too and unsheathed a second sword. His cutting and hacking was twice as efficient as these guys. He took two at a time and kept an eye on Nathan who quickly chopped up the first guard who approached him. David made good time cutting off the hands of his attackers and moved on the next batch without needing to kill anyone just yet.
After they’d gone through ten each their entourage from the tent emerged to finish off the handless guards.
“Look!” Nathan yelled to David. “He’s already up in the air. We’ll never catch him now.”
“Those stupid hot air balloons!” Titus clenched his fist and pumped it at King Herod’s getaway ride.
A subtle grin formed on David’s all too cunning face. “Nathan, come with me.” David took off like a rocket back to his tent.
When he arrived he ran to the back, bursting by the guards and the sleeping Minor Prophets and into a large dark room. He pulled a rope and the ceiling instantly blew off letting in sunlight.
There it was.
Resting silently under a canvas was his baby. He slowly walked around it tracing the outline with his finger. Nathan arrived just as he pulled off the canvas.
“What is that thing?”
“No time for explanations,” David said. “Help me get it going.”
David unfolded it, then refolded it and spread it out.
“You’ve got a hot air balloon too? Why didn’t you say so?”
“Just keep working. We have to get this in the air or we’ll loose sight of Herod.”
Nathan pulled out the basket as David started blowing air into the balloon. David watched Nathan as he examined the balloon. “Why’s it so big?”
“You’ll see. Grab that,” he pointed to a large metal canister on a roll cart.
“What in the world is this?”
“Nevermind that, just get it over here and hook it up.” Nathan did as instructed with this part and a few others. By the time he had everything in place the balloon was fully expanded and David was firing the burners.
“Come on, come on!”
The balloon floated up a few feet with a hitch and landed back on the ground.
“Get in the basket!” David ordered.
With both men secured in the basket he turned on the secondary burner. The balloon responded with a sudden desire to pull them up, but wasn’t able to. He leaned on the fuel switches forcing both burners beyond their manufactured limit. Sweat dripped from his face, but in a few seconds they were in the air.
“Here,” he grabbed Nathan’s hand and placed it on one of the fuel switches. “Hold this open a little. If we start to descend open it a little more. Just keep us airborne.”
“What are you going to do?”
David knelt down on the other side of the basket tinkering with some of the parts Nathan had placed onboard. “This!” He pulled a lever and grabbed onto the basket to brace himself. The basket vibrated suddenly, then as if being pulled by a team of enormous flying malamutes, the entire hot air balloon took off. The G-Forces were incredible, but David positioned himself to easily cut the fuel to the rocket booster engines Nathan had helped fasten.
Nathan was stunned, but David had made sure he was secured before taking off. David eased up on the gas and told Nathan to man the rudder.
“Do you see Herod?”
“Yes.”
“Steer us toward him. Let me know when we get close and I’ll slow down. I have to stay down here to hold the lever. She’s not fastened very tight and sometimes likes to slip.”
“What happens if she slips?”
“Too much fuel and too much speed. She’ll make a run for the moon and we won’t be able to stop her until we run out of fuel.”
David kept pressure on the lever while Nathan kept an eye on Herod. He’d taken off way before them, but David’s supercharged hot air balloon was making fabulous time. They’d be right next to him in no time.
“There’s more balloons,” Nathan shouted across the basket, “almost thirty.”
He let up on the lever bringing the balloon to a crawl. Now steady, he was able to stand up to confirm what Nathan saw.
“Got a contingency plan?”
“Yes,” David said looking up to the burners again. “Hold both valves open.” As Nathan did so David reached over the side of the basket, half falling out, only to return with a tube spraying fuel everywhere. “Shut your eyes!” He reached over Nathan forcing the tube into a notch between the nozzles of the burners. Instantly, a stream of fire sprayed up into the balloon from the tube. David’s eyes widen for a second as he watched it head for the fabric, but the superheated air from below quickly caught up to the flying plasma consuming it.
With the extra heat pumped into the balloon David’s Plan B materialized. Looking for Herod required not just that he look forward, but also that he look down. They were a safe distance above any potential arrow slingers that may surround Herod’s balloon.
“They won’t even see us coming,” Nathan said. “Genius.”
To make up for the last little bit of distance separating them David pinched the modified fuel tubing to cut off the supply and yanked it out. He placed it back in it’s intended spot fueling the rocket engines. Pulling the lever again he said, “Holler when we’re above him.”
It didn’t take long. When Nathan gave the word David eased up on the gas. Leaning over the edge to get his bearings he saw Herod’s balloon ahead of them by only a short distance, but far enough below that none of the balloons could hit him with a projectile.
“They’re coming for us,” he said to Nathan.
“What do you mean?” Nathan peered over the edge and below. “They’re rising? They’re rising! They saw us.” Turning to David he said, “What do we do now that we’re outgunned?”
David reached into his satchel revealing Nathan’s gift; six stained stones. The blood of previous victims formed multiple hues of crusty red.
“Ah, fulfilling your promise I see,” Nathan smiled.
Examining the ropes and cords that controlled the balloon David picked two and walked to the edge of the basket. “Listen carefully, we need to let the guardian balloons come up a bit more. Then I’m going to pull this rope which will open a vent in the balloon all the way. We’re going to fall like a rock. As we fall you’re going to be blowing fire into this baby to keep it from completely deflating. That will also cushion our braking.”
“You have brakes on this thing?”
“That’s what this one does,” he presented the other rope to Nathan. “When I pull this one the vent closes. With all that heat you’ll be pumping in we’ll come to a nice soft stop, sort of.”
“Sort of?”
“It’ll work. Trust me.”
“Have you ever done this before?”
“I’m just making this up as I go.”
“And then what when we stop?”
“And then I sink his battleship.” David pulled a stone from his satchel again. “Six shots. That should be plenty.”
The two men readied themselves. Nathan gave a nod and David pulled the vent open. It felt like the bottom dropped out they fell so fast. David watched the colorful patchwork of yellow, white and blue dots get bigger and bigger. He looked to Nathan who was going full bore with the fuel. He looked back over the edge.
Wooshp. Wooshp. Wooshp.
The balloons were flying by. He looked out again. Above him were a bunch of little black dots getting smaller. Below was only one massive purple canvas approaching quickly. He tugged on the brake as hard as he could. The vent closed sending a jolt through the basket, but they kept on falling.
“Pour on it Nathan!”
“I got ‘em both open as far as they can!”
They were falling, but slower. David pulled out a stone anticipating any moment to take the shot. With a stone in one hand he pulled out of a pocket on the side of the balloon basket a metal tube and a pack of flares.
“Any second!” Nathan yelled.
David loaded
the tube with powder, and rock and a fuse.
“Aim!”
With the tube resting on his shoulders David aimed at where Herod’s balloon would casually be floating by.
“There!”
Herod was in sight.
“Fire!”
The fuse burned down leaving an explosion and a small plume of smoke.
Bang!
“Fire! Again, again!”
He reloaded quickly, packing the powder, rock and fuse. As he aimed he searched for the impact of the first shot…the crew was scrambling; for a broken line releasing part of the balloon, shooting arrows that fell far short…and then David saw-
Bang!
No time to assess. He needed to reload.
“Hurry!”
He had only a second to aim, but something clicked inside of him awakening a sense of time he’d known only from battle. Everything seemed like it was moving extremely slow. He knew the tube fired, but he didn’t really hear it or feel it. It was as if David was riding along the stone as it zoomed right toward Herod’s face.
Splat!
Herod’s brains sprayed on his surrounding crew. Another line broke. The balloon was detached from the basket. It was only a matter of time.
“Let’s get out of here shall we?” David pulled the switch firing the jet
Jesus & Co. (#1): Beefed Up Balloon Page 2