Sky Ship

by P McAuley, Robert

  In the passengers lounge terrorists are sorting things from the crate, including explosives. The intercom by the refreshment stand buzzed, Hadi who was in charge of the distribution of the items, answered. “Yes?”

  Karim said, “Hadi, The indicator for Hatch Five - it's still on and Colonel Aziz wants you to go find Mansur. Right away.”

  Hadi clicked off the intercom, rubbed his temple and sighed as he looked around. His gaze settled on Mitanni who was cleaning his disassembled gun.

  “Mitanni, Go find Mansur! He went to check on Hatch Number Five again. Bring him to me!”

  Mitanni exhaled between clenched teeth as he started to reassemble his gun when Hadi interrupted him. “Mitanni, do it now. You have no need for your weapon. The colonel waits.” Mitanni rolled his eyes as the other terrorists grinned at his boring mission.

  Mitanni walked noisily along the center walkway, his eyes adjusting to the interior lighting. “Mansur! He shouted as he looked up into the upper rigging of the ship. “Mansur, are you up there? The colonel wants you right away. Mansur!”

  Dan is thirty feet above the hull walkway. He is perched behind one of the gasbags in the guy wires close to the ladder. He can see the terrorist as he walked down the center walkway.

  Mitanni arrived at the ladder that went up to the hatch in question, and looked up as he called, “Mansur! The colonel wants . . .” He looked and suddenly his mind put together the vision he saw before him. He looked closer and is shocked at the sight. A man aimed an arrow at him from less than ten meters away!

  Dan released the arrow and it crossed the thirty feet in less than a second. It whipped into Mitanni’s chest with a thud and the terrorist staggered backward, gurgled blood, and dropped dead.

  Dan dropped quietly and ran to the body. He pulled the arrow out, wiped the blood on the dead man’s shirt and searched him for weapons. Finding none he murmured, “Damn.” He looked at his bow and quipped, “Looks like I’ll just have to stay at being Robin Hood a little longer. Oh well.” He rolled the body off the walkway. It plummets fifty feet below to the hull.

  Rashid stretched and said to Gailani, “I’m going to take a walk inside this monster. I want to see what a capitalist society puts their blood-sucking money into these days.” He grinned as he continued, “And I also want to see what we are bringing down. Ha, ha.” He opened the doorway into the interior. He stood and looked around before deciding to take the hull walkway towards the rear. He walked down the ladder, past the passenger rooms that protruded into the interior, upon which Dan perched while he talked with Jim. The terrorist was amazed at the size. “I have to hand it to these decadent fools. They know how to attract people in order to have them pass over their money. Fools!”

  He walked down the inclined walkway and arrived at the halfway point when a dark object hit the walkway less than three feet from him with a tremendous thud that shook the walkway beneath his feet. A thick fluid suddenly spattered him and he went to a crouched position and automatically drew his weapon. It took just a second to realize it was a person that fell from above, just missing him. He walked over and saw Mitanni half imbedded into the steel mesh walkway.

  “Mitanni! He looked up, then back at the dead terrorist. “Fool! These decks are not for the clumsy.” He was about to stand when he saw a small round hole in the dead man’s shirt. Rashid pulled the shirt open and saw the hole was in his chest too. This is not a bullet hole, I’ve seen too many of them, he thought as he pushed his finger into the hole. What would make an entrance hole like this? A knife? No, it’s too round. A shaft? Perhaps. He suddenly flung himself to the side under the safety of a girder’s shadow. A shaft of sorts! That means we are not alone. The airship has not been completely secured. He backed away and ran as quietly as he could toward the passenger’s lounge. Must warn the colonel, he thought. He ran and opened the door to the passenger’s lounge. The men looked at him as he entered with a look of concern on his face.

  “Did you see a ghost, Rashid?” asked Said with a laugh.

  Rashid threw him a terrible look and the man looked away. “Listen all of you. Be on guard, there is opposition onboard. Mitanni is dead. I found his body on the hull walkway. He was shot, I think, by some type of a shafted weapon. All has not been secured. Be on guard.”

  The men all picked up their weapons as Hadi stopped and put down the crate’s manifest. “A shafted weapon?” he said, “An arrow perhaps? Stay here. I’ll tell the colonel.” He opened the door to the stairs leading down to the gondola.

  Col. Aziz is in the gondola, his arms clasped behind his back as he stood looking out the front window and Kassem was looking through binoculars as Hadi threw open the door. “Colonel!” he shouted, “Mitanni is dead! Rashid found his body in the hull!”

  Aziz spun away from the front window. “What?”

  “He had a wound typically attributed to an arrow. And Mansur has not been seen since I sent him topside.”

  “Secure all doors,” said Aziz as he put his hand on his pistol. “No one enters the interior without my direct orders. We must think this through before acting.”

  Dan reflected on the man he just killed. He thought back to the second week when he walked his beat in New York City. A young man ran out of a Spanish, Mom and Pop Bodega brandishing a large handgun. He saw Dan and grabbed an elderly woman and put his gun to her head. “Get out of my way, man,” he shouted.

  Dan stopped and said, “No problem, man, just let her go and I’ll look the other way as you leave.” I really meant it; thought Dan as he reflected, I didn’t want to shoot that guy, especially when he was the same age as me. But, oh no, that guy had to play the role and with a smirk, thought he had the best of a wussy cop.

  “Give me your gun, pig,” he said. He waved his gun at Dan as he let the old lady go for a better game he thought he had in front of him. Dan took out his gun and placed it on the sidewalk and as the man picked it up, Dan kicked him a glancing blow in the face. The guy reeled back and as he started to aim at him, Dan rolled away and fired with his small backup pistol from his ankle holster. The single shot caught him in the chest and he was D.O.A. at the hospital. The department gave Dan a week off, to relax him. It took more than a year to bring himself to agree with the department shrink that it was the only recourse open to him and he probably saved the old woman’s life, and maybe more if the guy got away with his gun.

  This time it was different, he thought, that scum was just one of the group that wants to kill thousands of innocent people. My wife and kids just happen to be part of that number. Dan felt no remorse whatsoever. He did his mental check and said to himself, “Move on to the next step, Danny Boy, move on.”

  He went down to the hull walkway and into the open tool shed. He rolled out the acetylene tank and torch and picked up a section of Kevlar, the ship’s main building material. He put the dark goggles around his neck and pushed the unit along the walkway, grateful for the rubber tires that kept it semi quiet on the perforated steel decking. Going up the stairs was a bit of a hump, but he did it and rolled it quietly over to the engine room. He put the piece of bullet proof Kevlar between himself and the door, dropped the goggles in place, lit the torch and quickly started wielding the door closed. It took just a few seconds before he could relax knowing that it was too late for whoever was inside to open the door now. He settled down to wielding it completely, from top to bottom. “Whatever happens in the engine room,” he said with a sly grin, “stays in the engine room . . . till we land or whatever.”

  In the engine room, Said sat at the engineer’s console. He was not really a Flight Engineer, but was selected because his father owned a small automobile shop and he worked there before joining the military. He was reading one of the many books the airship carried on the running of the great diesel engines that powered her. He reflected on what the books made him realize; he would be useless if the engines needed work of any type. His heart jumped earlier when the rear starboard engine seemed to slow and labor for a secon
d before coming back to full power. Thank the capitalists for building such reliable engines, he thought, for should they fail, the colonel would expect me to fix them. He looked skyward, “Pray that they keep working well, until the glorious moment when it all ends and Irajh takes her rightful spot in the world.”

  Suddenly Said jumped from the console as a crackling sound came from the door. A high hissing sound accompanied sparks that shot through a very small opening between the door and its frame. A sharp smell came into the room as Said quickly pressed the intercom to the gondola.

  Karim picked up the mike at the incessant buzzer. “Control Room. Go ahead.”

  Listen! This is Said. What is happening?”

  Colonel Aziz put down his binoculars and took the mike away from the pilot. “This is Colonel Aziz. What is it, Said?”

  Said shouted, “Can’t you hear it? Someone is welding the door shut! What is going on? Why must I stay way back here when all of you are enjoying the spoils of this ship? I demand to be relieved.”

  Aziz’s face is red with rage as he thought, How dare this underling shout at me or question my orders. However, he answered in a calm voice to sooth this young warrior, “Said, we are looking into this. It appears someone is loose on the ship. However, fear not, the person will be eliminated at once. Sit tight my young warrior, you have been given a very important task in our mission and your family will be well rewarded.”

  “Colonel, I'll shoot him through the door!”

  Aziz almost screamed. “No! You may hit a tank of acetylene. Wait for instructions or you may end this mission by doing a stupid act. Sit tight; if you are locked in, they are locked out, so you will be safe. I will get back to you as soon as we eliminate this small, insignificant louse, I promise you.

  Outside the engine room, Dan shut the torch off and he quickly pushed the tanks away. “Guaranteed I just closed a door and opened a hornet’s nest.” He had to give a silent laugh at his joke. That’s it Danny Boy, keep a sense of humor.

  Aziz quickly rolled out a cut-away view map of Sky Ship and put his finger on the engine room as he barked orders. “Kassem, take four men to the Engine Room. Go!”

  Kassem ran out the door and into the passenger’s lounge where he pointed to four of the terrorists, “Come with me and bring your weapons.”

  Aziz grabbed the passenger-list clipboard off the wall and scanned it.

  Hadi shook his head and said to him, “Who could be back there? We swept the ship clean! All are accounted for.”

  “The crew - they were all accounted for?” asked Aziz as he slid his finger down the list. He noticed his hand was shaking.” He glanced at Hadi and wondered, Did Hadi Bakr notice it too?

  Hadi answered, “Yes. The entire crew is in the rooms or dead. I personally checked every- Wait! The security man! Mansur said he killed him, but I never saw the body . . . Perhaps he survived.”

  Aziz stood and put his face right in Hadi’s face and shouted. “You fool! Go and re-count them all! Immediately!” He thrust the clipboard into Hadi's midsection. “Passengers, crew - all of them!”

  Flushed crimson, Hadi took the clipboard and stormed out. Col. Aziz smashed a mug into the door. He took just a second too long to leave, thought Aziz. I have to watch this man.

  Dan climbed into the rigging near the engine room. This is where the hornets will come first, he thought as he settled into as comfortable a position as he could. Well Dan, you got your wish here they come, he thought as he heard the terrorists calling to each other as they tried to clear the great interior.

  Inside the great airship, the five men move along the various walkways.

  Hamadan reached the engine room. There’s no one around. He touched the door and recoiled with a burnt finger. “Ahhh!” he howled as he shook his hand, “Said, “he shouted through the closed door, “how long has the bastard been gone?”

  “I don’t know. Get me out of here now.”

  Hamadan ignored his pleas and looked around. “Arif,” he shouted, “see anything?”

  Dan spotted Hamadan as he tried the door. He didn’t have a clear shot and had to wait until the right moment. “Move just a little bit to the right, my little bastard friend,” said Dan as he urged the man to move for a better shot. Dan’s wish was rewarded as the man stepped away from the door and shouted to his comrades. Dan let loose and the arrow went into the man’s shoulder. As he screamed, he spun around and gave Dan an even better, full front shot. Dan’s second bolt smashed into his neck, stopped his screaming and he dropped dead in his tracks.

  Arif heard Hamadan’s yell as he burnt his finger and, not knowing what was wrong, turned to where he was. “Hamadan!” he yelled as he ran towards the engine room. “Hamadan, do you see something?”

  Dan started to change his location, and then saw the second man run towards his dead companion. Damn! he thought as he was slightly off balance after he moved. He tried to readjust and get set for another shot but was at a poor angle. The man ran down the walkway then slowed as he searched for his friend.

  Arif crouched as he approached the engine room. It seemed too quiet and he didn’t dare to shout out again. In a low whisper he said, “Hamadan, where are you?”

  Just then Said shouted from the room, “Hamadan, are you still there?”

  Arif heard him and assumed they were speaking to each other, so he stood and approached the room. He saw a dark figure on the walkway and wondered what or who it was. He bent down and suddenly recognized Hamadan with two arrows in him. He quickly rolled to the side as an arrow flew by his head. He grabbed Hamadan’s Uzi and ran for cover as another arrow flew by. He shouted to the other terrorists, “He's up in the rigging!”

  Dan is upset with himself, “Damn! I should have shot before he bent over his dead buddy.” He climbed to another gasbag as a stream of Uzi fire ricocheted all around him: bouncing off the Kevlar-lined gasbags.

  “Damn! He said through clenched teeth as he flinched with pain. He looked at his hands; they were bloody from his grabbing of the guy wires as he was off balance.

  Mustafa waved at Gailani and he motioned with his hand to keep quiet. He then used hand signals to send him up into the rigging to the right of the unknown archer, while he would go up and into the rigging on the left side. They started their ascent in a quiet commando style.

  Dan suddenly heard the twang, not unlike a guitar string when it’s plucked, and knew someone was in the rigging to his right. Damn, he thought as he looked the other way, if there’s one on the right, I’ve gotta assume there’s another coming from the left. He put his arm through the bow as he looked at his route of escape.

  His movement was spotted by Gailani who shouted, “I see him!”

  Dan didn’t have to understand the language to know he’s been spotted. He leaped to the port side walkway, fell and rolled as he felt a new source of pain shoot up from his ankle. “Oh, man! This is just not a good day, Danny Boy.” Another burst of an Uzi rang out and bullets bounced all about him. He moved as fast as he could to put a girder between himself and the shooter. Dan had just enough time to take the slingshot out of his pocket, put a lead shot in the square piece of leather at the end of the slingshot’s elastic band.

  Mustafa senses the kill and jumped onto the walkway. He shouted to Gailani, “Cover me Gailani, I’m going forward.”

  Gailani landed on the same walkway and stood up to cover his companion as he ran forward.

  Dan saw him coming and in an instant realized the attacking man blocked his partner’s field of fire on the narrow platform. Dan fired a volley of slingshot balls. One caught Mustafa in the throat. The sudden hit caused him to stumble and as he reached up to his throat, lose his Uzi over the railing. He recovered and continued his charge at Dan. Dan got his bow and tried to ready an arrow, but the man was on top of him faster than he figured. Dan rolled backward, caught the terrorist with the tip of his bow in the solar plexus and Mustafa's own momentum, coupled with the pole vault-like motion of the bow, sent him sailing ov
er the railing. He screamed as he fell and landed with a symphony of twangs as he landed, upside down, entangled in the hull rigging, his neck broken.

  Dan looked to hide quickly from the burst of gunfire he knew was coming. He raced as fast as he could to a girder next to the walkway and got there just as a volley of bullets reached him and bounced off his hiding place. Damn! he thought as he half-swung, half-climbed up into the rigging again, I’m getting too good at this.

  Gailani raced forward firing from his hip. The flash from his Uzi helps conceal Dan’s escape route to the terrorist. He stopped to retrieve Mustafa’s gun but can’t locate it.

  The sound of running behind Gailani makes him go to a crouching position and aim his weapon to his rear. Out of the shadow, Kassem appears.

  “Hamadan?” he asked in a whisper.

  “Dead, this man is deadly!”

  “One man?” Kassem asked.

  Gailani nodded, “I believe so. But,” he answered as he looked up into the rigging, “he is like a monkey. A monkey with weapons that kill silently.”

  He motioned down the walkway. “Come, let’s go forward and kill this dung-eating bastard. They start forward, but at a slower pace than before.

  Dan took their slow-down time to get back on the walkway further away from them.

  “Look!” said Kassim as he pointed down the narrow walkway, “He is a fleeting shadow. He seems to know this ship and uses all the shadows well. Best we speed up before we lose him.”

  They start trotting when suddenly Gailani who is in the lead, crashed through the part of the walkway that Dan had weakened earlier. “Ahhh! Damn this pig,” he shouted as he fell through the booby-trapped section. He grabbed the sides of the walkway and dropped his weapon. “My legs! Kassem, help me, my legs are ripped from this damned tread way.”