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

by Gary W. Feather

  "At first I wasn't sure if I should say anything to you," Seraphine said. "But then I thought that our countries are allies, so why not?"

  "Of course. May I call you Seraphine?"

  "Oui," Serphine said. "May I call you Belle?"

  "Yes." Belle wondered what she should tell the other woman, who wasn't an enemy, but the French lady was obviously fishing for information. "It seems that an odd looking military airship snuck into Confederate territory to help...prisoners to escape. Me and my friend believed that they came to Toronto to get repairs before going back to California."

  "My goodness me. I spoke with a lady, a Japanese lady, recently who is a cattle ranch heiress from California. What a coincidence."

  "Yes, what a coincidence." Belle sipped her tea and patted her lips politely with a napkin. "Seraphine, my dear, would I be correct if I said that you have observed me and my friend watching this same lady?"

  "Yes, Belle," Seraphine said. "That would be correct."

  "How exciting!"

  "Yes!"

  The two women smiled at each other as the sipped their tea.

  "I know another charming lady of the orient here in Toronto," Seraphine said.

  "Really?" Belle said.

  "A Madam Chung," Seraphine said. "Just recently, she sent one of her messenger boys. He said Madam Chung is in possession of that same Japanese-Californian heiress that you and I were just talking about. Isn't that interesting?"

  "Yes, it is, miss," said a man standing behind Belle Starr.

  Belle looked back and recognized him. "Allow me to introduce myself, I am John Wilkes Booth. Actor of the stage, patriot of the Confederacy, and defender of charming ladies, such as yourselves." Booth bowed politely to the ladies with the charm and grace of a Shakespearian actor. Soon another chair was added to Belle's table. Booth sat across from Seraphine.

  "Dear Wilkes helps the Confederacy at times," Belle said. "Sending us useful information now and then."

  "Always happy to help my beloved country, my dear Belle," Booth said.

  "As you don't have to fight for it, eh, Booth?"

  The three of them turned to see Jesse James walking up to the table. He greeted everyone politely, but had obvious disdain for the actor.

  Bell tried to defuse the situation. "Now, Seraphine, I believe that you were telling me of someone who may know the whereabouts of a certain Japanese-California heiress?"

  "Oui, Belle," Seraphine said. "It would appear that my friend, Madam Chung of Chinatown has her. I'm under the impression that the Confederacy would be very interested in having her in their prisons. True?"

  "Yes, Seraphine," Belle said. "Am I to assume that Madam Chung wishes to be paid for her?"

  "Oui. Would you like to meet her?"

  "Mmmm," Jesse said. "Klein has this English girl and this Madam Chung has Dr. Sakusa. That is a pleasant surprise."

  "Actually, Mr. James," Seraphine said. "Madam Chung was under the impression he had let the English girl and kidnapped Doctor Sakusa. Along with viciously beating Doctor Sakusa's gentleman companion."

  "Is said gentleman still alive?" Jesse asked.

  "Not sure. But it's possible."

  "I take it, Seraphine," Belle said. "That Madam Chung had Doctor Sakusa kidnapped from Klein?"

  "Oui, Belle," Seraphine said. "Madam Chung has a number of feared killers working for her."

  "Obviously, Seraphine." Belle turned to Jesse with a smile. "I guess that I was right. I shouldn't have hired that Jeremiah Klein."

  Jesse frowned and Belle covered her giggle.

  #

  Seraphine led Belle, Jesse and Booth to Toronto's Chinatown and journeyed to the same little shop she had been to many times before. The Chinese shop man recognized her, but not the other white people. He whispered to a Chinese girl whose head didn't quite measure to Seraphine's hip. The girl ran to the back of the shop. Booth tried to start a conversation with the locals, but none would speak. Later the girl returned and nodded to the shop man.

  "You follow me.” The shop man led them inside with Seraphine right behind him.

  Seraphine gripped the handle of her umbrella-gun tightly for a second, but told herself to relax, that it was all about the image a lady shows others. She thought of a peaceful image-of nothing wrong as they walked into the area where there were various animals and a few humans in cages. There was also a couple of Madam Chung's killers. Two of them had double-barreled shotguns aimed at them.

  "My goodness," Seraphine said. "These people have business with your boss lady."

  "Hand over your weapons," said the one who wasn't holding a gun.

  Seraphine knew him to be named Ku. He was Madam Chung's number one killer. On his left hip was a sheath containing two large knives. And he was deadly with them. Rumors said that he once slaughtered thirty gunmen in the dark and could slice holes in fly wings without killing the fly.

  "I believe you should do as he says," Seraphine said to her friends.

  Belle and Jesse surrendered their revolvers and John gave them a Dillinger.

  "There, now may we see Madam Chung?" Seraphine gave a curtsy.

  “Give me the umbrella that has your gun in it, Mrs. Le Trosne," Ku said holding out his hand.

  Seraphine frowned, but obeyed Ku’s orders. Ku bowed and led them to Madam Chung's office where they found Madam Chung sitting behind her desk with her granddaughter standing on her right.

  "My dear, Seraphine," Madam Chung said. "You appear to have brought strangers into my place of business that I don't want strangers to know about. I would hate for the local authorities to find out about it. After I have them killed why should I not kill you?"

  "Madam Chung, have I not been a loyal customer to you?" Seraphine said, hoping to talk fast enough before the old bitch had her killed. "This is Belle Starr and Jesse James that I've told you about. They are very interested in the lady you have here. They are willing to pay you well."

  "And the other one?" Madam Chung asked.

  "John Wilkes Booth--the famous actor," Seraphine added.

  "Oh yes," Madam Chung said. "I've heard of him. Very nosy. Asks a lot of questions. Is he a Confederate spy too?"

  "Not officially, Madam Chung," Jesse said. "We pay him from time to time for information he gathers on his own."

  "I see." Madam Chung looked at each one of them. Her granddaughter leaned over. The two of them whispered back and forth for a few minutes. "I will let you live."

  Seraphine let out a breath that she hadn't realized she had been holding.

  "Now let's talk about the price," Madam Chung said.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  Dinner Date.

  Early the next morning Hirohira came out of the airship dressed in the hakama and top that he used for weapon practice. He looked at the Osaka revolver that Commander Matsuo had given him. Osaka made some fine revolvers and rifles, but it had a different feel than his Colt Katana. The Katana was currently in possession of one Jeremiah Klein along with Doctor Sakusa. He needed to have both for his honor to be returned to him. Hirohira had just stretched and exercised a little. Much to his surprise, he found little pain. It was if what had been done to him by Klein was a dream, but he knew that it wasn't true. He laid the gun in front of him and bowed to it like his ancestors had done with their swords. He placed the gun in his holster on his left side and began practicing his Teppo Iaijutsu katas.

  It feels different for some reason. But I can handle that. Right? But can I face Jeremiah Klein again? Will I freeze up once I see him? Will the memory of the beating cause me to do something stupid, like get myself foolishly killed without saving Doctor Sakusa? What should I do?

  "Don't you ever practice shooting?"

  Hirohira turned. Seraphine stood with a wide smile on her pale face with her umbrella above her to keep the sun off.

  "What?" Hirohira said.

  "I saw you draw it and cock it. But nothing happened," Seraphine said. "What are you doing? I would think that firing on targe
ts would be more important than whatever it is you're doing."

  "I do that too." Hirohira stood up with his gun holstered. "This is a old form of drawing a weapon quickly that was originally meant for a sword."

  "A gun isn't a sword, hero," Seraphine said.

  "True, but we modern day samurai have found some of the old sword-drawing methods effective in the modern day gun quick-draw. We have found it to be quite deadly."

  "I suppose that might true," Seraphine said. "Of course, when I came here I expected to find you in bed after being horribly injured by that dreadful ruffian, Jeremiah Klein."

  "You shouldn’t believe all the rumors that you hear," Hirohira said.

  "True. You don't even have a scratch on you."

  "I know. Someone must have been lying to you. Or maybe I have a doppelganger."

  "Doppelganger?"

  "You know, like in that story by Edgar Allen Poe," Hirohira said. "Have you ever read any of his stuff?"

  "A little. I find his work too morbid for my taste."

  "Oh."

  "I also saw you come out of that large airship," Seraphine said. "Do you live there?"

  "Yes."

  "Will you give me a tour?"

  "No. The captain wouldn't allow that."

  "Really?" Seraphine said. "Too bad."

  "Yes. But he is the captain."

  "True. It is a very large passenger airship."

  "It carries cargo too," Hirohira lied.

  "Really?" Seraphine said. "I heard rumor tha-"

  "More rumors?"

  "Well...you're probably right, hero," Seraphine said. "Just rumors."

  "Have you had breakfast, yet?" Hirohira said.

  "No.”

  "If you wouldn't mind waiting. I could change and escort you to a nice place."

  "Oh, how charming," Seraphine said. "Yes, I would like that."

  Hirohira returned to his room on the airship, changed into clean Japanese clothes and buckled on his gun belt. He returned to Seraphine's side and offered his arm. She accepted it; he led her away from the airship. He hailed an open carriage. The driver stopped for them and Hirohira helped Seraphine into the rear seat. He told the driver where to go and off they went.

  Seraphine picked up her teacup after finishing her egg and took a sip of the green tea.

  "A lovely egg, but personally I prefer black tea," Seraphine said.

  "Yes. Did you hear there's been a successful attempt at growing tea plants in California?"

  "I'm sure the Empress of China won't be too happy to hear about that," Seraphine said. "Especially the way you Japanese have been planting tea farms and other things across the Pacific Ocean. I'm surprised you people didn't try to get your hands on some of China's lands, or, for that matter, why didn't you just take the former British islands?"

  "Luckily wiser heads prevailed. The Empress, the Kapamachi, and their government chose to not waste their time in the Chinese land grab and to assist our old friends."

  "How progressive of your people to do that," Seraphine said. In she was thinking that his leaders were softhearted fools who wouldn't survive what was coming.

  #

  After relieving herself in the bucket, Momiji sat on the bed. She wasn't sure what day it was, or even if it was nighttime or not. She had been trying real hard not to go crazy in her cell. If she had to live life as a Zen Buddhist nun she would have had a room about this size to live in. Of course, she would have had the freedom to walk about the monastery.

  The door opened with no polite knock. Madam Chung walked in followed by two white women and two white men. Much to Momiji's surprise, one of the women was Seraphine Julie Le Trosne. Even more of a surprise: one of the men was none other than the actor John Wilkes Booth.

  "Hello again, Momiji-san," Seraphine said. "How are you today?"

  "Seraphine," Momiji said. "You surprise me. I never expected you to be a part of prostitution of the worst kind."

  "Oh my! Of the worse kind? What do you mean?"

  "When women and girls are kidnapped to be sold as nothing more than sexual slavery. It’s barbaric."

  "My goodness," Booth said. "She's saying that as if slavery is a bad thing."

  "Some of the Japanese are like that, Wilkes," the unknown woman said. "Especially the women."

  "Really?" Wilkes said.

  "You do know that slavery has been illegal in Japan for a long time," Momiji said.

  "Japanese women again," Booth said. "I always found them a little too uppity for my taste. A woman should know her place."

  "You have prostitution, correct?" Seraphine said, ignoring Booth's remark.

  "Yes, Seraphine," Momiji said. "The legal kind in the red districts. Though in some cases, it can be a form of slavery too, and not just a vice for men. Some of us are trying to--"

  "See," Booth said with a flamboyant gesture. "Just as I said."

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  Sorry, No Momiji Here.

  The same Chinese man who had acted as a messenger for Madam Chung approached a group of men from the airship Kaede as they drank whiskey in a bar near the Toronto airport.

  "Mr. Jeeves," he said to one of the men.

  "What do you want now, Chinaman?" Petty Officer Jeeves recognized the Chinese man and he wasn't in a good mood.

  The Chinese man's man hand shook as he handed an envelope to Jeeves. Jeeves almost had to chase the hand to get it, and once he caught it, the messenger ran off. Jeeves stared at the door for a few seconds for it still hung open.

  "Maggot!" Jeeves shouted.

  "What does it say, Jeeves?" Petty Officer 3rd Class Nakatomi said as he and two other looked at Jeeves in anticipation.

  Jeeves looked at the envelope and saw it said in English:

  TO CAPTION PARSONS

  FROM MADAM CHUNG

  "It's for the captain," Jeeves said. "And it doesn't sound good. I think I need to get going."

  Jeeves took a last swig of his mug and left for where HMS Kaede was docked. The letter felt like a rock in the inside pocket of his coat. This is bad. The repairs to the Kaede had gotten done faster than he had expected they would. If it weren't for the kidnapping problems they had been having everyone would be expecting to get underway. Now, here he was taking a letter to the captain, and by the terrified way the messenger ran off, it wouldn't be good. Did they kill her?

  Jeeves boarded the Kaede and walked up to the captain's cabin where a marine private was on guard duty. He held one of the new bolt-action rifles, which were the standard arms for all marines on the Kaede. They had a bayonet that could be added quickly if needed. Some considered it superior to the level-action Winchester.

  "Who goes there?"

  "Petty Officer 1st Class Miles Jeeves with a letter for Captain Parsons from Madam Chung!"

  The private told the captain and stepped aside. "You may enter, Mr. Jeeves.”

  Jeeves walked in and found the captain at his desk. Jeeves stood at attention and gave a navy salute with a Japanese bow, and the captain returned it with a navy salute and a nod--this being the new tradition of the Imperial Union Air/Sea Navy.

  "At ease, Mr. Jeeves," Captain Parsons said. "You have something?"

  "Yes, sir!" Jeeves handed over the envelope and informed the captain of the messenger’s strange, terrified behavior.

  "Bloody fuc--" Captain Parsons almost cursed in front of a subordinate, but bit his tongue as he opened the letter to read. As any good NCO Jeeves pretended he never heard anything. "Now they don't have her, or so the bastards say. What could have happened?"

  Captain Parsons unlocked one of drawers on his desk and pulled out his MAM--a bit of alien technology given to the Imperial Union by their Venusian friends. It seemed almost magical and could do all sorts of amazing things. One was to communicate with another MAM by use of the satellites that orbit the planet Earth.

  "Commander Matsuo?"

  "Yes, Captain?" said a voice from the MAM that showed the image of Commander Matsuo on it.

&n
bsp; "How is it going on your end, Commander?" Captain Parsons asked.

  "Fine and not so fine, Captain," Commander Matsuo said. "The local police have arrived, so I've got to deal with them. But the kidnappers have surrendered. The problem is, as we were told in the note, Doctor Sakusa was kidnapped from the kidnappers. Oh, and Major Cooper is keeping the local police occupied while I talk to you."

  "Well done, both of you.” MAMs were top secret devices of alien technology that no one was supposed to know about. Far more secret than bolt-action rifles.

  "I'll tell him you said so, Captain," Commander Matsuo said.

  "Thank you, Commander. Now for some bad news from my end. PO 1st Class Jeeves brought another letter from Madam Chung by way of the same messenger. Now they're saying they never heard of her and had nothing to do with any kidnapping."

  "What? Could she have escaped?"

  "I pray to God she did, Commander," Captain Parsons said. "But we need to think of the worst too. She could have been sold to a higher bidder."

  "Barbaric bastards!" Commander Matsuo said. "China was a civilized country, until those damn Manchu took over!"

  "Well, its not like Madam Chung is an ambassador from China or anything. I'm sure she sells men, women, and opium. Probably children too."

  Unlike some officers in the Imperial Union, Parsons and Matsuo had a distaste for opium traders and the way they talked, the British, French, Japanese and other powers into forcing China to open its doors for the trade of opium in what was known as the Opium Wars.

  "Do you want me to bring the two kidnappers to the brig on the Kaede?" Commander Matsuo said. "Or let the locals hold them?"

  "I want those bastards in my brig. We had a talk with them ourselves. They might have a clue as who Madam Chung is and where she is."

  "Yes, sir," Commander Matsuo said.

  "Anything else?"

  "No, Captain. Commander Matsuo out."

  "Captain Parsons out." Captain Parsons let out a loud powerful and sad sigh.

  Jeeves wasn't sure what to do, but knew better than to speak up.

  "Looks like we'll have prisoners soon, Mr. Jeeves," Captain Parsons said. "Chief Grey will probably be back too. How have the repairs gone?"