Secrets of the New World (Infini Calendar) (Volume 2) (27 page)

“You must admit—it’s awfully convenient for a ship carrying gold to go down so close to France when our country is in such need of it.” There was a pause. “You’ve been thinking the same thing, haven’t you, Commander?”

“
The thought did occur to me. But we’re the only ship around up here. I don’t see how this could be a trap.
”

“I don’t, either, but—wait!”

“What?”

“I thought I saw something. A dark shape.” He squinted his eyes, trying to see ahead of him. Was it his imagination?

“
Is it the galleon
?
”

He shook his head, even though she couldn’t see him. “No. I could have sworn it was moving.”

“
Probably just a fish
.”

He seriously doubted it. Whatever it was—assuming his eyes weren’t playing tricks on him—was much too large to have been a fish. He would have felt crazy trying to argue that with the Commander, though; he had already made a fool of himself in front of her the day before. He didn’t need to do so again. He may not have been particularly excited about having a woman as his superior, but his fate was in her hands nonetheless.

It appeared again. Large and dark, now it was steadily coming toward him. “That’s no fish.”

“What did you say
?”

“You’re going to think I’ve lost my mind, but I’m seeing an underwater ship.”

“
A
what?”

“It’s cylindrical, made of metal, and it’s coming right for me!”

“
Remain calm, Lieutenant. We’ll pull you up
.”

But when the thing got within fifty feet of him, a hatch opened up on its side, and something shot out of it. It was a net, and it quickly engulfed him. The tube on his helmet tugged, trying to pull him away, but the net pulled harder and the tube was ripped free. Water filled his suit and soon he couldn’t breathe. He struggled to stay conscious as he was pulled inside the underwater ship.

***

“Lieutenant! Answer me!” Jeanne had been staying in contact with Lieutenant Girard from the engine room, but now she rushed to the top deck as Girard was reeled in.

However, the only thing that came up was the tube. Jeanne knew what that meant; without the tube, water would fill his diving suit and he would be unable to breathe. If they didn’t get him out of there soon, he would drown.

She gripped the deck railings until her hand went numb. This couldn’t be happening. She couldn’t have just lost another comrade again so soon. Her worst fears were coming true before her eyes; she was proving to be an unfit leader.

Celeste came out of the hatch onto the deck. “Did he make it up?” She saw the tube by itself and got her answer. She became deathly quiet.

Jeanne managed to mentally slap herself back to her senses. “Go get Victor. Tell him to hurry.”

“Yes, ma’am.” The engineer went back below deck.

Jeanne turned her attention back to the sea below them, and that was when she saw it: A dark shape rising to the surface. “What on earth…?”

It broke the surface next to the
Solaire
and it was exactly what Lieutenant Girard had said it was—a submersible vessel. It was perhaps thirty feet long, made out of iron, with a propeller and rudder on the end.

Half a dozen hatches opened along the top of it. The whole thing then pitched forward, and Jeanne was stunned when six figures suddenly launched out of the compartments as if by some spring-loaded mechanism.

The six men—each wearing dark full-body suits Jeanne guessed were for swimming—landed on different areas of the top deck, surrounding her. Jeanne reached for her rapier, but then realized she had left it on the bridge.

He was tall, dark and handsome, but Jeanne instinctively despised him. “What have you done with my officer?”

Escobar gave her a slimy grin. “He is being well-taken care of. Exactly how-well depends on your cooperation.”

Celeste suddenly emerged from the hatch. Escobar grabbed her and wrapped a thin wire—which he must have been concealing under his suit—around her throat. “
Día de suerte
!” he rejoiced. “More leverage for us.”

Victor then came out of the hatch, but by then Escobar had secured his hostage. “Let her go.”

“Now why would I do that? She’s giving me the edge I need. No, I think she’ll be staying with me.”

Jeanne balled her hand into a fist. “What do you want?”

“This,” he said, gesturing to indicate the
Solaire
. “We don’t have anything like this in Spain. Sure, we have the
barco submarino
which you just saw, but it is not so impressive as this masterpiece you fly all over creation in.”

“Are you mad?” Jeanne said. “I’m not handing over the pinnacle of France’s technological prowess to you brigands.”

“Oh, but I think you will. Look over at our submarino.” She did, and the underwater vessel was now gone. “If I do not return to my ship within thirty minutes, your officer will be gutted like a fish. And only
I
may return; they will not open up for anyone else. So please,” he gestured to the
Solaire
’s hatch, “let us come aboard.”

They went down into the airship, flanked by Escobar’s swarthy henchmen. When they arrived on the bridge, Escobar marveled at the impressive feat of engineering the whole thing was. “Once we get this back to Spain, you can take your time and tell us how it all works. But for now, just give my men the basics. Show us the controls.”

Jeanne instructed the operators at the bulky consoles in front of the bridge’s canopy window to step aside and let Escobar’s minions take over. Escobar himself stood behind them in front of the captain’s chair, keeping pressure firmly applied to Celeste’s throat.

Jeanne said, “The left console handles ascent and decent—going up and down. The right console controls acceleration and steering.”

“Good,” Escobar said. “Once I am satisfied my men have the hang of it, I shall report back to my submarino and your officer will be returned to you.”

That was a lie, Jeanne was sure. Escobar would probably keep Lieutenant Girard prisoner until they landed in Spain, at which point she had little doubt they would all be killed—unless she did something, and fast.

With the crushing weight of her responsibility to her subordinates upon Jeanne’s shoulders, she could have crumbled. Or she could rise to the challenge.

She rose.

She pointed to a button on the left console and said, “Press that button to ascend into the air.” She then looked at Victor, and he nodded. He knew she was lying; he knew what that button actually did.

The Spaniard at the controls looked skeptical, but Escobar said, “Do it. The señorita
knows better than to lie to us with so much at stake.”

The man pressed the button, and suddenly the bridge was engulfed in a cloudy white gas—carbon dioxide. It had fallen from holes in the ceiling, and it was normally used to put out fires on the bridge.
“
Qué traición es esto
?” Escobar yelled. Visibility had become almost nonexistent.

Jeanne called out to the young engineer, “Celeste! Remember what I taught you.”

“Right!”

Jeanne heard Celeste grunt, followed by the sound of an anguished Escobar. “Come to my voice!”

The bespectacled girl maneuvered through the white cloud and joined her. By now the gas had cleared enough so that Jeanne could make out her targets. Victor was engaged with several of them. The rest were still blinded by the carbon dioxide.

Jeanne strode over to where her rapier lay against the wall. She retrieved her weapon and proceeded to run her enemies through, one after another, until the bridge was cleared of hostiles, save for a whimpering Escobar who lay on the floor doing his best to shield his goods from further harm.

She knelt in front of him. “And now,
Señor
Escobar, you’re going to tell us how to get aboard your underwater vessel.”

“
Ir al infierno, puta
,” he spat.

“We would prefer it if you gave us the information in a language we understand,” Victor said.

“I said, ‘Go to hell, bitch’.”

“Celeste,” Jeanne said. “Go to the engine room and bring us back a hot rod, straight out of the fire. Our friend here is about to be neutered.”

Escobar’s eyes went wide and all the color drained from his face in what seemed like an instant. “I’ll talk! I’ll talk! In order to get the submarino to open up for you, you have to knock on the hull in a specific way.”

Jeanne said, “We appreciate your cooperation, Señor Escobar.”

And with that, she began preparations to save Lieutenant Girard.

***

Once she learned Escobar’s secret knock, Jeanne removed her armor and put on his rubber diving suit after she discovered it was one-size-fits-all.

           “What are you doing, Commander?” Victor asked her when she returned to the bridge wearing the suit. “I thought it was decided
I
would be the one to rescue Lieutenant Girard should anything happen to him.”

Jeanne said, “To be honest, I assigned you that role because I didn’t have confidence in myself. I’m actually a fair diver.”

He tried to reason with her. “Look, I realize you feel the need to prove yourself—”

She cut him off. “You’re right. I
do
need to prove my ability to command—but not to you. A leader must first have confidence in
herself
. I have to do this.”

Victor sighed, but did not argue any further.

A few minutes later, Jeanne dove off the deck of the
Minuit Solaire
into the sea and headed for the point where Escobar said the submersible was awaiting his return.

3

The barco submarino,
September 3, 1788 (Infini Calendar), 10:41 a.m.

Pierre sat against the hull of the underwater vessel with his hands firmly tied behind him. The Spaniards had stripped him of his diving suit and forced him to change into beige prisoner clothes.

Although the submersed ship had seemed like a technological marvel from the outside, on the inside it was far from it. Water was leaking in from numerous points on the hull (several Spaniards worked bilge pumps constantly to remove it), and there didn’t seem to be many rooms, (mostly there were alcoves with doors, which the other Spaniards had gone into to leave the ship); the bulk of the vessel was one cylindrical corridor.

The Spaniards’ leader, Gernaldo Escobar, had said he was going up to the
Solaire
to make a deal with Commander de Fleur: Pierre’s release for the entire airship. Pierre didn’t think de Fleur would give in, but nor did he know her well enough to be sure. If she handed over the
Solaire
to Escobar, their mission would end in spectacular disgrace—assuming they survived this ordeal at all.