Kali winked. “I just want to make sure youearn
Cedar tilted his head, listening to someconversation outside, and she left him to his work. Later, shecould ask him if his spying had given him a bead on CudgelConrad.
With the whirring drill in one hand and thelantern in the other, Kali delved deeper into the tunnels. Alabyrinth of passages spread out around her, and she soon wonderedif the owners of the claim had mined beneath the adjoining parcelsas well. If so, she hoped they had scraped all the gold out ofSebastian’s land. Had that bastard even intended to mine, or hadthis all been a setup to capture her and turn her over to somegangster? He must think her a delightful idiot for showing up andsleeping ten feet away from him. If not for Cedar’s scheme, shenever would have come up here, but even with that excuse she wishedshe had been too vigilant to get caught.
A likely dead-end opened to Kali’s right andshe stopped, figuring she had better choose her spot before thetunnels wound her around so much she ended up drilling out rightbeneath Sebastian’s toes. She thought she was under the trees now,several dozen meters from the river, but the permafrost kept rootsfrom piercing the ceilings anywhere. She hoped the tunnel had notslanted down, putting a dozen feet of earth above her head. Cuttingthrough more than a couple of feet would be a tall order, even fora flash-gold-powered tool.
She lifted the tip to the low ceiling. Thoughit lacked the grooves of a typical drill, the pickaxe “bit” spunand pulsed so rapidly it ate into the dirt and stone anyway. Beingon the other end of the tool jarred her to the core; her teethrattled, her body quaked, and her joints ached as if she were theone being drilled, not the rock. Dust filled the passage and sooncoated her tongue and nostrils. Clumps of dirt and rock fell,pelting her on the head. Too bad she did not carry a helmet as wellas goggles in her pack.
Too slowly for her tastes, a concave holeformed over her head. She went slower than she wished, conscious ofthe noise the activity made. If Sebastian heard the drill and hadmen standing at the top when she broke through, she would have madetheir situation worse, creating two entrances to guard instead ofone.
She should have created something capable ofissuing loud booms and given it to Cedar to use as a diversion.
“Kali?” his voice came from the tunnelsbehind her. “Which way did you go?”
Unease roiled in her stomach. If he hadabandoned the entrance, that must mean it had been breached.
“Back here.” She lowered the drill.
“Don’t stop,” he whispered, appearing out ofthe darkness. “If I did it right, your distraction is coming.”
Shouts echoed through the tunnel. Lots ofshouts from lots of throats. Just how many men had Sebastian luredinto helping?
“A stampede of invaders wasn’t thedistraction I had in mind.” Kali returned to drilling, certain theyonly had seconds before armed men swarmed into their tunnel.
Then a massive explosion boomed, pounding hereardrums like a steam hammer. The earth heaved and hurled Kalibackward.
She would have hit the floor, but she crashedinto Cedar, and he wrapped his around her, keeping her upright. How
A thunderous roar filled the tunnels. Anotherexplosion? No, a cave-in. Multiple cave-ins maybe. Screams added tothe cacophony, but they sounded distant, as if piles of rubbledivided them from Kali and Cedar.
“You all right?” Cedar released her with apat on the arm.
The lantern had tipped over and gone out.Somehow Kali had kept a hold of the drill, and the slender streaksof lightning arcing along the tool provided the only light. It wasenough. She found her hole and went back to work. This time she didnot bother with slow and quiet.
“I reckon that’s a yes.” Cedar, sword inhand, turned to guard her back while she worked.
“Did you cause that explosion or did they?”Kali asked, her voice vibrating with the reverberations of thedrill. Dirt and rock sloughed from the growing hole.
“I did.”
“How?”
“You, being a bright book-reading girl, knowthat hydrogen is flammable,” he said, referencing the airship shehad crashed. “I, being a bright alcohol-drinking boy, know thatvodka is flammable.”
“You blew up the still?”
“Not bad, eh?”
She agreed, but all she said was, “Huh.”
“There you go again,” Cedar said, “making meblush with your fulsome praise.”
The dim lighting hid her grin.
She rose on her tiptoes, pressing the drillhigher. Cedar would have to take over soon if she didn’t reach-
A draft of fresh air whispered across hercheek. Her grin broadened. The resistance disappeared, and thedrill poked through.
“I’m going to need a boost.” Kali widened thehole so Cedar’s broad shoulders would fit through.
“I’ll go first and pull you up.”
She cut off the drill and nodded toward thehole. “Not interested in handling my hips again?”
“Oh, I’m interested, but let’s make surenobody’s waiting to put a bullet in your head first.”
“Or drop a grenade on it,” Kali muttered.
Cedar grabbed both sides of the hole andpulled his head through. Long seconds passed while he hung, bootsdangling above the ground. At first, she marveled that he couldhold himself in that position so long. Then she lost patience andwanted to shove him out of the way so she could look.
Elsewhere in the tunnel, the screams hadabated, and she doubted it would be long before some of the menclimbed out, if only to tend to each other’s wounds.
Finally, Cedar pulled himself up, slitheringover the edge without a sound. Only a trickle of dust marked hispassing.
As promised, he soon extended a hand for her.Kali plopped the handle of the drill into it. With their ammo gone,it was the best weapon she had. Besides, she would not leave itbehind with precious flash gold embedded in it.
Cedar lifted the drill out, then lowered hishand again. She gave him her pack, which he also pulled free.
“What’s going on up there?” she asked,wondering how much time they had.
“Ssh,” he whispered and wriggled hisfingers.
Kali grabbed his hand and bunched her legs,preparing for a good jump, but he simply pulled her out as if sheweighed no more than a snared rabbit. She settled beside him wherehe crouched above the ragged hole.
Dawn had come to the river valley, revealingmore stillness than expected, considering the activity of momentsbefore. As she had hoped, they were in the trees above the rockybank. The engine and boiler that marked the mine entrance satdownhill twenty meters away. Several bodies lay on the bank,unmoving, and Kali swallowed, numbly aware of the carnage they hadcaused. More dead must be buried in the rubble beneath them. Aconcave depression marked a cave-in, right about where the stillwould have been. She clenched her teeth, resenting Sebastian allover again for starting her along this path where bountyhunters-and simple prospectors-vied to turn her in for areward.
“Stay here,” Cedar whispered. “I’m going formy pack and ammo.” He pointed to Sebastian’s camp. His mangledbedroll lay visible on the rocky earth. “Keep an ear open. Ithought I heard some mechanical noises in the forest behind us whenI first poked my head up.”
“Blazes,” Kali said. “That woman again?”
Why couldn’t she have gone back to Dawson torest, like a normal just-shot person?
Cedar left her side to follow the tree linetoward Sebastian’s claim. The spring foliage soon hid him. Kalitook a few steps from the hole and put her back against a spruce.The undergrowth should hide her from anyone who came out of themine.
She closed her eyes for a moment, bothbecause looking at the bodies made her uncomfortable and becauseshe wanted to listen for suspicious noises.
Kali did not have long to wait. In the woodsbehind her, a soft click-whir grew audible. It repeated, steady andregular, like the ticking of a clock. Oddly, the sound seemed tocome not from the ground but from the trees, perhaps ten or twentyfeet in the air. It couldn’t be the flyer; she and Cedar hadcrashed that. The noises were not the same either.
She craned her neck, her eyes probing thecanopy. Though birds should have been chirping to welcome the
