Unobtainium 1: Kate on a Hot Tin Roof (24 page)

‘Relations across the border are not exactly friendly. If they do it will go to London, then to Berlin, and then out again, which may take days. We should be able to find the Count before anyone on that side is aware of us.’

‘Then I wish you luck,’ Meja said. ‘I think Ngai will smile upon this enterprise of yours, even though you are not Agikuyu.’

30
^th
August.

‘Any sign of pursuit?’ Charles asked as he walked back into the gondola’s cockpit after starting up the generator which powered the two rear fans.

‘As yet, none,’ Antonia replied. She stood at one of the forward windows with binoculars watching for evidence that anyone had noticed them sneaking out of the hotel. ‘However, Kate has better eyes than I in the dark.’

Nodding, Charles wound a lever on the console several times and then pressed on a button. ‘Kate, do you see anything?’

There was a short pause and then Kate’s voice crackling over the telephone device from the top deck. ‘Nothing as yet. We may be noticed leaving, however. I see lights on in town.’

‘That cannot be helped. Come below. I mean to make all speed away from here as soon as we have gained some height.’

By the time Kate had negotiated the ladder from the top of the envelope and walked through to the cockpit, they were at three thousand feet, still climbing, and the airspeed indicator said they were travelling at two hundred miles per hour.

‘How fast can this thing go?’ Kate asked, peering over Charles’s shoulder.

‘She’s rated for five hundred miles per hour,’ Charles replied, ‘but that kind of speed is not especially recommended. Once we have the lake below us I shall be cutting back. We could easily reach our destination by early afternoon.’

‘No,’ Antonia said. ‘I believe our best course of action will be to camp in the region of Lake Tanganyika. We will overnight there and then proceed to the northern part of the plateau in the morning. We will have need of good light and we may well be required to move slowly to spot our destination.’

Charles gave a nod. ‘A leisurely cruise then. We can drop a drag tether and sit out the night over the lake. There should be less chance of us being disturbed and we have rations.’

Kate looked down at the leathers she was wearing; Antonia had put on trousers and a shirt to make their escape as well, given that there might have to be running. ‘I believe I will change. I suspect I will be wearing these clothes again soon, but something more civilised seems appropriate for a cruise.’

Antonia smiled at her and turned to follow. ‘I believe I will join you. We do want to look pretty for our handsome pilot.’

At the wheel, Charles pulled himself up straighter and lifted his chin, even if he was blushing.

~~~

‘It’s… enormous,’ Kate said. Around them the vast open water of Lake Victoria seemed to stretch out forever in all directions. They were back up on the observation deck now; Charles had dropped their speed considerably, but the wind of their passage still cut through her light blouse with ease.

‘Perhaps two hundred and fifty miles on the long axis,’ Antonia told her. ‘We would now be in German territory had we not taken the land from them a decade ago. From here we turn south and west. In a few hours we will reach another lake which
does
remain in German hands.’

‘Lake Tanganyika, where we will pause for the night. Is there danger of us being seen?’

‘Little danger. The lake is not a good place to be at night and we will be moving again by dawn.’

Kate gave a nod. ‘The vastness of this place still amazes me. I spent so long within the confines of my father’s house. For the most part in but one room. Rhidorroch seemed so open in comparison. I could walk for hours at a time without leaving the bounds of the estate. But here… I could walk for days and never see the end of it.’

‘This place, this Dark Continent of Africa, is… primal, so basic and harsh in its environment, so vital and, yes, vast. I believe that is what draws me here. One can become lost in the enormity of it. There is human history beyond the oldest of events in Britain. Mister Darwin believes that men began here in Africa.’

‘Truly?’

‘There are competing theories. A German biologist believes it was Asia, but the weight of evidence begins to favour Darwin. Of course, the religiously inclined have stated that must mean that Eden is somewhere here, waiting to be found. There are many tales of hidden kingdoms full of treasure or artefacts beyond our wildest dreams. I am content with the wild quality of this land.’

‘The freedom?’ Kate grinned at her friend and stepped closer, looping an arm around Antonia’s slim waist.

‘The freedom, yes. You are a bad, bad girl, but then… I believe that one of the creatures Cooper utilised in his experiments was a black panther and they hail from the environs of Mount Kenya. We may all have stemmed from here, but there is more of Africa in you than in others.’

Kate gave a giggle which became a low growl as her canines grazed lightly across the skin of Antonia’s neck. The older woman let out a soft moan which went almost unheard as the wind whipped it away.

‘I believe,’ Kate whispered, ‘that there is more than a little wild Africa in you, Antonia Wooster. Tonight, when we have retired to our cabin and the lights are out, I shall come to your bed and we shall see how wild you are.’

‘Kate…’ Antonia began to pull away, but Kate tightened her grip and there was no denying her greater strength.

‘I have a fear that this place may cost us dearly, Antonia. Before we venture on this last part of our journey I will not deny myself one last pleasure, and I would have you join me. But I would never force this upon you. If you truly do not wish it…’

Antonia lowered her face. ‘I wish it. I should not, but I do. For I have that same fear. I am not sure that we will all return from this expedition.’

31
^st
August.

Lake Mweru was behind them and the rise of the Kundelungu Plateau just ahead. Trees covered the majority of the escarpment, but the topography below them was quite obvious, and there was no sign of any encampment visible.

‘Will we see it, even when we are close by?’ Kate asked as she peered across the landscape through binoculars.

‘We can but hope that we do,’ Antonia replied. ‘And before we are seen, for preference.’ She stood at the other side of the front window of the gondola, though she watched more ahead than to that side. ‘Take us along the ridge, Charles, as slowly as possible.’

Charles gave a nod, pulling back on the lever which controlled the engines and turning the ship until it was flying almost due south. ‘I rely on you, ladies, to inform me of dangers. There is something of a crosswind and I am obliged to pay more attention than I would like to maintaining our heading.’

After an hour, Kate took over at the wheel to allow Charles to rest for a while as the strain of keeping the airship going in the right direction was beginning to take a toll. As midday neared, however, the wind subsided and Charles took a few minutes to eat before assuming control again. With binoculars glued over their eyes, Antonia and Kate ate sandwiches, and the ship sailed on, ever southward.

‘Kate?’ Antonia said not long after, her tone curious. ‘Do you see the edge of the plateau ahead?’

Kate turned her binoculars forward. It was as if someone had taken a huge bite out of the rock. Rather than the relatively straight line the cliff had been following, perhaps a mile ahead of them there was a bowl cut into the side of it.

‘Strange,’ Kate said. ‘One might think some monster crunched into the rock. Or perhaps a giant struck it with some vast hammer.’

‘I see nothing out of the ordinary nearby. We should observe carefully as we pass by it.’

Kate nodded and was about to return her gaze to the plateau when something caught her eye. She frowned, not sure what had attracted her attention, and then she saw it, something moving, she thought, though straight at them and therefore difficult to see. ‘What is that?’ she asked, pointing towards the object.

There was a second of delay while Antonia located what Kate had seen and attempted to identify it. ‘I am not… Charles! Hard to port! It’s some form of projectile!’

Charles yanked the wheel to the left and the airship began to turn, but by then it was too late. The object, streaming a tail of white smoke, punched through the envelope and then the entire front of the airship was dissolving into flame.

‘The bulkhead should keep it from the other lifting bags,’ Charles shouted, ‘but we are losing altitude and if they fire another of those rockets we will be done for.’

‘Steer us away from the depression,’ Antonia ordered. ‘Kate, you’ll come with me and gather as much of our essentials as possible. We will be required to strike out on foot from here and I believe that we will be needing our weapons.’

‘Go quickly. I cannot keep us airborne for more than a few minutes.’

It did not take long to grab what they needed. Kate took the weapons: Antonia’s rifle and pistol, and her own rifle and sword. Antonia went for a few provisions and other supplies. Both of them had dressed in the expectation of action that morning, and it appeared that they were not to be disappointed. They were about to return to the cockpit when Charles came running into the mid-section compartments.

‘Grab onto something!’ he yelled, and then they were lurching forward and right as the gondola impacted with the trees.

The Man Who Would Be Kaiser

Luizi Compound, Kundelungu Plateau, Africa, 1
^st
September 1920.

There were voices. Kate could not understand what they were saying, but she had learned the sound of German and that was what she was hearing. There were people near to her, on her right, speaking quietly in German. That did not seem like a good thing, but there were other problems which seemed worse.

From the feel of cotton against her skin, she was naked beneath a sheet. There was, however, a tightly fitted belt around her waist, and her wrists were secured in some form of padded cuff at roughly waist height. Her legs were separated; her ankles were perhaps a foot apart and also held firmly in place. Movement was a very limited option so she remained still, her eyes closed, and waited.

The voices moved away and she opened her eyes. She was in a room, the ceiling whitewashed and the walls of bare wood. Despite the basic construction, it still seemed to have the general feel of an infirmary, and the fact that Charles and Antonia occupied beds on either side of her tended to confirm the impression. Neither of them moved and they seemed to be unconscious. On the other hand, they were lying in hospital beds, which presumably meant they were alive. Kate remembered the crash, being thrown against a wall, and then nothing until waking up. She assumed her friends had been thrown around as she was, possibly worse. They could all have been badly hurt.

She was about to attempt to call out, as quietly as might be sufficient to rouse one of her sleeping compatriots, when she heard a movement and lifted her head. There was a guard stationed at the door and he had noticed her looking around. Now he stepped to the door, opened it and called out. ‘Herr Doktor, das Mädchen wach.’

A man appeared a second or two later, moderately tall and perhaps forty. There was no grey in his short, black hair, but his eyes looked weary, as though he had seen too much. He wore a white coat which implied that he was a doctor if the title had not.

‘You are with us once more,’ he said, managing a smile. ‘I am Doctor König. You suffered a mild concussion in the crash. Your companions have yet to awaken, but both are healthy. The Count was quite concerned that all three of you recover.’

‘Perhaps he should not have shot us down,’ Kate suggested.

‘There was no way of knowing who was aboard the airship until you were found in the wreckage. He was… disconcerted by the discovery and made it extremely clear that you were not to die of your injuries.’

Well, they
had
gone to some trouble to get their hands on her in London. Now that they had her, it would undoubtedly have been an annoyance to have her die on them, but Charles and Antonia…? ‘What does he want with us?’

‘I will take it from here, König.’ The voice came from behind him and a second later the trim shape of Nachtigall appeared along with four armed soldiers. ‘The Colonel will see her before she is taken to her cell.’

‘As you wish, Leutnant Edel,’ König replied, turning and walking away. His voice and posture suggested he disliked the woman. The wrinkling of his nose suggested he particularly disliked her smoking habit, but he made no attempt to stop her, and that was from fear.

‘I’ll need my clothes,’ Kate said as one of the soldiers reached for the sheet covering her.

‘We have made suitable arrangements,’ Nachtigall told her, grinning maliciously.

~~~

‘Do you like your new clothes, Fräulein?’ Von Auttenberg was not looking at her. His back was turned though she was unsure whether this was an act of defiance or contempt. ‘I had a winter coat in my wardrobe which is, obviously, redundant here. Russian sable. When I learned that you were to be joining us after all, I decided to sacrifice it to clothe you in a suitable manner.’

His idea of ‘suitable’ was apparently a black, fur loincloth, and nothing else. She imagined that he thought of her as a primitive, an animal, and this was the kind of thing primitive peoples wore. He turned now, smiling at her, but the smile faltered as he saw her standing there, back straight, with a blank look on her face more akin to curiosity than anything else. ‘It is comfortable,’ Kate said. She allowed herself a measure of contentment; he had expected embarrassment, or outrage, but she had spent her first five years without a stitch of clothing and felt neither. She would have liked to have torn his throat out there and then, purely for being the vindictive bully he was, but there were four soldiers and Nachtigall there, and they had bound her hands behind her back.