The Mighty Airship Kaede. (The Mighty Airships of Earth. Book 1)

by Gary W. Feather

  Shit! Where is he? Hirohira thought.

  Klein kicked him in the groin; the pain knocked him down in the dirt. Next Klein kicked him in the ribs, back, and knees. Then he stomped on his chest and belly several times. Several stomp-kicks landed in his groin causing hellacious spasms. It seemed to go on for eternity. More aches. More bleeding. He could smell puke or piss. Was that from him or did Klein piss on him? He wasn't sure, but finally it stopped.

  Hirohira couldn't see, but he could still hear from where he lay.

  "Abbie, go get the English girl and release her," Klein said.

  "Why?"

  "Shut up and do what I say, woman!" Klein said.

  "What are you going to do?" Doctor Sakusa said.

  "I'm letting her go," Klein said. "She can take care of Mr. Slant-eyes, if he's still alive!"

  Blurs! Shit! All I see is blurs or pain. Dammit! Can you see pain? Everything is pain in every pore of me. I can't move. It hurts so much I can't move! Am I dead? Why doesn't the pain go away if I'm dead? Daikirai!

  "Well, I think I saw a little movement," Klein said. "Maybe you ain't dead. Just wish you were."

  "Let me go!" Doctor Sakusa shouted.

  "No," Klein said. "You're our new prisoner."

  "Leave her alone!" Montgomery screamed.

  "Oh shut up, girl," Klein said. "What are you upset about? You're free now."

  What is going on, Hirohira wondered. Oh! I'm useless! I should just kill myself later. I'm worthless! I didn't see the trap and now I got the shit beat out of me! Death would be better! Everyone would be better off without me!

  "Wendy!"

  "Momiji!"

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  Stealing From Kidnappers.

  The Red Badger brothers, Paul and Joseph, walked up to the scene after the big fight between Klein and Hirohira and the kidnapping of Doctor Sakusa. Joseph was still chewing on some beef jerky from his lunch. A crowd of spectators was wandering away from the area in front of Pete's Piss Tavern. They could tell that they had missed a fight of some kind and Paul sent his younger brother back to get the others. Paul looked among the crowd for a fellow Ojibway or another tribe, but most seemed to be Chinese people and a few white men. What he did see was a very dangerous assassin--a Chinese killer named Ku, who had hired him and Joseph before to track a man. Paul tried to push back his memory of what Ku had did to that man for stealing from his boss lady. He hadn't lived a soft city man's life. He had fought in several battles, had seen people tortured and killed. What Ku had done was pure evil. Paul had heard that Ku was the Chinese name for evil magic that kills people. Ku gave Paul a polite nod and Paul returned it, but knew better than approach the Chinese man.

  The others jogged up behind him and pointed at the ones that the crowd had been observing.

  "Is that the English woman?" Paul said.

  "Yes, Mr. Red Badger," Commander Matsuo said. "Well done."

  "Who's that fellow she's hovering over?" Chief Grey said.

  The four men walked over to them and found Lieutenant Izumo in a terrible beaten mess.

  "Ensign Montgomery. Report," Commander Matsuo ordered.

  The English girl stood at attention and saluted. She bowed to the older woman officer. "They let me go and took Doctor Sakusa. Jeremiah Klein and Lieutenant Izumo fought without weapons and the lieutenant lost. He's in pretty bad shape."

  "Chief, make sure people around here know you're armed." Commander Matsuo drew her Osaka revolver.

  Chief Grey nodded, showed off the shotgun that he had behind his coat and fired off one of its big 10 gauge shells. The crowd was gone pretty quick--except for the pair of armed men in doorway of Pete's Piss.

  "You try anything and we kill her!" shouted one of them.

  "Understood!" Commander Matsuo waved for everyone to walk back. "We need to get the lieutenant and ensign back to the airship and see what the captain wants to do."

  Paul Red Badger helped carry the lieutenant while nearby Ku watched and waited. He wondered what that man was up to.

  #

  Ku scratched his head. His boss lady had told him to steal the English girl from Klein, but now she was free and the Japanese-Californian heiress was kidnapped. Still Ku figured that coming back empty handed was not a smart thing to do even if you had a deserved reputation like his.

  Ku walked back to Chinatown and up to where some vendors were selling various items, including food, on the street. He bought a bowl of noodles and a stick with meat on it. The meat tasted like some kind of rodent: rat or squirrel. He didn't care for it. It tasted old and rotten, so he took his food and went back to his hiding spot to watch the pub. He exercised a little with his butterfly knives as he waited. They were big knives, similar in size to Bowie knives popular with whites in the Confederacy, but his butterfly knives were used in pairs and he carried both in one large sheath.

  Old Gou taught me the importance of patience, Ku thought. The old man had been the deadliest of killers back in China, but even the best get old, weak, and sentimental. Not me. I plan to kill myself if I wind up living that long.

  Ku waited patiently, until it got dark. Only a madman would attack a gunman like Klein in the daylight--with or without a gun. Ku took another swallow of water from his jug and set it down. He walked quietly towards the pub. He was dressed in dark brown pants, shirt and coat—good for camouflage.

  Ku crept around the building to look it over just like he had done before in the daylight, but from further away. He watched for places he could sneak in or burst out of in a hurry. He needed to know all the exits. That sort of forethought had saved his life before. Somewhere close by, a door opened and shut. One of the men came outside carrying a flaming torch and a shotgun.

  That's not Klein or Pete, Ku thought. It's probably the half-breed who was working with them.

  Ku, with his knives tucked in the sleeve-pocket of his coat, crouched in the shadows without a twitch of movement as the man passed by. The man spit some chewing tobacco that landed on Ku's knee, but he didn't move. The man turned and went back inside the pub and Ku was sure that he hadn’t been seen.

  Ku recalled of one of Old Gou's maxims: Never kill in anger. Kill without feelings. Feel nothing, He was right.

  Ku jumped up, caught the edge of the roof and pulled himself to the eave. All without a sound. On the roof he crept to the rear of the building to an attic window. Ku leaned over to look in and neither heard nor smelled anyone there. Ku trusted his ears and nose more than his eyes. That’s what made him a good assassin. Ku crouched and forced the window open. Inside he found a very small place full of junk and with the touch of his hands and feet he found where the attic ended and the open ceiling began. Ku maneuvered onto the beams and slowly crawled across them in the darkness. He made no sound. Ku watched in darkness of the corners of the ceiling where he gripped the boards with hands and legs. He watched and guessed how to find out the English woman's location.

  Once Pete went to his office, a little room behind the bar, Ku crawled over that way. Pete sat at his desk to look at some papers, Ku dropped down silently behind him. Ku poked the pub owner in one of the meridian points on his throat that Old Guo had taught him. Pete choked and couldn't speak.

  "Where is the Japanese woman hidden?" Ku said. "If you tell me, your death will be quick."

  Pete's eyes opened wide. He had met the man before in his pub. Pete knew of his reputation. Ku reached down Pete’s trousers and struck three points on the inner thigh of Pete's leg. Then hit a fourth point between the testes. Pete's body shook like he was having an epileptic seizure. Ku massaged a point under the penis and Pete relaxed. These points of attack would not have worked earlier in the morning because the planets were not aligned right; these are ancient secrets of killers known as Dim Mak that Old Guo taught him.

  "I can make it a lot worse," Ku said. "You will beg for death. Will you speak?"

  Pete's face was covered with sweat and tears. Ku had assumed the man would be easy to torture--maybe to
o easy.

  "She is in a secret basement under this office," Pete said. "Oh God, forgive me."

  "Shhhh, Pete. Where is the door?"

  Pete showed him and Ku pulled out his knives. One blade sliced through his throat; the other blade met it coming from the other direction. Ku held Pete's headless body down in place as it trembled and splashed out blood like a dying chicken. He had seen bodies that had been beheaded run around like they were still alive. Once the body stopped moving Ku placed Pete's gory head on the desk to greet his friends as the entered. Ku wiped blood out of one eye and opened the basement door. He found the Japanese woman looking up at him.

  "I will not lie to you, heiress," Ku said. "I have come to kidnap you from your kidnappers so we can get money from your people. These people are fools. They will probably rape you repeatedly and may even kill you for no reason. My people will treat you well and let you go if our demands are met."

  "I understand," Doctor Sakusa said.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  Broken.

  Hirohira opened his eyes. Though his vision was still a little blurry and he ached just about everywhere, he could see Tokugawa Sheiko standing there looking down at him.

  "H-hello, Sheiko-chan." Hirohira coughed and wished he hadn't. He held his ribs on both sides. They, along with other parts of him, such as the fingers of his gun hand were bandaged. "Dammit!"

  "Good morning, Hirohira." Sheiko pinched his nose. It didn't hurt, much to his surprise. "Surprisingly, your nose isn't broken, nor was it bleeding earlier."

  Sheiko’s eyes and nose looked wet and swollen as if she had been crying.

  "Well, that was nice of Jeremiah Klein to not break it," Hirohira said. "I should send him a haiku poem with flowers." He smiled and faked a laugh.

  "Humor? That's good, Hirohira. I always thought you should joke. The kami love laughter."

  "Really, Sheiko?"

  "Yes. Haven't you noticed? Why else would they bring us together again?"

  "That is a very European point of view from what the British called the Chivalry and Court of Love." Hirohira was feeling uncomfortable talking with her about their past sexual/romantic relationship. "The Spanish refer to it as Macho, I think."

  "I was talking about real love, dear. Not some dry academic theory. I thought we had been separated by circumstances beyond our control and not our choice. At least not yours."

  "I didn't want to go, Sheiko-chan." Hirohira reached for her, which was a mistake. "Shit, that hurts."

  Sheiko smoothed his hair back from his forehead and leaned down to deliver a peck on the forehead. "You still need to relax, so you can recover from your injuries."

  Hirohira looked around the room and saw that he was lying on a bed in the airship's sickbay. There was a bed and a closet. He opened the closet to see a few cots crammed within. The rest of the sickbay included an operating table and a couple of cabinets full of medical supplies and tools. All were packed tightly because like a sea ship, an airship could turn and cause everything to fall and break. This room smelled like any other modern hospital in Japan with the chemical disinfectants. Did anyone die here recently during the fight back in Confederate territory? He tried to remember if anyone among the crew had died. He was unsuccessful.

  I should find out some day, he thought.

  "How bad is it?" Hirohira said.

  "Like I said, your sweet nose is fine," Sheiko said, smiling. "But you have cracked ribs, a couple of broken fingers, and bruises about everywhere. You can talk to the airship's doctor. He knows more about it than I do. I just pray for you."

  "Thank you," Hirohira said.

  To most people, what she said made sense, but Hirohira could tell that she holding something back. He wondered if he was in real danger of dying. What's wrong with me? I'm no delicate flower. I've been in knocked around by jujitsu experts who killed lots of people with their bare hands. What!?

  There was a knock at the door.

  "That's probably the doctor," Sheiko said. "Nice man, but like most British and those western doctors are always wanting to cut something off or out of their patients. Not to mention the leeches."

  "Oh now, Sheiko-chan, don’t be silly. They don't use leeches anymore."

  She had paused and bit her tongue when she mentioned cutting things off. Kami! What's wrong?

  "Come on in, uh...Doctor Miller," Hirohira said.

  The door opened and a smiling white man with a balding head walked in. The little hair that he had was white. Possibly middle-aged and experienced as an air naval doctor.

  Sheiko patted Hirohira's arm and left him alone with Dr. Miller.

  "Good morning, doctor," Hirohira said. "I hear that I'm going to live, but I still have problems."

  "Good morning, Lieutenant Hirohira." Doctor Miller pulled a wooden folding chair out of a closet and sat on it by the bed. "Your injuries are not going to kill you, but they're still pretty bad. Your left collarbone is cracked and so are a couple of ribs on both sides. You've lost three teeth and others are chipped or broken. Two of the fingers on your right hand are broken. Worst of all, one of your testes--your man balls--were beaten so bad that it needs to be removed."

  "You're going to cut my fucking balls off?" Hirohira attempted to get up, but the pain stopped him.

  "Now calm down, Lieutenant Izumo," Dr. Miller said. "I said one, not both."

  "Oh good. Is that all?"

  Doctor Miller folded his arms defensively. "If infection sets in then I'll have no choice but to take both, or you'll die!"

  "Dammit!"

  "All you need is one to be a man and make babies one day." Doctor Miller patted his arm like Sheiko had done. "Pray to God if that makes you fill better." Doctor Miller coughed. "Or whatever you believe in. Just think about it."

  "That's a lot of shit to think about. I guess I just got an honorable discharge from the military."

  "Oh, I'm sure Army Intelligence wouldn't get rid of you. They would wait for you to recover. Your file says you're a smart fellow and not just a gunman. You won't have anything to worry about."

  "My file?" Hirohira looked at the doctor in a new light. "How did you get my file? Who are you?"

  "Oops. Maybe I shouldn't have said that. But don't worry, lad. We're all in the same organization now. British and Japanese working together for the Imperial Union, right? God, Queens, and Country! Something like that."

  "Yes, Doctor," Hirohira said.

  The doctor checked his bandages and changed some of them. He put the chair back in the closet and left after telling Hirohira to get some rest. Hirohira lay in the bed staring up at the ceiling.

  How can I sleep? He touched his groin for a second and stopped himself.

  In a little while Sheiko came back in and stood by his bed. She patted his head, leaned over and kissed him on the mouth.

  "I love you," Sheiko's lips quivered. She looked to Hirohira to be fighting back tears. Now I want to cry too, but I won’t do it.

  "I-I know," Hirohira said. Should he repeat what she had said? Would it be true or a lie? "I love you too."

  "Did you see that girl who was with me?" Sheiko said.

  "Yes." He wasn't sure where this was going, but he just wanted to be alone at moment. Or did he?

  "I named her Hiroko," Sheiko said. "She is my daughter."

  "What?"

  Sheiko stood silently for a few minutes though it seemed like hours. "You're her father. You're the only man that I've ever been with."

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  Healing.

  Momiji sat up in bed. Actually it was a table with an old quilt over it. The room had one door and no windows. She rubbed the goosebumps on her arms. She got up and looked around. Nothing. Just a bed, old quit and a door. And a large pillar in the middle of the room that possibly held up the wooden roof. The walls were earthen. The doorway and the door were made of metal. Looked like iron to her. She stretched and exercised a little.

  The door opened and a Chinese guard with a rifle kicked
a bucket into the room. Then he placed a bowl on the floor.

  "Eat. Shit," he said and closed the door.

  Momiji picked up the bowl and found it be cold millet. There was dirt in it or at least she hoped it wasn’t shit. Her once nice kimono was dirty and torn in spots. She tried eating the food. It wasn't as good as rice or a nice beef steak. She set it aside and wondered if they would bring some water later. She sat back down on the bed for a bit, then got up to pee in the bucket. After that she went through her kendo exercises while pretending a katana was in her hands. She lay back down on the bed and looked at her bare feet. They had taken her shoes away so she couldn't easily run away.

  What do they want from me? Momiji looked up at the ceiling. From what I've seen of them, they're Chinese. Cheap Chinese labor brought in to work the mines. Canada wasn't the only place to do that. Most were honest workers, but criminals found a place in every new society. The organized ones were even better at it.

  The door opened again and the guard came in with an old Chinese woman and a young girl. The girl put a wooden folding chair on the ground. The old woman sat in it. The girl left and came back with two cups of water. She handed them to the woman, the woman took a sip of one and gave the other to Momiji. The symbolism was obvious; I have power over you and others. Obey. Momiji accepted the cup and drank from it. She tried to control herself for she was very thirsty. She looked up at the woman and smiled politely. She hopped off the bed and bowed deeply.

  "Thank you for the food and drink," Momiji said, sarcastically. "It seems your men have taken my shoes to have them cleaned. But you are too kind. There was no reason to do that."

  The Chinese woman stared at Momiji for several minutes. Momiji wondered if she was deaf or didn't understand Japanese. The woman laughed, while the girl and the guard smiled. The girl appeared to be in her early teens.

  "My name is Jeannette Chung," Chung said. "You may call me, Madam Chung. This is my granddaughter, Charlotte."

  Momiji greeted the girl. Madam Chung whispered something in the girl's ear. Charlotte nodded and stuck her right hand into a pocket of her brown jacket. She walked closer to Momiji and punched her in the belly. Momiji fell to her knees in great pain and when she looked up at the girl, she saw the girl had a brass knuckle in her hand. Don't show fear, Momiji.