Keeping Cadence

by Piper J. Drake

  Minxy perked up. "The new client? Is he good?"

  To all indications, fantastic.

  "None of your business." Cadence took a second sip of wine.

  "Aw, you're far too prudish for someone who wears her skirts lifted up around her thighs." Minxy pouted.

  "If I didn't, I'd constantly be ripping my skirts to shreds." Or getting tripped up in them. "Don't have time for that in a fight, and thanks to you, I get plenty of those."

  "As if you don't enjoy it."

  Well, Minxy had a point there.

  Bella sighed. "All men are so very boring."

  "Oh, don't you start." Captain Sharp shook her finger in Bella's direction. "You have any number of suitors offering to make an honest woman of you."

  "But they're all so boring." Bella rolled her eyes. "Besides, I need a man of a certain sophistication, not those oily dandies strutting about on the piers looking to charter conveyance and putting on airs as if they're some god's gift to the world."

  "You could start bedding other ladies." Minxy perked up at that idea.

  Bella shook her head. "No. Ladies are too…soft for me. I do like a man with wonderfully rough hands. Maybe some other sign of hardship, something to show he's built character, been forged in the flames of adversity."

  Well, Bella had the hand part right. The memory of Jonathan's hands on Cadence's skin warmed her in delicious ways.

  Minxy blew out a breath. "The lot of you, no fun at all."

  "Course we are." Cadence sat on the arm of the chair and gave Minxy a pat on the shoulder. "Just not the kind of fun you want all the time."

  "Yeah well, I don't fancy hearing you all go on about the lack of fine men all night. It's been a damn long time since I met a man to match my tastes." With that comment, Captain Sharp went to refill her own glass with a sweet white.

  "Abigail might want to take notes on all of our requirements for our various dream men." Cadence tipped her head in the direction of Abigail's ever-present notebook. "She can store them in the Archives."

  "Hah! They'll gather dust there." Their captain turned so fast, she almost lost a few drops of her wine.

  "I beg your pardon." Abigail flipped her long golden plait over her shoulder. "I keep the Archives dust free and in very pristine condition.

  "They're books and scrolls." Cadence shook her head. "They generate dust by their very presence. It's the way they're supposed to be."

  And to be honest, she liked them that way. There was something peaceful about the Archives Abigail maintained. Once in a while, Cadence sought sanctuary in there, reading old legends and folk tales. It was a complete contrast to the usual action she'd made her livelihood as part of this crew aboard the Vulpes.

  "I love you girls." Minxy's head dropped into Cadence's lap.

  After a moment of pondering, Cadence raised her gaze to her captain. "How much has she had to drink?"

  "Not enough. She's still awake."

  Minxy did have nightmares if she didn't have a proper nightcap.

  Cadence tapped Minxy's head. "Up with you, I need to walk the decks again. I'm still on watch."

  "You're so responsible, Cadence, so tough. That's why all the men are good about orders on this ship. You would beat every one of them into the decks." Minxy rubbed her face into Cadence's thigh before sitting up.

  "Correction. I have beaten every one of them. That's why they take my orders."

  There was a standing empty position in the senior crew. The first mate position stood open and waiting for the right person. Cadence would rather hang from a yardarm than step into it herself, but any crew member looking to take it had to win against her in fair combat first. After all, her captain deserved the best at her right hand.

  Preferably someone who wasn't broken and remade with clockwork gears and steam-driven automated suspension.

  Cadence handed her wine glass to Minxy. "I'm off. Be back in an hour."

  "We'll be here." Captain Sharp nodded.

  Aye, they would. For Cadence, the ladies of the Vulpes were the warm heart of a very interesting life, far different from the hospice and wheelchair she'd been trapped in years ago. So why was it, when she stepped out onto the dark deck, that she felt a bit hollow inside?

  Chapter 4

  New London swam in every bit as much fog as its namesake. Only the fog didn't carry the bitter chill of natural humidity. No, the soup they walked through was steam from hundreds upon hundreds of steam-powered machines incorporated into every aspect of the city, including the mechanisms keeping the entire place aloft high above the original.

  "You ever consider using your glider wings to coast down the tether to the island, Cadence?"

  She didn't turn to look at Minxy, instead searching the murky alleyways for signs of trouble. "No."

  "Think it'd be fun?"

  "I think it'd be a death wish."

  "You've made dives like that before. I've seen you do it."

  Cadence came to a halt, holding up her hand for silence. Yeah. About what she thought. She continued walking. "It's not the distance, Minxy, it's the landing. No clear spot for me to land without splattering myself all over the ground."

  The glider had limitations. The greater the height, the more horizontal distance she needed to cancel out her speed and come in for a safe landing.

  "Your boots could help you."

  Cadence nodded. "They help me take the shock of a harder landing than most, but they can only take so much."

  "Ah well, it's not like there's much down there but slums and black markets anyway."

  This part of New London wasn't much better.

  They arrived at their destination, a large warehouse toward the unsavory end of the docks. Minxy took up a guard position, pistol drawn. Captain Sharp stepped forward to take the lead then, rapping her knuckles on the door. Curses came from inside and the small metal window slid open to reveal beady eyes.

  "Pass—"

  The man swallowed the rest of his precious word as he realized he was staring down the barrel of Cadence's pistol, shoved just far enough into the little window to keep him from shutting it again.

  "Open up." Captain Sharp barked out her demand with less than the usual patience. Meaning barely any at all. "We've got no time for asshattery."

  The sounds of bolts sliding free preceded the actual opening of the door. Once all three of them stepped inside, the door was shut behind them and locked again. Cadence spared the unfortunate doorman a glance. Heavyset in a less-than-fit way, he had a cigar stub hanging from the corner of his mouth and several days' growth on his double chin. His eyes shifted as he took in each of them and he swallowed several times.

  "The business transaction is taking place in the back room…ladies."

  Big words. Too big to come from him on their own. Nope, he'd been coached.

  As he led the way, Captain Sharp hung back a bit and kept her voice pitched low. "Cadence?"

  Not hard to go unheard. The oaf shambled far ahead of them as if he couldn't wait to get away. "We were followed. We're going to have to take the alternate route out of here."

  Captain Sharp nodded once, then increased her stride to step first into the back room.

  Two men in mid-range suits stood in the center of the room, flanked by a pair of airship sailors. Cadence exchanged a nod with each of the sailors, same as her captain and Minxy. She didn't know them personally, but the skies were smaller than most realized.

  Their clients stood to one side, the smarmy dandy sporting a small smile and fussing with his suit. Jonathan, on the other hand…

  Heat washed through Cadence and she cursed her fair complexion as Jonathan smiled at her. From the raised eyebrow he gave her, she imagined her cheeks must be flushed. She drew her own brows together and set her mouth in a determined line.

  Work first.

  "We have two types of cargo here, Captain Sharp." The dandy tapped a set of large square crates with the end of his cane and then indicated several longer boxes to one side o
f the room. "These are the rifles I'd like inspected prior to final purchase."

  "And the merchandise over there?" Her captain lifted a chin toward the square boxes.

  "Components. No worries for your…expert." His lip curled as he glanced in Cadence's direction.

  No matter. Cadence strode toward the longer crates and used a boot knife to pry the top off the first. She let out a low whistle. "Martini-Henry rifles. Four to six rounds per minute depending on the skill of the shooter, there've been some to claim ten. Effective range, several hundred yards."

  The other sailors scratched their beards and the sellers shifted on their feet, probably surprised.

  Cadence pretended to ignore them all, even while keeping each of them in her peripheral vision. She reached in and lifted one of the rifles. These were of greater interest anyway. The rifles were top of the line and the latest in British armories

  "Good condition." She broke the weapon down with swift, deft motions and inspected the firing mechanism "Not brand-new but close enough to make no difference." The dandy's smile melted away. Maybe he'd been expecting never-used merchandise. "Well-kept."

  "Not new? Perhaps I should have purchased the shipment of Snider-Enfield rifles instead." Dandy glared at the sellers.

  Cadence shrugged one shoulder as she continued to check each rifle. It wouldn't be good if only the top layer of weapons were of quality. "Breech block moves smoothly and isn't showing any signs of being fouled so these haven't seen heavy use. They haven't sat unused and rusting either. The Martini-Henry in this condition has a higher muzzle velocity than a brand-new Snider-Enfield. Better accuracy, shoots farther."

  Shooting distance mattered when you were on an airship. The dandy, on the other hand, might have other terrain in mind.

  She settled the butt of a rifle in the hollow of her shoulder and checked the sites. Sweet piece of weaponry and she did love a good firearm.

  One of the sellers stepped forward. "Our price stands, Mister Dodgson. Take the rifles or leave them."

  Cadence turned to watch them all, tipping the rifle back to point the muzzle at the ceiling.

  "My understanding was that these weapons would be of the highest quality." The dandy, Dodgson, scowled.

  Cadence resisted the urge to roll her eyes. She'd tried to head off the idjit earlier to prevent him from making a fool of himself. These were not the type of men to haggle out a price. Their client obviously didn't want to acknowledge that a used firearm could still be of good quality. Not her place to correct him, especially not in front of his seller, but still. It'd be a shame if she had to begin her bodyguard duties by killing a decent gunrunner.

  "These are the highest quality you can obtain and still avoid military scrutiny, Dodgson."

  "I thought you were the best. I'd expect you to provide the best."

  "This is…"

  As the exchange continued, Jonathan caught Cadence's attention. He hadn't moved, but he'd begun staring at her. Once he had her, he deliberately looked down at his pocket watch and tapped the top five times. His gaze returned to hers and then he repeated the whole sequence again.

  Blast.

  Whatever was about to happen, her captain was not going to be happy.

  "Ammunition is accounted for." She murmured as she popped open the smaller box and ran her hands over the brass cartridges.

  Dodgson ignored her, still doing his best to dicker. She was beginning to wonder if he really was that stupid or simply stalling for time.

  A handful of rounds found their way to her belt pouch. Jonathan had been wandering, it seemed, making his way over to her side as if he was studying the rifles as well.

  Good man.

  Minxy was already standing by the window Cadence had scouted earlier in the day from outside the warehouse. A stack of barrels lashed together provided a convenient way up.

  "Enough nonsense, Dodgson. Either pay up or take yourself out of here. We have plenty of buyers for these." The seller cut the air with the flat of his hand. "We've no need of you."

  Dodgson looked too pleased, his eyes narrowed and his lips stretching into a grin. "Oh no, you see, I've no need of you. Any of you."

  "Cap'n!" Her captain ducked almost before Cadence finished her warning so she dodged behind the stack of long crates, yanking Jonathan by the back of his collar to join her.

  Captain Sharp made it to cover beside them in one roll. She crouched next to Cadence, pistols drawn. "Shite!"

  "I tried to tell you—"

  Cadence cut Jonathan off with a sharp shake of her head. "You did and I'm ready. We're getting out of here."

  They'd sort out what part he had to play in this mess later.

  One sailor already lay dead in his tracks, caught standing out in the open. The others had sought cover. For a moment, silence fell.

  "Throw down your weapons!" A voice rang out from the direction of the main door. A dozen or more pirates rushed in from the back exit. They were a jumbled mess, the lot of them. Coming in from the two obvious doors gave Cadence easy shots at both groups and a clear path toward her intended exit. When they realized their idiocy, their captain wasn't going to be happy.

  Bollocks. They'd been avoiding trouble with other airships for at least a few months now. Some people didn't know how to let a grudge go.

  "Need a distraction, Cadence," her captain murmured.

  "Aye, Cap'n, I'm working on it." Quiet and slow, she slid a cartridge home without raising the rifle.

  "What are you waiting for?" Dodgson shouted from behind the pirates. "Take them all! I told you I'd get them here!"

  Cadence wondered what his cut was supposed to be. She'd take it out of his hide.

  "Well now, I suppose every one of us has a decent bounty on our heads. I don't recall working with any of these." Captain Sharp shook her head with a rueful grin pasted on her face. "But what about pretty boy?"

  Jonathan held out his hands.

  "Nah, Cap'n, no way he has a price on his head, he's worth something else." Cadence eyed him. Attractive or no, she'd put a bullet in him if she had to.

  He seemed to read her with no trouble. "I'm an inventor, an engineer. I didn't lie. Those other boxes sitting over on the other side, they're parts I need to build a new kind of machine."

  A machine too many would find useful, no doubt, perhaps even the military. There was always a war in the making. Jonathan must be valuable simply crouching there thinking hard.

  "Does Dodgson have the designs for your brilliant work on paper?" Captain Sharp hissed the question at him.

  "No. It's all in my head. The paper he has rolled up in the carry case over there is just a bunch of complicated scribbles. He couldn't tell even after staring at it all night."

  Ah well, might have been a clever precaution if Dodgson wasn't stupid enough to have Jonathan killed. No guarantee there.

  Cadence arched her neck and peered over the crate, just enough to get a real glimpse of the pirates where they'd taken up position. Then she eyed the remaining sailor and two gunrunners. She ducked back behind the crate as one impatient idiot took a shot at her.

  "Out of time, Cap'n. That distraction is going to happen without me." Cadence jerked her head back toward where Minxy crouched behind the stack of barrels. "Up and out. And I want to take Jonathan with us."

  "You never said you wanted a new cabin boy, Cadence."

  "He's too old for that. Let's call him an assistant."

  Jonathan kept his mouth shut. Smart man.

  The remaining sailor open fired then. Pirates returned fire. Cadence smiled. One double-edged issue with pirates. The majority of the crew was rarely well-trained. It'd work to her advantage today.

  "Go!" Cadence took careful aim over the top of the crate and fired the rifle. A man across the big room fell at the feet of several of his companions. Every one of the others missed their marks or put a bullet in one of their own.

  A purloined rifle in one hand, Captain Sharp nabbed Jonathan by the sleeve with the other and d
ragged him after her. Taking the stacked barrels like stairs, she ran up to the window. Minxy followed close, her hands planted on Jonathan's rear as she shoved him up after their captain.

  "Oy, Cadence. This one's got a right tight arse!"

  "Not the time, Minxy!" Captain Sharp snapped the words out.

  Grinning, Cadence reloaded undercover, still behind the crates. With a touch to each leg, she activated her boots. Just as the pirates finished reloading, she launched herself out from behind cover. Landing on top of the square crates, she opened fire. The sailor and the gunrunner added their own weapon’s fire to the chaos. Every pirate’s rifle turned in her direction.

  She leapt again, turning a somersault in midair to land behind the men at the front door. A spinning kick caught one pirate in the side of the head, and as she continued to turn with her momentum, she knocked a rifle out of another man's hands with a crescent kick.

  Her captain, Jonathan and Minxy reached the window and climbed out.

  "Oy! Let's go!" Minxy turned back and sliced the ropes holding the barrels in place.

  For a split second the barrels remained as they were. Then the pile began to collapse in a heavy avalanche.

  Cadence made a leap, and another, springing from one falling barrel to another in a mad dash for the high window. One more steam-powered jump shot her up into the window frame. Shots rang out behind her, splintering the wood of the frame to either side of her. She glanced back to see most of the pirates were either taken out where she'd dropped them or downed by the rolling barrels.

  "We got more below!" Her captain called out the warning as she and Minxy shepherded Jonathan down the fire escape.

  No need to take the long way. Cadence hopped again, landing directly in the middle of the three pirates waiting below. She came up out of her crouch with an upper cut to the jaw of her first opponent, a left hook to the man at her right, followed by a side kick to the last man on her left. None of them required a second blow. By the time her captain made it to the landing, the poor sods were all groaning on the cobblestones.

  "Nicely done, Cadence." Captain Sharp stepped past the writhing men and headed down the back alley on their planned escape route. "Any bodies back there?"