“Lieutenant Taziri Ohana?”
To her left, Taziri saw a middle-aged man in a blood-red coat decorated with brass studs and bars striding toward her. She cleared her throat and dragged a filthy glove through her hair. “Yes?”
“I’m Major Syfax Zidane, Security Section Two, royal marshals. I’m here to oversee the investigation.” He glanced at the hangar. “Sorry for your loss.”
“My loss?” She stared at him as though he had spoken a foreign language. Did he mean Isoke? Or…no, oh no. The other airship crews? Or the ground crew? Or all of them? All of them dead? Taziri wiped a dirty hand across her sweaty face and took a long breath. “Is there something I can do for you, sir?”
“I need to ask you a few questions about what happened here.” He had a deep voice and he spoke just a little too slowly, as though he were just waking up from a deep sleep, or as though he didn’t find the burning airfield particularly interesting.
“Uhm.” Taziri looked away, her eyes itching. She looked back at him, a huge thick-necked man with a sleepy-eyed squint. Since when are men promoted above captain? He must be part of some special transfer program with the army. “Can it wait until tomorrow? I’d really like to go home to my family right now.”
“I’ll get you home as soon as I can.”
She swallowed and nodded. “All right, sir.”
Chapter 2. Syfax
The major frowned at the aviator. She looked like hell. Exhausted, sweaty, red-eyed. Better keep it short and simple before she gets all loopy on me. “We’ve identified the man who attacked you as Medur Hamuy, personal bodyguard to Ambassador Barika Chaou. Do you know either of them?”
Taziri stared past him at the hangar. “No, I don’t.”
“Apparently, they were regular passengers to Espana. Spent a lot of time on trains, steamers, and airships. You ever fly them around?”
Taziri blinked up at him. “No, Espana is the Crake ’s usual run. Isoke and I do the eastern route. Ikosim, Hippo, and Carthage. The Numidian coast.”
“I see.” Syfax glared at the hundreds of people trampling his crime scene. Where the hell is Kenan? Lazy kid.
“Was it the Grebe or the Crake?”
Syfax turned back to the aviator. “What was that?”
“Which ship exploded, sir?”
“Oh. It was the Gilded Grebe. The Copper Crake isn’t here.”
Taziri said, “She should be. The Crake was scheduled to leave in the morning. It was heading back north to Espana, I think.”
Syfax frowned. “Well, it’s not here now.” He glanced left and saw his aide jogging toward him. Corporal Kenan Agyeman barely came up to the major’s shoulder, he had arms like kindling, and he grinned too much. He was grinning now. Syfax turned his back to the aviator and said in a low voice, “Where the hell have you been?”
“Helping the medics, sir.”
“Oh, come on, kid, we talked about this,” Syfax said. “Stick to the job or the general’ll have you back on the frontier guarding rocks by the end of the day.”
“Yes, sir.”
“So what do you have?”
Kenan held out some papers. “Report from Lady Damya’s office. Looks like Ambassador Chaou didn’t show at dinner tonight. No one’s seen her in several hours. And a telegram from Zili. The watchtower just sighted an airship heading south along the coast, but there wasn’t anything scheduled to pass that way tonight.”
“Might be our missing Crake.” The major scanned the reports. “How did you get these if you were helping the medics?”
Kenan pointed across the field. “Well, the telegraph office is right next to the rail station and they still have wounded on the platform there so I thought I should-”
“Kid! I don’t care. Just don’t do it again. Go check on Hamuy. He’s your only priority right now.” Syfax sighed and turned back to the aviator.
Taziri was staring across the airfield. She said, “What happened at the train station?”
Crap, she doesn’t know. Syfax thumbed his nose and said, “About ten minutes before the Grebe exploded, one of the steam engines ruptured in the station. We’ve got passenger cars on their side, chunks of metal everywhere, and twisted up rails. Lots of wounded, mostly people waiting for the eight-fifteen to Port Chellah. No real evidence yet, but I’m looking forward to asking our new prisoner all about it.”
“Lots of wounded?” Taziri continued to stare at the train station roof just visible beyond the airfield fence and hedge wall.
“Lieutenant Ohana.” Syfax leaned forward to catch her attention. “My aide says Ambassador Chaou’s disappeared and we found your missing airship heading south over Zili. So I’m guessing it’s not heading to Espana.” He glanced to the northern sea sparkling in the darkness beyond the train station and the docks at the bottom of the hill. “Any idea where it might be going?”
Taziri shook her head. “If they stick to the coast, then maybe to Port Chellah or Maroqez. I’m sorry. I really couldn’t guess where the Crake is going.”
“But Hamuy might.”
“Hamuy. So, he’s all right?” Taziri’s gloved hands curled into fists.
“Yeah, I’ll be interrogating him soon.” Over her head, Syfax spotted a small commotion by the airfield gates around a pale little man in a gray coat and hat. “Who’s that?”
Taziri looked over her shoulder. “Oh. Our passenger from Carthage. Mine and Isoke’s, I mean. I suppose he saw the fire. We were just stopping here for the night. We’re scheduled to take him to Orossa in the morning.”
“Well, he’s gonna be delayed.” Syfax glanced down at the small pad in his hand. One airship destroyed, one missing, and the surviving captain is in the hospital. Great. “ Ohana, it says here you’re an engineer, but you’re also a qualified pilot, right?”
“What?” The woman looked up at him as though he’d just grown a third eye. “I mean, yes, I am. Why?”
“I’m going after the Copper Crake. Right now. With the station wrecked, the trains can’t get from the sheds out onto the main lines. I’ll wire the marshals in Port Chellah to be on the lookout, but that airship can go anywhere, so I’m commandeering the Halcyon. And you’ll be flying her.”
“I will?” Taziri’s eyes darted around the field at the firefighters, the engines, the piles of debris. She glanced down at her left hand and began rubbing her fingers. “I’ve never made a solo flight, sir. I’m sure there’s somebody else better qualified.”
Syfax frowned at the burned patch of her sleeve. Nah, the medics cleared her, she’s just being fidgety. Come on lady, we don’t have time for this. “Listen, there isn’t anybody else. The Crake’ s crew is flying south and the crew of the Grebe died in that hangar tonight with the ground crew. Look, if you can’t fly the Halcyon, then I’ll just have to get one of my people do it. Kenan’s got some training.”
“No, I’ll do it,” Taziri said quickly. She turned to look up at the city, scanning the grid of roads and roofs. “Right now?”
“Right now.” Syfax gestured toward the Halcyon.
“Can one of your people tell my husband where I am?”
“Sure.” Syfax waved a gray-uniformed police officer forward to collect the address and message.
Taziri gave her the information, then turned and walked woodenly across the grass toward the airship, casting brief glances back toward the street.
Syfax followed her gaze up and across the city, but all he saw were strings of tiny lights twinkling like stars as the last wisps of smoke vanished into the night sky. The electric lights faded quickly and the gas lamps flickered to life, trading one shade of amber light for another.
“Excuse me? Excuse me! What is going on here?” demanded a shrill male voice.
