Mr. Mowen gave me a very long look.
“Tavy and I had a bit of an argument over what to do with the crew,” Jack explained.
“It was not an argument. I never once said, ‘Let’s go in with our Disruptors blazing and take out everyone we possibly can!’ I simply assumed that you would wish to use Disruptors on one or two crew members or guards in order to show the rest that we were serious.”
“That does seem reasonable,” Mr. Mowen said.
“Thank you. I’m glad someone understands,” I said with much dignity.
“It’s a bit sadistic to make examples of the poor innocents, but more reasonable than slaughtering the entire crew and leaving the other prisoners to die on an unmanned ship,” he added.
I sighed.
“So after I took a firm stand with Tavy and told her no, she couldn’t turn into a steampunk version of Black-beard, she demanded to know just how we were going to get Hallie free if she couldn’t bathe the decks in blood.”
“Bathe the decks in blood!” I gasped, outraged.
“To which I had four words for her. And those words are what, sweetheart?”
I ground my teeth for a moment at Jack’s teasing, finally managing to get out, “Better living through chemistry.”
“That’s right.” He nodded and beamed at Mr. Mowen, who just looked confused.
“Chemistry? You’re going to bomb the ship?”
“Nope. In Tavy’s cabin, hidden away in a nice little box, we have several syringes prefilled with the best, strongest, most potent form of liquid knockout drops money could buy in Rome.”
Mr. Mowen looked even more confused.
“It’s a sedative,” I explained. “Jack wanted to make some sort of tapir, but wasn’t sure how to do so.”
“Taser.”
“So instead, he suggested that we simply drug people on the ship, remove his sister and the other five prisoners, and fly away without anyone coming to harm. By the time the crew of the
Aurora
comes to, we will be far away and they will not be able to catch us.”
“Neat trick, huh?” Jack asked, looking inordinately proud of himself.
I gave him a little smile. I was rather proud of his ingenuity, too.
“Very neat. But won’t that take a bit of time, drugging all those people?”
“Not really.” I looked at Jack. He nodded for me to continue. “The
Aurora
is running with just a skeleton crew. The only people they are transporting are half a dozen prisoners. There are no other troops on board, and only enough crew as is needed to fly the ship. We’ll be able to take them out quite quickly, I believe.”
“Aye, that would help things along. You’d be well met to take along a Disruptor or two just in case your sedative doesn’t work.”
Jack protested that his plan couldn’t fail, but Mr. Mowen waited until he had left to gather up the syringes to press his Disruptor on me.
“Give it to your man. Just in case.”
I took it with a murmur of thanks. “You’re not at all surprised by any of this, are you?” I couldn’t help but ask. “Not by Jack being here, or the need to rescue his sister, or my decision to do so.”
“Not really, no,” he said with a slow smile.
“I fear you must be disappointed in how things turned out, that I will never be the captain of whom you had such high hopes.”
He shook his head. “On the contrary—it would have been my pleasure to serve under a captain who thought more of others than herself. I knew your guardian, you know.”
“You knew Robert?” I was frankly surprised. Robert Anstruther was such a man that those who knew him were usually quick to identify themselves.
“Aye. I sailed with him briefly during the war with the Americas. I was a gunner’s mate then, but I knew him to be a fair man, a just man who thought the world of his crew, and we him. I remember one day, when we were in port and about to set off for the east coast of America, he came on board with a little girl who had the reddest hair I’d ever seen. She was a solemn little mite, but curious, and when I twisted a bit of packing cotton used to cushion the aether tubes into a doll, she smiled at me. It was like a ray of sunshine piercing my heart. Captain Anstruther was very pleased, for he told me later the little girl hadn’t smiled up to that time.”
“I don’t remember that at all,” I said sadly, searching my memory for anything about that time. “It must have been when I was very young.”
“Aye, you were, just a sprite of about ten. I knew that you’d be fine with him, and so you have been. He’d be proud of you now, Captain.”
I blinked back a few tears that stung my eyes. “Thank you. I’d like to think he would.”
“ ’Tis a shame he is no longer around. I think he’d like your choice of men, as well.”
His tone was even, but there was a note in it that made me look sharply at him. I couldn’t tell if he was simply making a slight dig at the men of my past, of whom Robert had most definitely not approved, or if he was implying something else, something far more sinister. “Indeed. Do you have any questions about the plans?”
“None. I’ll be on duty in the rear boiler room at the appointed time. You just give me the word, and I’ll open the boilers wide up.”
“Thank you. I believe what Jack calls a speedy get-away will be most propitious.”
Slightly less than three hours later, I entered the mess and smiled at everyone present. “Good afternoon. Thank you all for answering the summons of this impromptu crew meeting. Mr. Llama alone is missing, I see.”
“And Mr. Mowen,” Dooley said, jumping up from his chair at the long table. “I’ll fetch him.”
“Stay where you are, Dooley. Mr. Mowen is excused from this meeting.” I felt rather than heard a presence behind me. Without turning around to look, I added, “Ah, Mr. Llama, how nice of you to join us. Won’t you sit down?”
He gave me an odd look as he sidled past me, gliding his way over to stand in a far corner.
“No doubt you are all very curious as to what this meeting is about,” I said, looking from one face to another. “Jack?”
“Right here.” The far door, the one leading to the galley, opened, and Jack stood there.
Mr. Francisco forcibly shoved back his chair and leaped to his feet, scattering Spanish curses as he did so.
“I’m afraid we’re taking a little detour. It shouldn’t take long,” I said over the cursing. “But you all are going to have to stay here while we do so. I have placed a case of ale under the table—you’re free to enjoy that until we are back on course.”
I nodded to Jack, and before any of the crew could protest, ask a question, or charge the door, I slipped out it, locking it from the outside. Jack, I knew, would do the same to the galley door.
“Do you have everything?” I asked him as he met me on the upper level.
“Think so. Syringes, set of skeleton keys, goggles . . . yup. Got everything.”
“Goggles? What are those for?” I asked as I ran up the spiral stairs to the navigation room.
“You can’t be a proper airship pirate without goggles, Tavy. Everyone knows that. Here, I got a pair for you.”
“You are the strangest man I’ve ever met,” I said, taking the goggles. “I shan’t wear them, you know.”
“We’ll see,” he said, donning his pair and grinning at me.
“For mercy’s sake . . . Jack.” I bit my lower lip, holding his arm as he was about to leave. “I know how you feel about weapons, but please take this. Just in case you need it.”
He looked down at the Disruptor that Mr. Mowen had given me, his eyes hidden behind the dark green glass of the hideous brass-and-leather goggles. “I don’t need a gun, Tavy.”
“I know you don’t, but if something untoward happens, it would make me feel better to know you had it.”
He pushed the goggles back onto his forehead, his eyes considering me with something that looked very much like sorrow. “Do you expect me to use it?”
I looked down at my hands for a moment. What he was really asking me was whether I wanted him to use it, whether I wished for him to violate his moral beliefs. “I believe that the sight of it will dissuade people without you having to use it.”
“That’s not what I asked, sweetheart.”
“I know.” I took his hand and rubbed his knuckles against my cheek. “But it is the best answer I can give you, Jack. Take it. Keep it prominently visible so the crew of the
Aurora
sees you have it. That’s all I ask.”
The pain in his eyes was deep, but it was nothing compared with the pain I felt at the thought of losing him. He nodded and tucked the Disruptor into the pocket of his Corps jacket. “I won’t need it, Tavy. Our plan is foolproof.”
“I pray that’s so.” I released his hand, and would have turned to the autonavigator, to begin our swing around to intercept the
Aurora
, but Jack’s hand on my arm stopped me.
“There’s only one woman in the world—in any world—I would carry a firearm for,” he said, pulling me into a hard embrace. “Now give me a kiss for luck, pirate Octavia.”
His lips were demanding, but I was of no mind to take issue with that. I put every ounce of love I had into the answering kiss, smiling when he pulled the goggles into place, made a dashing salute, and hurried out of the room to take up his position on the forward deck.
I had qualms about calling any plan foolproof, having had ample example during my lifetime to see how even the best of plans could go astray, but luck was with us. The
Aurora
was an hour behind where I had calculated she would be, but she did eventually show up, and upon seeing the signal lights that Jack was waving from the forward deck, she slowed as I knew she would.
By the time Jack was using semaphore to indicate we were in distress, the
Aurora
had stopped her engines, and two crewmen were on their promenade deck with grappling hooks. I waited until we were within hailing distance, then appeared on our forward deck, assisting Jack as the
Aurora
’s hooks were thrown across to us and we were reeled in.
“Our boilers are down,” I called across in answer to a question about the nature of our emergency. “I believe it is sabotage by the Black Hand.”
A man appeared, pulling on the scarlet jacket bearing the insignia of a ship’s captain. “What’s going on here?”
“If you would allow us to board, I will be happy to explain,” I called across to him. The ships were not able to pull close together because of the size of the envelopes, but one of the grappling hooks carried with it a heavy line, which Jack secured to a ring bolted into the
Tesla
’s frame.
“Come across, then,” the captain said, holding a finger up to the air. “You’ll have a bit of a rocky ride, but you should be safe enough.”
“You’re sure this is not going to come loose?” Jack murmured as one of the
Aurora
crewmen attached a pulley to the line that tethered us, and hooked a basket underneath it. “It doesn’t look very sturdy.”
“It’s the only way to get across. I’ve done it before, and had no problems. Just don’t look down,” I advised as I reached out to receive the basket. “I’ll go first. Use the pulley to move across to the
Aurora
. The wind will buffet you a little, but if you brace your legs in the bottom of the basket, you’ll be fine.”
Jack didn’t look like he believed me, but he had no other choice. By the time I knelt in the basket, hauling myself across the gap between the two airships, he had evidently steeled his nerve, for he did not hesitate at all when the basket was sent back to him.
“Captain Octavia Pye,” I said, greeting the
Aurora
’s captain. “That is Mr. Fletcher, my chief officer. If you have a moment, we’d like to consult with your engineer.”
Jack arrived on the deck of the
Aurora
, his color high, but in one piece.
“Captain Armand. We don’t have time for dillydallying, Captain Pye. We’re on a very tight schedule to reach England, and although I would normally take the time to help you, I’m afraid the best we can do is to spare you a half hour.”
I smiled, and put my hand in my coat pocket, sliding off the hard lump of wax from the tip of a syringe. “I believe that will be ample time.”
The captain and the first of the two crewmen stared at us in surprise when we leaped at them and jabbed them with syringes.
“What the devil—,” the captain started to say before his eyes rolled back and he slumped to the floor.
The second crewman on the deck shouted and reached for his Disruptor, but Jack knocked it out of his hand, quickly disabling him with another syringe of sedative.
“This is quite a bit more potent than I imagined,” I said as we hurried into the interior of the airship. “I had no idea it would work so fast.”
“I told you—better living through chemistry. Which way?”
“Down,” I said, pointing to a spiral staircase. “The containment cells are bound to be at the bot—”
An explosion rocked the ship. I grabbed at the metal handrail, slipping down a couple of steps, Jack falling heavily into me.
“What the hell was that?” he demanded to know, righting me. “Are you OK?”
“I’m fine, but I think we’d better hurry up and get Hallie.”
Another blast shook the ship. “Damnation,” I swore under my breath as I tumbled down a couple more steps, the hard iron railing burning my hands as I clutched it frantically to keep from falling farther.
“You get Hallie,” Jack ordered, hauling me to my feet before turning and starting up the stairs. “I’ll go see what’s going on.”
“No, Jack, it’s too dangerous,” I yelled, aware of a wetness on my hip. Jack ignored me, bolting to the top of the stairs and disappearing down a catwalk that stretched behind the nearest envelope. “Ratsbane! Jack! My syringes are broken!”
A third blast hit, this time accompanied by the hissing sound that indicated one of the envelopes had been breached. The ship listed to the fore, forcing me to cling to the railing in order to keep from falling. A distant, more muffled explosion sounded, and I knew with a horrible prescience that someone had fired on the
Tesla
.