Peacemaker (The Flash Gold Chronicles, #3)

by Lindsay Buroker

  “Cut with a knife,” Cedar said grimly. “I gave him that scar when we met last. Got in a squabble down near Skid Road in Seattle. That’s the last spot where he caught up with me.”

  “It’s not Cudgel, is it?” Kali asked.

  “No, it’s Agent Lockhart.”

  “The Pinkerton detective?”

  Cedar nodded. “He’s been after me since San Francisco. When he tackled me in Seattle, I didn’t want to kill him, just get away. Stubborn bastard won’t leave me be though.” Cedar gazed past occupied tables toward the windows and the rain dribbling from the eaves outside. “I’m not surprised he found me again, but I’d hoped I’d get Cudgel first. I can’t leave the Yukon now. Not when…” He met her eyes. “He’s here, Kali. I haven’t seen him yet, but the rumors say he’s here, and he’s setting up some scheme to get rich—richer—off other people’s work.”

  “Could he be responsible for these murders?”

  “I…don’t see where there’d be money in it for him, killing innocent girls. He has no trouble killing folks, but he’s not random about it. He does it when people get in his way or don’t jump to his fiddle fast enough.” He grimaced, thinking of his brother, no doubt. “He’s being careful though. He may not know I’m here, but he knows there’s a big bounty on his head, so he’s got the worker ants scurrying about on his behalf. But it looks like he left most of his old crew behind. I don’t recognize anybody.” He clenched his fist. “I need more time.”

  “I wonder why Somerset—er, Lockhart—didn’t shoot you today.” Kali also wondered what had happened to the real gambler Preston Somerset. Had Lockhart shot him and taken his gear and identity?

  “He’s tried to do that before. I’m not that easy to kill.” Cedar’s lips stretched into a humorless smile. “Besides, he’s new in town, and he’s undercover. Shooting me in front of two Mounties I’m being social with would be hard for him to explain. The Pinkertons don’t have jurisdiction in the Dominion of Canada. No, Lockhart will want to get me alone to take me out.” He met Kali’s eyes again. “Or he wants to get to me through you.”

  Kali scowled. As she’d suspected, that scalawag had been chumming up to her for a reason.

  “I’m going to have to avoid him somehow and catch Cudgel as soon as I can,” Cedar said.

  “Have you…” Kali paused, not certain she should put the idea in his head. “Have you considered—”

  Jane appeared, her arms laden with plates of rolls and caribou steaks. That forced another long pause while she laid everything out.

  “Have you considered making the detective disappear?” Kali asked when the server left. She never would have thought up such a notion a few months earlier, and it concerned her that it popped so easily into her head now, but she didn’t want to see Cedar get hurt, and that’s what might happen if he wouldn’t fight back against the man. “If he’s alone out here, a thousand miles or more from his nearest office…who would know what happened if he never returned?”

  Cedar sighed. “I figure that your thinking that way means I’ve been a bad influence on you. I have considered it. Sometimes it’s so frustrating to be hunted for something you didn’t do—”

  “No need to point that out to me,” Kali said.

  “Yes, of course, you know.” He smiled and took her hand over the table. “I can’t cross that line. He’s a lawman, not a cutthroat with a bounty on his head, and…I think he’s got a family back home, a wife and little girl.”

  Kali hid her relieved exhale. As upset as she had been when she stumbled across Cedar relieving a ship full of pirates of their heads…it was his job, and she’d come to accept that. He only killed hardened criminals, men and women who were wanted dead by the authorities.

  “Maybe I can lead him astray,” Kali said, “or tell him that you didn’t do it. Do you have any proof that—”

  “Kali, I don’t want you—” He stopped himself and took a breath. “I know you can take care of yourself, but I don’t think you should get into trouble on my behalf. You have enough problems of your own. If he believes you’re abetting me, he might have the power to get the law after you too. And…it’ll be dangerous for you if you get caught between us.”

  “He’s fixing to talk to me regardless of what you or I want. If you tell me everything that happened down there, at least I can try to argue your side of things. If he could be convinced that you didn’t do it…. Does he know about Cudgel? Maybe we could turn him into an ally against the real criminal.”

  “That’s not going to happen.” Cedar set his jaw mulishly.

  Kali rolled her eyes. Why were men always convinced things could only be sorted out with bloodshed? Why would Cedar believe the idea of peace so impossible?

  “Let’s get out of town for a couple of days,” Cedar said. “If he can’t find you, he can’t bother you.”

  “Out of town?” she asked. “Like up to my cave to work on building my airship? With those big muscles of yours, I’m sure you could saw a lot of wood in a couple of days. I’m certain you once mentioned that you’d help me, on account of me offering to fly you around the Yukon, hunting your nemesis once the ship is done.”

  Cedar smiled faintly. “It sounds like Lockhart knows where that cave is. I had something else in mind. I was thinking of a visit to your mother’s people.” Cedar prodded the talisman again. “You said a medicine man could tell me more about this.”

  “Oh.” Kali sank back against the seat. Not only did he want her to abandon her airship project, but he wanted her to go back to a place where she would always feel like an outcast. She had very few good memories of her childhood, and most of the ones she did have involved being off alone in the forest, building things.

  “Once we figure out who’s killing these girls and put a stop to it, I’ll help you finish the hull,” Cedar said. “Even if Lockhart is standing there watching us.”

  “That a promise?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  Kali could not stir any enthusiasm for visiting the local Hän camp. But having Cedar’s undivided attention—and strong hands wielding a saw—for a week or two could get her past the tedious work and on to what she wanted to do: installing the engine. Also, maybe if she got Cedar out alone in the woods for a while, she could get him to reveal more details about the San Francisco murder. She couldn’t talk this Pinkerton fellow out of hunting Cedar if she didn’t know the whole truth.

  “Do you know where they’d be this time of year?” Cedar asked.

  “The Hän? Yes. King salmon are running, so they’ll be in their river camp. Er, I guess that’s a town now. Moosehide.”

  Cedar’s brow furrowed.

  “The government put them there, seeing as how Dawson grew up on top of the tribe’s old summer camp. I know it seems strange when you look around and see all these buildings and people from all over the world, but there was nothing permanent here when I was growing up. Except mud. And moose. Mostly mud.”

  “You speak so fondly of it,” Cedar said.

  “You haven’t been stuck here for an entire winter yet. You’ll see. It won’t grow on you.” Kali wanted to finish her airship and escape before winter came again so badly that an aching lump formed in her throat at times.

  “Moosehide, then,” Cedar said. “I don’t reckon I’d be able to talk to them without you. Are you willing to go?”

  “That depends. Are you willing to share your fancy blanket again?”

  A smile softened his face. “Well, it did need a lot of attention from a seamstress after the last time you slept in it. Did no one ever educate you on proper things to do in bed? Setting off explosives isn’t one of them.”

  “My upbringing wasn’t terribly proper. Besides, I dropped the smoke nuts outside the bag. I can’t be held responsible for stray shrapnel.”

  Cedar’s smile broadened. “I see.”

  Part IV

  Low clouds hung over the Yukon River as Kali’s self-automated bicycle—SAB for short—rumbled along the muddy r
oad, heading toward Moosehide. The fat, reinforced wheels navigated over and around roots, puddles, and horse droppings littering the trail. Kali curled a lip at the latter, not wanting excrement smashed into her treads.

  Cedar sat behind her, and behind him smoke from the stack rose into the air, mingling with a morning fog that hugged the banks. Summer was still in hiding, but at least it had stopped raining. That meant a lot of prospectors were boating along the river, to and from Dawson. All of those people gaped at the strange bicycle when it passed.

  Kali barely noticed. Her mind was focused inward, dwelling on the upcoming meeting with people she hadn’t talked to in eight years. Though she didn’t expect a physical confrontation at the camp, she’d brought a vial with a couple of her precious flash gold flakes anyway. They had proven useful to have on hand in the past, when she’d made numerous tools and gadgets, using the alchemical ore as an easy energy source.

  Cedar touched her shoulder and pointed to a rowboat aground ahead of them. A few shards of wood floated nearby in the river. Nobody stood near the boat, but the grass and foliage along the riverbank obscured the view.

  “Problem?” Kali peered up and down the river. At the moment, no other boats were visible.

  “Perhaps. Perhaps not.”

  Figuring he wanted to investigate, Kali slowed the bicycle. Cedar hopped off and jogged through the undergrowth to the boat. He stared down at something inside for a moment and then slung his Winchester off his back.

  “Problem,” Kali confirmed.

  She veered off the trail and set her machine to idle. Over its rumble, she almost missed the fact that Cedar was talking to someone. She jogged over to join him and found him crouching to help an older man lying in the bottom of the boat. Blood streaked his weathered face, and a bulbous lump rose from the crown of his bald head.

  “Don’t need no help!” The man pushed Cedar away when he tried to help and clambered out of the boat by himself. “That boodle of mother-kissing lickfinger pirates got all my cussed gold. Shot my partner and knocked him into the river. Lowdown, thieving cutthroats.” The man clenched a fist and snatched a shotgun out of his boat. “Let them come back out of the clouds, and I’ll fix them. Pirates!” He spat, barely missing Cedar’s boot. “Got me wrathier than a treed coon.”

  The old man took a step and tilted sideways, like he might topple back into the boat. When Cedar reached out a hand to steady him, he growled, “Don’t need no help,” again.

  “Out of the clouds?” Kali asked.

  “Air pirates,” Cedar said. “Must be a new ship. The Mounties said they shot down the last outfit preying on successful miners.”

  This was the first Kali had heard about it, but it was hardly surprising. Not all of Dawson’s swelling population could strike it rich legitimately. She gazed skyward. Though pirates might know about the reward for her capture, and could be a lot of trouble, she found herself wishing to glimpse the airship. A completed, working airship. They were so rare in the Yukon. The last one Kali had seen, she and Cedar had been forced to destroy, and she’d never gotten a chance to view the engines up close.

  “It’s not appropriate to look wistful right now,” Cedar murmured to her.

  Kali blushed. The old man was still stomping about, cursing over his losses. The missing gold seemed to be upsetting him more than the dead partner.

  “I’m not wistful,” she said. “I’m just being observant…checking to see if it’s still out there. That’s all.”

  “Uh huh.” Cedar raised his voice for the old man’s sake. “Are you sure there’s nothing we can do to help you, sir?”

  “Don’t need no help,” the man repeated.

  Cedar shrugged and waved for Kali to lead the way back to the SAB. As they walked back, she gave the skies one last glance—and, yes, maybe it was a wistful glance. She didn’t expect to see anything, but a dark shape stirred the clouds. Kali froze, mid-step. She blinked and the disturbance was gone. Her imagination? Or simply an unusually shaped storm cloud? No, it had been too angular to be a natural part of the sky.

  “I saw it,” Cedar said with another nudge for her back. “Let’s get out of here before they decide your contraption is something they’d like to steal.”

  “Good idea,” Kali murmured, hopping on. Though she and Cedar had taken down a ship before, it had been luck that they’d had the right supplies. She hadn’t brought any kerosene for the trip to the Hän camp, although she did have her weapons, including a couple of—

  “Go,” Cedar urged. He pointed toward the clouds.

  The craft had come into view again, its shape distinguishable this time. Like a marine vessel, it had an open deck, but instead of having sails above that deck, a vast oblong balloon hovered overhead, dwarfing the ship with its size. At either end of the deck, enclosed weapons platforms rose like castle turrets poised over a moat. Open cannon ports ran along the wooden sides of the ship. Its size promised room for a crew of thirty or forty with plenty of room to spare for cargo—or stolen goods.

  “Going is good,” Kali said. She shoved the lever that controlled acceleration, and the SAB surged forward. Cedar hung onto her with one arm around her waist, while he held his Winchester with his free hand, his torso twisted to watch the sky.

  The airship was heading downriver, while Kali and Cedar were heading upriver. If it didn’t change its course, they had nothing to worry about.

  “It’s coming about,” Cedar said.

  “Figures.” Kali yanked her driving goggles over her eyes and pushed the engine to full speed, with a vague notion that they’d be safe if they reached the tents and cabins of Moosehide. At the least, the Hän would have weapons to help fight off intruders.

  The wheels churned, slinging mud in every direction. She could get twenty miles an hour out of the engine on flat, even ground, but the Yukon River shoreline rose and fell, with the glacial rock beneath the dirt making navigation a challenge. The trail never ran more than ten meters without turning around a boulder or tree. Fog still hovering over the hallows added to the challenge.

  “Are they after us?” Kali called over the breeze whistling past.

  A boom cracked the air, and something slammed into the earth five meters ahead of them. Dirt and rock flew, and Kali jammed her heel against the brake lever to keep from careening into a newly formed crater.

  “Yes,” Cedar said.

  “Thanks, I got that.”

  He fired a shot, though Kali was focused on steering the SAB around the ditch and did not see if it did any good. The river flowed past fifteen feet below, and they tilted and wobbled as she maneuvered past the crater. A big, black cannonball lay in the bottom.

  “The artillery man is protected inside the turret,” Cedar yelled, “and I can’t see anybody else up there from this angle.”

  Kali increased the speed again. It was only two more miles to Moosehide. Maybe they could—

  Another boom sounded. This time the cannonball tore a hole in the riverbank, and the trail ahead of them disappeared in a rock slide. Dirt and stone sloughed into the river, and Kali had to brake again. They’d be lucky if they could climb past that. Driving was out of the question.

  She stopped the bicycle and jumped off.

  The airship had descended from the clouds, and Kali could see people in the turrets now, though the window slits protected them while allowing them to fire out. A few pirates scurried across the deck, though they were careful not to remain in sight for long. From the ground, the angle was poor for shooting at anyone up there. That didn’t keep Cedar from trying to keep them busy. He fired his Winchester, aiming for a slit in the closest turret.

  Kali considered the wooden hull of the ship, wondering if she could find a weakness. The engines were protected, but twin ducted fans on the bottom propelled and steered the craft. Scenarios for disabling them ran through her mind, but she didn’t see how she could do anything from the ground.

  Cedar fired another shot, but it only chipped at the wood on the turre
t.

  Kali laid a hand on his arm. “That’s not going to do anything.”

  “You have a plan?”

  “I have some grenades.”

  “Even better.” Cedar shouldered the rifle and held out his hand.

  While Kali dug into her saddlebag, she kept an eye toward the ship. The gunner had to have them in his sights, but he did not fire again. A few men appeared at the railing, and one peered down with a spyglass held to his eye. Cedar promptly readied the Winchester again and fired.

  The man ducked out of sight, and Kali imagined she could hear his cursing. A heartbeat later, he popped up again, this time with a rifle of his own. It cracked, and shards of rock sheared away from a towering boulder behind Cedar.

  He grabbed Kali around the waist and pulled her behind the rock. Fortunately, she had what she needed in hand when he did it.

  “What are those?” Cedar asked when she held up the fist-sized bronze balls.

  “Grenades.”

  “They don’t look like military issue.”

  “No, they’re Kali issue. You press this, and it creates a spark, like with a flintlock and—”

  Something clinked to the ground on the other side of the boulder. Kali leaned out, intending to check it out, but Cedar pushed her back. He was closer to whatever it was and had a better view.

  “Smoke,” he said. “Up the hill.”

  Though she debated on the wisdom of leaving cover, Kali figured he had more experience with being attacked, so she scrambled in the direction he pointed. The steep slope made it hard to keep her footing, and she had to stuff the grenades into her pockets. They clinked against tools, and she hoped she had made the triggers hard enough to pull that they couldn’t bump against something and go off.

  “Faster,” Cedar urged, a hand on her back.