Thwaites brought his political connections to make sure they weren’t disturbed, and they both walk away with a fortune—and the power to change the destiny of nations. Breaking the miners’ union, if it came to that, would seem like a bonus.”

  “Mitch and Jacob are not officially with the Department on this project,” Drostan said, and filled the others in on what he had learned from the agents. “They wanted another shot at Tumblety and Brunrichter, and those abominations they create. But if the Department has Vesta Nine under observation, it’s possible they could raid the place, and things could get complicated.”

  “The clockwork corpses are only part of the problem,” Andreas reminded them. “There’s still the matter of the gessyan, both the spirits that have gotten loose as well as those still in the mines. Until they’re overpowered and the gateway is sealed, people will continue to die. Apparently, Veles can’t keep them contained and Jasinski didn’t have the stone and the book to help him succeed. So it’s up to us to bottle them back up.” He looked toward Drostan. “If the Department were to attack the mine without magic, I fear it would be a slaughter.”

  “Veles and Thwaites probably have plans to make a quick getaway if they need to,” Rick added. “The tourmaquartz deposit is probably fairly small, given how rare it is. There’s no telling when they’ll decide they’ve gotten it all. “

  “In which case, we need to move quickly,” Matija added. “Because more gessyan are likely to escape if a binding is not made soon.”

  “And how do we do that?” Rick demanded.

  “Carefully,” Renate replied without a hint of humor. “Andreas and I will work with Father Matija and his priests to deal with the gessyan, including the Night Hag—and make sure none of the other spirits escape.”

  “Then we destroy the deep levels,” Andreas replied. “Jacob and his clockwork man are likely to confirm what I suspect—that the only workers at those depths are dead men and automatons. No one else can withstand either the conditions or the presence of the gessyan.”

  Jake nodded. “That’s why Veles and Thwaites would have called in the mad scientist team. Automatons aren’t just cheap labor; they’re workers who will never breathe a word about what they see—and miners who can’t be killed because they’re already dead.” He paused. “We could see what help Eban Hodekin might be.”

  Rick shivered. “I’d rather not, if it’s all the same to you.”

  Jake shrugged. “I didn’t say we had to have him over for dinner. But kobolds know the mines. He could be valuable.”

  Rick fixed Jake with a pointed stare. “‘Know the mines’?” he repeated incredulously. “In half the tales I’ve heard, they’re the ones who bring the ceiling down on the miners, or who lure them into dead-end tunnels where the air is bad.”

  “It depends on who’s telling the tale,” Andreas said, bringing a halt to the argument. “In this case, I would say that caution is advised, though we should not rule out help where it can be found. We may yet have need of Hodekin.”

  “Suppose we can shut down Vesta Nine,” Rick said. “Thwaites and Veles have a lot of influence. Won’t they just dig down and across from one of the other mines?”

  “Maybe,” Andreas admitted. “But none of the other mines are nearly as deep as Vesta Nine, so it will take a while to reach that level again. Tourmaquartz is rare, so there’s no guarantee they’d find more of it. If they start up again, we’ll know how to counter it. And perhaps the gessyan are more than Veles wants to deal with, if he has a choice.” He paused. “I don’t think freeing them was part of a master plan, although Veles made the most of the panic as a diversion. And I’m sure he would love to control them if he could. He is very much an opportunist.”

  “Blowing up the deep shafts sounds like something that would be right up Adam’s alley,” Rick said, and Jake heard a glimmer of glee in his friend’s voice. Rick shared Adam’s sheer joy in making things go boom.

  “Even Veles would be hard pressed to stop a mine fire,” Andreas said. “Magic is b
etter suited for starting such things than for putting them out.”

  “How likely is it that the Oligarchy will retaliate?” Catherine mused. “After all, Thwaites is one of their number. Drogo Veles may or may not be a bona fide member, but he certainly has influence over them, and I don’t doubt many of them owe him favors. Consider Mr. Fletcher’s experience with the police; he may not be the only one at risk.”

  “With men like Maguire gaining political power, the Oligarchy can’t afford to move too openly, or too heavy-handedly,” Matija replied. “Neither can Drogo Veles. It will remain, as it has been, a shadow war, with forces on both sides working just beyond the light.”

  “And the federal agents?” Rick asked. “What do we do about them?”

  “We need all the help we can get,” Jake replied. “Drostan already has the connection. If Jacob makes it out of the mine alive, his information will be essential for our attack.” He grinned. “They don’t have to know everything. And even if Mitch and his partner are operating on their own, having them involved might camouflage our role in all this.”

  “I agree.”

  Everyone turned to look at Catherine. She raised her chin, and her expression was defiant. “This has gone beyond Thomas’s murder. There have been far too many deaths. It needs to end. And we’re going to make sure that it does.”

  “I’M GOING CRAZY down here.” Adam Farber set aside his wrench and flopped down into a chair. “And I need more coffee.”

  Jake and Rick surveyed the clutter in the basement that had become Adam’s secret hideout. Coffee rings stained every table and countertop. Adam had rigged up a small coal oil stove to do his cooking and boil water for coffee. Jake and Rick made sure that food, coffee, ice for the ice box and the materials Adam needed for his work were delivered regularly and with appropriate stealth. And for once, Adam had the utter quiet that he so often claimed to crave; but it appeared to make him even twitchier than usual.

  “You won’t have to stay here by yourself much longer,” Rick said. “And look, we brought you a whole box of the equipment you wanted.”

  Adam gave a long, dramatic sigh. “Thanks. But I really am going a little nuts down here. It’s not even that I miss people, most of the time. In fact, there’s a lot I don’t miss about being in the old lab. No one interrupts me. No one pulls me away to talk to people who think they’re even more important than they are. It’s just—”

  “A little lonely?” Jake finished for him.

  Adam nodded, and reached over to grab a half-empty coffee cup, downing the cold contents in a gulp. “Now and then.”

  “Well, if it’s any help, you’ve also had a pass on having to deal with all the questions about how, exactly, the lab managed to blow up,” Rick said. “Local police, federal agents; from what I hear, the place has been crawling with cops since they got the fire out.”

  Adam winced. “How badly was the building damaged?”

  Jake gave him a sidelong glance. “Not as badly as the last time you burned it down. Doesn’t appear that the men who set the bombs really knew what they were doing.” He grinned. “Luckily, from what we’ve heard, the damage was mainly in the back and on the loading dock, so they don’t have to rebuild the upper floors—this time. I think they reinforced the walls after the last incident.”

  “Yeah, yeah. Make one mistake and no one lets you live it down,” Adam replied. “I’d been working on the power source for one of my projects, and I got the pressure gauge wrong—”

  “Speaking of power sources,” Rick said, “Have you had a chance to work on a smaller version of that weapon you used at the cemetery?”

  Adam brightened. “You mean the energy ray?”

  “Yep.”

  Adam jumped up and began moving through the erstwhile lab excitedly, gathering up papers and various pieces of equipment, which he dumped on the table nearest to where Jake and Rick sat.

  “I’ve been working on it a lot lately. Trying to stabilize the beam, get the energy levels more precise.”

  “We could also use that force gun you showed me,” Rick added. “Maybe even the disruptor.”

  “Really?” Adam said. “That would almost make up for being stuck down here. We don’t happen to be blowing up the people who blew up my lab, do we?”

  “The man’s bright,” Rick said to Jake, raising an eyebrow. “That’s why they gave him a lab coat. Quick on the uptake.”

  Adam gave Rick a withering look. “Jealous,” he sniffed, but the corners of his mouth turned up in a smile. “So, fill me in.”

  It took a while for them to bring Adam up to speed. When they finished, Adam sat back in his chair, tented his fingers, and closed his eyes, thinking.

  “All right,” he said. “So Veles and Thwaites were after the tourmaquartz all along. The gessyan were an accident, but Veles used the confusion to keep people from looking too closely at what they were really doing at the mine. Jasinski got in their way and knew too much. And Jasinski’s involvement ended up getting your dad killed, and having Veles and Thwaites go after all of us—right?”

  “That’s what we think,” Rick said.

  Adam smiled, but this time, it was a cool, calculating expression. “And they’re the ones trying to hurt you and Rick? Well then. I guess I don’t have any qualms about blowing them up.”

  Adam rocked his chair back and forth. “You know, for Veles and Thwaites it’s not just the money. Tourmaquartz is power. Right now, there are only a few handfuls of the crystals in circulation. But if someone found more of it—that could change the balance of power. Weapons, locomotion devices, all powered by tourmaquartz.” He glanced from Rick to Jake in utter seriousness. “Whoever controls the tourmaquartz controls the world.”

  They sat in silence, thinking about that for a moment. “What have you been working on down here?” Jake finally asked.

  “I thought you’d never ask. I told you I fine-tuned Mr. Tesla’s ray. Managed to get the source box smaller, more portable. The one we tried out in the cemetery needed to be hauled in a wagon. What I’ve got now is light enough to go up in an airship.”

  “Have you tested it?” Jake said, and Adam fixed him with a withering look.

  “Do you see scorch marks? No. But it should work. The calculations are right.”

  Jake did not mention that, given the power he had seen in the cemetery, relying on calculations alone did not make him feel extremely confident, especially if he might be going up in an airship with the weapon. “That sounds perfect,” he said, although the sidelong glance he got from Rick told him his friend had the same reservations.

  “Right,” Adam said. “Cullen loves it. He stops by to visit between runs. Been working on some new defenses for the Allegheny Princess; airship armor. Gonna need it, with the company you’ve been keeping. You know, Rick, you’d be up on all of this if you spent more time here.”

  “Once we’re through this and no one is trying to kill me, I’d be happy to work on some of these with you,” Rick replied.

  “I also improved the range on the wrist telegraph I gave Mitch and Jacob,” Adam said. “Used to only be good for about a mile between the sender and receiver. I managed to boost the signal, so it should go two miles at least. Jacob has a pair of my gadget glasses; I think it’s what he’s using to have Hans look around the deeper levels at the mine.”

  Adam walked over to another table, with the look of a proud father. “And these are the next generation of my listening devices. The range on the one I gave you was only a few hundred feet. These will go between an airship and the ground—within limits.” He moved around the table to hold up a small box. “Know what this is?”

  When Jake and Rick shook their heads, Adam grinned. “A camera. Easy to conceal. Nowhere near as big as those boxy monstrosities the photographers use. Think of what you could get with this on an airship! Or, for that matter, how easy it would be to conceal it if you had to get in and out of a place without being noticed.” His smile widened. “I think Mitch and Jacob w
ill pay a premium for it, don’t you? Maybe even throw in some beer.”

  “Make sure you keep some of the good stuff for us and I’ll buy you all the beer you can drink!” Rick said. “And speaking of Agents Storm and Drangosavich, do you really believe the story they gave Drostan, that they’ve been put on probation and they’re working rogue?”

  Usually, Adam was circumspect about what he said. Jake was hoping that the time alone in a basement, on the heels of an attempt on his life, might make him a little more willing to share information.

  “It wouldn’t be the first time,” Adam said. “Mitch blows stuff up almost as much as I do. He just blows up enough of the right stuff that they slap his wrist and then bring him back into the fold.” He downed another cup of coffee. “Those two men your private investigator saw, Tumblety and Brunrichter—they’re trouble. Mitch and Jacob tangled with them—and their clockwork corpses—before. So did Drostan. And when the mad doctors got away, I think it made Mitch angry.”

  “So Mitch and Jacob intended to inflict some payback on the mad docs, and stumbled onto something bigger—and messier—than they bargained for?” Rick asked.

  Adam nodded. “And that puts them in a tough place. In case you hadn’t noticed, Mitch Storm doesn’t play by anyone’s rules but his own. That keeps him and his partner alive, but if he and Jacob get caught by the Department compromising an investigation—”

  “They’ll bust him down to private and send him out to clean the stables,” Rick finished.

  “Bingo,” Adam replied. He paused, then forged ahead. “Mitch has been trying to protect you. He and Jacob have always played fair with me. I think you should trust him—cautiously.”

  “Why cautiously?” Jake asked.

  Adam grimaced. “Because you’re exactly the kind of people the Department wants to have up its sleeve. Think about it. You and Rick go in and out of different countries all the time. You bring big boxes of stuff with you. You work for wealthy, powerful people, some of whom might be a little shady. You acquire interesting objects, with questionable provenance. In other words, you’d be the perfect spies. And they would love to recruit you.”