The Ghost Rebellion (35 page)

“
Ladies, please,” Wellington said, before violence broke out. He then looked up in the direction of where the troops had gone. “No gunfire. A good sign, yes?”

“
Could be the calm before the storm,” Eliza replied, drawing her pounamu pistols.

“
Or merely a tempest in a teacup,” Sophia said.

Maulik waved a finger at the ladies, and surprisingly they subsided before punches were thrown.

Relieved, Wellington led the way into the empty training carriage. It had its walls down on the ground, acting as ramps that bridged the damaged landscape underneath. He proceeded down the platform, out of the car, and into the courtyard of Jal Mahal palace. They had missed the centre by a few hundred feet, emerging from one of the four grassy quadrants that surrounded a central octagon. Each corner of the Water Palace was decorated with domed pavilions,
chhatri
in Indian architecture.

“
Charming spot, Jal Mahal,” Maulik said, trundling up alongside Wellington, “for gatherings or ambushes.”

“
No one here, Agent Books,” came O’Neil, appearing from behind one of the Palace’s stone pillars. “Nothing out of the ordinary. I’ll have my men take position.”

“
Something’s not right,” Wellington muttered.

Eliza looked up to him. “What are you seeing that I am not, love?”

“
Nothing, and that is what scares me.” He looked around the entirety of the Water Palace. “Vania had a good four-hour head start. Even with delays from the Railway Company, I am sceptical.”

“
You don’t believe that maybe we’ve just hit on a stroke of good luck?” Eliza asked. “We actually beat Vania here…”

Wellington gave her a crooked smile. “Darling, if you really believed in good luck, you would have holstered your sidearms by now.”

Eliza looked down at her weapons, then to Wellington. “I do hate it when you’re right.”

“
We have the ElectriFlux that Agent Strickland designed,” Maulik said, approaching from across the courtyard. “If the Ghost Rebellion appears, it should give us a few moment’s notice.”

“
Director!” a voice called from behind them in the courtyard.

“
Yes, Agent Gadhavi,” Maulik said, “what have you got for me?”

“
We just connected the leads to Strickland’s device,” the young man said, “when everything in its display lit up.”

“
Have you had time to calibrate it?”

“
Sir, I would not know where to begin calibrating this thing. I just wanted to get it to work.”

“
No, this is all too easy,” Wellington said. “Sophia, what were Nahush’s orders to Vania?”

“
She was sent ahead to place the targeting system for the electroporter.”

He shook his head. “What were his exact words?”

She furrowed her brow, and twisted her mouth. “He needed her to travel to Jal Mahal and prepare it for their arrival.”

Wellington looked around again, the growing dread in him now turning into a full-fledged panic. “Damn.”

“
What is it, Books?” Maulik asked.

“
Vania didn’t come to the Water Palace to set a targeting device,” he said, catching the faint scent of copper in the air. “She came here to make the Water Place itself a targeting device.”

Eliza saw what he was getting at immediately. “Call back your men!”

Maulik pressed a yellow button in the left arm of his chair, and a high-pitched whistle sounded twice. From surrounding alcoves came the scuffing of boots against stone.

“
Director,” Gadhavi began, “what about you?”

“
Do not leave his side,” Wellington insisted.

No sooner were the words out of his mouth than a crackle of white energy joined the corner pavilions and the main chhatri, creating an arc of light that circled the perimeter. The bolt of electricity froze there for several seconds before a sudden breeze swept through the courtyard. The branches of energy and light began to multiply, creating a blinding chain around the battlements of the Water Palace. Faster and faster the tendrils wound around them until light swept through the corridors encircling the courtyard. With a deafening thunderclap, the glare exploded, tossing the handful of men and women sprinting into the courtyard forward. They were the Ministry agents and cavalry that had heard the Director’s call.

Wellington could see O’Neil helping those around him up to their feet. “Make for the train!” he cried out.

When the blast finally dissipated, he quickly took stock of their numbers. Combined, they now only numbered twenty-six. The electroporter was a two-way device, and the rebels had used that to their advantage, ripping away over half of their enemies in one strike.

In fleeting moments, Wellington saw they had gone from possessing the upper-hand in numbers, munitions, and tactical advantage, to taking a final stand in the centre of a killing box.

Chapter Fourteen

Wherein an Audience Is Held

Around them echoed the footsteps of what they knew to be the Ghost Rebellion. Wellington could not be certain if this was Nahush’s phantom army in their entirety, but it was a good number of fighters, to be sure. With their limited ranks now huddled by the mole train, it would not be a final stand so much as a massacre. Their massacre.

They were well within sights of rifles. They had to be. So far, no one was daring to shoot.

“
We can try to get back inside the train,” Eliza offered up, her eyes tight on him. “Hold out from there.”

“
To what end? Provided we can get inside before being picked off like targets in a shooting gallery, any stand we make is our last.”

“
What about following the tunnel we made to get here?” Sophia asked, her grip tightening on her own pistol.

“
Yes, a clever thought,” Maulik said, “but there is the matter of that forty to fifty feet of distance between us and where the tunnel levels out.”

Ranks of soldiers lined up, three deep and ten in length, at the far end of the courtyard. Moments later, Nahush Kari emerged from the perimeter. His tall, broad figure was hard to miss, but from where Wellington remained sheltered, the rebel’s expression was impossible to read. Even harder to read was Vania Pujari, accompanying her true commander as they walked along the ranks.

It shouldn’t have been a shock, but for a moment Wellington could have sworn it was Ihita. He could only imagine what Eliza might be thinking.

Sophia’s eyes narrowed on the open corridors immediately across from their train. “We could make for that junction. It’s close and there are not as many soldiers.”

“
No need to flank us” Eliza added. “They have at least four guns to our one.”

“
More importantly,” Wellington said, “why haven’t they opened fire, be done with us?”

“
Wellington Thornhill Books,” Nahush called out, his voice echoing across the courtyard. “I seek an audience.”

All eyes slowly turned to Wellington.

He patted his left breast pocket. Excellent, he still had a few announcement cards there.

“
Pull your men back from here,” Wellington began, “and I will gla—”

A gunshot thundered in the courtyard, and a soldier next to O’Neil crumpled.

Maulik quickly hissed, “Do not return fire! Hold, everyone! Hold!”

“
Mister Books,” Nahush stated, “you are in no position to dictate terms, and I do not like to be kept waiting.”

Wellington nodded to Eliza. She pointed her own pistol to the corridor across from them, and fired. A rebel slumped over the low stone wall.

“
And you, sir, have chosen the oddest time and place to demand a social call,” Wellington said. “I suggest you indulge me.”

Eliza pulled back the hammer of her pistols during the silence. As much as Wellington loved chess, he did so hate stalemates.

Nahush finally spoke up, and Wellington took in a breath. “
Quid pro quo
it is then.”

“
Pull your people out of this junction, and I will gladly hold an audience with you.”

Time crawled by. Nahush Kari was the kind of gentleman, apparently, who did not believe in giving any quarter to an opponent. “Come along,” Wellington whispered, “how badly do you want this audience?”

The revolutionaries holding the junction across from them pulled back their weapons, and disappeared from view.

“
Ready when you are, Mister Books,” Nahush called.

“
When you find a moment to get to that junction, Director,” Wellington said, “do not hesitate.”

“
Are you seriously going off to entertain this known anarchist?” Maulik asked.

“
I am a gentleman. I keep my word.”

“
You are gallant to the point of stupidity, Welly, do you know that?” Eliza snapped, locking her hand on his wrist. “I’m coming with you.”

“
Really?” he asked. “You think you are just going to saunter along with me, up to the leader of the Ghost Rebellion?”

“
Actually,” Sophia said, “Eliza will be to your right. I will be to your left.”

“
Now just a moment—” Wellington protested.

“
Books,” Maulik interrupted, “Kari is waiting.”

His eyes jumped between Eliza and Sophia. For two women who loathed one another, they really were two peas in a pod. Quite insufferable.

With a final glance over his suit, just to make sure he was presentable, Wellington looked over their small number, tipped his bowler to them, and then started across the courtyard.

“
What’s your plan, Welly?” Eliza said, holstering her pistols.

“
Working on one,” he replied.

“
Quite quickly, I hope,” Sophia muttered.

The three of them remained quiet as they closed their distance with Nahush and his army. Wellington reached into his coat pocket and produced one of his announcement cards. Holding it between two fingers, he presented it to one of the most wanted men in the Empire.

“
How civilised,” Nahush said, holding up Wellington’s card.

“
Nahush Kari,” Wellington said, clearing his throat and elevating his chin slightly, “I suppose there is no way I, as an appointed agent of Her Majesty the Queen of England and Empress of India, could convince you to surrender peacefully?”

“
Let me see now,” he said, tapping the announcement card in his open palm. “On account of the electroporter I have the English outnumbered four to one…”

“
Well done, that.”

“
Thank you. I was rather proud of that tactic myself.” When Nahush smiled, Wellington thought it suited him. “So, considering the circumstances, I think not.”

“
Right then.” He glanced to either side of him, both ladies looking at him in anticipation. “So much for Plan A.”

“
That,”
Sophia whispered, “was your plan?”

“
Keeping it simple,” he replied. “Sometimes, simplicity is the best plan.”

“
I am siding emphatically with the Italian on this one,” Eliza said with an angry shake of her head.

“
Please,” Nahush implored softly, “stop.”

“
I am hoping you and I can reach a peaceful resolution to this. We are, after all, part of the Empire,” Wellington insisted.

Nahush’s eyebrows rose. “You truly believe that? Even when you see how we are segregated in our own country, exploited for our resources, and repeatedly denied our own culture and prosperity, you still believe we are all part of some glorious utopia?” He closed in on Wellington, staring deep into his eyes.

Wellington found it difficult to hold the soldier’s gaze. He believed in the idea. The reality was very different.

“
So I thought,” Nahush said.

“
Is that why you betrayed the Ministry then?” Eliza, her voice carrying an edge as sharp as one of Sophia’s blades, asked Vania. “Your friends, your colleagues, did you think of their families when you planned on killing them?”

“
No more than the Ministry thought of mine,” she replied, her voice low but angry.

“
Hard to know what Ihita would say, considering—”

“
She wanted what I want—a free India.”

Wellington was trying desperately to keep his attention on Nahush and Vania, but something beyond the obvious was very wrong. The Ghost Rebellion, as Nahush had successfully done, held a clear advantage.

“
So what exactly are you waiting for?” Sophia blurted out. The tirade between Eliza and Vania stopped abruptly. Nahush kept his own gaze fixed on Wellington as she continued. “You’re here. We’re here. Can we just move things along?”

“
You could have gunned us down without a fuss after you arrived,” Wellington stated, “but instead you call for an audience?”

Eliza looked to Vania, then to Nahush. “And we’ve been posturing like peacocks. Why?”

Movement from behind the ranks stole Wellington’s gaze from Nahush. Four soldiers, armed only with large jugs, appeared from the open corridors of the Water Palace. He could see inside the containers gallons upon gallons of water sloshing back and forth.

Then came the slight man in their wake, dressed in a fashion proper for India. Linen suit. Pith helmet. High boots. Tinted spectacles that stood out in stark contrast against his own pale skin. In each of his hands he carried two sturdy cases. Wellington recognised them at a glance from his time collecting insects. They were designed for delicate work in collecting specimens, be those specimens fauna or floral.

“
Oh, look at you,” Dr Henry Jekyll gasped. “Even with our little dust-ups these recent years, we have been ships in the night. I never expected to see you again.”