commonplace doesn’t make them true orany less insidious.” Lockhart drew his shiny steel Colt and raisedit above the table.
Kali tensed. He had no law-abiding reason tokill her, but the gun’s appearance made her nervous. He’d see ifshe reached for the man-stopper in her front overalls pocket, but,out of sight beneath the table, her hand drifted to the pocketwhere she kept the pair of smoke nuts.
Lockhart laid the revolver down in front ofher and leaned forward, eyes intent. “They call this gun thePeacemaker, and it’s here with me to kill Milos Kartes and bringpeace to the spirits of those he murdered. Half a dozen innocentwomen in San Francisco, dead by his hand. His guilt was determinedby a jury of his peers. Evidence, not tall tales, condemned him. IfI come across Cudgel Conrad, I’ll kill him, too, because he’swanted a hundred times over for his crimes, but his isn’t the caseI was assigned. I’m here to get Kartes.” He gazed straight into hereyes. “And if you get in my way, Miss, I’ll have the Mounties lockyou up until I catch up with my man.”
Kali wanted to declare that Lockhart wasfrom the United States, and had less sway with the RCMP than Cedardid, but his hard, unwavering stare stole her defiance. She had tofight to not squirm and look away. Seconds ticked by as she triedto come up with a strong, intelligent reply, but she couldn’t thinkof anything.
A scream came from a hallway behind thestage.
Kali lunged to her feet, tipping her chairover. Lockhart leaped up even faster. With his Colt in hand, hevaulted over the table and sprinted for the hallway.
The fiddle halted, and the dancers stopped.Kali started to follow Lockhart, but caught herself. If themurderer was back there, he supposedly liked to torment his victimsbefore killing them. He couldn’t do that in a public place. If hewas kidnapping a girl, he might run out the back.
Kali pushed past groups of gawking men andheaded for the front door. If she could get around the buildingquickly enough, maybe she could stop, or at least delay, someonecoming out the back.
She ducked past a burly man in the doorway,gasped a breath of fresh air, and sprinted down the boardwalktoward the alley. Muffled grunts and whimpers of feminine distresscame from behind the building. Kali dug into a pocket and pulledout one of her smoke nuts. She jumped off the boardwalk and intothe ally. Mud squished audibly beneath her feet, and she winced,hoping the kidnapper had not heard. Striving for quiet, sheadvanced more slowly than she wanted.
A shadow passed over her, and Kali glancedup. The buildings on either side of her hid all but a slice of thenight sky, and she saw nothing but stars in the gap.
“Your imagination,” shemuttered under her breath.
Kali picked her way through the sucking mudas quickly as she could. She reached the back of the saloon andpeeked around the corner.
A towering man with a torso as broad as agrizzly’s was stalking toward her. That had to be Sparwood. A womanthrashed in his arms, but he kept her crushed against his chest,her feet dangling a foot above the ground. Her flailing wasuseless.
Kali tightened her hand around the smokenut, but hesitated before arming it. The shrapnel her weapon flungwould hit the woman, too, probably harming her more than the man,since he was holding her before him like a shield.
They were only five steps from her hidingspot. There was no time to think of a better plan. The man wouldtake at least some of the shrapnel, and Kali could attack him underthe cover of the smoke.
She armed the smoke nut and drew back herhand to throw. Someone grabbed her wrist.
Kali spun, her free hand reaching for theman-stopper, but she thought it might be Cedar or Lockhart andwasn’t as quick to draw as she might have been. She didn’trecognize the dark figure before her, though, and a calloused handcaught her other wrist before she could grab the gun. Someone elseappeared and ripped the smoke nut from her grasp, then hurled itonto the roof. It went off, shards of metal pinging against stovepipes and chimneys, but the building kept it from doing any gooddown in the alley.
Kali tried to twist free of her captor’sgrip, but he was strong and he wasn’t alone. Three other men hadcome into view. Behind them a rope ladder dangled from the sky. Notthe sky. The pirate airship. Even with the limited view and thenight darkness, she recognized its black silhouette blotting outthe stars above.
Mud squished behind her. “What we got here?”a deep voice rumbled over the continuing struggles of his femalecaptive. “Two for the price of one?” He laughed, a dark, cruellaugh that sent a chill down Kali’s spine. “She’s familiar too. Youthe one what was skulking around in the woods?”
The chill deepened. Had he been watching allthe time? While she and Cedar questioned the other pirate?
“Hurry up,” someone said,already jumping for the ladder. “There’s a Pinkerton detective onhis way out, and Ralph can only keep him busy so long.”
As the men backed toward the ladder, Kalirallied for one more escape attempt. She tried to jam a knee intoher captor’s groin, but he saw the move coming and blocked her.Someone grabbed her from behind and slipped a bag over her head.Kali twisted her neck and tried to bite the man through the burlap.She caught something-a hand? — between her teeth, but a fist slammedinto her temple. Pain ricocheted through her head. The bag made itstuffy and hard to breathe, and she gasped for air.
“Feisty wench, ain’t she?”Sparwood asked, predatory hunger in his voice.
“Just like you like ’em.”The other men laughed.
Idiot, Kali, she cursed herself. They nevershould have believed that pirate’s story.
She sucked in a deep breath to scream forCedar, but she’d barely gotten the “C” out when a hand clamped downon her mouth. Someone hoisted her legs into the air and wound ropeabout her wrists and ankles. In heartbeats she was tied tight. Shebit down on the hand gagging her, and a man cursed. Before shecould try to scream again, another fist collided with her head. Herdazed body refused to comply with her brain’s orders to keepfighting, and the men hauled her up the ladder.
The shrapnel being flung from her smoke nuthad ceased, and only its smoke lingered in the air as they climbed.Kali cursed Lockhart for being slow, but more, she cursed herselffor not sticking with Cedar. Talking to Lockhart had been a wasteof time, and now she was captured, in the hands of a rapist andmurderer, surrounded by a whole crew that apparently supportedhim.
Part VIII
Kali’s captors dragged her into the bowelsof the airship. Though the bag over her head stole her sight, thestifling heat told her where they were. The boiler room.
The man carrying Kali dropped her like asack of corn meal, and her shoulder hit hard, sending a fresh stabof pain through her. While men shuffled about, and chains clackednearby, Kali fantasized about commandeering the ship, sailing tothe North Pole, and making these louts walk the plank. She’d leavethem on a sheet of ice where they could become a nice snack for apassing polar bear.
Someone grabbed her by the head and pulledoff the sack, removing numerous strands of hair at the same time.It was hard to glower effectively from one’s back on the floor, butKali gave it her best.
The men ignored her icy stare. A burlypirate clapped a leg iron around one of her ankles. Its chain ranfive feet to an eyelet in front of a bin of coal and two furnaces.The pirate cut the rope that tied her ankles together. Kali liftedher bound wrists, hoping he would do the same for them. He didnot.
“We don’t allow anyonefree passage on our vessel,” a graying reed of a man said. Scarspeppered his face, and he wore an eye patch like the pirates instorybooks. He lacked only a parrot to perch on his shoulder,though such birds were probably hard to come by in northern climes.He took a shovel from a scruffy man cloaked from head to foot insoot. “Everybody here works, ain’t that right, Chum?”
“Oh, aye, Cap’n,” thesooty man said.
Kali remained quiet. Working in the boilerroom sounded far better than being mauled by that Sparwood, but shewasn’t about to say so. The other woman the pirates had kidnappedwas nowhere to be seen, and Kali scowled at the realization ofwhere she must be. Would she be next?
“Take all of her things,”the captain said.
Invasive hands pawed at Kali, and shegritted her teeth. With her wrists tied and her leg chained, shecould do
