Airborn (26 page)

He was smiling as he said this, as though it were another of his gentlemen’s jests, all in the best of fun.

“To the northwest,” I lied.

Szpirglas looked at me with disgust.

“There’s no place there where a ship could land. I see you don’t take me at all seriously, lad.”

“The ship did not land,” I said doggedly. “She ditched and some two dozen of us made it ashore.”

I saw in his face that same cold anger as when he’d shot Mr. Featherstone. His gun was holstered through his belt, and I knew he could use it on me at any moment.

“Let’s take them both to the pit, Mr. Crumlin.”

Szpirglas seized Kate by the arm, and Crumlin grabbed me in his butcher-block fists and marched me out of the bungalow. Even if I could struggle free, they’d shoot me in the back. We crossed the village and took the path toward the airfield, then turned off onto another path I hadn’t noticed before. The smell of mangoes bloomed heavily in the air. In the speckled starlight I saw huge spools of hosing near a great stony mound. Set into the stone face at an angle was a narrow metal hatch. In its middle was a round collared opening, capped right now. Crumlin grabbed the hatch’s handle and pulled it open. Hydrium hissed out loudly from the dark shaft.

The entire island seemed porous with hydrium. No wonder this place was so precious to the pirates. Hidden and with an eternal supply of lifting gas.

“Your ship was gutted,” Szpirglas said as if I’d personally insulted him. “She should have sunk.”

“She did sink.”

“I think you managed to save her somehow. Or slow her enough to land here. I applaud your captain and crew. You must have been mending her at a furious pace.”

I said nothing. Szpirglas was smiling, as though marveling at our ingenuity.

“Now, then,” he said, nodding at the shaft, “the fall isn’t much, just enough to bruise you up some. It’s the hydrium that will kill you. There’s no room for air down there. You start telling me the truth, or you both go down.”

My entire body burned with cold. Not even in my worst nightmares had I imagined such powerlessness. My legs were weak. I could not run. I could not fly.

“You first, then,” said Szpirglas to Kate. “If I’m to ransom you, I’ll need your parents’ particulars, not that pretty address in Honolulu you concocted.”

“I’ll not tell you,” said Kate, giving him one of her nostril-narrowing gazes. I was amazed she had the courage at such a time.

“Excellent,” said Szpirglas. “I’m most impressed. Of course, the alternative for you is a particularly nasty death.”

She said nothing, only looked at me. I nodded. She told Szpirglas her real name and address.

“A fancy address for a fancy girl. Very good. Now, Mr. Cruse, the whereabouts of your ship.”

“There’s no ship,” I said once more. “Only some survivors, on the island’s leeward side.”

He looked at me thoughtfully, almost sympathetically, I thought. “Take heart, Mr. Cruse, there are only three or four places on the island where one could land a vessel the size of the
Aurora
. It will not be hard for us to scout out.”

“You’ll not find any ship,” I said, lying in vain even now. The sickly gush of hydrium was giving me a headache.

“It’s a shame,” Szpirglas said. “I had no intention of damaging the
Aurora.
You must blame Mother Nature and her storm winds. I take no pleasure in killing. As it is, you must know I can never let you leave the island. I’ve got a whole village to take care of, men and women and children. My own son. This is my home. I can’t have anyone giving me away. Last year, some benighted fool in a hot air balloon came bumbling over the island and had a good long look. We had to go after him and slit his envelope and make sure he’d never see land again. He was a sick old man; I don’t think he would have lasted long anyway. I didn’t enjoy doing it, but it was not a choice I had.”

I looked at Kate, pale in the starlight, staring with silent hatred at the man who’d helped kill her grandfather. I now understood the last entry in Benjamin Molloy’s journal:
Airship in the distance. Will signal for help.
It wasn’t the
Aurora
he’d signaled but the pirates’ airship.

Szpirglas looked at Kate. “Your parents only need to think you’re alive for me to ransom you,” he said, and he gave her a shove that sent her sprawling down the shaft into darkness.

“No!” I shouted, but already Crumlin had me by the shoulders and was half lifting, half pushing me toward the shaft opening. I kicked and struggled and jammed my feet against the sides, but they battered me until finally I was dangling over the pit, and then with one great push I was sliding down on my backside. Darkness gobbled me up. The steep slope fell away altogether and there was a big drop and I hit the ground. All the breath was knocked out of me.

Only the faintest pulse of light slanted down from the open hatch, at least thirty feet overhead. Kate lurched toward me, wheezing. The cave floor was scored with countless little hydrium vents, and the gas boiled invisibly all around us, leaving no room for air. When the metal hatch clanged shut we were plunged into a blackness more total than I had ever known. I had Kate by the hand. An hour ago I was free in the forest, running through the night.

I forced myself up, staggered forward until my outstretched hand hit a wall. Too steep to climb. I kept moving, smacking at the rock. Too steep, no footholds, no way out here. A geyser of hydrium blasted me in the face, making my head spin. I tripped and fell, my nose in the dirt and—

—breathed.

Air, a little pool of it, lay silent and heavy against the earth, undisturbed. I grabbed Kate and pushed her head to the ground. She struggled at first, thinking I’d gone mad.

“Breathe,” I croaked.

It wasn’t much, just enough to keep our hearts kicking, for a little while.

“What now?” was all she could say.

I shook my head, grunted. Didn’t want to waste air on words. This was a cruel way to kill someone. Much better to be shot or thrown off a cliff into the waves.

I felt a little eddy of hydrium slip into my shirtsleeve, the fabric ballooning. Its lift was so powerful that my arm started to rise. My sluggish brain began to work.

“Take your pants off!” I told Kate.

“What?”

“They’re perfect,” I gasped. I grabbed at the waist of her harem pants and yanked them down. I heard her give a yelp. I was too breathless and too muddy-brained to explain more. The material of my own trousers and shirt was too porous, but Kate’s pants were silky, just like the ship’s impermeable gas cells. They were baggy and a bit stretchy, and they’d carry a lot of hydrium.

“Balloon,” I wheezed, and luckily she seemed to understand, because she stopped struggling and helped me peel the pants off. In the dark I worked as carefully and quickly as I could. I knotted both legs tightly at the ankles.

“This way,” I said, dragging her over to a hydrium vent. I felt its gush and held the harem pants, waist down, over it. Within seconds they were ballooning with gas. The pull started dragging me off my feet.

“Hold tight!” I gasped at Kate, guiding her hands to the waistband.

We rose very slowly, but up we floated, dangling beneath the ballooning harem pants. It was lucky we were slender, but even so our combined weight was almost too much for it. I kept pushing off against the walls with my bare feet, trying to give us a little more lift.

Lighter than air, I thought groggily, that’s our Mr. Cruse.

After a moment I felt our balloon nudge up against something, and we were no longer moving. We’d hit the top of the shaft. Now, where was the hatch? I kicked about with my feet until I hit something metal.

I prayed the hatch was not locked, but I could not recall seeing any bolt or bar on it. My lungs were ready to burst. I kicked harder, and the hatch jumped a bit, moonlight gilding the edges. I hoped the pirates had left us to our death, and we would not find them waiting for us. I’d need to kick harder to fling the hatch wide.

“Hold on,” I grunted to Kate.

I started swinging to get a bit of momentum then gave a big kick, and the hatch lurched open. Night. Sky. Air. The pent-up hydrium in the pit burst out in an eager rush, carrying Kate and me with it. Our harem-pants balloon bobbed us up out of the pit.

We collapsed on the ground, sucking air greedily. No pirates. I thought my lungs would never feel full. My heart clattered sickeningly. I looked at Kate; her lips were blue, her face white as cream. Slowly our bodies came back to themselves. I crawled over to where Kate’s pants had fallen and brought them back to her. Like a sleepwalker she pulled them back on over her knee-length cotton knickers. My body felt so heavy. Before my eyes, the night forest pulsed and shimmered. I closed the metal hatch; no sense giving notice we’d escaped.

Run, I thought. But I could not speak—I was still too short of breath. Back to the ship. Warn them. The pirates would be looking for them. We staggered into the trees. We were weak as newborn kittens—had the pirates been close at hand they could have lifted us by the scruffs of our neck and drowned us. I lurched along, Kate keeping pace at my side. Some part of my brain must have remembered the way. I was trying to calculate how long we had been gone. Since yesterday before noon. It was coming on dawn now. Almost eighteen hours. The ship might soon be refueled and repaired, ready to go aloft.

We moved, and kept moving. My feet felt shredded. Trees and leaves and birds blurred around us. It grew lighter. At the bank of a creek we crumpled together and drank. Neither of us could take another step.

“Just a few minutes,” I said. I put my forehead against the mossy ground and told myself I must not sleep, not yet. There would be sleep later, waiting for me in my cabin on the
Aurora
when we were aloft.

Kate was crying. She was shaking her head and dragging her hands over her face and saying it was all her fault Bruce Lunardi had been hurt, and the pirates knew about the ship now, and that she’d put us all in danger. I grabbed her hands and tried to calm her. But she shut her eyes so tightly her eyelids were just crinkled slits. She pulled her hands free, and her lips trembled and were wet with her tears.

I kissed her mouth.

I wanted to do it, so I did it.

She stopped crying and opened her eyes and looked at me.

“That kiss could get us both in a lot of trouble.”

“Worse than what we’re in?” I said.

“Do it again.”

I kissed her again, and for longer this time, and when she pulled back her head she was smiling. She looked off past me into the trees.

“That was very nice,” she said. “That was the second time I’ve been kissed.”

“You were kissed before?” I said jealously.

“Yes, just now by you, but I thought I’d count each time.”

I wanted to kiss her some more. I don’t know why, for there could be no less suitable time. Maybe it was pure relief that we were alive and away from the pirates. Maybe it was jealousy, because she and Bruce had seemed to get along so well. Mostly it was just because I wanted to, had wanted to for days.

“You ready?” I asked.

I was anxious to keep moving. I didn’t fancy another run-in with the cloud cat. We trudged on across the island, back toward the ship. My bare feet were raw and bleeding now, but it did not matter. All I wanted was to get back to the
Aurora
. I kept track of the time through the treetops, watching the rising sun.

“Hurry,” I said.

I was trying to feel the wind in the clearings, studying the edges of the clouds. The wind was right. The
Aurora
could take off without risk of being blown toward the island. She would have a good launch.

In another hour we reached the hydrium cave. The rubber hosing still ran out from the mouth into the forest, but there was no crew about. I wondered if this meant the ship had already been refilled. It made me nervous, seeing that hosing disappearing into the trees, like a trail leading straight to the
Aurora.

I squeezed Kate’s arm at the sound of footfalls. We huddled down among some thick ferns and held our breath. A thin pirate flashed through the forest, coming from the direction of the
Aurora.
He was a natural runner, his strides smooth and long, and he ducked and veered through the undergrowth like he was well used to the terrain. His breathing came in quick smooth bursts. I watched him disappear and waited until I could no longer hear the crunch of his feet on earth.

“Hurry,” I said to Kate. “He’s seen the ship.”

“How do you know?”

“He’s a scout. He’s going back to the village to tell them. They’ll send everyone.”

She looked a little ill.

“What time is it?” I asked her.

She checked her watch. “Half past nine.”

I didn’t want to waste time taking the easy path by the stream. We went downhill the fastest way I could think of, and it was steep and uncomfortable, bumping down on our bottoms, clutching hold of roots and creepers. From time to time I cast a wary eye into the higher branches, to see if the cloud cat was prowling above us.

Light filtered in from the open beach. The trees thinned. We came out into the palms and sand. The lagoon sparkled. There was the
Aurora
, and my heart swelled to see her looking so well, hovering in the miraculous way of airships, eight feet off the sand. Her frame had been repaired, and her rudder, and she looked as taut and full and well fed as a blue whale.

She was snugly tethered, but there was no one about, which made me nervous. Was she about to depart? But she couldn’t, not without ground crew ready to cast off the lines.

We had to warn them they’d been spotted. We had to leave at once.

Keeping to the palms, I led us closer toward the
Aurora
.

Her gangways were shut tight.

The control car was empty.

I looked across to the windows of the starboard passenger lounge.

A figure moved past the glass and I could see his face.

It was Szpirglas.

18

SHIP TAKEN

“Cruse.”

The voice reached us as a hiss from the trees. I whirled, expecting the worst, but instead saw Bruce Lunardi, hunched over, beckoning to us.

“I saw the whole thing,” he said.

We moved toward him, in among a thick screen of ferns and trees that completely shielded us from the
Aurora
. Bruce’s lips were unnaturally red in his pale face, his skin greasy with sweat. I looked at his leg and saw that it was still bleeding through the rough bandage he’d torn from his shirt. He looked terrible.

“Are you all right?” I asked him.

“I was worried about you two,” he said. He seemed anxious to explain. “When you distracted the cat, I ran until I was sure it wasn’t following. Then I stopped and went back a ways, to try to find you.”

“How’s your leg?” Kate asked. She glanced at me, looking worried.

“It started hurting pretty badly in the night,” Bruce said. “I’ll live. But listen. I should have stayed and helped you fight the cat. I did try to find you, but I didn’t want to call out. Then I thought I heard it moving around in the trees again, and it seemed pointless to wander. I started back for the ship.”

“That was sensible,” I said to reassure him. I wondered if he was a bit feverish.

Bruce shook his head. “I got lost on my way back, even with the compass, and then my leg was slowing me down so I had to rest all the time. By then it was nighttime, so I waited until first light. Didn’t get any sleep. All I heard were things moving around; it was deafening. Eventually dawn came and I found my way back to the beach.” He nodded toward the ship. “They got here just ahead of me.”

“You were lucky, then,” I said. “Those are Szpirglas’s men. They have a base on the other side of the island.”

“We spent a very pleasant night there,” said Kate. “I had the captain’s private cabin.”

Bruce looked at her as if he wasn’t sure she was telling stories or not. His face was so bewildered I felt sorry for him.

“We got away, but not fast enough,” I said. “What happened?”

“I was just about to walk out from the trees on this side. I could see some of our crew working on the ship, and then suddenly this other group appears, and they’re running and shouting and waving pistols.”

“How many?” I asked.

“Half dozen, maybe more. More I think. Szpirglas led them. They worked pretty fast. I backed up into the trees. The pirates held the crew at gunpoint, tied their hands behind their backs. They marched them inside, the crew in front as hostages and shields. They pulled the gangways up after them. There were a couple gunshots,” Bruce said, looking sick. “And then the starboard gangway opened for a second, and one of the pirates, a tall rangy fellow, went rushing out, back into the forest.”

“We saw him,” I said. “He’ll bring the rest.” If he was headed back to the pirate village, it would take at least six hours before they returned in full force. Unless they brought their airship.

I peered through the bamboo at the windows of the starboard lounge but could see nothing against the sun’s glare. I wondered if the pirates had gathered all their hostages in there.

“We’ve got to free them,” Kate said.

“Yes, but how is the question,” I said. “If the pirates spot us, they’ll kill us without blinking.”

“We must kill them first,” she said fiercely.

I looked at her in shock.

“They tried to kill us, Matt. They killed my grandfather. They’ll kill everyone on board—you know they will.”

She was right. I opened my mouth to speak, but nothing came out.

“If we can get to the captain’s cabin, we can get the ship’s gun,” Bruce said.

I shook my head. “It’s gone. They took it away the first time they boarded.”

“Then we’ll take some of theirs,” said Kate. “We’ll get inside and make some noise. They’ll send one man out to investigate. We wait for him. We whack him—”

“Whack him?” I said.

“Yes, bash him with something very hard, like a frying pan or a lug wrench, right in the skull.”

She said it with such ferocity, her hands balled into fists, that I winced.

“He’s knocked out, we tie him up, take his pistol, and then go in and surprise the other pirates and shoot them through the hearts.”

Bruce scratched at his chin and smiled. I looked at Kate and shook my head in disgust.

“Perhaps we could work in a little swordplay first,” I suggested. “You wouldn’t want to cut short your swashbuckling.”

“What’s the matter?” she said. “Are you saying it won’t work?”

“Do you have much experience, shooting a pistol?” I asked.

“How hard can it be?” She made a gun of her thumb and forefinger.

“Well, I’ve never fired a gun in my life,” I told her.

“I have,” said Bruce, and both Kate and I turned to him in surprise.

“In a shooting range,” he added with a sheepish grin. “I was a pretty lousy shot, actually. It’s trickier than it looks. I don’t know that I’d trust myself to shoot straight in a pinch.”

“Exactly. These men were shooting before they could walk. We’d be dead in a second.” My body felt hollow and weak. “I’m being honest. I don’t think I could shoot a man, even one as bad as Szpirglas.”

“I’m not so squeamish,” Kate said, and her expression frightened me.

“There must be other ways,” I said.

“The fact remains,” Kate said, “that we’ve got to separate these men from their guns, and I don’t see any other way to do that.”

“She’s right,” said Bruce, “about the whacking part at least. If we can lure them out one at a time, maybe we have a chance. Knock them out, tie them up, take away their guns.”

“You’re not in much shape to whack anybody,” I said.

“I’ve got some fight in me.”

“I’m sure you do, but I just don’t fancy our chances trading blows with pirates. Your leg’s chewed up.”

“Don’t you worry about that. And remember, I’ve got a few years on you,” he added pointedly.

“And thirty pounds, I know that. But I’m not about to go playing fisticuffs and pistols with pirates.”

“I’m also the senior member of crew here.”

I stared at him in amazement. “What are you saying, Bruce, that you should take charge?”

“By the books, yes.”

“Well, I don’t think we have any books on hand, and besides, you don’t know this ship like me. You’ve sailed on her three days, not three years.”

“I outrank you, it’s a fact.”

“Your rank’s bought and paid for,” I said, my teeth barely parting.

“This isn’t helping,” said Kate.

I rubbed my forehead hard.

“They think we’re dead in the hydrium pit,” I said. “We have surprise on our side. I know every inch of this ship. I’ve got a spare set of keys in my cabin. I get those, and we can go anywhere. I can open doors, lock them. If we can lure the pirates into certain cabins and bays, we can lock them up. Then we can free the officers and the captain and fly out of here before the other pirates arrive.”

“Ambitious,” said Bruce.

“We’ll probably still have to whack a few pirates,” Kate said.

“One or two if it makes you happy,” I told her. “But I don’t want to squander our surprise. Before we do anything, we need to get aboard and have a look around. We’re no use out here. I reckon in about six hours we’ll have the whole godforsaken crew of them aboard, and there’ll be no hope of escape then. Are we agreed?”

“Yes,” said Bruce.

“How do we get on board?” Kate asked.

“Tail fin.”

The
Aurora
’s stern was close to the water. We stayed buried in the trees off her starboard side and worked our way back until we were directly across from her fins. From here, we were almost out of sight from the passenger windows. We ran. Set into the bottom of the vertical tail fin was a rectangular hatch, about six feet off the ground. The landing gear gave me a foothold, and I heaved myself up onto the step and tried to open the hatch. To my huge relief, the handle turned, and I opened the hatch as smoothly and quietly as I could. I took a quick peek inside then climbed in.

Inside the narrow tail fin, I crouched on the metal catwalk, waiting for my breathing to calm. I listened. All was still. I turned back to the hatch, nodded, then reached down and helped Kate scramble up.

“All right?” I asked Bruce.

“Yep,” he said through tight lips. He used his good leg to get his footing and then pulled himself up. I helped him in. He was wincing. I didn’t like the look of his leg at all. The bandage was sodden with blood.

We were all inside. I slid the hatch silently shut. Light came from three portholes and from an electric lamp overhead. Oh, it was good to be aboard her again, even under these terrible circumstances. Just the feel of her around me cheered my heart.

The ship’s auxiliary control room was built right inside the bottom of the tail fin. If there was ever a breakdown in the main control car, the
Aurora
could be flown from back here. My eyes moved across all the rudimentary instruments and silent control panels arranged on either side of the cramped walkway. There was the elevator wheel and the rudder wheel. A gyro compass was positioned above the rudder, and there was an altimeter beside the elevator wheel. Ignition buttons, throttles. There was the ballast board with gauges telling you how much water you had and in which tanks. Over to one side was the gas board, telling you how full each of the twenty-six gas cells was. I peered up at them. The ship was ninety-nine percent full in all her cells. She was airtight and sound.

Bruce’s breathing was coming quick and fast.

“Let’s take a look at that wound,” Kate said.

Bruce just shook his head.

“Come on,” said Kate. “I won’t swoon.”

He unwound the bandage. Silently I sucked back air. It looked terrible. The cloud cat had raked his left calf with its claws and clamped its teeth around his ankle, sure enough. It was all red and inflamed and, more worrying, yellow from pus.

“We need some disinfectant for that,” I said, “and fresh bandages. I’ll try to get into the infirmary.”

“Shouldn’t I come as well?” Kate asked, and the look on her face was that of a small child, afraid to be left alone at night.

“I’ll be faster alone. Safer too. I want to find out where the pirates are, where they’ve got everyone. You two stay here.”

“What if someone comes?”

“Get out the hatch and back into the trees, all right?”

“What about you, if something happens to you?”

“Nothing’s going to happen to me. I know every inch of this ship. She’ll hide me. I’ll be fast.”

“Lighter than air,” Kate said, “is that right?”

“Lighter than air.”

She grabbed my hand and held it so tight for a moment I winced.

“It’ll be fine,” I said. “We’ll all be fine. Check the lockers down here. See what you can find. Maybe some rope and things for gagging them and tying them up…” It made me feel queasy even to think of what we must do.

“Good luck, Matt,” said Bruce.

Even now I felt a pang of jealousy leaving them alone together. But I could still feel the imprint of Kate’s hand upon mine.

There was only one way out of the tail fin, and that was a tall ladder that angled steeply up to the keel catwalk. I took it silently, and before my head came level with the corridor, I stopped and listened. I pressed my ear to the metal and waited for vibrations. There were none. I tipped my eyes over the rim and looked.

The keel catwalk stretched forward, lit overhead by electric lamps. It was clear. I climbed up and started running. My bare feet made no noise. I kept my head cocked, listening, breathing silently. I liked being alone. No one’s eyes on me, expecting me to make things right. Just me and the ship. The
Aurora
’s intricate anatomy scrolled before my mind’s eye. I knew every passageway, every hatchway, every crawl space and vent.

Quickly I made my way to the crew quarters. I put my ear to the door of my cabin and listened before opening it and slipping inside. My keys hung from a hook by the mirror. I pocketed them. For a moment I didn’t want to leave. It was my room. I looked at my bunk. Part of me wanted to crawl into it and pull the covers over my head and sleep and pretend that everything was all right. On the wall by my pillow were the pictures of my mother and sisters and father. I’ll be fine, I told myself.

Running again, forward along the catwalk. If I kept going, I’d end up at the door to the passenger quarters. There might be a pirate stationed there, since it was near the exit gangways. How was I to get to A-Deck? I had a hunch that Szpirglas would assemble everyone in the starboard lounge. It was the biggest reception room on board, and it made sense to keep all his hostages in one place where he could guard them most easily.

I paused and thought. I couldn’t risk creeping around A-Deck, but I could spy down on it from the roof. I’d need to get on top of the passenger quarters, and the only way to get to it was from overhead.

I hurried along to one of the ladders leading up to the axial catwalk. Up I went, wary. Even with the sun high in the sky, it was shadowy along the catwalk, though the outer skin of the ship gave off a luminous moonlight glow, its silver surface reflecting the sun.

Axial catwalk, clear. I stopped at a supply locker, took a harness and coil of rope, and slung it over my shoulder. Forward I went, the walls of the gas cells puckering and sighing all around me. I stopped. I was now directly over A-Deck. Far below me I could see the ceiling. I tied one end of my line to the side of the catwalk and gingerly climbed over the railing in my harness.

Like a spider I dropped, straight down, spinning out my line as I went. Down through this shimmering mango-scented canyon. Gently I touched down on the roof of A-Deck. The bottoms of the gas cells hung only a few feet above, and I had to get down on my knees to move about. Any loud noise might be heard below. I figured I was over the gymnasium—not likely anyone was exercising right now. I shrugged myself clear of the harness. It did make me feel claustrophobic, the hydrium bags hovering above me, rustling against my back as I crawled beneath them.