Amanda spoke in a calm yet commanding tone. “No matter the price you gave Lyman for the contents of the crates, we both know you will see a fine profit for yourself and whichever cronies have joined your enterprise.”
Berwick drew himself up. “Your brother and I have a successful arrangement, Miss Wellstone. It has been mutually satisfying.”
Kanlee noted that even an opium-running cargo ship captain could stand on a point of pride.
“Piffle. I do not care about particulars and I suspect Lyman cares even less than I. Now, then. You will give me your quarters for the night. My bodyguard shall sleep on the floor inside the door and my handmaid shall stay with me. You shall find a place for my balloon crew, as well.”
“Miss Wellstone, I have had business with your family for many years, but even I cannot guarantee your safety on my ship. The crew is full of ruffians and she rides fast to deliver our cargo on time—”
“I grow weary of this. You wish my brother to remain your supplier, do you not? I can assure you he would not be pleased to hear you refused me refuge while I am in distress. Now, have one of your orderlies take us to your quarters and remove your personal items for the night.”
Berwick gave her another long look of appraisal, pausing on her exposed legs as the split skirt fluttered behind her. Then he apparently decided to put his business arrangement as an opium runner ahead of all other concerns. With another quick move, he put on his hat as he called out to an orderly.
Within a few moments, Captain Berwick was out of his own quarters.
Kanlee ushered in Amanda and Meiping ahead of him and watched the balloon crew reduce their fire and allow the balloon to make a controlled collapse. Once an officer had joined the balloon crew to find quarters for them, Kanlee entered the captain’s quarters and bolted the door behind him.
“Quite a tiresome chap,” said Amanda, giving her aristocratic speech an added air of self-parody. “At first I thought he might be eager to please. Then he started posturing in the most ridiculous manner.” She sighed and spoke casually. “I didn’t like him when he came to our home, but that’s why I remembered him.”
“You put on an excellent performance,” said Kanlee. He walked to a shelf and picked up a half-full bottle of Talisker Scotch. “He can afford a fine island single-malt, I see.”
“We’re out of the wind,” said Amanda. “And out of Shanghai. I’m very grateful.”
Kanlee glanced at his cousin and spoke in Hoisanese. “You are well?”
“I’m well,” Meiping said in English.
He studied her, startled. “You, too? You speak English?”
Meiping looked embarrassed. “My English not good. Ah Wing, Missy Amanda help me sometime.”
“She understands more than she can say,” said Amanda. “We never wanted Lyman to know we were teaching her.”
“The surprises never end with you two.” He gestured to an interior door with the bottle of Talisker. “I see the captain’s quarters include a private head. Maybe you ladies would like to use it first.” He pulled out the bottle’s cork with his teeth.
Amanda dropped into the rough accent of sailors from London’s East End and took the Talisker from Kanlee. “Not yet, luv — only after ya gimme a tiddlywink.” She put the bottle to her lips and tipped it back. While she took two swallows, her blonde wig came loose and fell on the floor.
The captain’s quarters were cramped. Kanlee reached up for his missing bowler out of habit, then caught himself. He hung his suit jacket on the back of a desk chair, then took off the leather shoulder rig holding the Bloodfinder and draped it on the chair. He removed his tie and collar before taking another swallow of the Talisker while Amanda washed in the head. The burning in his throat helped fight the chill from the extended balloon ride over the sea.
He motioned for Meiping to use the head next and turned up the gas in the single wall sconce. The ship was steady as it plowed through the waves. He judged that he was tired enough to sleep on the floor.
Kanlee took his turn in the head wearing his shirt and suit trousers. When he came out, he found Meiping slipping back in past him, with a slight smile and her head bowed. As she closed the door, he found Amanda standing near the captain’s narrow bed, barefoot. Her wig was off and the gaslight shone on her black hair, which was neatly brushed.
“That was a smooth argument you gave Berwick,” said Kanlee. “Who owns this ship? The E.D. Sassoon company?”
“Not the Cardiff Cloud,” said Amanda. “Berwick used to sail for them, but he saved money and then got a loan, you see? He bought this ship from Sassoon and now runs the opium he buys through Lyman as his own enterprise. Opium is so profitable that he paid off his loan rather quickly.”
“The owners of Sassoon were willing to sell a ship like this, with all its speed? Why would they let him compete with them?”
“The hold is too narrow to carry the volume they want. Berwick doesn’t care about volume. He had the extra engines installed after it was his, to make it faster. Besides, Lyman sells for E.D. Sassoon. To them, Berwick’s just another customer.”
“The son of a bitch is smarter than I thought.”
“Enough of this,” Amanda said in her aristocratic accent. “You are my bodyguard, are you not?”
“Of course, Miss Wellstone,” he said, playing along.
“Well, then. I suggest that you will guard it best if you guard it up close.”
“Is that your instruction to your bodyguard?”
“Your cousin has agreed to sleep in the captain’s bathtub, you see?” Amanda drew her low-cut blue bodice up over her head and tossed it aside. Under it, she wore a vertically striped gold and black corset that cinched her waist. It had semi-circles of white lace and red rosettes along the top edge.
“Has she?” Kanlee strolled toward her, unbuttoning his white shirt.
“I suppose you should know I’m hardly new at this,” said Amanda. “In case you have a concern about such matters.”
Kanlee stopped in front of her, looking down at her cleavage. “I have no concern of that sort. And I’m not new at it, either.” He put his hand under her chin and tilted her face up. “In case you have a concern about such matters, Miss Wellstone.”
“Without the wig, I’m Lei Liwah,” said Amanda.
“Your real name?”
“My name of record in the rolls of Shanghai is Amanda Wellstone. My mother’s surname was Lei. As she was dying, she told Ah Wing that she was naming me Liwah, meaning Jasmine Flower. Who’s to say which is my real name?”
“Liwah. I like it. I like Amanda, too.”
She smiled demurely and spoke in Hoisanese. “As Liwah, I am very pleased to meet you.” She returned to English. “As Amanda, I think my bodyguard should know the body he’s guarding, do you see?”
Kanlee reached around her to find the laces on her corset. “I’m pleased to know both of you.”
The rumble of the ship’s engine and bright sunlight streaming through the small, high window overlooking the deck greeted Kanlee in the morning. The ship was steady in its drive through the water. He stretched, accidentally nudging Amanda in the narrow bed.
As he came awake, he wondered about the speed of the Cardiff Cloud and where they might be on the route to Nagasaki. He had only a rough idea. Grateful to the balloon crew, he hoped they could return to Shanghai without any more difficulty. His next concern would be finding passage from Nagasaki to Portland.
Amanda snuggled close. “And what does my bodyguard think?”
“Your role-play with Berwick last night saved us the price of passage. When we get to Nagasaki, I’ll take stock of our new situation.”
She was silent a moment. “I mean to ask, sir, what shall come next?”
“On to Portland,” said Kanlee.
“Did you sleep well?” Amanda asked, walking two fingers across his chest.
“Like the dead,” said Kanlee. He was well-rested but saw another long day ahead. The Cardiff Cloud, as a four-st
acked, hydrojet steam clipper with a very limited cargo hold, was much faster than most cargo ships. He calculated that the Cardiff Cloud by now had passed the halfway point to Nagasaki even if Berwick had it running at less than full speed to conserve coal.
“And last night was…?
“Behind us now.” Kanlee decided he needed some strong tea and whatever breakfast Amanda could persuade Captain Berwick to share.
“Well, really.” Put out, Amanda threw off the covers and stood, her black hair mussed. She marched away naked, her waist trim, her rear swaying, and her legs slender and toned. “Meiping? I must use the head.”
Distant shouts from the crew reached Kanlee just moments before a high-pitched ship’s alarm sounded loud and long.
Kanlee, also naked, leaped out of bed and looked out the window, which faced astern. Huge bubbles were rising to the surface of the waves in the distance, coming close in a long line through the center of the Cardiff Cloud’s wake. The ship’s alarm was still screaming.
Amanda bumped up against him, still naked as she rose on tiptoe. “What’s that, then? Bloody whale tallywags?”
“We have to get out there!” Kanlee turned and realized that Meiping, wearing her blue servant’s gown as before, was holding out his suit trousers and underwear with her eyes averted. He snatched them and pulled them on, aware that she was smirking.
Amanda slipped her feet into her black, high-button shoes and gathered her clothes.
Kanlee grabbed the corked bottle of Talisker Scotch and tossed it to Meiping. “Come on!”
Kanlee led the way on deck, still buttoning his shirt with the Bloodfinder shoulder rig awkwardly in place over it, and found that ship’s crew members were running and shouting to each other. Unlike the Yellowsea Yank, the Cardiff Cloud had no stern gun. Kanlee picked out Captain Berwick at a distance as he strode among the crew, pointing and yelling.
“Full speed, then!” Berwick shouted. “Full speed! Power up, to save your souls!”
Amanda stepped up next to Kanlee, holding her unlaced corset in place with one arm and clutching her skirt around her waist with the other hand. Her blonde wig, with its black lacquered hairpins, was tugged down tight.
Meiping, holding the Talisker in the crook of one arm, brought Amanda’s skirt into position and fastened it.
“Kanlee, look!” Amanda waited as Meiping drew her blue bodice into place, then took his arm and pointed.
Ah Jin’s crew had the balloon basket in a small open area on the deck amidship. The coal burner was blazing and the balloon had begun to swell and rise from the deck with hot air.
Kanlee shrugged into his suit coat and draped his tie around his neck.
The giant steel head of the Sea Dragon broke the surface in a huge geyser. The great mouth opened on its multi-jointed hinges, dark and cavernous.
As before, Kanlee saw silhouettes lined up inside the dragon mouth, men with their hair in queues and holding rifles.
Behind the dragon head, Kanlee saw the long, serpentine shape with the upper arches of its curves above the waves. Steam billowed with black smoke, trailing into the sky. He had never cared much about politics in China, but now he knew that the Sea Dragon was captained by a minister of the emperor, of the conquering Manchu dynasty.
“Hang on!” Kanlee pulled Amanda and Meiping down with him into a crouch.
The dragon mouth slammed down on the stern of Cardiff Cloud.
“More steam!” Berwick yelled. “More steam, you bloody fools!” He turned to one of his officers. “Break out the small arms and get them to the men!”
The dragon mouth opened wider, then chomped down hard and hung on.
Kanlee looked for Fan Feitou at the top of the dragon head. Again, the tall man wore a long gown with splits on four sides and a yellow mandarin jacket with an upright collar at the neck and wide, short sleeves. He had on the same roundish, rattan cap with a ruby-red knob on top and an ostrich feather angling down the back.
“Amanda! That must be the Fan fellow.”
She hurried forward, holding her skirt with one hand. When she looked, her mouth dropped open. “I don’t know who he is — but that’s the cap and clothing of a very high-placed imperial minister. I always read the newspapers in Shanghai, you see? And I’ve seen descriptions of the robes—”
As the dragon mouth clung to the stern, the men inside came jogging out, carrying their rifles with their queues trailing behind them. They wore black and red caps, blue coats, and gray trousers. They were Chinese soldiers in the service of the Manchu emperor.
“Run!” Kanlee yelled. He grabbed Amanda’s arm in one hand and Meiping’s in the other.
Crew members of the Cardiff Cloud began firing their random assortment of rifles, muskets, and pistols from wherever they were around the ship.
Kanlee heard the attackers shooting back, but he was focused on Ah Jin’s balloon crew. The balloon had risen, drawing the ropes tight, but the basket was just beginning to lift from the deck.
“Ah Jin!” Kanlee shouted.
“Ah ho! Ah ho!” The balloon crew began their chant.
“Fast!” Ah Jin called in Hoisanese, reaching out.
Kanlee hooked one arm around Amanda’s waist and swung her up into the arms of a crew member. Then he lifted Meiping into the arms of another crew member. As the basket rose the first few feet, Ah Jin threw out the rope ladder. Kanlee grabbed the ropes, stepped onto the ladder, and climbed aboard.
“That way!” Kanlee called out in Hoisanese, pointing toward the open sea.
“But the ship!” Amanda shouted in the same language. “We have to help them!”
Meiping looked at Kanlee and Amanda, reluctant to speak.
“We have to get away,” Kanlee yelled back, watching the gunfight on the deck just below them. “It won’t take much for them to shoot this balloon down.”
“We will have the advantage of height,” said Ah Jin.
Kanlee swung around toward him, surprised. “You want to stay here and fight?”
“Fan Feitou is no friend to us,” said Ah Jin.
“You want to face that gunfire?” Kanlee demanded.
“What if the Cardiff Cloud is captured?” Amanda pushed between them, facing Kanlee. “What if the Sea Dragon takes the next closest ship, then the next one after that? We’ll have nowhere to land.”
“If we’re shot down, we won’t need a place to land.” Kanlee glared at Amanda.
Meiping busied herself tidying Amanda’s clothing rather than joining the argument.
As the balloon continued to lift the basket higher, the Sea Dragon’s soldiers moved across the deck of the Cardiff Cloud, spreading out and shooting at the crew of the cargo ship.
Kanlee reminded himself again that this Fan fellow was a highly placed minister to the foreign dynasty that had conquered China some centuries ago. He had never thought much about political matters.
Amanda placed one hand on his arm. “Yellowsea Yank Yank?”
Kanlee looked into her eyes and pulled the Bloodfinder from his shoulder holster. “Take me in range of that dragon head.”
Ah Jin shouted new instructions to his crew members, who were already pedaling hard. He grabbed the big air rudder himself and slowly steered the balloon away from the Cardiff Cloud on the wind. Then he began to circle back toward the great steel head of the Sea Dragon.
“What are you doing?” Amanda asked in English.
Kanlee held up the Bloodfinder. “It’s all I have.”
Amanda released his arm and stepped back, drawing Meiping with her, to give him room.
Kanlee eyed the tremendous length of the steel serpent, its alternating curves arching upward from the water and then back down again, out of sight. He looked all the way to the multi-pronged tail as Ah Jin brought the balloon along a successful arc behind the dragon head.
No one on board the Sea Dragon was watching them.
On the Cardiff Cloud, the roar of the steam engines, the splashing of the waves against the hulls,
and scattered gunfire drew everyone else’s attention. The Chinese soldiers gradually drove back or shot down the cargo ship’s crew members.
Kanlee had to hurry, because he needed enough of the crew left alive to control the ship. He waited as Ah Jin and his crew lowered the basket slowly behind and above the imperial minister.
As Kanlee readied his Bloodfinder with a full load, he examined his target with curiosity. The man remained fearless, unmoving as he watched the events in front of him on the Cardiff Cloud. He neither turned nor leaned forward, but his presence surely must have frightened any crew members of the Cardiff Cloud who knew of him.
Kanlee steadied his gun arm on the edge of the basket. In a moment, he would come up close behind Fan Feitou, from a direction in which the minister had not turned since Kanlee had been watching. With the motion of the balloon basket and the movement of the Sea Dragon on the waves, the shot would be difficult and he expected to have only a few chances before the minister would drop down out of sight.
Maybe the wind shifted slightly, carrying sound in a different direction. Perhaps the minister thought he saw a shadow off to one side, possibly from a cloud. In any case, he turned himself around in a stiff motion and then looked up.
Now Kanlee was near enough to call out if he had wished, though he had nothing to say.
Conversely, Minister Fan could have shouted to any of his crew who remained on the Sea Dragon. Instead, Fan Feitou looked up at the basket swaying on long ropes below the hot air balloon and did not react.
Matching his stare, Kanlee looked into the eyes of Minister Fan and found them hard, yet without shine, as though he had no tears.
Kanlee couldn’t afford to worry about it. He took careful aim at the minister’s chest and fired three shots, bang-bang-bang.
Fan Feitou shook with the impact of each bullet but did not fall. Nor did he frown, scowl, or stagger.
“One more shot,” said Amanda, in a surprisingly calm tone. Kanlee aimed carefully just below Fan Feitou’s neck and squeezed the trigger. An explosion of metal sprang out, throwing springs, gears, bolts, nuts, screws, and small levers in all directions. As the parts flew through the air, Kanlee finally understood.
Defiant, She Advanced: Legends of Future Resistance Page 10
