Lindsay Buroker - Peacemaker

Kali’s heart, still pounding after havingthat gun pointed at her face, belied that notion, but all she saidwas, “I’m sure I would be if I’d had your night.”

She focused on the levers, on/off wheels,gauges, and pipes running from floor to ceiling in the cubby andscowled. Not only were there two holes in one of the pipes, but shecouldn’t identify which gas was flowing out from them. The labelplaques were in…“Persian?” she guessed. Her father had had bookswritten in European languages, but he had never taught her how toread any of them, and everything inside the machine room wasgibberish to her. “Why couldn’t these oafs steal an American orBritish airship?”

She leaned close to one of the leaks andsniffed, though she promptly rolled her eyes at herself when shedidn’t smell anything. Both oxygen and hydrogen were colorless andodorless, so what had she expected?

“The holes are good,aren’t they?” Keitlyudee had edged closer. “We wanted to sabotagethings, didn’t we?”

“We want to bring down theship. If the air supply is leaking, that’s not going to happen. Weneed to make sure they run low on hydrogen up there, but I’m notsure which one is which. How’s your Persian?”

The girl gave Kali a blank look.

“That’s about what Iexpected.” Kali picked up the alcohol bottle. Only the neck hadbroken, and the body appeared to be intact. “Will you get me thematches in Sparwood’s chest?”

Keitlyudee paled, probably not wanting toreturn to that foul room, but she whispered, “Very well,” andheaded down the corridor.

Kali drained the remaining liquid from thebottle. Gunfire sounded somewhere overhead. She wondered if anyonein navigation had noticed the pressure drop on the gas boardyet.

“Here.” Keitlyudee handedher a couple of long wooden matches with bulbous phosphorousheads.

Kali lifted her hand, but paused. “Betternot do it in here.” Her dead father would cringe with embarrassmentif she blew herself up by lighting a match in a closet full ofhydrogen. “Wait for me by the stairs. I’ll have you light one overthere.”

“All right…”

Kali decided not to explain the dangers ofher little experiment. They would only worry the girl. She turnedthe alcohol bottle sideways and pressed the jagged opening as closeto one of the holes as she could. Gas whistled past, cooling herfingers, and she hoped enough of it got into the bottle for herexperiment.

When she judged the bottle to be as full asit would get, Kali plopped her hand over it as tightly as shecould, given the jagged glass lip. “Light the match.”

She jogged up the corridor and placed thebottle on a step near the exit, hoping enough cool air was swirlingdown from above that they didn’t need to worry about hydrogen inthe corridor. Keitlyudee lit the match. Kali took it and, wishingfor goggles, slid the flame over the bottle opening at the sametime as she removed her hand.

The flame was sucked into the bottle with apop.

“That’s it,” Kali said andran back to the closet, tearing tin snips out of her pocket as shewent. As soon as she reached the leaking pipe, she went to workbroadening the holes so the gas would flow out morequickly.

“Uh?” Keitlyudee said fromthe corridor. “What did we just prove?”

“This is the hydrogenline,” Kali said. “That pop we heard was the sound of the gascombusting really fast and the pressure equalizing inside andoutside of the container.”

“Oh,” Keitlyudee said, notsounding any more enlightened than before.

Kali worked on the pipe until she’d nearlytorn it in half. “There,” she murmured. “That ought to bring thisboat down.”

A shot fired in the corridor.

“Are they coming?” Kalistuffed her tin snips into a pocket and stepped out.

The smell of black smoke tinged the air, andKeitlyudee stood, looking at her gun. “No. I mean, I thoughtsomeone ran past the top of the stairs, and I fired. They weren’tcoming down though. I guess.”

Kali rubbed her face. The girl was as likelyto shoot an ally in the back as an enemy. “Let’s go up and see ifthis hole is causing a problem for the navigator yet.”

Before they reached the stairs, the scent ofsmoke came to Kali’s nose. At first, she thought it might belingering from her experiment or the gunshot, but it was waftingdown from the deck above. She hoped Cedar wasn’t running around,lighting things on fire up there. She still had hopes for claimingthe ship.

Kali eased up the steps, her revolver at theready, and poked her head out. Darkness blanketed the stern of theship, but toward the bow firelight pushed back the night andhighlighted bodies-at least a dozen-littering the deck. The flamesdanced around an enclosed cabin where Kali could just make out thewheel of the ship and a bank of levers through windows reflectingthe fire. Navigation. If any pirates were still inside, shecouldn’t tell.

Her eye followed those flames upward, andshe swallowed. If the fire grew a few more feet, it would bebathing the bottom of the balloon. If it burned through the outershell and ignited the hydrogen, the fiddling she’d done with thepipe wouldn’t matter an iota.

“Cedar,” Kali groaned.“What have you been doing up-”

An impact jolted the ship, hurling Kalibackward, amidst cracking wood and groaning metal. She tried tocatch herself on the stairs, but her heel slipped off, and shetumbled to the bottom, landing in a painful heap. Shudders ranthrough the vessel. They must have hit something. Were they intown? Or on a mountaintop somewhere?

The ship groaned and scraped, pulling awayfrom whatever it had struck.

“Are you all right?”Keitlyudee asked.

Kali waved the question away and scrambledto her feet. “I’m fine, but I need to find Cedar. I want you to getoff as soon as possible. If we can find his rope and grapplinghook, maybe-”

Footsteps pounded toward the entrance abovethem. The navigators finally coming down to check on what hadcaused the hydrogen to vent?

Kali dropped to one knee and braced herwrist for a steady shot at whoever burst into sight at the top ofthe stairs.

“Kali!” Cedar shouted asecond before he appeared. “I need you to-oh, there youare.”

Kali lowered the gun and ran up to meet him.Another impact rocked the ship, and a great cracking and smashingof wood shattered the night. This time the ship jerked to a halt,sending Kali flying forward instead of back. Cedar caught her andpulled her against his chest. His legs were spread, braced againstthe steps and the wall.

“We have to get off,” hesaid.

“Yes, but if we leave, wecan’t take over the ship. The pirates will get it, and thisfighting will have been for nothing.” Well, not nothing-they’drescued Keitlyudee-but Kali wanted the ship, damn it.

“We just crashed into asmokestack, and we’re on the roof of the mill, Kali,” Cedar saidslowly, like someone trying to get something through the muddledthoughts of a drunk.

“Oh.” Kali supposed thatanswered her question about whether they were in town or thewilderness.

“There aren’t any piratesleft either,” Cedar went on. “The only thing to worry about is thatfire spreading to the entire town.” He pointed at theflames.

Dried blood streaked his arm. In fact, hiswhole chest was spattered with it, though he did not appearinjured. Kali wondered if the pirates were gone because theyabandoned the ship or if he had decimated them all. She decided notto ask.

Shouts drifted up from the town below, criesof, “Fire!” and, “Get the hoses!”

“Tarnation,” Kali said, asthe new threat permeated her brain. She’d wanted to bring the shipdown, not light the city on fire. She pushed away from Cedar.“Maybe we can get the ship off the mill and dump it in the riverwhere the fire can’t spread.”