Getting to the dead zoo was the riskiest bit of all, for the keel catwalk was the only way, and if Rath’s pirates left the engineerium, we would have to press ourselves into the shadows and hope they wouldn’t see us. We moved as speedily as our oxygen-starved bodies let us.
We reached the door safely and slipped inside among the huge, frozen display cases. We were halfway along the back wall, trying to find the message tubes, when we heard voices from the catwalk. We halted. Footsteps entered the room. Many rows of cases were between us and them, and light sparkled through the panes of frozen glass.
We crouched low behind a display case. The footsteps moved deeper into the room, and it sounded like there was someone coming down each of the three aisles. All escape routes were cut off. If they came all the way to the end, we were sure to be caught.
“What’s all this, then?” I heard one of them call out.
“Dead animals,” said another.
“What a freak show,” said a third.
“Whole ship’s a freak show.”
“As long as there’s no more of them that got Harrison.”
I reached up for the latch of the display case and turned it. It was not locked. I swung open the large glass door. Inside was some kind of wolf, jaws wide.
Kate needed no explanation. Silently she climbed in. I followed. There was just room enough. I could not latch the door properly because there was no handle on my side. The frost on the glass was thick, though patchy in a few places. It was too late to change cases now. The men’s voices were getting closer.
We stayed on all fours. I hoped that through the frost our silhouettes might be mistaken for animals. I heard a fast heartbeat, and for a confused, hair-raising moment thought it was coming from the wild creature beside me. But it was only my own pulse, pounding in my ears.
“What’s that in there, the great fat fellow?” I heard one of them say.
“That’s a yeti, that is.”
“Crikey, he’s an ugly bastard.”
“I’ve seen one in the wild.”
“You haven’t.”
“Alaska. Mt. McKinley. We took a few shots at it from the ship as we passed.”
“These drawers underneath are just bones,” came the voice of the third man. “We won’t be finding any blueprints here. Let’s head out.”
“No. We need to be thorough. Rath’s orders.”
I could hear them scraping ice from some of the other cases, muttering darkly about the specimens. I wondered if they’d notice the cases Kate had left empty from her pilfering. Surely they would not check each and every one.
They were coming down our row now. I tried to slow my breathing. I locked eyes with Kate. She gave a long silent exhalation and her warm breath rose like smoke. I reached out and put my hand over her mouth, my eyes wide with alarm. She understood. We each held a gloved hand to our lips so we would send up no signals.
I tried to be still, tried to look like a wolf. It was not so hard to imagine myself petrified, it was so cold. The ice lit and sparkled as torch beams swept the case. On the opposite wall, our animal silhouettes stretched and shrank.
All I could think was what a fool I’d been. A boy playing at pirate. But it was all dross to me now, the fluttering confetti of banknotes I’d imagined. It seemed greedy and reckless and ugly. I was no pirate, and I would have given anything to be back where I started, in the Eiffel Tower with Kate, and I would say, Let’s not. I don’t want the Hyperion’s cargo. Let’s stay here and keep things as they are. I will work harder at my studies, I will master my numbers. I will become a junior officer and work my way up. It will be enough.
“This one’s ajar,” said a voice outside our case, and I could see the man’s bulk silhouetted against the frosted glass. His arm lifted to the handle.
My haunches tensed; I was ready to spring at his throat, snarling like a wild beast.
“There’s nothing here,” came another voice. “Let’s head out. We’ve got plenty of ship to search yet.”
For a moment the arm did not move, and I knew he was going to open the case anyway, but then he turned, and his shadow dissolved into the general gloom. I listened to their fading footsteps. The cold air seared my lungs. My face was a mask welded with ice to my skull. I imagined I must look like one of those ancient mummies found in glaciers, charred by time and terrible to behold.
Their footsteps evaporated and I heard no more talking. Kate nodded. We pushed the door wide and quietly swung ourselves out. I pointed my torch beam at the floor so my light would not splash around too much.
“Let’s just get back,” Kate whispered. “This is too risky.”
I let my torch light seep up the wall and saw, in the corner, the two message tubes we’d been searching for. On the incoming tube the green flag was raised.
“Just a second,” I said, and hurried over. I reached through the hinged door to pull out the message capsule, but there was nothing there. I closed my eyes in frustration. Grunel would not release his secrets to me.
Light hit me in the side of the face. Stupidly I looked, blinding myself.
“Drop your torch!” a familiar voice said. It was John Rath. “I’ve got a pistol! Put up your hands!”
I dipped my head so the hood gave me some shadow. From the corner of my eye, I saw Kate, still hidden from Rath behind a case. She stepped back. I dropped my torch and raised my hands as he strode closer, keeping his light right on me.
“Who the hell are you, then?” he said. “Head up!”
There was a trace of fear in his voice, as though I might have been some spectral beast, escaped from one of the displays. I wanted to run. But if he gave chase and others came, they’d see Kate too, and we’d both be caught.
I checked on her. She was backing away quickly. She turned and hurried out of sight. Good. She would run back to the others.
“Head up, I said!” Rath was close now, and I saw a flash of his ginger beard before he struck me in the temple with his torch. My knees buckled. I felt my hood being yanked off.
“Ah,” he said. “I see. I thought the Saga was just arriving. But she’d already put aboard her landing party. She was just coming back to take you off when we scuttled her.”
I said nothing.
“How many others are here?”
“It’s just me,” I said.
He snorted impatiently. “We’ll see about that. What’ve you found?”
“Not a single ounce of gold,” I said, and it was not hard to muster venom. “It’s been a complete waste.”
“Should’ve taken my offer at the Ritz.”
The mention of the hotel barely made sense to me, it seemed so impossibly warm and long ago.
“So you’re all alone and you’ve found nothing. What a shame,” said Rath, putting the muzzle of his pistol against my forehead. The cold metal burned against my flesh like a brand.
“My employer will be very displeased to learn there are others aboard,” he told me. “I know what his orders will be. But if you’ve come across anything you think I might value, maybe we can help each other. How were you planning on getting off the ship? Flying perhaps?”
I kept my mouth shut.
“I can get you off if you tell me where Grunel’s gold is.”
“There’s no gold.”
He rapped the pistol hard against my skull. Tears sprang to my eyes, freezing on my eyelashes.
From the wall came a strange, hair-raising whistle and then a thud. Before I could stop myself, my eyes flicked to the message tube. The green flag vibrated.
“Expecting something, were you?” Rath said. “Go ahead, take it.”
As Rath watched, I pushed the hinged door aside and pulled out the message capsule.
“Open it,” he said.
I removed the cap and pulled out the blueprints.
“Hold them up,” he commanded. Rath played the light over them and gave a satisfied grunt. “Put them back in the tube,” he said. “You’ve just saved me a great deal o
f time.”
He snatched the capsule from my hand and jammed it under his belt.
From somewhere in the ship came the sound of a gunshot, then another.
Kate.
“You’re coming with me,” Rath said angrily.
There was a second whistle and thud from inside the wall, and the green message flag sprang up once more.
“You’re very popular,” said Rath.
Keeping his pistol trained on me, Rath tucked the torch under his arm, thrust his free hand into the message tube, and started screaming. He yanked his hand out. An aerozoan hatchling clung to his fist, tentacles flexing. I had not thought the little ones would be so potent, but Rath flailed, his jaw grinding. His torch fell to the floor, spinning light.
Rath tried to smash the aerozoan off with his pistol, but its metal sparked with electricity, and he dropped it in agony. The message capsule containing the blueprints flew free from his belt and skidded across the floor.
I snatched it up, along with my torch, and ran.
Rath’s screams had brought his men running. As they came charging into the dead zoo, I doused my torch. They had not yet seen me, so I slunk into the shadows, cloaked in my hide suit. I waited for them to rush past, then ran for the door.
“He’s got the blueprints!” I heard Rath roar. “It’s Matt Cruse!”
I made it through the doorway. The keel catwalk was empty, but I heard more voices coming from the engineerium. I ran the other way, the dim glow of the ship’s skin my only guide. I reached the aft companion ladder, climbed to the axial catwalk, and then staggered forward to the bow, the message capsule clutched in my hand. The run had sapped all my strength. Six steps. Stop. Breathe. Six steps. Stop. Breathe. I had the blueprints. Soon the Sagarmatha would be soaring to meet us. But we’d been spotted now, and Rath’s men would come looking. And what was that gunshot I’d heard?
I reached the ship’s bow and knocked quietly on the locker door.
“It’s me, Matt.”
I slid the door open and went inside. Hal was slouched against the wall next to Nadira.
Kate was not with them.
HIMALAYAN HEART
Hal looked up at me, face ashen, and saw the message capsule in my hand.
“You got it?”
“Kate’s not here?” I asked.
“Let’s have a look. Open it up!”
Hal reached for the capsule, but I pulled back. “Did Kate not come back?”
“No. She was with you, mate!”
I staggered back out to the landing, listened for her footsteps, shone my light into the darkness. I’d just assumed she had gone on ahead.
“Turn your torch off,” Hal hissed, limping after me.
“They must’ve caught her,” I said, feeling sick. I quickly told him what had happened in the dead zoo. “There was a gunshot.”
“That was me,” said Hal. “You’re not the only one who was spotted.”
For the first time I noticed the right shoulder of his sky suit bore a dark stain.
“You’re shot!”
“My arm’s broke, but I’ll live. Better off than the other fella.” He tried to smile, but it came out all crooked.
“Dead?”
“If I’d done it sooner my shoulder wouldn’t be peppered with lead. I took his oxygen tank for Nadira. Got his gun too.”
“I’m going back for Kate,” I said.
Hal caught me by the arm. “Hold up. She may just be biding her time. Wait a few minutes. Rath’s men’ll be everywhere.”
Reluctantly, I followed Hal back to the storage locker.
“We were idiots,” I said bitterly, “to do this.”
“You got the blueprints,” he said.
“It doesn’t matter.”
“It will,” Hal said fiercely. “Maybe not right now, but when we get off this wreck and back to Paris, it will. Trust me. The Saga’s here in fifty minutes.”
“We’ve got to find Kate. You’ve already killed one of them. That leaves only six. The locksmith fellow and Barton, they’re not up for a fight. And Rath might be dead. An aerozoan hatchling got him. So just three or four of them now. We’ve got two guns. The odds aren’t so bad.”
A voice welled up from the darkness, sounding as though it were carried by a bullhorn.
“We have the girl…We have Kate de Vries…”
Even though it was distorted by the bullhorn and its own echoes, the voice was plainly Rath’s. The wretch hadn’t died as I’d hoped.
“We will kill her,” Rath said, “unless you surrender yourselves and give us the blueprints.”
It was as if a gale-force wind had swept through my head, clearing all thoughts and words. I sat down hard, staring, empty. I thumped at my forehead with my fist. My mind must be going. Words and shards of thoughts swirled about, storm tossed, but I couldn’t catch hold of them. They had Kate. That was all I could grasp.
“Bring us the blueprints and no harm will come to the girl!” Rath bellowed through the ship. “We’re your only way off. Give us the blueprints and we’ll give you safe passage home!”
“They’re lying,” Hal scoffed. “They mean to kill all of us.”
“Bring the blueprints to the engineerium! You have fifteen minutes.”
“I’m going,” I said.
Hal grabbed me with his good arm.
“They will kill you.”
I said nothing.
“The Saga’s coming. We have one chance of escape, that’s all. If we miss that, we all die.”
I stared at him in horror. “Are you saying we should leave her behind?”
“It’s not right,” wheezed Nadira, taking the mask from her mouth. Her eyes flashed angrily at Hal.
“Right’s got nothing to do with it,” he said. “I’m talking about survival. Morality is a nicety we can’t afford just now.”
I shook my head. “I don’t want to hear that, Hal.”
He snatched the blueprints from my grasp. “You’re not giving them these.”
“Of course I am. I’m going to trade them for her life.”
“Don’t be a fool! If you go, you won’t come back.”
“Give them to me.”
“I’m saving your life, Cruse!”
I lunged at him, and he fell back against my sudden weight. We both crashed to the floor. He tried to beat me off with his good arm, but he was weak, and my heart was pumping furiously. I grabbed the hand that held the message capsule and banged it against the metal grille until his fingers lost their grip. Seizing the blueprints, I stepped back and away from him, panting. He looked crumpled and forlorn on the floor.
“I’m sorry,” I said.
He made no answer. My fury left me. My knees shook. I tossed the blueprints back to him. “You’re right. These aren’t going to help. But I’ll not lose her.”
“I lost a man,” he panted. “I hate it, but sometimes it’s the nature of the beast.”
“I’m going to beat the beast. Give me one of the guns,” I said.
He shook his head wearily. “You’re outnumbered, Cruse.”
“Give. Me. The. Gun.”
Hal stared into the darkness, looking lost. He steadied himself against a girder and retched twice, bringing nothing up. He swore.
“We’ll both go,” he said.
“You’ve got a busted arm. You’re ill. You should take some oxygen.”
“I’m fine.”
“Stay here with Nadira in case I don’t come back. You can help her onto the Saga.”
“You should be weak as a kitten,” Hal said, in plain bewilderment. “Why aren’t you?”
“The sky knows me,” I said.
Hal snorted, and passed me a pirate’s gun. “Four bullets in this one,” he said, and showed me how to use it. I tried to listen attentively, but my concentration was poor, my mind already chanting its own war dance.
I had a Himalayan heart. I was strong and they were weak. They needed tanked oxygen; I needed none. Their backpacks ma
de them slow and cumbersome. I felt the leopard’s fur against me and became the leopard. I was lithe and strong. I would be fast. I would bring Kate back.
Slinking down the steps to the keel catwalk, I was trying to keep my thoughts tethered.
We had broken the sky. We had angered the gods, just like Grunel. He’d taken light and air for his Prometheus Engine. The mythical Prometheus stole fire from the gods and was punished for an eternity. Maybe Grunel was being punished too. His unhappy spirit roamed the ship. He had come aloft with every hope of building an aerial city, and had only succeeded in constructing an airborne grave. All his gold and glory and fame hadn’t been able to stop that.
But we had the blueprints, we could let the world know his secrets now. They were good secrets. Why should anyone be punished for such a thing?
I reached the door to Grunel’s apartments without seeing any of Rath’s men. Once inside, I listened, watching, my eyes so accustomed to the darkness I imagined my pupils as dilated as an owl’s. I pulled down my hood so I could hear without the fur interfering. I touched the wall to help guide me, the silk paper shushing against my gloves.
I paused and felt a great welling of dread. Turning to face the wall, I saw it was no wall, but some kind of window. And standing on the other side, in the near dark, was the fiend from my nightmare.
He was cut from ragged bits of hide, clumps of potter’s clay. He stared back at me, and his expression bore the look of terror I remembered from my dreams. I could not scream, though a strangled whimper escaped my mouth. I thought this was surely the end of everything, for what defense could I have against such a specter?
Without any hope, I lifted my gun, and the creature too lifted its arm and great blocky fist, as if trying to ward me off. I faltered, and he too faltered, and then I knew I was not peering through some portal, but into a cracked, discolored mirror. The unfinished man was me. I touched my face, scarcely recognizing myself, and hurried on.
In the bedroom, Grunel did eternal sentry duty in his lounge chair. I found the secret catch in the bookshelf and pushed. Inside the passage I closed the door behind me and turned on my torch. The ship was rising again, ever so slightly, and I felt it in my ankles. I walked. The Hyperion gave a shake, and I stumbled against the wall. The wood paneling made a hollow thump. I tapped it with my gloved fingers, saw a small knob, and slid the entire panel to one side.
Skybreaker Page 30