Liberty (Flash Gold, #5) (12 page)

“I either found the end
of a rope or a dead snake,” Tadzi announced, his head dangling down
behind a boulder.

“One would be more
helpful than the other.” Cedar clambered over boulders to join
him.

By the time Kali reached
them, they had dug out about twenty feet of rope. She had left it
in a tidy coil—she kept everything in her workshop tidy—but
apparently, it had not stayed that way. She started forward to
help, but the sight of a massive boulder smashed down on the boards
she had used as her workshop bench made her pause and sigh. She
would poke around back here, but she doubted many of her tools
would be salvageable and absolutely none of the projects she had
been in the middle of would have survived. Smashed cogs, springs,
and pipes lay everywhere, all that remained of those projects.

She swallowed and
reminded herself that she had already found more intact here than
she had expected. Feeling a little dazed, she left the others and
moved to the very back of the cave, toward the secret cubby she had
once dug out and booby-trapped. Even though she knew without a
doubt that Amelia had blown up a block of flash gold, a delusional
part of her wildly hoped that it might not have been the block from
the cave. Maybe Amelia had already gotten the block from Cudgel and
had believed she wouldn’t need to pinpoint Kali’s stash if she
simply blew up the cave.

Unfortunately, her hope
was soon squashed. Kali pushed a boulder off the trap cubby and saw
the empty hole. Even in the dim lighting, there was no mistaking
the hollowness of the hole.

“Find something?” Cedar
asked.

“My renewed determination
for getting onto that ship and confronting Amelia and whoever might
know where the rest of the flash gold is.”

“Oh? What does that look
like exactly?”

“Like a rope and a
grappling hook.”

He snorted. “We’ve almost
got the rope out.”

“Are you sure it’s a
rope?” Tadzi sneezed. “As dusty as it is, I’m not convinced we did
not, indeed, find a dead snake.”

“If the dead snake is
fifty feet long, it can work for us,” Kali said.

“You said you’d make a
grappling hook?” Cedar asked.

She nodded. “Yes, it
won’t take long.”

She returned to the
destroyed workstation and started poking around for tools and
materials she could use. Only a week earlier, she and Cedar had
been trapped in a pit with snakes, and she’d made a grappling hook
out of far less than she had here. She could do this. The only
questions were whether Amelia would still be on the airship once
she did and whether they would be able to climb up to it without
being spotted.

Kali picked up a hammer.
One problem at a time.

• • • • •

Dark black clouds were
gathering along the river, and the air was thick with humidity and
mosquitoes. Though Cedar did not look forward to being drenched,
heavy rain might convince the airship crew to remain below decks,
making an infiltration easier. He and Kali would need all the help
they could get since they had few weapons. Despite her offer to
build him more, she hadn’t been able to do much with her work area
smashed to pieces. He wasn’t even sure her handmade grappling hook
would hold their weight. He still had his six-shooter, but he did
not have much ammunition for it.

On their way to the
river, they had seen Mounties marching through town in pairs, and
it had crossed his mind to accost a couple of them and take their
rifles. After all, he had already been labeled a criminal. What
more could they do to him than hang him?

Despite the thought, he
hadn’t seriously considered acting upon it. He hated the idea of
giving up on someday clearing his name. Besides, if they made it
aboard one of the airships, he could tackle whatever guards they
encountered up there and grab their weapons to use.

“Cedar?” came Kali’s
whisper from farther down the river as she picked her way toward
him, hugging the shadows of the bank as she advanced.

“Here,” he responded from
a niche in the bank between two stumps. He was careful to keep his
voice low.

A quarter mile upriver,
the docks of town stretched into the water. A squadron of Mounties
stood queued up on one of them, gripping their rifles as they
glowered at the airships. The city definitely wasn’t on friendly
terms with whoever was up there.

Aside from the
authorities, the streets of Dawson had been empty, most of the
hotels and saloons closed up, as if the Sunday ordinance were in
effect. Most of the buildings’ lights had been out, as if not to
attract attention. It had made Cedar feel vulnerable as he and Kali
had sneaked around, since those few people who were out would be
conspicuous. All of the Mounties they had passed had been extremely
alert, as they alternately watched the streets and alleys and
looked toward the looming airships overhead. Cedar was surprised
nobody was firing cannons and trying to drive those aircraft off,
but if the American airship had disappeared, the nearest major
artillery might be way downriver in Fort Selkirk. With only the
constables to keep the peace, Dawson was ill-prepared to fight off
an aerial attack.

Kali crept through the
shadows and hunkered down beside him. They were almost directly
underneath the largest of the airships. The first large spatters of
rain plopped down onto the calm surface of the river.

“Her flying machine is
still up there,” Kali said, pressing his spyglass into his
hand.

“Guess they invited her
to spend the night.”

“Or she didn’t want to
risk flying her machine with the storm coming in. Either way, it
bodes well for us.”

“What’s the plan? Just
find her, kidnap her, and steal her away?” Cedar grimaced,
imagining tossing the wily woman over his shoulder and trying to
climb down a rope that way.

“Much as I’m open to
bargaining with her and seeing how much this journal means to her,
I want the flash gold more than anything. I’d like to sneak aboard
and try to overhear some conversations, maybe learn where Cudgel
hid it before he died.”

“What if he didn’t tell
anyone?”

“Then I’ll be irked with
his spirit.” Kali frowned toward the dock full of Mounties. “How
are we going to climb up to that ship with all of those armed men
watching?”

“They might look for
shelter if the rain starts coming down hard.” Cedar rubbed his jaw,
also considering the men. “I do wonder what the airships are
demanding of the Mounties or of the town—or if they’ve demanded
anything yet.” It was hard to imagine that those gangsters, if that
was, indeed, what they were, had friendly intentions toward the
townsfolk of Dawson.

“I don’t much care. If
they start shooting at each other, it’ll be easier for us to sneak
aboard.”

“What if the whole town
is in danger?”

“From just three
ships?”

“They’ve got cannons and
other armament,” Cedar said. “They could do a lot of damage from up
there, and the Mounties wouldn’t have a good way to retaliate.”

“If this town doesn’t
have any cannons, then that’s their fault. It’s not as if money is
in short supply. There are forty-three saloons.”

“I’d guess it’s grown up
so quickly that people weren’t thinking of defenses, especially
against airships. How often do they wander up into the Dominion of
Canada?”

“Quite often lately, it
seems. Someone should have been considering it as a
possibility.”

“Maybe so, but it’s not
the fault of the average person who lives here. If these airships
attacked the Hän, would you blame them for not having defensive
cannons poised around their camp?”

It was too dark to see
Kali scowl at him, but Cedar sensed the gesture. “Don’t be
ridiculous,” she said.

“But you’d want to help
them if they were attacked, wouldn’t you?”

“I’d help if I was in a
position to do so,” she said, sounding wary. Yes, she probably knew
what he was thinking now. “I don’t know that I feel inclined to
help Dawson after they locked you up and set hounds after us.”

“The entire town didn’t
do that. Just Commissioner Steele.”

“Then Commissioner Steele
can be the hero who saves them from whatever this is.” Kali flung
her hand toward the sky. “We don’t even know. Nobody has attacked
anyone yet.”

“There was cannon fire
this morning.”

“Cannon fire that we
didn’t see. If they scared off the American airship, that doesn’t
bother me in the least. Those are the people who came here to
collect
you
, I remind you.”

“I haven’t forgotten. I
just—”

A shout on the dock
interrupted Cedar. A faint answering shout came from the smallest
of the three black airships. It had maneuvered to float directly
over the squad of Mounties. Two men stood near the railing on the
deck. Lanterns burning up there provided enough illumination to see
that one of them threw a rope ladder down to the dock. More shouts
were exchanged, and Cedar itched to move closer. He couldn’t make
out the words over the flow of the river.

The two parties must have
reached an agreement, because a single dark-clad man started down
the ladder, and none of the Mounties fired. From the way they
shifted uneasily and fingered their weapons, some of them wanted
to.

“Stay here,” Cedar said,
even as he wondered why he told Kali things like that. She would
stay or not, as she pleased. “I’ll be right back.”

“Where are you going?”
she whispered after him as he started toward the dock.

“To listen to that
meeting.”

She made an exasperated
noise, but did not try to stop him. He just hoped she wouldn’t try
to go up to the other ship while the Mounties were talking. He
didn’t
think
she would be that impulsive, when she didn’t
have a weapon, but the flash gold clearly meant a lot to her. He
was half-tempted to turn around, to go back and relieve her of the
rope and hook to
ensure
she wouldn’t go up. But the man on
the ladder was almost down to the dock, and Cedar wanted to hear
what he had to say. Kali made some good points, and it wasn’t as if
it was his responsibility to protect Dawson, but he also didn’t
think he could turn his back if the situation escalated to the
point that people here were being hurt or killed.

As quiet as a cat, he
glided along the dark riverbank, staying low and using the terrain
for cover. When he reached the first of the docks, he went under
them instead of heading up to the street where he would be more
easily spotted.

The murmur of voices
grew, and he could soon pick out words. He stopped under the dock
next to the one holding all of the Mounties. Many of the men
carried lanterns, so he dared not get closer. As it was, he
couldn’t help but feel suicidal for sneaking so close to men who
likely had orders to shoot him on sight. Fortunately, the heavy
clouds kept the night dark and the shadows thick. He could barely
make out the black airships against the stormy backdrop now.

The rain began to fall
harder, and he strained to hear. Whoever was speaking now had a
quiet voice.

“We’ll not be cowed by
your flying boats,” the man said, raising his voice to speak the
words firmly. Was that Commissioner Steele?

Cedar wasn’t surprised
that he would be here, but it made him frown with renewed doubt
over the wisdom of eavesdropping. Steele would
definitely
shoot him on sight.

“What about the cannons
on our flying boats?” another man spoke dryly. “Will
they
cow you? You’re a long way from serious reinforcements,
Commissioner. I’m sure you’ve sent messengers for help by now, but
we are here, and we will begin dropping explosives at dawn if our
demands aren’t met.”

“Nobody is giving you any
gold,” another man snapped. Cedar did not recognize him, but he had
white hair and a thick mustache, and wore a beaver skin hat and a
suit rather than a Mountie uniform. “The banks are privately owned.
Even if we wanted to acquiesce to your demands, we couldn’t. You’d
have to speak to—or in your case, I imagine,
threaten
—individual bank owners and see what they say,
though it would be a huge betrayal if they were to hand over their
clients’ funds.”

“Enough Mouthy Mayor. You
get paid by the sentence? I’ll let my boss know about your
stupidity.” The hoodlum from the airship turned back to the ladder,
adding one last line over his shoulder. “If you’ve got a sturdy
building to hide in, you might want to get to hiding.” Fearlessly
putting his back to the Mounties and the mayor, the man climbed up
the ladder.

“I could shoot him before
he gets to the top,” one of the Mounties muttered.

For a moment, nobody
responded, and Cedar thought the mayor or commissioner might agree
to it.

The mayor sighed and
said, “No, I gave my word he’d be safe while he delivered his foul
message. Besides, he’s just a minion.”

The Mounties were
stirring, so Cedar backed away from the dock he’d been crouching
beneath. He picked his way back down the bank to the edge of town
where he had left Kali. A rumble came from the clouds, and the rain
picked up, beating the top of Cedar’s head and splashing hard
against the surface of the river. A gust of wind raced down the
valley, causing something out over the water to flutter. Cedar’s
step faltered. That wasn’t a rope dangling down from above, was
it?

Hardly caring about
stealth, he sprinted the rest of the way back to the nook where he
and Kali had hidden. She was gone.

The wind blew the rain sideways, and fat
droplets splashed down on the deck of the airship and stung Kali’s
cheeks. She hunkered with her back against the railing, the
grappling hook affixed behind her. Hardly anyone was on the deck,
but the one person Kali cared about was.