Harry in the Wild: Astounding Stories of Adventure (Iron Pegasus Book 2)

by Steve Turnbull

  “The alternative being?”

  “Capture a German? Blow up their base?”

  “With one machine gun.”

  “Let’s see what we have to deal with and then decide.”

  “By which time we’ll probably have a squadron of fighters on our tail.”

  Harry sighed. “Old news, we’ve done it before, we can do it again.”

  “You seem to have forgotten how hard it’s been. Every single time,” said Khuwelsa.

  Harry smiled. “I haven’t forgotten.” She swallowed the last of the sandwich and washed it down with the tea, then lay back on the bed. There was a squeak from the other bed as Khuwelsa did the same.

  “This is really comfortable,” Khuwelsa said.

  Harry closed her eyes and a thought occurred to her. “Sellie?”

  “Mmm?”

  “I’ve had a few ideas.”

  There was no response.

  “About the ship,” said Harry.

  Khuwelsa snored.

  “Fair point,” said Harry and rolled on her side. She gazed out the front window at the brilliant stars above the tops of the trees. “I’ll tell you later.”

  * * *

  Harry jumped at a metallic tapping noise. She opened her eyes. The sky was bright blue. The tops of the trees glowed green in the sunlight. There was a tap on the metal fuselage again.

  “Sellie! Time to move.”

  “What?” said the muffled voice.

  “Time for us to move,” repeated Harry. “We have visitors.”

  “Germans?”

  “Locals, I think.”

  The handle of the hatch turned, but it was locked so would not open.

  “What about breakfast?”

  “I’d rather get moving before they do any damage.”

  Khuwelsa headed into the back and Harry heard the door of the furnace clanging open.

  A face appeared at the window peering in. They tapped on it with something metal. Harry muttered under her breath and looked around. It wasn’t that she objected to any Africans, but she was very concerned about what they might do by accident. The feathers were vulnerable.

  The figure outside peered in and caught sight of her. It gave a cry and slipped out of sight. They had probably heard of white people even if they hadn’t seen any. Harry’s eyes fell on the control cable down to the trigger for the heavy machine gun mounted under the deck, effectively below her chair. Khuwelsa had not been able to make it automatic in the short time she had had available, nor could they add more ammunition once it was exhausted. It was all they had against some sort of base that was bound to have defences.

  She was tempted to try it just scare the curious locals away, but there were two problems with that: she might hurt someone, and it might jam because it had been submerged in water.

  On the other hand she really didn’t want to go outside in case the locals were not entirely friendly.

  “You stoke,” said Khuwelsa. “I’ll talk to them.”

  Harry hesitated and then nodded. “But take one of the shotguns.”

  This time it was Khuwelsa that hesitated; then she nodded and extracted one from its box.

  Harry went back to the furnace. The metal was already giving off a strong heat that pressed against her cheeks and forehead. Using the shovel she unlatched the furnace door and pulled it open. A wave of heat poured out. Harry picked up a shovelful of coal and tossed it inside.

  Khuwelsa returned. The hatch was open. “They seem friendly enough,” she said. “I’m going to check the Maxim.”

  So saying she collected some tools, the oil can, a cloth and left.

  Harry went back to the shovelling.

  xxvi

  “I told them to stay clear,” said Khuwelsa as Harry powered up the propeller and engaged the Faraday. The clearing was empty of locals but their faces peered from between the trunks of the trees all around.

  “I wish they weren’t directly in front,” said Harry.

  “Can’t have everything,” said Khuwelsa. “Just try not to hit any of them.”

  “I’ll do my best.”

  Khuwelsa put her hand on Harry’s shoulder and gave it a squeeze. Then she gave two long whistles even though she was standing right next to her.

  “Thanks,” said Harry, wincing. She increased the power to the propeller, stroked the wings, and the Pegasus leapt into the air, easily clearing the trees. In the mirror she saw the villagers run out into the clearing to watch them leave.

  “Any thought about how we’re going to do this?” asked Khuwelsa.

  “Plan B,” said Harry.

  “Right, plan B.”

  Harry poured on the power. As they left the woods behind, beach flashed beneath them, and the Pegasus shot across the flat calm of the great lake, skimming its surface like a seagull.

  Harry looked at the low islands to the north of them. “Do you remember which one it was, Sellie?”

  “Not from this angle,” she said. “But I’m guessing it’s the one with the smoke coming off it.”

  Harry peered ahead. Khuwelsa was right; northeast of their position, several lines of smoke streamed into the blue sky. Although the air around them was calm the smoke trails were rising to a few hundred feet and then veering almost horizontal as they hit a layer of air that must be moving fast.

  Further to the north a mountain of cumulonimbus clouds rose high into the sky. Even as she watched, Harry saw its interior glow with light.

  “Uh-oh,” said Khuwelsa. “Look.”

  “Yes, thunderstorm.”

  “Not that,” said Khuwelsa. “Those.”

  She pointed forward. Harry followed her fingers and saw a small group of fixed-wing fighters cutting across the sky heading south. The one at the front dipped its wings towards them and turned, the other two following suit. Now they were flying almost directly towards the Pegasus.

  “You know,” said Harry. “That’s really not fair. How did they know we’d be here?”

  Khuwelsa peered down into the mirror, then went to the porthole near the hatch and looked out. “We’re creating a wake a mile wide in the lake.”

  Harry muttered a curse.

  “Oh, if Mrs Hemingway could hear you now.”

  “Even she would be more concerned about how we’re going to avoid getting shot down,” said Harry. She gave the propeller the additional power she had kept in reserve, and the Pegasus surged ahead.

  Harry edged the wings of the iron bird to line her up directly towards the island and brought her down even closer to the surface of the water, the wings arched over in the stable position. The island grew in size at a frightening speed. It was barely ten miles away, less than four minutes at their current speed.

  “They’ve missed us,” Khuwelsa shouted from the porthole. “Going too fast to turn.”

  Which is what Harry had been hoping for. The Pegasus was now faster than any German fighter they had encountered, but once they engaged the base the fighters would be on them.

  She still had no idea what they were doing. She supposed that most generals would only authorise attacks when they had some idea of the terrain and their target. She knew neither, except for the fact the islands seemed to lie quite low in the water.

  As far as she knew Lake Victoria was not tidal, and while it covered a huge area it did not have size enough to allow big waves to build up. It was, when all was said and done, just a lake.

  Racing along barely two feet above the waves, through the controls Harry noticed that the Pegasus seemed to glide more fluidly. In fact their airspeed increased further, to nearly one hundred and eighty miles per hour.

  She was pondering the effect so much she almost failed to notice that landfall was imminent. A gently sloping beach ran up to a stand of trees, just like on the mainland.

  With a delicate touch she adjusted the angle of the wingtips only. She felt the power of her ship as it lifted, rocketed across the sand, and skimmed the tops of the trees. Their speed dropped back to normal now
they were away from the ground.

  “How far back are they?” she called to Khuwelsa.

  “I can’t see them, but they had started their turn before I lost sight of them.”

  “Can you come up here? I need your eyes.”

  The sun disappeared. Harry glanced up. High-level cloud from the thunderstorm crept across the sky. The flashing tower of cloud loomed in the distance, bigger than it had been before. This was the one thing that all Faraday fliers feared. A strike, just like the one they had received before, could fry all their electrics and turn the Pegasus into what it really was: a pile of iron. And piles of iron did not normally remain aloft.

  Closer at hand, the rising columns of smoke became more distinct. Harry pulled back and they shot upwards, gaining altitude fast. The German base was laid out beneath them.

  A space had been cut in the trees perhaps a quarter of a mile in diameter. Covering almost all of it was the skeleton of some massive construction of iron and wood. Even now Harry could see men at work, crawling and working in its interior. Arc lights made the inside glow.

  She had trouble making out what it was. It was circular and at intervals around its perimeter were concentrations of metal. These looked like big tanks with massive pipes and tubes. From each of these protruded a long spike.

  “Oh my,” breathed Khuwelsa. “It’s a flyer.”

  As she said it the parts clicked into place in Harry’s head: a massive machine with engines placed at intervals around the edge that would drive horizontal rotors to give it lift. This was why they needed all the copper and ivory. The Faraday grid for this monster had to cover a vast area.

  That was why the Germans had been so keen to take Zanzibar; they wanted the supplies and control of its trade. Harry and Khuwelsa’s interference had stopped them, and it meant they had resorted to murdering hundreds of hippopotamuses and stealing copper.

  It was the fault of the Edgbaston sisters.

  xxvii

  The sun broke through the clouds and lit up something metallic hanging in the air. Without thinking Harry flipped the wings to avoid the wire. The Pegasus fell a hundred feet towards the skeletal monster before Harry regained control. She flapped the wings strongly as a curious pinging sound rattled off the fuselage.

  Someone was shooting at them with a hand gun.

  She almost laughed—but did not. Looking up, she saw the sky was criss-crossed with the metal wires they had barely avoided. She shook her head.

  “Anti-aircraft wire?” said Khuwelsa.

  “Effective,” said Harry before something across the other side of the monster caught her eye. A familiar something. “That’s how they knew where we were.”

  A battered Zeppelin, the middle section of its envelope sunken and deflated, sat on the far side.

  “We were right,” said Khuwelsa. “Of course, they knew they were nearly at their base.”

  A line of tracer curved above them.

  Harry gave five quick whistles—grab something quick—and dived.

  She took the ship round in a tight turn. She noted the positions of the six pylons supporting the high defensive wires and the three planes throttling back to combat speed above them. One had followed them into the space between the pylons while the other two circled above, their pilots probably thinking one would be enough.

  It was getting dark as the clouds thickened. This is going to be interesting, thought Harry as a crazy idea took shape. A glance at the oncoming storm told her there wasn’t a lot of time.

  She poured power into the propeller and stroked the wings hard. The Pegasus gained altitude and speed. She slipped out between the pylons and turned on a wing so she was above the wires. The nearest plane was side on to her but lining up to intercept.

  Reaching down her side, Harry took hold of the gun trigger and brought it back up to the wing controls. Sellie needs to make this integral, she added to her mental list. The Pegasus closed on the other plane. It was coming from the right; she was in a gentle curve that would intercept its path. She was not sure if the pilot had seen her, but she changed tack and pressed the trigger.

  Silence. Just as she wondered if it would not work after all, a stuttering roar echoed through the ship and she could see her own tracers making a curved line through the sky. The other pilot may not have seen her but reacted instantly to the attack. He lifted his nose and passed unharmed above the line of bullets.

  Harry frowned. This wasn’t easy. Still, she could do things that he couldn’t. The German had turned to the right and then came back to the left. He intended to get behind her, but Harry killed the propeller and back-winged, coming to a halt in the air. Using the propeller to maintain her height, she turned through ninety degrees just as the German came around—but instead of him being behind her, they were head on.

  Harry pressed the trigger. The bullet stream intersected his path. He turned again but the tracers showed her attack ripping through his wing. His plane lurched. The Faraday grid shredded as the wing tore away.

  He had power and the remainder of the grid still worked; he fought with his controls as the plane spiralled down. In the growing dark the magnesium glare of tracers cutting across her path blinded her. She blinked rapidly. The angle of the attack meant it came from behind her. She threw the throttle forward, brought down the nose, and leapt away.

  She glanced down into the mirror. She could see the attacking plane’s underside lit by the brilliantly white electric lights from below. Bullets pinged off the fuselage. She accelerated hard and then when she had gone beyond the edge of the open area she dived, confident there were no wires.

  Her attacker followed. She allowed him to stay with her, not going at full velocity. They curved out across the lake as spots of rain began to fall. This was not going to help.

  She curved back inland and accelerated a little just to make him chase harder. They were travelling in a straight line now, giving him a better chance with his guns. She wove back and forth tilting the wings first right, then left. Tracers passed each side in turn.

  Resisting the temptation to go faster she throttled back again. The mirror showed nothing but blackness. But she knew he was closing, probably getting excited, holding back now until he could not possibly miss. As they crossed the beach the glow of the base was ahead of them. The fabric of the damaged Zeppelin rippled violently. The wind was getting up.

  She had judged it well and returned into the light midway between two pylons. She gave the Pegasus full throttle and angled the wings into a climb. Just in time. Tracers poured through the space where she had been. Rain was coming down, each drop shining from the light below. She squinted and saw the crossed wires rushing towards them. Wires stretched between opposite pylons and met in the centre. If she got this wrong they would end up in several pieces. She aimed for a point near the middle where two closed on one another.

  At the last moment, as the ship rocketed upwards, she pulled in the wings. The ‘thopter’s momentum along with the powering propeller slipped them between the wires with barely any gap on either side. She slammed the wings out to stabilise the ship. She looked into the mirror, all but dazzled by the bright lights.

  The German had followed her. She wondered at which point he realised his mistake as the wires on either side sheared off both his wings.

  There was no time for dilly-dallying. She flipped the Pegasus around on her vertical axis and flattened out. The two nearest pylons wavered and slowly collapsed inwards from the impact, wreaking devastation on the skeletal ship as they came down. Many of the lights went out.

  Flapping hard, Harry reversed direction again and headed to the opposite pylon. She dipped between the wires and descended fast. She opened up with the machine gun firing at the base of the pylon on this side.

  The damaged Zeppelin stood a short distance away. They had dismounted all its artillery as well to save weight; it was a flying ruin.

  She blasted away at the legs of the pylon. Although many shots missed, she was satisfied with
the damage. It did not keel over, but she did not want that. Not yet.

  xxviii

  The wind buffeted them, knocking the Pegasus to the side. Harry flapped automatically to recover their stability and then headed up again. Lightning lit up the landscape in white fire as a bolt sliced through the thundercloud. The storm was close now.

  Harry brought them up to the top of the pylon where, despite being thrown to and fro by the uncertain wind, she settled the Pegasus onto its peak. The sound of creaking and cracking wood echoed around the interior.

  “What are you doing, Harry?” Khuwelsa demanded in her ear.

  “Do you trust me?”

  Without giving her a chance to answer, Harry pushed the propeller to full power and flipped off the Faraday.

  “Oh, no.”

  The tip of the pylon crunched under the weight and the ship dropped a foot, then held steady. The wire, along the ship’s length, held the rear up while Harry balanced the iron bird against the wind with outstretched wings.

  It was a testament to German engineering that the pylon lasted as long as it did. With the full weight of the ship on it and the propeller pushing hard, it was a good ten seconds before the first snap jerked the ship. The deck began to tilt forward. Harry raised the wings.

  The pylon gave way, falling outwards from the centre of the work area. Harry held her fingers over the Faraday.

  They fell. For a moment the pylon paused as the wire became tight, pulling against the remaining towers. Then it finally gave with a thrumming twang they could feel in the metal of the deck. As the pylon caved in, Harry flipped the switch and operated the wings, and the Pegasus pulled away. The tower crashed to the ground, pulling the remaining ones with it.

  Harry brought the ship down to a bumpy landing and killed all the power.

  “Grab the guns,” she said. “Let’s go.”

  “What? Where?”

  “Hurry!” shouted Harry as she opened the hatch. The wind-driven rain lashed in. It was surprisingly cold. It was barely morning but the dense clouds made it black as night, except for the frequent brilliant white of the lightning.