Lindsay Buroker - Peacemaker

A pale-skinned man, he wore an all white,expensive suit, tailored to fit his body. His boots were likenothing Kali had ever seen. Snake skin? Or maybe alligator orcrocodile? She’d read about such creatures. The man bore noweapons, but all the pirates, the captain included, offered subduedgreetings and touched their knuckles to their hats or foreheads inpolite salutes.

“Mister Conrad,” thecaptain said, and Kali’s head jerked up. Cudgel Conrad? Cedar’s nemesis? “Weweren’t expecting you until morning,” the captain went on, “so Iwas fixing to get some work out of her. But if youwant-”

“No, no,” Conrad saidpolitely, as if he were passing on an after-dinner dessert offeredby a waiter in some classy restaurant. “Work her all you wish.There’ll be plenty of time for questioning later.” He hadgreenish-blue eyes, the only spot of color on him, and theyhardened then, reminding Kali of marbles as they bore into her.“First, there remains a spot of business to which I must attend.It’s time to make sure that dear detective gets hisman.”

Kali curled her lip.“You’d best be more worried about that man getting you.”

Conrad yawned.

“Mister Conrad, sir,” thecaptain said. “One of my men was wondering about her usefor…entertainments.”

A woman’s scream echoed from a higher deck.Kali tried to keep a defiant sneer on her face, but the timing ofthat scream, and the amused snort of one of the pirates, leftlittle doubt in her mind as to what the captain meant.

“What are your orders asto her person?” the captain finished.

“Ensure she’s able toanswer questions in the morning,” Conrad said.

“That’s it?”

“Indeed. In fact,encourage your man to make the experience memorable. Women rarelyresist my interrogation techniques, but it can make things easierif they’ve been broken already.”

Kali glowered. She wished she could do more.This fellow deserved a good kick in the bear cubs. No, he deserveda lot more than that for tormenting Cedar and killing countlessothers.

Conrad took a step toward the hatch, butpaused, raising a finger. “Actually, I do have one requirement.Don’t let your man damage her face. Should the Pinkerton detectivefail, I may need to dangle her as bait to lure in a particularlytroublesome fish.” His marble cold eyes found Kali’s again.“Despite this fish’s efforts to minimize contact with her of late,I do believe they’re close.”

“Yes, sir.” The captainknuckled his forehead again.

When Conrad left, the captain stood taller,losing his diffident manner. He pointed to the fellow smeared withcoal dust. “Give Chum your shovel, and show her the ropes. Denny,stow her gear. Malcom-” he pointed to a bearded man with a shotgun,“-you’re on guard. Stay alert, and keep her working. I don’t wantour boat lingering over downtown Dawson. Look cheery men. We’ve anice pay day coming up.”

The captain left, takingthe men he hadn’t named with him. The one who had conducted hersearch looked around, probably trying to figure out what he wassupposed to do with the armful of weapons and tools. He shuffled tothe far end of the boiler room, dropping a screwdriver on the way,and dumped everything except her gun onto a metal table bolted tothe wall. Toolboxes were secured there, and an empty crate on thefloor read propellerblades . Machine shop, Kali guessed, eyeingit speculatively as the pirate headed out. If she could free herankle and get over there, maybe she could build something usefulfor escaping. And then what? She eyed the bulkheads, looking for adoor that might lead to the engine room, but the pipes from theboilers disappeared through solid walls behind the equipment, andshe didn’t see any exits except for the ceiling hatch Conrad hadused.

The sooty man thrust his shovel into Kali’shands, distracting her from her thoughts. He drew a knife and cuther wrist bindings. “That goes in there.” He pointed at the coalbin and the furnace door.

“Excellent instructions,”Kali said. “I’ll be sure to recommend you for apromotion.”

It was hard to read a face coated in coaldust, but he curled a lip and growled at her, and she got the gist.He ticked a finger against a gauge on the adjacent boiler where aneedle hovered at the low end of the operational zone. “Make surethat stays between here and here. If it’s here, add more coalfaster. If it gets up here, you can slow down for a spell. There’sa safety shutoff, so don’t get any bright ideas about gettingthings too hot.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it,”Kali said.

Which was true. She ought to be concernedsolely with escaping, maybe finding that girl and getting her outtoo, but the fact that she was within the bowels of the veryairship she wanted to claim for herself kindled ideas in her mind.Maybe she could yet take it over somehow and keep it for herself.Unless she ran out of other options, she wouldn’t risk blowing halfof the hull off in a boiler explosion.

“Now, I reckon I can getsome sleep, though the night seems young for that.” Soot-face threwa smirk at the guard, then considered Kali through slittedeyes.

She tensed. With her hands free and a shovelin her grip, she thought she could defend herself, leg iron or not,but the guard standing by the hatch was watching, his shotgun atthe ready.

“Don’t see why Sparwoodgets all the girls,” Sooty grumbled.

“’Cause he can pound youinto pieces,” the guard said. “You better leave her be and findyour hammock.”

“Guess you’reright.”

Given his defeatist words, Kali wasn’texpecting Sooty’s hand to lunge in. He squeezed her breast, mashingdown with the subtlety of a jackhammer. Kali swung the shovel,cracking him in the side of his head.

He staggered back while the guard laughedand said, “You deserved that.”

Kali dropped into a crouch, expectingretaliation. Sooty clutched at his head, but he was grinning.

“Worth it,” he said andsauntered to the ladder. “Sparwood’ll find his goods bruised up.”He snickered as he climbed and disappeared through thehatch.

“Idiot,” Kalisaid.

A woman’s scream sounded, then was cut offwhen the hatch clanged shut. Kali’s indignation faded. Kali couldbe experiencing a far worse fate at the moment. And she might stillhave to worry about that, if she didn’t escape.

The guard jerked his shotgun toward her.“Get to work.”

Kali opened the furnace door and squinted asheat rolled out. Next to the gloom of the boiler room, the flamesthrew off an inferno of light. While she scooped coal from the binand into the firebox, she debated her options. She could fling ashovelful of burning embers at the guard, but he was too far awayfor her to launch a follow-up attack. She hadn’t seen the captainpass him the keys for her leg iron either. Something on theworkbench might help her escape, but it too was well out ofreach.

Kali eyed the heavy black chain attached toher ankle and didn’t see any weaknesses. It would take a blacksmithto break one of the thick links. At the other end, the chainattached to an eyelet secured with a hinge to an iron plate mountedflush in the deck. She couldn’t have been the first prisoner to bechained in the boiler room.

She kept scooping coal into the furnacewhile she contemplated that hinge. In its present state, shedoubted she could wedge the tip of the shovel into the crease topry the eyelet free, but she’d loosened many a rusted old bolt byapplying heat to break the bond.

The next time she dumped fresh coal into thefurnace, she slipped a few burning red embers out. The guard waswatching her, but the door hid the shovel, and the furnace itselfblocked the eyelet from his view. Kali laid the glowing coals onthe metal plate around the hinge. Making certain not to take toomuch time and rouse suspicions, she repeated the process until apile of hot coals lay all about the eyelet.