'Chairman!' Madi exclaimed, sounding embarrassed, just like back when Dad used to catch the oldest Sullivan brother doing something bad, like torturing animals or setting fires. He dropped to his knees. 'Forgive the intrusion.'
Heinrich was nowhere to be seen. Delilah was picking herself off the ground from where she'd crashed through the railing hard enough to break every bone in her body. So it was up to him. Daniel Garrett had hit the fallen Iron Guard with everything he had. He punched him in the face until he felt his knuckles break, and then he'd tried kicking him, but the huge Iron Guard slowly got up from the grating anyway. Dan stepped back, shaking his stinging hands.
The Iron Guard twisted his head and he could hear the vertebrae pop. His little black eyes were far too small for the size of his head, and they zeroed right in on Dan. The sumo growled.
'Sure you don't want to talk this over?' Dan asked. The bridge shook as the Iron Guard lumbered at him. Guess not.
Delilah shoulder-checked him out of the way. 'Pick on somebody your own size!' The two Brutes crashed together; one dead, one alive; one huge, one tiny; but both of them very angry. They stood toe to toe, hammering each other.
Dan landed on his side with a grunt. The Iron Guard hit Delilah so hard that he felt the vibrations travel down her body and through the floor, but she didn't budge. Delilah responded by putting one hand on his shoulder, shoving herself into the air, and bringing her elbow down in the center of the sumo's head with a blow that could have killed an elephant. That staggered him a bit.
'Get the device!' Delilah screamed. 'I'll hold fatty!'
Struggling to his feet, he saw Delilah throw a backhand at the Iron Guard's head, but he was too fast, too martially skilled, and he caught her arm while simultaneously bringing his other hand around. Delilah's forearm shattered, bone visibly ripping through the flesh. Dan gasped at the horrific wound. Delilah stepped back, looked down at the jagged bones sticking out of her forearm and the delicate hand dangling uselessly from the skin and tendons. No blood came out. 'Move your ass, Garrett!' she ordered as she stepped forward, ducked under the Iron Guard's swing, and drove the bone shard into the sumo's vast belly.
Dan heard the Iron Guard gasp as the bones penetrated his body, but was too busy running for engineering to look back. A hand appeared over the edge of the railing. Heinrich! He was alive and pulling himself up. He didn't dare stop to help his friend. He could feel the air humming with the Tesla device's energy.
The lights were no longer red. He was in the engineering section. He jumped over the dead bodies of the Imperials he'd murdered and the pile of twisted bones and smoking fat that had been their Torch. There was a single man standing in his way, wearing the same red and black robes as the other Iron Guards, but this one wasn't nearly as physically intimidating. Skinny and ratlike, this had to be the Lazarus. He was blocking the steel door. Dan could feel the Geo-Tel on the other side.
But then the Lazarus moved a scabbard around in front of his body and drew a sword. His English was perfect. 'I am not the warrior my brothers are, but I am more than a match for the likes of you.' He tossed the scabbard away and lifted the blade in both hands. The eviscerated bodies were starting to move, groaning and whimpering on the floor as they came to. Even the ashen pile of bones was stirring. The dead soldiers began to cry out in agony.
The Lazarus hissed. 'I am Hiroyasu of the Iron Guard, and my magic is based in suffering.'
There was a grey flash as Heinrich surged past. Hiroyasu swung the sword through the blur. Heinrich rematerialized, blocking the weapon before it could come back up. 'Suffering?' Heinrich asked, grabbing the surprised Iron Guard by the robe. 'I'll show you suffering.' Then the Fade spun him around, both of them going grey as they sailed into the wall.
Heinrich totally disappeared, but he must have let go of Hiroyasu partway through. The Iron Guard re-formed, solid, but his body had fused with the metal. The left half of his body and his head were still visible, but his flesh had become one with the bulkhead. Hiroyasu began to scream, incoherent with pain.
There was a clicking as the door unlocked from the other side. Heinrich held it open for Dan. The Fade saw the thrashing Iron Guard and admired his work. 'That was for Delilah. Hurry.' Dan stepped through after him, noticing that the Iron Guard's other arm and leg were flailing madly on this side. They ran down the hall. 'Think we can use guns in here?' Heinrich asked.
They were surrounded by solid walls and away from the heaving bags. 'Probably.' Dan pulled the.45 from his belt.
'About damn time,' Heinrich answered as a Luger appeared from inside his coat.
They reached the last door, both of them automatically taking up positions on either side. They'd worked together for a long time. There was a round glass window, and when he risked a glance through, he could see a strange device crackling with electricity sitting in the middle of a table. That's it. There were a bunch of men in long black coats surrounding it. He tried the latch. Locked.
Heinrich nodded, knowing what to do. He Faded, but as he did so, two Shadow Guard appeared, took the Geo-Tel between them, and Traveled it away.
Faye woke up, groaning. She felt nauseous.
'Hold still, you lost a lot of blood,' Francis told her. She looked down. Her pant leg had been torn off, and her calf had been wrapped in a bandage. It really hurt.
There was more gunfire. She checked her head map. The Tokugawa was in chaos. Grimnoir and pirates were spread all over the big ship. The pirates were headed this way, being chased by Imperium. Some of her friends were in the middle of the ship, looking for the big, evil, magic superbomb, but it had just Traveled to the very bottom.
She was having a hard time seeing down there. At first she thought it was because of the blood loss making her silly-headed, but then she realized that the black fogginess came from the Chairman. His Power was so big that everything around it was cast in shadow, but the big, evil, magic superbomb was dragging so much Power up out of the middle of the world that it illuminated even him. Somehow she knew they only had minutes. The illumination showed that a couple of her friends were down there, surrounded by Iron Guards.
But there was something else. The Power wasn't just being attracted to Tesla's invention. There was another spot in the middle of the ship. It was glowing too. She concentrated harder, trying to figure out what was going on, and that's when she realized exactly what was happening.
She smacked her hands onto both sides of Francis' face. 'We've got to get everyone out of here fast as we can!' She let go and tried to get up.
'Stay still, you're in no shape to move.'
'No, you don't understand. It isn't what anyone thought it was! Everyone is wrong! The Chairman is wrong! We've got to go. I've got to bring everyone onto the Tempest.'
'What? Don't move. You're still bleeding from-'
'Aarrggh! You are such a boy! You know I see the world different than everybody else. Listen, do you trust me or not?'
Francis was perplexed. 'Yeah, I guess.'
'Then get a bucket and fill it with nails and broken glass and anything else you can use to stab people with your brain, and get that blimp in the air. We've only got minutes.'
He nodded. She could see it in his eyes. He didn't have a clue what she was talking about, but God bless him, Francis actually trusted her. She kissed him on the cheek and Traveled before she could see his reaction.
Chairman Okubo Tokugawa was sitting cross-legged on a simple mat, watching the brothers curiously. Jane was standing a few feet away in a white kimono, flanked between two robed Iron Guards. 'Sullivan?' she asked in surprise.
'You okay, Jane?' he asked. She nodded. She sure didn't look okay. Poor thing was scared to death. 'Don't worry. Dan's here. We'll get you home.'
The Chairman spoke. 'Rise, First Iron Guard.' Madi jumped to his feet with superhuman speed.
'Sir, Grimnoir threaten the Geo-Tel,' Madi said quickly, much more worried about that than the bullets lodged in his chest.
The Chairman nodded politely, as if to say, tell me something I don't already know, stupid. 'I am aware. I have been watching. I dispatched Shadow Guards to retrieve it. They will Travel back here shortly.'
'Well, if it ain't Mr. Fancy-Pants,' Sullivan said. 'What're you doing down here? Hiding?'
