Iron and Blood

by Gail Z. Martin

  “No,” Jake and Rick said in unison.

  “We work for ourselves,” Jake added

  “The Department’s been after both our fathers for a while,” Rick said. “They refused. Father told me that while he would assist them when he agreed with their cause, joining them ‘officially’ was a slippery slope and we wouldn’t like the outcome… or the rules.”

  Adam held up a hand. “Don’t shoot the messenger. I’m just telling you how Mitch Storm thinks. On the other hand,” he said, a crafty expression stealing across his face, “guys like Mitch and Jacob are good friends to have if you’re in a jam. So a few favors done and returned could be valuable—if you hear what I’m saying.”

  “Just make sure you bring all your good ideas to the meeting tonight,” Rick said.

  Adam looked from Rick to Jake and back again. “Given how many people are trying to kill us, should we really be going to the Desmet house?”

  Jake shrugged. “Where would you feel safer? Andreas and Renate are going to reinforce the wardings, and I believe Father Matija has some precautions he intends to take as well. There isn’t anywhere that’s truly safe, and it allows Mother to keep to the polite fiction of remaining in mourning seclusion.”

  “After everything that’s happened, she’s still concerned about etiquette?” Rick asked.

  “Oh, hell no,” Jake replied. “But Henry’s obsessed with what the neighbors think. Someone sent him a wire after the last incident, and since he’s still miffed about being shot, he decided the whole thing must have been my fault.” He grimaced. “We just don’t want to annoy him enough that he decides he has to come home.”

  “IT’S DEFINITELY TOURMAQUARTZ.” Jacob Drangosavich paced the floor of the Desmet home as he gave his report. He looked haggard and there was a spreading bruise on one side of his face.

  “You’re sure?” Adam Farber said.

  Mitch Storm nodded soberly. For once, he showed none of his usual cockiness. His eyes had the hard glint of a man who had seen more than his share of action. “We’d heard the Department was concerned that a tourmaquartz deposit had been found and not properly reported.”

  “And you two really didn’t know that the tourmaquartz was in Vesta Nine before this?” Jake asked with suspicion.

  Mitch shook his head. “Honest. We wanted to bring down Tumblety and Brunrichter. But the more we learned about how Veles and Thwaites were handling everything, the more our suspicions grew, because they’ve taken risks that don’t add up if all they’re getting is coal.”

  “Hans and I got into the mine without a hitch,” Jacob said. “I stayed on the upper levels and kept an ear out for what the miners were saying—helps to speak their languages,” he added. “Hans went deeper. That’s how I got the rest of the information.” He glared at them. “At a cost, I’d add. Hans volunteered to stay behind, be our man on the inside. We have to get him out.”

  “Here’s what we know, thanks to Hans,” Jacob continued. “There are hundreds of men on three shifts down in that mine, on the coal-only levels. Those miners don’t go to the deepest levels. They’re terrified of what goes on down there—with good reason. The deeper you go, the more likely you are to encounter the ‘monsters’—that’s where most of the ‘accidents’ have happened. But the talk is that the attacks have been happening closer and closer to the surface.

  “As you descend, there are… what I’d call secure levels. The first level below the regular coal mining is pretty much slave labor. Shackles, manacles—it’s clear they plan to work the blighters to death before replacing them.” Jacob paused, as if the horror of what he had seen would not leave him.

  “On the next level down, it’s the clockwork zombies,” he continued. “They’re more advanced than what Tumblety and Brunrichter came up with the last time. They can be set to perform specific tasks.

  “The deepest levels are werkmen, not many of them but enough. I’m guessing that since they couldn’t recruit or kidnap Adam into working for them, Veles and Thwaites had their engineers take apart one of the werkmen who’d gone missing from the Department and figured out how it works.” He stopped to take a drink of water.

  “They’re the ones who are pulling out most of the tourmaquartz. The workers on the other secure levels process it, and then send it up in sealed containers under guard. The guys on the upper levels don’t know what’s really going on, and they don’t want to know. They just move the boxes, and try to forget anything they see. When I asked, they clammed up tighter than a drum. They told me that if I wanted to see daylight again, I should stop asking questions and keep my nose out of it.”

  “How much tourmaquartz are we talking about?” Adam asked, leaning forward. “Even the smallest shards of it are enough to run some of my most powerful designs.”

  “That’s just it,” Mitch said. “We’re not sure. Since the tourmaquartz comes up in sealed containers, we aren’t sure how much of it there is. But there’s very little tourmaquartz to be had now, so it doesn’t take a lot to double, even triple the supply. And it would still be more valuable than diamonds.”

  “I don’t really want to see Drogo Veles wield more power than he already does,” Andreas replied.

  “I think we’re agreed on that point,” Mitch agreed.

  “I’ve gone over the papers Agent Storm took from the mine office,” Cady said. “Between what he found and what we got from Jasinski’s apartment, the other few names on Thomas Desmet’s list were witches who were helping Jasinski—and according to Agent Storm, they’re all dead.”

  “Some of the documents I found indicate potential buyers for the tourmaquartz,” Mitch added. “And Jacob and I spotted at least two of the Department’s operatives among the security men. So we’ve got to expect that once all hell breaks loose, the Department is likely to show up and take all the credit.”

  “They can have the credit,” Rick muttered. “We just want to be well away from there when they come tromping around.”

  “Exactly,” Jake replied. He looked around at the unlikely crowd. Jake, Rick, and Nicki sat on one side of the room, along with Cady and Adam. Renate stood with Andreas near the front. Mitch and Jacob leaned against the wall on the other side of the room. Miska Kovach and Drostan Fletcher were in the back, along with Father Matija and Cullan Adair. Catherine sat in her favorite armchair, knitting.

  “The Logonje will go with you,” Father Matija said. “Karl Jasinski came to me with questions about Marcin of Krakow and Alekanovo. But he never told me he was seeking the artifacts, or that he’d found them. I warned him away from the situation, told him to let us handle it.” He sighed. “Unfortunately, he did not listen.”

  “The vision I saw. Those were your priests at Alekanovo,” Renate said, turning to meet Matija’s gaze.

  “Not ‘my’ priests, since that happened many years ago. But members of my order. Logonje. Priests who use magic to protect the flock.”

  “I believe that now that we have the Alekanovo stones and Marcin of Krakow’s book, Renate and I can work with the Logonje to pull the Night Hag and the other gessyan back into the deep places and seal them there,” Andreas said.

  “Adam, Cady, Nicki, and I will be overhead in the Allegheny Princess,” Cullan said. “If Adam’s new toys work—”

  “They will,” Adam said confidently.

  Cullan gave him a skeptical look. “If they work,” he repeated, “you’ll have air support, and those whiz-bang new transmitters he came up with should let Jake and Rick talk to us from the ground.”

  “The miners won’t say anything on their own, but there’s strength in numbers, especially if the union is behind it. Danny Maguire will gin up a riot outside the gates,” Jake added. “He says the miners are itching for a walk-out, and he can bring some of the other union men along for support. With luck, that means fewer men in the mines to worry about.”

  “Hans and I will get the rest of the miners out,” Jacob said. “We’ll save anyone we can from the lower levels.”

>   “My men will cover you,” Kovach said. “We’ll have your backs while you do what you need to do.” He grinned. “And I won’t mind trying out a few of Adam’s new guns. Not if they make big holes in things.”

  “Mitch and I—and a couple of Kovach’s men—will go after Brunrichter and Tumblety,” Drostan replied. “And while we’re at it, we’ll make sure as many of those clockwork zombies as possible go up in flames.”

  “Jake and I will give the signal once the mine is clear for Cullan and the Princess to seal up the entrance,” Rick said. “I’ll be going below with Miska and Jacob and the Logonje. That way I can help Jacob plant the charges and I can drop the Maxwell box down the elevator shaft to help call the—”

  “I thought we had agreed that I was going to go,” Jake interrupted.

  Rick raised an eyebrow. “We need you up top, coordinating everyone else. You know no one ever listens to me,” he said with his most rakish, deprecating smile. “And you’ve got the biggest stake in this. Thomas was your father.”

  “You’re going to have all the fun,” Jake protested.

  “Dynamite. Angry ghosts. Murderous werkmen and clockwork zombies,” Rick said. “Believe me, I’d rather let you go into the mine. Next time, you can have the honors. But this time, I’m going, and Miska agrees with me.”

  Jake glanced over at Kovach, who nodded. “Sorry, Jake. I’m going to have to side with Rick on this, much as it pains me. We need you on the surface, calling the shots.”

  “I wish none of you had to go in,” Catherine replied, looking up from her knitting, looking worried. “There have been enough people hurt and killed. Don’t take more chances than you have to,” she said, and leveled a gaze at Rick and Jake that they both understood well. Jake knew that if it were remotely possible, Catherine would have insisted on going herself.

  “You beefed up that ghost box?” Kovach asked, looking from Rick to Adam. “It put on a show at that old building, but this mine is going to take the heavy-duty version.”

  Adam grinned. “Oh, it’ll work. I made several adjustments. It’ll take care of calling in the ghosts; the rest of you just have to seal them up.”

  Just then, a knock came at the kitchen door. “I’ll get it,” Jake said, and before Wilfred or anyone else could gainsay him, he headed to the back. When he returned, Eban Hodekin was beside him.

  “Don’t,” Jake said warningly with a glance toward Kovach, who had already moved for his gun. “I invited him.”

  “He shouldn’t be here.” Kovach’s voice was a low rumble.

  Hodekin regarded him evenly. “I have no grievance against you, boy. Best you leave it that way.” In the parlor light, the kobold was even uglier than he had appeared at the Edgar Thomson Works. He reminded Jake of the drawings of trolls and gnomes he had seen in children’s picture books. Although most of Jake’s co-conspirators regarded Hodekin warily, Andreas and Renate appeared only mildly curious.

  “Mr. Hodekin has agreed to help,” Jake said.

  Jacob gave Hodekin a suspicious look. “Can we trust him?”

  Hodekin laughed, a sharp, unpleasant sound. “You don’t have a lot of choice, son. Even your warlocks can’t do what I can do.”

  “Which is?” Kovach did not bother veiling the mistrust in his voice.

  “If you value the lives of the miners, I can get them out faster than any alarm,” Hodekin said. “They’ll run, they will, when they hear the knockers.” Jake had heard stories of knockers, spirits whose tapping deep inside mines was a dire warning of a collapse about to happen. He had also heard tales where the knockers’ intentions were much less altruistic; Kovach had good reason for concern.

  “It’s a big mine for you to do that all yourself,” Jacob said, and it was impossible to tell from his flat tone whether he was in favor of the idea or not.

  “I won’t be alone,” Hodekin replied. “Call them what you will—bluecaps, coblynau or bucca—there are many of my kind in the mine. They’ve done what they could to harry the men who dug too deep, get them out of there. A rockslide here, a cave-in there, but it’s not like the old days. Too many iron tools, too many machines. Nobody heeds the warnings anymore.” He looked from Jacob to Kovach. “They’ll listen to my call and you’ll have naught to fear from them. They’re angry at the gessyan for attacking some of our own. Don’t worry. They’ll be hungry for a chance to strike back.”

  Kovach grabbed Jake’s arm. “You can’t trust a kobold. They’re dangerous.”

  Hodekin gave a hideous smile. “Aye. That we are. You’re wise to be careful. But think on this: which would you rather? To have me with you, or to have my kind against you? Reckon before you answer. There’s more than gessyan and ghosts in the dark down there.”

  “I don’t see how we have a choice,” Jake replied. “We don’t need something else down there trying to kill us. There’re enough creatures out for blood as it is.”

  “I don’t have to like it,” Kovach replied sullenly. Hodekin’s unpleasant grin broadened.

  “I’ll get myself in, and get myself out,” Hodekin continued. “Leave that to me. You just send the gessyan back down, and we’ll be waiting for them.”

  “And when the dynamite goes off?” Kovach asked.

  Hodekin raised a misshapen shoulder. “We’re creatures of the rock, boy. We’ll like it better when it’s quiet.”

  Jake looked from Kovach’s scowling face to Jacob, who looked thoughtful but not opposed, and then to Renate and Andreas, who nodded.

  “One more detail,” Mitch said. “You do know that the house is being watched, right? How are we supposed to get out of here without being nabbed—or worse—by whoever’s out there?”

  “Not to worry,” Andreas said smoothly. “My men have taken care of it.” Jake remembered the dark-clad vampires who had ‘taken care’ of the attack in Braddock, and could not repress a shudder.

  “All right, then,” Jake said. “Sounds like we have a plan.”

  “Get some sleep,” Rick said. “Tomorrow’s going to be a busy day.”

  THE MOOD OF the crowd in front of Vesta Nine’s gates was ugly and had grown steadily worse all day. Hundreds of miners shouted and gestured, while a line of guards and Pinkerton men secured the gates. Even from a distance, Jake could hear Danny Maguire’s booming voice challenging the miners to speak up for themselves, a tactic that would probably gain him more votes in the next election.

  “Good. No one’s getting in for the next shift,” Jake said, peering through a spyglass for a better view of the chaos at the gate. At that moment, a klaxon started shrieking from the mouth of the mine. Alarms began to sound all over the complex

  “Sounds like Jacob and Hans are in position,” Rick added.

  Jake hid in the deeper shadows between the storage buildings near the mine. As the alarms blared, miners began to stream from the mine’s entrances. Covered in coal dust, talking in a babble of languages and accents, the miners rushed toward the gates held shut by the Pinkerton men and mine guards. Now the guards were caught in the middle of hundreds of irate miners. The fence around the compound was beginning to bow as men pushed against it and climbed over it.

  The guards rallied to the front of the complex, shoring up the barriers and shouting at the miners to restore order. Shots fired into the air were returned by the striking workers outside the gates, and in the distance, Jake could hear sirens. Won’t be long before the cops show up, he thought.

  Fortunately, Maguire had already thought of that. Flaming roadblocks and rubble piled high on the roads leading into the mine would stymie wagons and carriages, slowing the arrival of the police. Reporters with notepads and cameras had been invited to witness the strike by Maguire, who never missed a trick when it came to getting his name in the paper and made certain the reporters were present before blocking the roads. Having an audience seemed to fuel Maguire’s rhetoric, which was as incendiary as the magnesium flashes of the photographers.

  “That about does it,” Jake said, dusting the dir
t from his hands. He and his team were in the railyard, and he took a moment to look over the results of their work. Piles of heavy wooden railroad ties and overturned coal cars blocked the trestles and tracks.

  “No one’s getting in or out this way,” Rick replied.

  “All right,” Jake said. “Everybody—listen up! Rick, Miska, Renate—check your ear pieces. We want to make sure everyone can hear me once we get to the mine entrance, because there’s going to be a lot going on.” He tested the newfangled headset that Adam had refined for them, and after a few tries, everyone indicated that they could hear him.

  “Rick, Miska, Father Matija, and the Logonje—head inside the mine. If Hodekin keeps his word, he’ll meet you inside, and so will Jacob and Hans,” Jake said. “Drostan and some of Miska’s guards went with Mitch to take care of Tumblety and Brunrichter. Andreas and Renate—stick with me. We’ll hold the mine entrance and be in place to trap the gessyan.”

  He paused for a moment to listen to a message on his ear piece. “That was Nicki,” he said to the witches. “Cullan’s got the Allegheny Princess heading our way.”

  Andreas and Renate had the small carved stones, the Alekanovo stone, and Marcin of Krakow’s book. Once they reached the mine’s entrance, they would ready the ritual to seal the gessyan back in the deep places for all time. Jake glanced up, scanning the night sky. Overhead, amid the clouds that hid the moon, the Allegheny Princess was ready to supply back-up. It was a good plan, and a solid strategy. And yet Jake’s skin prickled and the hair on the back of his neck rose in warning. His gut was tight, a feeling he had learned to depend on.

  “Are you in position?” Nicki’s voice was scratchy in Jake’s earpiece.

  “Yeah. What can you see?” Jake knew Nicki was training the airship’s telescope on the mine as Cullan maneuvered into position.