Lindsay Buroker - Peacemaker

Kali retrieved the rope, but she was mullingover alternatives to relying on the Mounties. If she and Cedar tookcare of the pirates, they’d be able to legally claim the ship forthemselves. That wasn’t foremost on his mind though. She’d have totalk him around to her way of thinking. “What if they get theirship fixed before the Mounties come?”

“That’d be a shame, butcatching that murderer is my priority.” Cedar held out his hand forthe rope.

“Maybe we could take careof both somehow.”

“How would we get in thereto incapacitate everyone without being noticed? There are close totwenty men over there.” Cedar waved toward the ship. “At night,when everyone’s sleeping, we might be able to get the jump on them,but that’s hours off, and I want to get back to Dawson before thisSparwood strikes again.”

“We got one out.” Kalipointed to the man as Cedar bent to tie him. “Maybe it wouldn’t beso impossible to subdue the others.”

“Unless you know somewayto knock them all out at once, I don’t see how it could be donewithout a passel of unneeded danger for ourselves.”

Kali could think of chemicals that couldmake that happen, but she didn’t have anything like that. Theycould start a fire and drive them out of the area, but burning theairship wasn’t what she had in mind. Ideally, she’d take it withoutdoing any more damage to it than was already there. “No,” sheadmitted.

“Best to go back toDawson,” Cedar said, “catch this murderer, and let the Mountiesdeal with the pirates.”

“They could be gone by thetime the Mounties get here,” Kali said again, though she sensed sheneeded to come up with a stronger argument to sway him. “Think ofall the people they might kill, going after folks along theriver.”

Cedar had finished tying the pirate to atree and had torn the man’s shirt to create a gag to keep himsilent. He propped his hands on his waist and eyed Kali. “What’reyou angling for exactly?”

“Me?” Kali shrugged.“Nothing.”

“Really.”

Kali shifted from foot tofoot and avoided his knowing gaze for a long moment before saying,“All right, I was thinking that if the pirates were all captured orarrested or otherwise incapacitated, we could relieve them of the airship. Thatwould destroy their ability to thieve from the air.” Yes, make itnoble, Kali, she told herself. Make it about helping the miners.She stifled a snort of derision for herself.

“You want to steal theirship?” Cedar asked.

“If they stole it first,then it’d hardly be called stealing, right? We’d just be liberatingit for a nobler purpose.”

“Such as?”

“Taking us around theworld. Or hunting slimy villains from the sky. It’d be easy to keepup with Cudgel if we had our own transportation, something that cango right over mountains and inaccessible terrain. And I wouldn’thave to booby trap all of my working and sleeping areas totarnation and back because I’m so paranoid that someone’ll sneak upon me and try to tote me off to Soapy Smith or the Scar of Skagway.Sure, the ship would need a lot of modifications, and it’d likelybe fall before we could take off, but we could get out of Dawsonthis year. It’d be-” she clenched a fist, almost tasting thetriumph, “-heavenly.”

Cedar, eyebrows raised, seemed bemused byher enthusiasm, but at least he didn’t laugh. He took her arm andmoved her out of range of the tied prisoner’s hearing. “I supposeit would be safer for you to be in the air where enemies seekingyour father’s secrets couldn’t sneak up on you.”

Kali barely heard him. In her mind, she wasalready picturing the ship and what might be done to it. It was alarger vessel than she’d thought to make, but she would have plentyof room for a crew, and maybe they could even pay for the expensesof maintaining an airship by taking on passengers. She’d end upbeing a captain with people under her. Huh. She’d have to thinkmore on that later, but now she imagined crawling around inside,inspecting and measuring every inch, sketching up schematics,planning her modifications. She’d clamber up in there right now, ifit weren’t surrounded by pirates.

“All right,” Cedar said.“I’ll help you, but let’s get the murderer first.”

His words catapulted Kali back to themoment. “First? But if he’s in Dawson, and we’re right here, surelywe could…”

“It’s only a few milesback to town,” Cedar said dryly, “and that won’t take long on yourbicycle.”

“True, but we don’t haveany idea where in Dawson to look for this man. He could be hidingout anywhere. It’s a big city these days. And if those men get theship fixed before we get back, we might lose theopportunity.”

“Kali, I know the airshipis important to you, but if another woman gets murdered tonight,will you be able to live with yourself, knowing you chose personalgain over helping out? Those are your people getting killed, whetheryou want anything to do with them or not.”

“What can I do? You’re thetracker. I don’t know how to hunt men down in the city.” Kalistepped back and stuffed her hands into her pockets. He wasn’twrong, but she didn’t care for having someone lecture her. And,damn it, she didn’t want to do the right thing, not if it meantdelaying her dream. She could be a do-gooder after she had her shipin the air. “Look, why don’t you go and hunt this Sparwood fellow,and I’ll stay out here and work out a plan to get the-”

“No.” Cedar gripped herarm so tightly it was almost painful. “They’re a danger, and thatPinkerton detective is a danger to you, if he finds you too. And Idon’t want to imagine what would happen if Cudgel knew about you,and found you, and-” He dropped his chin, staring at his hand wherehe gripped her. He loosened his fingers, but did not letgo.

Kali’s anger and irritation faded. “Is thatwhy you’ve been so scarce lately? Cudgel’s about, and you don’twant someone letting him know we’re…something?”

“I can’t let that happen,”Cedar whispered. “Not again.”

“Again?”

Cedar dropped his hand and walked a fewsteps away, turning his back to her. Was he talking about hisbrother? Or maybe the murdered girl from San Francisco? Had shebeen someone he cared about? But she’d been married, the articlesaid. It had also said he’d been having an affair with her. Shegrimaced, not wanting to think of Cedar doing something like that.Somehow cutting off heads seemed less despicable. More unsettlingperhaps, but given that they were the heads of murderingcriminals….

Kali shook away the thoughts. He wasn’tsaying anything else, and they shouldn’t stand up here, this closeto that pirate camp forever. One last idea came to her, one moreway she might be able to sway him.

“That man barely gave us adescription and didn’t give us any hint of where to look,” Kalisaid. “Maybe there are pirates in the ship who know more about thisSparwood. If we figure out a way to subdue them and question eachof them, maybe we can get more of a lead.”

Cedar had not turned back to face her, andhe remained silent for a long moment. The sun had set, finallybringing evening, and mosquitoes buzzed about, nipping at Kali’sskin.

“Do you believe that?” hefinally asked. “Or are you saying what you think I want to hear inan attempt to change my mind?”

Hands still in her pockets, Kali scowled andstudied a gnarled root at her feet. “Yes, I want the ship, butthere could be something useful to be learned there too. We don’tknow enough to pick someone out of a city of thousands.”

“There aren’t that many ofyour people living in Dawson. We can look them up individually.Maybe you can even name some.”

“Me?” Kali bristled athaving them called her people. As everyone on both sides was quick to point out, shewas a half-breed, some mongrel who didn’t belong to anyone. “Ihaven’t been living in Dawson any longer than you, and I pay lessattention to people than you do.”