once.'
Lance cut in. 'Where is the Chairman?' Everyone knew he'd want to be there when it was used.
'I don't know. The device was in the Northern Marianas,' Southunder replied. There was another voice from behind him, a deep rumble, and a large, beard-stubbled face pushed past Southunder.
'Lance?' Sullivan asked.
'Yeah, we're not far from you. We're tailing the Imperial flagship now,' Francis said.
'He'll fire it from his flagship, sure as hell,' Sullivan said. 'That's his style. Give us your coordinates.'
Francis signaled for the navigator, who had recoiled in panic from the glowing, levitating, magic circle. He really had to remember that not very many people got to see stuff like this.
The next face that appeared in the circle was more recently familiar. It was Isaiah Rawls. 'It looks like I'm the senior member of the council listening, so it falls on me to do this. Stand down, knights. That is an order. Do not, I repeat, do not attack the Tokugawa.'
'Are you mad?' Dan shouted. His voice made Francis reel. Dan was under such stress that he could barely control his Power. The anger in there was palpable, and Dan's emotions made Francis want to pull his.45 and shoot Rawls right between the eyes. 'You couldn't stop us when we were going to do it for one person, let alone ten million.'
'Let them try, Isaiah,' the English woman said. 'We've nothing to lose at this point.'
'We have everything to lose.' Isaiah was furious. 'You must let the flagship continue toward Japan. That is an order.'
Sullivan's voice was utterly cold. 'Captain Southunder, could you please ditch all these other bozos and just talk to my friends?'
'Gladly.'
Isaiah began to scream. 'No, you mus-'
The circle spun back around to the sweating Southunder. 'That's much nicer… but I can't hold this much longer. Location of the flagship?'
The UBF navigator read off a bunch of what seemed like random numbers to Francis, but Southunder just nodded, doing the math in his head. 'We can be there within an hour if I mangle the winds from here to Australia.'
'Us too,' Lance said. 'See you there.'
As the storm clouds parted, they spotted the Tokugawa before it spotted them, which was easy to do since it was the size of a skyscraper flipped on its side, and was running with all of its lights blazing. It was a thousand feet lower than they were, but only a mile ahead.
'Will you look at that…' Lance whistled. 'It's huge.'
'Forget that,' Faye said 'There's two of them.'
Francis followed her pointing finger. Sure enough, there was another vessel ahead of the triangular Tokugawa. Once again her weird grey eyes proved superior to everyone else's. This craft was also wedge-shaped, but more bulbous. It was only running a few lights, so its overall size was hard to determine, but it had to be at least as big as the flagship. 'What is that thing?'
Mr. Chandler, the accountant, had joined them in the control center. 'I believe that is a Kaga-class superdreadnought.'
'How do you know that?'
'Because UBF made a fortune selling the design to the Imperium,' the accountant replied. 'That's one of ours. I'm afraid your grandfather didn't really worry about the embargo.'
'Weapons?' Lance asked hesitantly.
'Unknown. We just provided the basic hull, and they worked out the rest, but probably at least equivalent to a Great War battleship, and it has a hold that can fit, depending on the size, a whole bunch of planes.'
Lance scratched his beard. 'Define bunch, Mr. Chandler.'
'Forty or fifty.'
'That nice pirate captain has two,' Faye pointed out. 'Now, I'm not an expert or nothing, but that doesn't seem quite fair.'
Francis bit his lip. If it had still just been a rescue mission, he would have called it off. It didn't make sense to trade a bunch of lives for one, even though they'd probably have to knock Dan out first and tie him down, but this was too big now. The Geo-Tel was on that thing. 'Call the Marauder. Warn them and get their ETA. The battleship won't be able to shoot at us if we're tethered to the Tokugawa.'
Lance looked at him slyly. 'You're sounding more like a captain already, kid. You want the hat back?'
'Not after it's been on your smelly head.' FS Bulldog Marauder Captain Southunder put the mirror down. The news had been grim. In twenty minutes they'd break the edge of the storm. Sullivan held on to the wall of the stateroom as the dirigible was slammed back and forth by the wind. The creaking and flapping was making him nervous. It would really not be fair if they crashed before they even had the chance to get shot down.
'Two ships, which also means that the crew of the flagship will be reinforced with more men…' Southunder said slowly.
Not to mention Madi, who was probably capable of killing all of them by himself, but he didn't bring that up. Dealing with his brother was personal business. 'What are you going to tell your crew?' Sullivan asked. They were pirates after all, and mutiny was a distinct possibility.
Southunder smiled. 'Why, the truth, of course.' He stood and walked from the room, not seeming to notice that the entire place was swaying violently back and forth and rattling like they were about to fly apart at any second. 'Remember how I was talking about loyalty? Let's see if I was right, because I've already been wrong far too much for one day.'
'I hope you ain't on a roll…' Sullivan muttered as he followed.
Most of the Marauder's crew had assembled in the little galley. They were a motley bunch of toughs, armed to the teeth, outside the law, perfectly adjusted to killing, and they were about to be asked to go on a deadly mission to help a bunch of folks who not only didn't care about them, didn't even know they existed.
Southunder stopped at the front of the room. Sullivan was expecting some big display, maybe a pep talk, like the kind General Roosevelt had given them before Second Somme. Fat lot of good that had done. Instead, Southunder sat on the end of a table and folded his arms. He didn't even raise his voice. 'Well, boys, I've got bad news. We've got two Imperium ships. Both of them are bigger and have more guns than we do, with probably ten times the crew. There's probably going to be several Iron Guards on board, not to mention ninjas, and who knows what other kinds of terrible blood magic.'
'What's the bad news?' Barns asked jokingly.
'One of the ships is a Kaga, which means that it is ringed in 37mm long-range cannons and a main ten inch gun. Rumor is that they might even have a Peace Ray. If that don't get us, the host of biplanes piloted by fanatics probably will. I won't lie. Our odds of survival are about none.' He was completely honest.
'So we're running?' a muscular Polynesian with tattoos all over his face asked.
'No, Mr. Paonga, we're not. Because aboard one of those ships is a superweapon that is about to destroy a quarter of the United States, and once it falls, then the rest of the world will surrender. The Chairman will rule the world and everyone like us will be extinct within a year, tops. This job isn't about the loot, crew, I'm asking you to do this because it's the right thing to do. Stick with me and I'll do everything I can to make sure we make it through.'
'This is madness,' said the badly scarred Ken.
'I'd take volunteers, but we're either all in, or all out. There's no time to drop anyone off. We either fight together, or we run, and if we run, you'll have to kill me first. I can't promise we'll live, but we'll die free men, and our great-grandkids will tell stories about the bravery that goes on tonight.'
There was a tiny voice from the back of the room. 'I not have babies yet. Like to have babies someday.' Lady Origami squeezed between the burly men. She had neatly folded a piece of rice paper into an intricate shape. She tossed it into the air, and the miniature blimp almost seemed like it would fly, but it burst into magical flame and was consumed instantly. 'But only babies I make be from Imperium rapers if Chairman win. I fight with captain.'
'I didn't join to prove I'm brave. I joined to make money…' Parker said, but then he smiled. 'And to kill some Imperium. I'm in.'
