by Nick Travers
Chapter 52
My mother’s last words still echo in my mind. “Now you can shoot them down.”
Before her entourage can respond they are cut down by a hail of crossbow bolts. All of them, including my mother, are left twitching in a heap as the neuro agents on the bolts do their paralyzing work. I turn around, as we pull away from the dock, to find Jack, Izzy, and Fernando holding my Whisper and pistol bows.
Jack grins like a boy. “Borker took a shine to your fancy crossbows, so he moved them to this ship.”
Thank you, Lieutenant Borker.
The delay, gained by the taking out the Gaia leadership, lasts only ten minutes. Soon, a dozen Gaia airships are in hot pursuit of us.
Izzy is flying the airship, engines on full power and shark—tail thrashing at maximum, and I am lying on the deck in Jack McGraw’s strong arms. He’s uses his own belt as a tourniquet to stop the bleeding, then gently wraps my wrecked arm in gauze and bandages.
“It’s okay, Nina, my love. I’ve got you.”
I relax into his lean torso, surrendering to his care, as I have longed to do since we left New Frisco such a long time ago. “Thanks for having my back, Jack.”
“I thought I’d lost you when Borker shot you.”
“He did?”
“He thought we’d lost the ship to the Reavers so he shot you between the eyes. I couldn’t stop him… I was too far away… I thought you were dead.
Tenderly, I reach up with my good hand and wipe away his tears. I feel tears sting the corner of my eyes too.
“Except, that Trent guy—”
“—The Microtough agent.”
“I see. Yes, him. He switched you with the White Woman, dressed her in your clothes, incredibly found a wig that matched you hair, and propped her on a bench. In his haste, Borker didn’t realize it wasn’t you and that agent covered up really well—he was a good actor.
I run my hand along his strong jaw line.
Jack realizes I’m still wearing nothing except bloodied underwear. Gallantly, he removes the tunic of his uniform and lays it over me. “Go find her some warm clothes,” he instructs the other constable.
“Trent was always looking out for me—even when betraying me. And now he’s got my lovely airship.”
Jack smiles and laughs lightly. “She really was a wreck, Nina, but you did wonders with her.”
“She was my first airship. I loved her.”
“As I love you, Nina.” Jack bends down and kisses me lightly on the forehead.
Everyone is staring at us, except Scud who is looking away in embarrassed confusion. Izzy’s and Fernando’s mouths hanging open in comic imitation of each other.
“What?” I challenge. “None of you seen two people in love before?”
Izzy closes her mouth. “Not you, Nina, you don’t do guys.”
“Jack’s different.” I stare lovingly up at him, a stupid broad smile on my face. It has been so hard not acknowledging Jack over the last few weeks, but necessary, to keep him safe from Borker. Then I notice his nose. I stroke it gently, feeling the lump. “What happened to your nose, Jack?”
“You broke it. You thumped me while stealing your airship.”
“Sorry.” Guiltily, I recall taking a swipe at Jack while freeing the Shonti Bloom from the New Frisco docks.
“I was determined to stop you going. I knew you’d get into trouble.”
“I seem to have a talent for it. And I was equally determined to go.”
Jack gives me his disapproving look. “Next time, I’m coming with you.”
“There won’t be a next time, Jack.” I kiss the arm he has wrapped protectively around me. “From now on it’s just you and me leading boring, mundane lives.”
I have almost forgotten how Jack’s face lights up when he laughs. “Of course there will be. You are Nina Swift—Trouble is your middle name.”
“Reavers!” Fernando is up front with a spy glass.
Jack frowns. “See what I mean.”
I leap to my feet, snatching the clothes the constable is offering me.
We all rush to the Bow of the Gondola.
“Where?” I demand.
“All around us,” Fernando gasps, “and… hells teeth, is that what I think it is?” He hands me the telescope. “You said you always wanted to see one.”
Dead ahead of us is what looks, at first, like a floating city. I steady the telescope and the fuzzy mass resolves into a ball of loosely linked ships: a Reaver hive.
In our rush to escape the Daughters of Gaia, we must have slipped, unnoticed, past the Reaver perimeter patrols. We are already too far inside their defensive sphere. This ship might be a shark tail, built for speed, with additional engines, but it can’t outrun the big Reavers ships in a long haul race. Luckily, we might just manage it in a short sprint.
I turn back to the control deck. “Jack, you have cannons on board?”
“Two forward, two in the stern.”
“Good. Maintain course and fire off the cannons in the bow.”
“Are you mad?” Fernando turns on me, as if I’ve just suggested he shoot himself, which in his mind I might have done. “Haven’t we dodged enough homicidal maniacs for one day?”
Izzy shrugs, Scud still has his back to me—ignoring me, but Jack raises a questioning eyebrow.
“I want their full attention.”
“Aye, aye, captain.” Jack disappears below deck with the other constable. A short while later, the ship shudders as two shots ring out. They are accompanied by twin cloud plumes of expanding compressed air, released from the shell casings. Both shells leave wispy thin condensation trails as they arc out towards the Reaver hive.
We are too far away to hit anything, but a sudden burst of activity on the hive shows we have made our point.
“Again!” I order. Jack and his mate fire twice more as we continue our approach to the hive.
Then Fernando spots the sign he is dreading. “The hive’s breaking up. Now we’re for it.”
I snatch up a telescope with my good hand, still ignoring the pain in my wrecked arm. The perfect sphere of the hive starts to split apart. Pieces separate as individual ships break free and hoist their sails. Soon a cloud of ships head our way. Then the swarm parts and the first of the Reaver home ships emerge from the center of the hive.
What a magnificent sight—the home ship is like a mini city in its own right: supported by three massive blimps, powered by an array of sails and treadmill propellers, and sporting whole banks of cannon.
This is it. “Bring us about. Time we ran for it.”
Izzy spins the wheel and kicks the blimp’s tail round. “Run where?”
“Straight back the way we came and gain twenty-five percent altitude.”
“No way.” Fernando grabs my good arm in alarm. “Have you forgotten there’s a dozen Gaia airships in pursuit of us back there, and a whole Microtough battle fleet about to descend on your mother’s citadel?”
I grin back into his alarmed face. “No I haven’t forgotten. Sounds like enough to keep everyone busy.”
His face relaxes as realization dawns—he gets it.
With the Reaver hive right behind us, we exit the misty edge of a cloud to find ourselves face-to-face with the Gaia ships. They in turn are running from a detachment of the Microtough fleet. This really is the perfect set up.
“Fire off the cannons again, Jack. I want everyone’s full attention.”
If the Gaia ships hadn’t seen us before, they certainly have now. They all change tack onto an intercept course. Then they see the Reaver hive emerging from the cloud behind us and all hell breaks loose.
“Bet they didn’t see that coming,” I comment to my busy crew.
We fire at the Gaia ships, they fire at us; the Reavers fire at the Gaia ships, thinking we have led them into a trap—which we have—and before long, the Microtough ships fire on the Reaver ships, thinking they are under attack from the Reavers. Total anarchy: just the way I like things.<
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We dodge and weave our way through the three-way battle, then climb serenely into the upper atmosphere—free to make our escape.
“Where to now, Captain,” Fernando asks, with an arm around Izzy’s shoulders.
“Well, if no one is left behind,” I squeeze Jack’s warm hand and he gives me an encouraging nod, “I guess we head home and face the music.”
