by S. S. Engle
“Drop him!”
“Don’t you know who this is?!”
“Do you question me?!”
“He could be used for leverage!”
“He is a person! He will not be used as an object or we’re no better than the man we’re fighting! And I use the term man with the loosest of meanings.”
“We can’t just let him go.”
“Let him be my problem. These railroad lines aren’t going to cut themselves.”
“Lucky what’s going on?! It’s madness!”
“We were going for chaos.”
“So, it is the Dreadcranks behind this?”
“Who else could hate so much?”
“Where’s Kassidy? Is she back at the palace?”
“She didn’t come.”
“What do you mean she didn’t come?”
“She’s back on Rusten Island.”
“What’s she doing there?!”
“Where do you think we gained all of this firepower?”
“She went with you to the island after all?”
“She trusted it was the best action to take at the time, for the city and for its people. She didn’t do it for me.”
“If that’s what you need to believe, then alright.”
“What are you even doing out here anyways O’Brien? Are you trying to get yourself killed?”
“The hospital has been evacuated. I had to go somewhere.”
“So you thought…train depot?”
“I was trying to get to the palace. I figured that’s where Kassidy would be.”
“She’s actually orchestrating that fine bit of propaganda you’re listening to over the airwaves right now.”
“How?”
“Her idea. We rewired the radios all over town and she tuned them to a private frequency. It’s not permanent, but it does justice to the night. Don’t you think?”
“Scared me out of my right mind.”
“Mission accomplished.”
“Do you get some sort of sick pleasure out of making my life miserable?”
“No. But it is a nice side effect.”
“I thought we’d moved past this.”
“Past what? The fact that you’re an O’Brien? That’s blood deep. That’ll never change.”
“I didn’t ask for Asa to be my brother.”
“And I didn’t ask for my father to be killed. But here we are.”
“So, this is the final culmination of seventeen years of hate and revenge?”
“No, no. This is the tip of the iceberg.”
“AHH!”
“What?! Why are you screaming?!”
“There’s a dead body!”
“You handled that well. Honestly, how are you and Asa even related? Come here. Stay close. I’ve got to get back to the Lydia as soon as possible.”
“Does the airship have room for a stowaway?”
“Are you asking to come back to the island with us?”
“I can’t very well stay here.”
“Kassidy would kill me if I let anything happen to you.”
“You could have just said yes. You didn’t have to use her as an excuse.”
“Is your head still sore from those guys dangling you from the train car?”
“Yes.”
“That’s who you’ll be flying back with.”
“If you were me, what would you do?”
“Change my name!”
“I’m being serious!”
“If I were you I wouldn’t be caught dead in this city. I’d be up on the island where I was safe. I’d be with Kassidy.”
“How is she holding up?”
“Given the circumstances, fantastic.”
“Did she ask about me?”
“We’ve been busy.”
“So that’s a no.”
“I know you had to have been on her mind O’Brien. But we really were busy. This kind of attack doesn’t just happen you know.”
“You expect me to believe you two were so busy for the past three days that you hardly spoke to each other?”
“Believe what you want. But the longer you speak you’re just talking yourself out of a free ride out of this hell hole.”
“You’re diverting the conversation away from her. Something happened, didn’t it?!”
“Nothing happened!”
“What happened?!”
“Nothing! Has the attack numbed your senses?! Nothing has happened! I haven’t talked to her. I’ve got the letter right here in my pocket! I can’t bring myself to ask her about it because I’m so damn scared that the letter is real and it isn’t for me! Is that what you wanted to hear O’Brien?”
“No.”
“Get a move on! The balloons are already on their way back. The Lydia has to cover them. I’ll be damned if my men end up jeopardized because I was arguing with you about my lackluster love life in the middle of the night at a train depot!”
“Being with Kassidy is hardly lackluster.”
“What I’ve managed to accomplish is! You were right what you said about me before. I could have any girl I want, I just don’t want them. It’s different with her. I’d die for her!”
“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. If you die I’m not man enough to pick up the pieces of her that will be left behind.”
“Can you still run?”
“What? You’re going to just let me have that?”
“If you can’t run I’m dragging you!”
“I can run! I can run!”
Luca bolted for the Lydia. Harlan didn’t know where they were running to at first until he saw the airship tied up in the courtyard of the palace. The light white stripes of the envelope were glowing in the flames of the city wall down below. Something had come unhinged within Engia’s electrical grid. Steam was pouring up through the manhole covers in the streets, doing little to relieve the pressure of the fires. It was just mass chaos. Climbing up the rope ladder on the side of the Lydia Harlan was horrified to see the city so broken and torn apart. But he also felt very guilty for feeling such destruction was some sort of validation. Men on deck were helping Luca get up to the helm, but by the time Harlan came up waiting for the same help, nobody was there. He pulled himself up by the nearby rigging and tumbled down onto the top deck. Men kicked him like a rat as they rushed past him, but it was still better then what would be happening to him had he stayed out there on the streets. He rubbed his hand over his sore head and really thought about the lesser of two evils this evening. When he fell asleep he’d been in the safety of a hospital, and now he was fleeing a city on fire. From higher up Harlan could get the whole picture. The outer wall protecting the city had been breached and broken in multiple places. Steam and fire pouring from its guts. He placed his hand over his most recent stabbing and looked towards his new home. Rusten Island was barely a little blip in the sky. Somewhere on that blip he hoped Kassidy was waiting for news of him.
The Dreadcranks were right in anticipating that attacking overnight would relieve them from heavy Ringer retaliation. But not all of the rival gang was sleeping at three in the morning. Silas was out on his usual nightly patrols, collecting taxes from poor clients, harassing women he didn’t have the courage to speak to in the daylight, and what not. Blue was not accompanying his partner in crime tonight. He was still on doctor’s orders to rest as part of his healing from Asa’s latest beating. Being subservient had hit an all-time low for Blue. Upon returning to the mansion to inform his boss he’d not only lost the Lydia, but also Kassidy, Asa responded accordingly. Blue had been stabbed in the chest three times, and a major artery had been severed in the process. Besides nearly bleeding to death he was beaten after he was unconscious. He was looking out of two black eyes, with a busted nose and cuts all over his face. Luca’s beating had not yet healed either, so Blue was in for a double heaping of hurt. So, to say that when Silas came running back at three in the morning, he was not impressed, would be an understatament. The mansion being set aside so far f
rom the main center of the city, and deemed a non-target by the Dreadcranks, had managed to say utterly aloof of the attack on Engia thus far. Groggy with sleep deprivation and pain it was all Blue could do not to strangle Silas right where he stood, gasping for breath.
“The city is under attack! We have to wake up Asa!”
“You go wake him up and see what happens!”
“But Blue! There’s fires in the streets!”
“Of course there is! And there’s people crying out against injustice. Tell me something I don’t know! The city is a mess. Do you have any idea who’s behind this?”
“I saw the Lydia flying away from the palace.”
“That’s impossible. She’d never come back here. At least not this soon.”
“What are you talking about?”
“What are you talking about?!”
“We have to tell Asa so he can do something!”
“What could he do?! If the damage is already done, he can find it in the morning. I’m sure it’ll still be there.”
“But Blue!”
“But nothing! Leave me alone Silas! I’ve dealt with enough the past week to last me a lifetime.”
“But we’re under attack!”
“And we’ll still be under attack come morning! If you don’t like it then you go be the hero and save the city! I’m done with Engia! I’m done with everything! I’m sitting here nursing my wounds alone with nobody but the likes of you to keep me company?! Please Silas, Engia being attacked is the least of my problems right now. I can barely sit up on my own. And besides, who’s to say this city being attacked isn’t a good thing? Maybe it’ll finally get rid of the trash that’s been piling up over the past seventeen years.”
“What are you saying?”
“Be a good dog and go bark at somebody else’s door who gives a damn! Because I sure as hell don’t!”
“Blue?”
“GO!”
4
Harlan wasn’t the only stowaway to be carried ack to Rusten Island. Upon docking in exile, it was clear many hot air balloons had picked up Dreadcrank supporters. A couple hundred by the flood of people onto the island. Luca was among one of the last to leave the airship and rejoin the celebrations on dry land. Kassidy was in a sea of people trying to push her way through the front to try and find out what had happened in the nearly four hours they were away. From the looks of it not a single man had been lost, and she couldn’t believe those odds. Running only with the aid of the lanterns on the Lydia she managed to force her way to the edges of the crowd and met back up with Luca still sliding down the ropes. Similar to their goodbye hours earlier he swept her up in his arms and lifted her off her feet. When he finally set her down they still kept their arms around each other to quickly catch up before running off to their next line of business.
“Did everything go according to plan?”
“Almost.”
“How many did we lose?”
“Not every time a plan goes off course does it lead to something negative.”
“How many did we lose?”
“None! But we gained a few extra hands. I didn’t think you’d mind.”
She cocked her head to the side as a man came sliding down the rope behind Luca. Kassidy would recognize her old friend anywhere. She jumped from Luca’s arms to Harlan’s but quickly let go remembering his still healing gut wound. He was smiling awkwardly at her, and she couldn’t figure out why. She spun on her heels and looked at Luca but he wouldn’t look back at her. Instead he was far more interested in staring at his feet. Harlan and Luca exchanged solemn glances and nodded to one another before Luca excused himself to get back to work. The day was barely beginning and much of the attack had yet to be put into motion. Kassidy understood, preparing herself for terrible news. She knew what she still had to accomplish by the day’s end, and it was only four in the morning. Running hard on adrenaline and years of built up nerves, she somehow managed to keep exhaustion at bay. Harlan took her by the hand and led her away from the crowd to the far side of the Lydia for privacy. She followed without question and stood removed from the celebrations for a moment. Her huge grin began to fade to a slender of a smile the longer it took for Harlan to find the words he was searching for. Respecting his gesture to pull her aside though, she kept quiet despite her natural instincts to pull the conversation out of him. Whatever it was, it was going to be difficult for him to say.
“I’m so-so-sorry Kass.”
“What do you have to be sorry for? I was very happy to see you coming off the Lydia.”
“I’m so-so-sorry because I can-can-can’t stay.”
“You just came here to leave?”
“When Lucky go-go-goes back for the bo-bo-bombing raid, I’m going wi-wi-with him.”
“But you just got here.”
“It’s not li-li-like you’re staying. He told me abou-bou-bout what you’re assi-si-signment is.”
“Where will you go? There will be hardly any safe place to run to in the city.”
“I’d like to sta-a-ay at the palace. If y-y-you didn’t mi-mi-mind.”
“I’ll be sure to tell Luca to spare the palace and spread the word.”
“I’d apprecia-a-ate that.”
“That’s not why you brought me over here, is it?”
“I have some-some-something else to ask y-y-you.”
“You have my undivided attention.”
“Can y-y-you find a way to for-for-forgive me?”
“Forgive you? Harlan why are you asking for my forgiveness?”
“I have to tell y-y-you something y-y-you won’t want to h-h-hear. But it’s very impor-por-portant that you know. While I still have th-th-the chance.”
“While you still have the chance?”
“I love you K-K-Kass.”
“I…”
“No.”
“No? You didn’t even let me say anything.”
“Because I kn-kn-know you were going to s-s-say that y-y-you love me too, but it’s n-n-not the same…is it?”
“No. It’s not.”
“I still love y-y-you.”
Kassidy tried to smooth the situation over to make it less awkward but Harlan just held his hand up for her to stay quiet. When he leaned in to kiss her cheek she didn’t shy away, and as his tears streaked cheek brushed up against hers she didn’t turn to watch him walk away. There wasn’t anything she could say to make him feel better, because he was right. She’d suspected he’d loved her for some time now, but not to the extent that he just admitted. And it physically hurt her deep in her chest not being able to reciprocate his feelings. He deserved her too, but she couldn’t. And he deserved genuine affection in return, not something derived from pity or guilt. The truth was she didn’t have anything to say at all to what Harlan had just said to her. It was a good thing he held up his hand for her to keep quiet, because she would have ruined the moment. She knew herself too well. Obviously, he knew her too well too. A gust of wind pulled her out of her stupor and sent chills down her spine. Harlan was thinking in the right mindset. This day was just starting, and they had so much left to try and do.
In the main house by the docks the latest
meetings were already getting underway. Kassidy should have been there by Luca’s side, but arrived a little late. He seemed to already know what it was that had been said as Harlan was in the room not far from him. Everyone was gathered around a group of tables pushed together to make a large enough surface for what was spread-out on top of them. Blueprints of Engia’s utility system. A schematic of the pipes running all the way from Mt. Engia throughout the city. In the corner, Kassidy noticed the gearmaster’s name written in his own hand, U. Bataille. The fact that they had yet to find out the clue to her father’s treasure left by the gearmaster was nagging at the back of her mind. They were causing so much destruction, they could very well be destroying their own path to a money source worth rivaling that of the O’Brien’s. But thinking more optimistically as Luca would ha
ve her do, if they succeeded in knocking Asa out of power, the treasure could be left alone. Lots of scenarios were racing through her head right now, none of which she should have been taking up any of her time at the moment. Clapping signaled that Kassidy had effectively missed the entire meeting. While she’d been physically present for half of it, she couldn’t remember anything anyone had said for the past half an hour. Luca could tell she was somewhere else, and waited until most of the room, including Harlan, had dispersed to take care of what they needed to. Lots of clanging and rushing back and forth caused Kassidy to keep her eyes glued to the windows until Luca stepped in front of her.