A metal tin clinked down the stairs androlled to a stop near their door. Blue smoke hissed into thecorridor. Cedar looked like he might lean out and kick the thingback the way it had come, but a gunshot rang out, and a bulletsmashed into the door frame, inches from his head.
Cedar drew back, flinging an arm over hisnose and mouth, and grumbled, “Smoke grenade.”
“That’s not a smokegrenade.” Kali pointed to the smoke nut in Cedar’s hand.“
“Yes, right. I’ll put itto good use.” Cedar nodded to himself. “You two ladies, go takecare of bringing the ship down. I’ll give you the time youneed.”
“Be careful,” Kali said.“If we land-” she decided to be optimistic and not use the wordcrash, “-Lockhart could be there waiting. And Cudgeltoo.”
Cedar had been readying the smoke nut tothrow, but he froze in the middle of arming it. Slowly, veryslowly, he lifted his eyes to meet Kali’s through the haze waftinginto the cabin. “Cudgel is here?”
“I assume it was him. Theycalled him Mister Conrad, and even the captain was deferential. Hewanted me and was interested in the flash gold, but he said he wasgoing off to set things up, so the Pinkerton detective would besure to find you.”
Cedar was statue-still. If not for thesubtle rise and fall of his chest, Kali might not have known he wasalive.
“He wore a white suit,”she went on, “and had green-blue eyes. Seemed more like the slick,gentlemanly type than a ‘Cudgel,’ but I reckon you can’t go bylooks.”
It was smoke billowing into the room and around of coughing from Keitlyudee that finally bestirred Cedar.“No, you can’t. That’s him.” He offered Kali a quick smile, thoughit did not reach his eyes. “I better survive these pirates, so Ican get him. I’m not going to fail when I’m this close.”
“Be careful,” Kali urgedagain. She was thinking that she ought to give him a kiss for luckor elicit a promise that he’d return to her, or one of those otherthings women always did when men they cared about went into battle,but she was too slow, and Cedar opened the door and slipped intothe smoky corridor. The haze swallowed him.
“What’s that?” a pirateblurted from above.
“He threw our grenadeback-no, wait, it’s-” The speaker broke off with a cry ofpain.
“Time for us to go,” Kaliwhispered to Keitlyudee.
She trusted Cedar to give her the time sheneeded; now she had to make use of it. She tied a kerchief aroundher nose and mouth, then slipped out of the cabin, heading towardthe door at the end of the corridor.
Though the pirate smoke grenade was spewingits last gray puffs, the acrid air stung her eyes, so Kali hustled.Behind her, gunshots fired. This time, they weren’t near thestairway, and she knew Cedar was on deck with the pirates.
When Kali opened the door, she almosttripped over a man sitting on the floor inside a closet full ofpipes and levers. He stared up at her with bleary eyes and a bottleclenched in one meaty paw. Almost as surprised by his presence ashe clearly was by hers, Kali scrabbled for her revolver.
For a man in a drunken stupor, the piratereacted quickly. He hurled his bottle at Kali before she could tugthe gun out of her overalls. She ducked, and it skimmed past herhead and crashed against a wall of vertical pipes. Cheap alcoholand shards of glass flew. The man lunged to his feet, reaching fora gun of his own, but Kali kicked him in the knee to buy herself asecond. She jumped back into the corridor, finally yanking hersix-shooter free.
Kali aimed it at his chest. “Drop yourgun.”
Her kick had thrown theman off balance, and he slipped in the spilled alcohol. In theconfining closet, he couldn’t fall far, but his head smacked thewall and he dropped his gun. It hit the ground and went off. Kaliflung herself to the floor. From the
Kali winced. “On second thought, mysuggestion to drop the gun might have been flawed.”
After hopping to her feet, she aimed herrevolver at the pirate again, but he hadn’t moved since his headstruck the wall. She grabbed the fallen gun and patted him down forother weapons, but didn’t find anything else. She eyed hiscorpulent form with a grimace. As tiny as the closet was, she’dhave to move him out in order to step inside herself.
Kali grabbed his arm. Farther back in thecorridor, Keitlyudee was watching with her own revolver pointedloosely in the man’s direction. Kali thought about asking for help,but the girl barely seemed to have the wherewithal left to hold thegun. Kali dragged the two hundred pounds of dead weight through thedoorway on her own, her legs and back trembling from the effort.Grunting and straining, she finally managed to tug the pirate outof the closet. Smoke lingered in the corridor, and she had to fightnot to break into a coughing fit.
A door creaked open behind her. Damn, shehad forgotten about that pirate.
He had found shoes, and he wore his weaponsbelt around his waist now instead of between his teeth. He hadalready extracted a six-shooter from it, and he pointed it at Kalieven as she pointed hers at him.
“Who told you that youcould come out?” she growled, putting all the steel she couldmuster into her voice, knowing that, without the flame gun, she didnot have as fearsome a weapon with which to cow him.
“Put down your guns,girls,” the pirate said.
Keitlyudee dropped her weapon and pressedher back against the wall, though she was farther down the corridorand not the focus of the pirate’s attention.
Kali flicked her gaze toward the stairwelland lifted a hand, as if Cedar had appeared and she was beckoninghim for help. For a split second, the pirate’s eyes shifted. Kalifired.
Anticipating a return shot, she droppeddown, almost landing on the unconscious man. The return fire cameamidst curses, the bullet zipping over her head so close it stirredher hair. It clanged against metal behind Kali.
Her bullet had clipped the pirate’s ear, andblood streamed down the side of his head. It had to hurt, but hewas lowering his gun to fire again. Still on her back, Kali shotfirst, this time leaving a smoking hole in his boot. The man howledand dropped his gun. Kali kicked it down the corridor and trainedher weapon on the pirate again.
“I
Hopping on one foot, the man gave her a wildglare. Had he not expected a woman would actually shoot him? Aftera long, considering moment, he stumbled back into his cabin.
Kali yanked his door shut and scrambled toher feet.
“Stand here and watch thisone,” she told Keitlyudee, then stepped over the unconscious pirateand returned to the mechanical room. “Shoot him if he getsup.”
“You’re not afraid of themat all, are you?” Keitlyudee asked.
Kali’s heart, still pounding after havingthat gun pointed at her face, belied that notion, but all she saidwas, “I’m sure I would be if I’d had your night.”
She focused on the levers, on/off wheels,gauges, and pipes running from floor to ceiling in the cubby andscowled. Not only were there two holes in one of the pipes, but shecouldn’t identify which gas was flowing out from them. The labelplaques were in…“Persian?” she guessed. Her father had had bookswritten in European languages, but he had never taught her how toread any of them, and everything inside the machine room wasgibberish to her. “Why couldn’t these oafs steal an American orBritish airship?”
She leaned close to one of the leaks andsniffed, though she promptly rolled her eyes at herself when shedidn’t smell anything. Both oxygen and hydrogen were colorless andodorless, so what had she expected?
“The holes are good,aren’t they?” Keitlyudee had edged closer. “We wanted to sabotagethings, didn’t we?”
“We want to bring down theship. If the air supply is leaking, that’s not going to happen. Weneed to make sure they run low on hydrogen up there, but I’m notsure which one is which. How’s your Persian?”
The girl gave Kali a blank look.
“That’s about what Iexpected.” Kali picked up the alcohol bottle. Only the neck hadbroken, and the body appeared to be intact. “Will you get me thematches in Sparwood’s chest?”
Keitlyudee paled, probably not wanting toreturn to that foul room, but she whispered, “Very well,” andheaded down the corridor.
