Skykeep (11 page)

Gunner picked the revolver back up and spun
the chamber, popping it open and fishing a fresh bullet from his
pocket to reload. As he did, he chatted idly. “This is my favorite
medium-caliber weapon, Matthews. Small enough to conceal, powerful
enough to be devastating to a person, and even a bit of a threat to
machinery. I’ve made sure every member of the crew has one.
Everyone except Nita. She never did embrace the firearm as readily
as she might have.” He snapped the weapon shut. “Are you
certain
you didn’t hear anything before or after the
explosion?”

“Th-there was nothing to hear.”

Gunner nodded. “Captain’s been talking to the
mayor. I understand you’ve been a real help to him. A liaison
between him and the other miners.”

“I do what I can,” he said.

“And what did you do
before
?”

“What does that have to do with—”

“The mayor says you were in charge of a pilot
crew at a little repair pier about seventy miles south of Keystone.
You’d bring damaged ships down into the fug for the fuggers to
repair. Obviously, since you’re here, you lost your right to do
such things… for some reason or another. But you had
plenty
of contact with the fuggers before that happened. Plenty of
contact, and plenty of contacts.”

“That was a long time ago,” he said.

“So very long ago. … Let me ask you this,
Matthews. If I were to walk you to your home right now, would I
find your bags packed?”

“I’m not comfortable—”

“Any reason you bought a ticket on a ferry
out to Clemens Isle, but no return ticket?”

“How do you know—”

“The mayor has been very helpful. He and the
captain are rather friendly. Clemens Isle is the closest airport
that passenger dirigibles are willing to make stops at, I
recall.”

“I’m visiting family in Keystone.”

“I’m sure.”

“Listen, if you are going to accuse me of
something, just come right out and say it.”

“I think you’re working with the fuggers. I
think you either conspired with them to kill my friends or
conspired with them to cover it up. But there is
no
reason
for you to want those women dead and there is
every
reason
for the fuggers to want them dead, and as a man who moved from a
cushy career to a back-breaking one on their whims, I’ve got to
imagine you’d do just about anything to get back in their good
graces. I don’t know what the truth is, but I know for certain that
it isn’t what’s come out of your mouth thus far.”

Matthews was silent, sweat trickling down his
brow.

Gunner continued. “I’m going to explain
something to you right now, Matthews. You know the two women you
escorted into that mine and did
not
escort back out? The
little one was a woman named Chastity Cooper. Her older brother is
on our ship right now. I’m going to ask you some questions, and I
want honest answers. If I get them, you can go on your way and do
whatever you choose. Might I recommend you choose to hide from us,
because even though we’ve got bigger fish to fry at the moment, it
doesn’t mean you’re safe from the skillet. If I don’t get honest
answers, you’ll be meeting the man who blames you for burying his
sister. As frightening as you might find these guns, Coop will be
using his bare hands, and between the two of us, I think your
better chance is with me.”

Matthews looked around. There was nothing
quite like a gunshot to bring a handful of drunks back to their
wits. Almost every resident of Lock had a bone to pick with the fug
folk, and if Gunner’s accusations were true, they now had a bone to
pick with Matthews. Half of them would hate him because a bone
deep, bitter hatred of the fug folk had been brewing for years and
anyone who worked with them was an excellent target for that
hostility. The other half would hate him out of envy of the fact he
had managed to find a way back to the life from which they had been
forced.

“May I do this outside?” he said quietly.

“If you think it will help,” Gunner said,
letting Matthews lead the way.

As though they had arranged it, the captain and
Gunner arrived at the
Wind Breaker
at the same time. Eight
hours had passed since the explosion.

“What’ve we got?” both men asked the
other.

“You first,” ordered the captain.

“Sure enough, Matthews was in on it, and the
fug folk are behind it. He was kept in the dark about the details,
but he was told that there would be an explosion once Nita was
nearly through with the repair, and that he was to keep her inside
the chamber until it happened. He got paid piles of money and has
had his repair privileges reinstated in exchange for what he did.
He may not have killed Nita and Lil with his own hands, but he was
handsomely rewarded for making sure it happened,” Gunner explained
quickly.

“So where you got him tied up?” called a
voice from above as the gig began to lower.

Standing in the lowering gig like an avenging
angel descending from heaven was Coop. He wore no coat and had a
pair of rifles strapped to his back, a pair of pistols on his hips,
and a cruel pair of brass knuckles on each hand.

“I let him go. It was the only way to get the
full story,” Gunner said, looking up to Coop.

The deckhand didn’t wait for the gig to touch
down. He leaped from the boat and came down hard on Gunner,
knocking him to the ground. Coop stood over the downed armory
officer and grabbed a handful of his shirt, stooping down and
hauling him face to face.

“You telling me that pile of filth killed my
sister and our engineer and you let him go?” He pulled a pistol
with his free hand and put it to Gunner’s cheek. “I always knew you
didn’t respect me and Lil, but I figured even
you
would know
better’n to get between a man and the man who killed his kin…”

Gunner drew one of his pistols and pushed it
into Coop’s ribs. “Coop, you put that gun away or Butch is going to
have a hell of a time finding enough pieces of you to stitch
together into something fit for a coffin.”

“That’s enough, boys,” the captain said, as
though they were nothing more than two disobedient children who
wouldn’t put away their toys before dinner. “No one’s killing
anybody for anything right now, because Lil and Nita ain’t dead. At
least, not from the explosion.”

“How do you know that?” Coop said, dropping
Gunner with a thump.

The drop caused Gunner to whack his head on
the ground. It also caused him to fire the gun, fortunately after
it was pointed harmlessly over the city rather than at Coop’s
chest. The sudden sound startled Coop, who in turn fired his own
gun, in his case into the pier beside Gunner’s head.

“You boys want to put your guns away before
we do the fuggers’ job for them?” Captain Mack said wearily.

“Sorry, Cap’n,” Coop said, holstering his
weapon and helping Gunner to his feet. “You sure the girls are
alive?”

“No. But I’m sure the boiler, or whatever
else blew that mine to hell, didn’t do them in. The rescue crews
have got the place cleared out pretty good. Didn’t find a drop of
blood or a shred of clothing. But they did find plenty of rope and
climbing equipment.”

“… You reckon the girls went climbing?” Coop
said, anger replaced by confusion.

“No, Coop, I reckon someone climbed up and
got them,” the captain said.

“And if Matthews was getting paid off by the
fuggers, no doubt they’re the ones who got them,” Gunner said.

“That seems about right,” the captain said.
“Anyone come sniffing around the pier while we were gone?”

“Nope, but I fired some shots all the same.
Wanted folks to know I was serious.”

“If you were firing shots at nothing, I’d be
more inclined to assume you are insane,” Gunner said.

“Either way, it’ll make folks think twice
about getting too close,” Coop countered.

“Fair enough.”

They all stepped into the gig while Coop
scrambled up the chain and activated the winch to haul them up into
the ship.

“So what do we do now?” Gunner asked.

“I’m still chewing that one over, but I know
for sure we’re not doing it here. This whole town’s got the stink
of fug on it now. The mayor seems straight and narrow enough, but
he’s got the wool over his eyes when it comes to who in his staff
is trying to romance the fuggers into giving them back the right to
pay an arm and a leg to get their ship fixed up. We’re good and
stocked when it comes to food, fuel, and phlogiston, so I say we
get moving. Sitting in port is making my skin crawl.”

“Why do I have the feeling that as soon as we
get away from the city some ship or another is going to open fire
on us?” Gunner said.

“Because you been at this long enough to know
what to expect, that’s why. But roundabout now I could use a little
ship-to-ship shooting. Feel like I got my hands tied not knowing
where them girls are at.”

“We can’t afford to take any serious damage
without Nita on the crew,” Gunner said. “And there wasn’t much ammo
to be had in town, so we’re still low on fléchettes.”

“Well then, that means three things, doesn’t
it?” the captain said. “You better make sure we take out any
attackers before they do any damage, we better make every shot
count, and you better start explaining why after four months
neither of you know how to fix us up. I know for a fact Nita’s been
putting you through the paces.”

“I tried, Cap’n,” Coop said. “That stuff just
don’t fit in my head too easy. Takes a lot of tosses before it
sticks good and tight. I could slap a patch on the envelope if
needs be, and I’m pretty fair at fiddling with the pipes, but once
we get into valves and such I’m… well, I’m a bit slow is all.”

“That much we know about you, Coop,” Gunner
said.

“And what’s your excuse, Gunner?”

“I’ve been a bit distracted with the gear we
liberated from the warehouse. And that’s paid off in the form of
better cannons, better deck guns, and better firearms, mind
you.”

“And a fat lot of good any of that will do us
if we rupture the boiler and need to rebuild half the system,” the
captain said.

“I can give it a try, but as Nita’s pointed
out more than once, I’m more adept at blowing things apart than
putting them together. Plus…”

“Plus what? You got more excuses?”

“I don’t think I’m the only one who’s been
seeing that look in Nita’s eye since the beginning. We all knew
ever since that first wailer skirmish she wasn’t going to be a
short-timer on this crew. She had the skill to make herself useful
and
to keep herself alive. I think we can all agree she fit
into this crew like she was the missing piece we didn’t realize we
were missing.”

“It’s true. Nita has the sky in her blood
now. She’s here to stay,” Coop said.

The captain nodded. “Well, now it’s up to us
to keep ourselves alive and to get our missing pieces back. From
this moment, we’re assuming they’re alive and working just as hard
to get back to us as we are to get them back.”

“How are we going to get them back if we
don’t even know where they went?” Gunner asked.

Suddenly Coop became very still. “We do know
where they went.”

“What are you talking about?” Gunner
said.

“They went down that shaft. You said there
was climbing gear. The fuggers took them down that shaft.”

“Well obviously, but I don’t think they’re
still down there, Coop. The fuggers probably loaded them up onto a
ship and brought them heaven knows where.”

“But they brought them
from
there. If
we’re going to find somebody, where else we gonna start but from
where we
know
they must have been?”

“Are you suggesting we should climb down that
shaft until we strike fug, then find our way out the way the
fuggers came in?”

“I’m not suggesting you do it. I’m telling
you I’m fixing to do it.”

“That’s going to be a hell of a climb, Coop,”
the captain said.

“Before you snagged us for your crew, Lil and
me was tending a herd on the plateaus, remember? We had to climb
half a mountain just to get home for supper.”

“Climbing a mountain and climbing a mine are
two different things, Coop. You’ll be climbing in cramped space,
and in the dark.”

“I don’t know what kind of shepherds you
talked to, but round my parts we didn’t climb our way back home
until after sundown. And if things is cramped, that just means
there’ll be plenty to grab hold of if I slip,” Coop said.

Captain Mack and Gunner looked at one
another.

“What’ll we do when he gets down there?”
Gunner said.

“Fix him up with some of them phlo-flares you
rigged up. When he sets off down the hole, we’ll take the
Wind
Breaker
down into the fug. When he gets out, he’ll set off a
flare, and we’ll fetch him up.”

“I’m not sure either of you are thinking this
through…”

“Do you want to get them girls back or not?”
Coop growled.

“I
absolutely
want to get those girls
back, but I feel obligated to be the level head in this scenario.
What exactly is the outcome we are looking for? Either we’ll get
down there and the trail will be cold, or we’ll get down there and
we’ll find fuggers waiting for us.”

“If we find a cold trail that just means we
spent that time doing nothing, which is what we’re already doing,
and if we find us some fuggers, then either we’ll ask real nice
what they done with the girls or else we’ll kill them, which would
make for a real nice start to this rescue mission, regardless,” the
captain said.

Gunner considered the words. “Fair
enough.”

“Coop, you suit up with everything you need
to get down that shaft, plus everything you need to persuade a few
fuggers to be polite and obliging if needs be. Gunner, give him
some flares. Once you’re on your way, I’ll get the mayor to give
his best guess on where that shaft punched through to the fug, and
we’ll be as near to it as the wind will allow. But make sure you
get us unmoored first. With them girls gone and you in the hole,
we’re going to be running mighty light on crew.”