Midnight Lady

by Jamie K. Schmidt

  “I don’t want to hear it,” he grumbled.

  “The kissing part was okay, but then he started to laugh. So, I gave him a titty twister.” Maggie demonstrated on Quick.

  “Ow, Jaysus,” he said, swatting her hand away.

  “And then it devolved from there.” Maggie rolled over on her back, and Quick followed, this time he propped himself up on his elbow.

  “The thing that I can’t shake,” she said. “Is why did Black Belle leave her best ship behind to go to Cozumel?”

  “Because it’s recognizable. She told me to keep it under my hat that I had seen her.”

  “What do you think she was doing there in secret?”

  “What everyone does in secret in Cozumel.”

  Maggie shook her head. “She’s not that stupid. She wouldn’t scuba dive into the ruins. There are too many Federales patrolling the area with massive firepower.”

  “That’s why she left her best ship home.”

  It made sense.

  Maggie groaned. “She wouldn’t risk it. She knows no one has ever come back.”

  “They’ve come back. Just not intact.”

  That confirmed what Amos had said.

  “And,” Quick got up and padded naked to his desk. “I think whatever happened on Castle Crag was so similar to the what happened in Cozumel, that she went investigating.”

  Sitting up in bed, Maggie tucked the blanket under her arms. “A natural disaster unearthed ancient ruins?”

  “I don’t think there’s any Mayan temples on Castle Craig. I was referring to the sheer destruction.” Quick pulled out a hologram reader and a disk and came back to bed. “My ship was recording the debris field in the jungle.”

  “Did you find any evidence of life? There are three tribes. We didn’t see them.”

  “No,” Quick said shortly. “But I wasn’t really looking for them either.”

  “It looks like several bombs went off.” Maggie said, watching Quick’s recording. It was the same thing she had seen. “Maybe it’s the curse.”

  When Quick didn’t ask what curse, she realized that Amos hadn’t been telling tall tales. “Tell me what you know about it.”

  “You came after the tsunami, but I remember being on an airship crew doing rescue work. The concentration was on rebuilding Cozumel. But all work and no play, is no fun for anyone. I went on a dive to the ruins before the Federales realized what the sea spit back up.”

  “You never told me this.”

  “I don’t like to talk about it.”

  “Then you survived.”

  “I never got close. My air tanks malfunctioned and I had to surface. The crew that went down there died horribly.”

  Maggie shivered.

  “I had just replaced my tanks and was about to go back down when the bodies resurfaced. They had been turned inside out. And then the sharks came.”

  Swallowing hard, Maggie hugged him. “I’m glad you had bad air tanks.”

  “The Federales realized some serious shit was going down and put up blockades. But that’s like a red cape to a bull for pirates. In ten years, I’ve only heard of one successful raid of the temple. The rumor is Captain Jovan Dragonsblood led a successful raid into the temple. They were attacked by sea creatures and lost part of the dive team. The temple complex itself is trapped, and they lost the rest there. He got into the altar room and took a gold statue, and then had to run for his life by things chasing him.”

  “Things?”

  “The tale gets very vague about that.”

  “What did he do with the statue?”

  “He tried to sell it.”

  “Tried to?”

  “His airship crashed on his home world of Oracle-7.”

  Maggie flinched, recognizing that name from Nicholette and Amos’ conversation.

  “Massive earthquakes nearly destroyed the whole planet. His entire family died.”

  “What about the statue?”

  “It never made it to auction.”

  “Did someone dump it back into the Caribbean Sea?” she asked, remembering what Amos said.

  “Not that I’ve ever heard. The rumor is it’s still out there bringing ill fortune to whoever possesses it. The airships on Oracle-7 were damaged like the ones on Castle Crag.”

  “You think that Black Belle came across that statue?”

  “It’s possible.”

  “Then Black Belle isn’t diving for treasure,” Maggie said.

  “Then what’s she doing in Cozumel?”

  “She wants revenge for what the curse did to Castle Crag.”

  Chapter Twelve

  When they got back to Cozumel, Maggie was disappointed at how little The Midnight Lady had changed in over a month. She had forgotten how exciting it was to be on an airship—once you got used to the vortexes. The bar seemed so ordinary and small compared to that.

  The Calgarians had pulled their battleships back to their own dimension, but she still saw a few guards who were trying to be inconspicuous. Ephraim agreed to stay aboard The Quicksilver until they could contact Black Belle.

  She filled Donna in on where she had gone, and what they had seen. At first Donna was disappointed at the lack of treasure, but then she tapped her nails on the bar as she thought about it.

  “Let me see what I can dig up about the ruins and any new people asking about diving. Every now and then, my uncle gets a few requests to sail over by the blockade. The Federales shoo him away, but it gives the tourists some thrills.”

  “Does he let them dive?”

  “If they pay up front, and only if the Federales aren’t looking too closely.”

  “What did the divers say when they came back?”

  “They don’t come back.” Donna grimaced. “Why do you think he has them pay up front?”

  On that note, Maggie went up to her bedroom with Quick. Black Belle was nowhere to be seen, but her luggage that she had sent over to The Nicholette was on her bed.

  “I’ve got to get better locks. I go out of my way to make sure no one knows where I live and it turns out my apartment might as well be on a placemat map at Senior Frog’s.”

  They looked around, but the only sign that Black Belle had been here at all was a dirty ashtray and two empty bottles of rum.

  “You might want to rent out the room for some extra money,” Quick said, pulling up the hatch to check out the sky.

  “Where am I going to sleep then?” she asked.

  “With me.”

  “Yeah, when you’re around.”

  Quick closed the hatch. “Donna is a capable bar manager. You’re an experienced airman. There’s no reason why you can’t come on missions with me and run the bar remotely.”

  Maggie snorted. “And when were you planning on asking me if that’s what I wanted?”

  “It is, isn’t it?” he said, confused. “I thought we had taken our relationship to the next level.”

  “Quick, if I wanted to be a pirate, I’d have my own fucking fleet by now.”

  A muscle worked in his jaw, and Maggie had a moment to regret her mocking words. “Things don’t have to change,” she said, soothingly.

  But he didn’t seem to be in the mood to be soothed. “Why not?” he asked.

  Maggie wasn’t sure. On the one hand, it sounded pretty nice. And while he didn’t ask her if that’s what she wanted, she hadn’t given him a reason to think it would be unwanted. On the other hand, she didn’t like to give up her independence.

  “This is my bar. Like your ship is your ship. Would you want Kelly to fly your missions while you stayed here with me to sling drinks to tourists?”

  “Of course not,” he scoffed. “I’ve worked too hard to give up my ship.”

  “That’s kind of how I feel about my bar.”

  “It’s different,” he said.

  “How so?”

  He opened his mouth and then seemed to rethink what he was going to say. “It might not be safe for you here, when I’m not around. I have some enemi
es who wouldn’t hesitate to try and use you against me.”

  “Then we keep our relationship under wraps, like we’ve always done. That works out better for me. I don’t want the cruise ships thinking my association with you is going to endanger their patrons and yanking their business away.”

  “I don’t want to hide what you mean to me anymore.”

  “What do I mean to you Quick?” She folded her arms in front of her.

  He froze like a deer in headlights. “I care about you.”

  “I care about you too.” Maggie softened her voice.

  “I want you to be in my life more.”

  “I’d like that too. But I’m not going to change my whole world for you. You wouldn’t do that for me, and I wouldn’t ask it of you.”

  “Why don’t you do anything the way I expect you to?” Quick said, exasperated.

  “That’s part of the reason why we’re still together.” She gave him a long, sensual kiss that she hoped showed him that she truly didn’t want to change anything about their situation.

  Just as Quick was about to start sliding her clothes off, Donna knocked on the trapdoor.

  “You’re going to want to hear this,” she called up.

  “If we were on my ship, no one would dare interrupt us,” he said.

  “And we would have missed out on whatever Donna wants us to hear.” She slapped him on the ass and headed down the ladder to the bar.

  Maggie was surprised to see Alarna seated at one of the tables. She had her tarot cards out and was frowning over them. Maggie gave her a hug.

  “Hey girl, can I get you a soda?”

  “Sure.” Alarna winked at Quick. “I see you found her.”

  “Do you know where Black Belle is?” Quick asked, sliding a chair around so he could straddle it.

  Maggie slid a cola over to Alarna and grabbed a coffee for Quick. “How would she know that?”

  “Because she handed me a message from Belle on how to find you on Cantos.”

  Alarna didn’t answer him. “Donna said you were asking questions about the ruins.”

  “Yeah, what do you know?”

  “There’s this guy, named Benicio. He built a mini submarine and claims he can take you on a tour of the ruins.”

  “Has he gotten any takers?” Maggie asked.

  “Several. Last night though, he got caught by the Federales. They have him in jail and his submarine compounded.”

  Quick and Maggie looked at each other.

  “These people he’s taken to the ruins. They’re still alive and breathing?” Maggie asked.

  “No curses?” Quick added.

  “Yeah.”

  “Can we talk to them?”

  “You’re talking to one of them.”

  Maggie poured a healthy shot of Sambuca into Quick’s coffee. “You went down there? Weren’t you scared?”

  “What did you see?” Quick said, sitting next to her. “Can you draw me a map?”

  “What are you looking for?” Alarna whipped her head back and forth between the two of them, not sure who to answer first.

  “I’ve got some questions about the curse,” Maggie said, and explained what she saw on Castle Crag.

  Alarna nodded. “And you?”

  “I want to see what all these people have died for,” Quick said.

  “And that’s it?”

  Quick shrugged. “If there’s gold and treasure just sitting there under the sea, I don’t see a reason to let it just linger there.”

  Getting off the stool, Alarna drained her soda. “Except it doesn’t belong to you. Just like the Aztec gold didn’t belong to Cortez.”

  “Alarna, wait,” Maggie said. “What did you see?”

  “It’s similar to the ruins at Tulum, only underwater. There’s a heavy presence there as well. Malevolent. There’s a vortex blocking the entrance to the temple.”

  “A vortex?” Quick said.

  “Like the ones your airship go through. Only it’s small. The submarine wouldn’t fit. It would only fit a person at a time.”

  Maggie felt her stomach heave. That’s why the people died so horribly. The vortex spit them back out that way. And the ones that came back were probably trapped inside the temple. Without food or water, they would have starved to death.

  And yet, Jovan Dragonsblood had gone in and out with a golden statue. And Amos said there were other artifacts. So, it could be done. Maybe there were more survivors.

  “What about the curse? Do you think the malevolent presence is behind it?”

  “I don’t know about curses. I know that thieves get what they deserve. That’s called karma.” She stared at Quick in dislike, and then walked out of The Midnight Lady.

  “You aren’t seriously thinking of rescuing this Benicio guy and liberating his submarine, are you?” Quick asked once Donna went out to take the first day off she’s had in a month.

  “I’m not. But I guarantee that Black Belle is. As soon as it gets dark, let’s go get Ephraim and see if we can investigate.”

  “Break into a Federale holding center?” Quick snorted. “I’ve spent most of my life trying to stay out of places like that.”

  “You can go back to your plantation. You don’t have to stay here.” Maggie smiled to take the sting out of her words.

  “I was thinking,” Quick came behind the bar and put his arms around her. “That we could go together. It’ll take a few hours, but in the mean time we could have a nice dinner on my airship, with wine that didn’t come from a distributor.”

  “Hey!” She shoved him away.

  “I’m just saying that sounds like a lot more fun than sneaking around a Mexican prison. And, I’d like to show you my home port.”

  Maggie stroked his cheek. “I’d love that. But not until this thing with Black Belle is settled. I promised Ephraim that I’d bring him to her. And I’ve got to stick around to make sure she’s not going to send him into that meatgrinder of a vortex.”

  “But after that?”

  “After that, I really can’t take a lot of time off for a while. I can’t do that to Donna.”

  “Close the bar for a few weeks, then.”

  “Quick, I’ve got people who are counting on me for their paycheck. I’ve got contracts with cruise lines. I can’t just close my place of business down, and fly off with you.” She put her hand on his arm. “No matter how much I want to.”

  “It doesn’t seem like you want to very much,” he said, pulling away.

  “Just like it doesn’t seem like you’re taking my business as seriously as you do yours.”

  “You know, maybe you’re right.”

  “I’m always right,” Maggie said, dryly.

  “Maybe this relationship is fine the way it was.” Quick wouldn’t look at her.

  She wanted to smack him, but then again wasn’t that what she told him she wanted? She couldn’t blame him for finally listening to her.

  “I should get back to my plantation.” He moved out from behind the bar.

  “You should,” she said. “You wasted enough time on me.” Her fists tightened. “But thank you. I appreciate that you cared enough to try and rescue me.”

  “Anytime, luv.” Quick finished his coffee in one swallow and slapped a gold coin on the counter.

  It was all she had in her not to throw it at his head.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Maggie went through the motions for the rest of the night. She smiled at her regulars who were happy she was back. She served drinks, cut off the ones who drank too much, and reviewed the books and inventory when it got slow.

  Quick never came back. Nor did he send Ephraim out. A quick check of the airship log, showed he was still in port. He was probably expecting her to come to him. She was tempted, but she knew enough pirates to reason that once she was on his airship there was fuckall she could do if he decided to leave port with her on it.

  Confident that Ephraim would drive him crazy enough to bring him to her, Maggie went upstairs to cha
nge out of her wench outfit. All she wanted to do was go to bed, but the sooner she could snoop out where Black Belle was—if she was even still on Cozumel, the sooner her life could get back to normal.

  Dressed all in black, Maggie was well armed with two pulse pistols, and Nicholette’s bodice dagger. She hoped she didn’t have to use any of them. After packing a backpack filled with useful things, she slipped out the back alley, keeping to the shadows. It was too late to hail a cab, but she kept a motorbike in the shed behind the bar for emergencies. She drove it to the memorial for the tsunami victims and chained it up to the bike rack. It may or may not be there when she got back.

  Some people like to climb down the rocks and attempt to swim to the ruins from here, but they had patrol boats out to catch them. Maggie ducked down behind the monument when the boat’s floodlight swept over the area. After it had passed by, she jogged away from the beach to the wired gate.

  All she wanted to do was look, but there was nothing to see here. The command center was deeper in. That’s where she’d be able to find more information, whether it was by eavesdropping or ransacking a few file cabinets.

  There were sentries walking a perimeter with assault rifles and guard dogs. She hoped she was upwind. It had been awhile since she went on a raid. Even longer since she went on a solo one. For a minute, she contemplated going back home and getting a good night’s sleep.

  It didn’t hurt to look, though. Unless, of course, they set the dogs after her. After timing the patrol, Maggie went up to the fence. It was electrified with razor wire on the top. So much for going over it. Pulling on rubber gloves, she used wire cutters to snap several links. It would sound an alarm, but she’d have time to slip into the complex. She’d worry about getting out later.

  Sure enough, as she was sprinting towards the outer building, she heard the patrol coming back to investigate. They’d know there was something up sooner rather than later. She could see the command center in the distance, lit up. Even at this early hour, there was a lot of activity going around over there. Going flat against the first building she came to, she could see it was guarded by two men. Thankfully, no dogs.

  There must be something worth guarding in here. Her pulse pistols were set to stun. Coming fast around the corner, she hit both men before they could cry out an alarm.