The Cask of Cranglimmering, page 7
Svetlana nodded and returned to the clerk. Another man stood beside him, looking over the papers that Athos had carried in. Though Svetlana wasn’t clear on Port Authority ranks, he had more bars on his uniform than Richards, so she assumed he outranked the corporal. The man looked up, one eyebrow arched. "Prisoner release?"
"That’s what the paperwork indicates, sir," she said with a quick nod.
"Well, see, here’s the thing about that, ma’am. This paperwork is a bit out of date."
"Is it?" She shrugged, but cold sweat prickled the back of her neck. "I’m afraid that’s what we had on hand at Air Fleet headquarters. If you don’t mind getting us the new forms, we’d be happy to take them back. Once we get our Air Fleet widow back, of course."
"Paperwork aside, ma’am, we haven’t had anyone brought in to the prison today. It’s a bit hard for us to release someone who’s not here."
"No prisoners?" Svetlana looked at Athos. "Is there any way for you to verify that?"
"Of course." The more decorated officer picked up a log book from the desk and handed it to Svetlana opened to the present date. While the log showed several prisoners brought in on the previous day, the sheet for today was blank.
"It seems possible that the intelligence we received was inaccurate, sir," she replied. "We appreciate your confirmation of such." Turning to leave, she signaled Athos to do the same.
"Just a moment," the officer said. "Doctor Annette Campbell. Isn’t she the doctor on The Silent Monsoon?"
Svetlana froze, glad that the stays under her uniform were already keeping her back stiff, so that her shoulders did not betray her newfound tension. Athos glanced back at her.
"Yes, I believe she is," Svetlana said, with the slightest stammer. She turned back to the desk and smiled at the officer. "And while you certainly didn’t hear it from me, that’s the precise reason why Vice Admiral Beauregard is interested in her whereabouts. It seems that ship’s been popping up here and there in the news lately."
"Yes," he replied. "Especially that captain of hers. The woman with one golden eye."
Hesitating to calm herself so that her voice would not betray her, she turned to face him fully. "Funny, you’re the third person I’ve talked to today who has thought I’m her." She shrugged. "I suppose I do fit the description."
He leaned back and scrutinized her. Sweat trickled down her neck and continued down her back. The heavy wool of the Air Fleet uniforms was ideal for airship wear, less practical anywhere else. But she kept her gaze level, staring at the officer’s chest.
Finally he shook his head. "Nah, you can’t be her. She’s gotta be taller than you."
Svetlana barked out a nervous laugh, but smoothed it out into a vigorous chuckle. "You’re right, sir. Also, she’s not Air Fleet."
He nodded, and his gaze flicked down to the breast pocket of her jacket, where her name plate had once been. He frowned for a moment, but then handed Svetlana the papers. "Sorry we can’t help you, Captain--"
"Walker. Thank you all the same." With a stiff smile, she followed Athos out the door.
Chapter Six
Svetlana started the winches to pull the gangplank back onto the ship. After checking the lines that tethered The Silent Monsoon to the dock, she headed down to the mess, still in her old uniform.
Athos had already stripped down to his undershirt by the time she arrived. "Captain, permission to burn that jacket and never speak of how ill it fit again?"
Svetlana smirked, but then her face slid back into a frown. "I think he recognized me."
"Possibly," Athos said. "Turning back around to face him might have helped with the confirmation." He ran a finger across the fabric of Svetlana’s breast pocket. "The wool is compressed where your name plate was. ‘Walker’ doesn’t take four inches of space."
Svetlana sighed and shrugged. "He didn’t call me on it."
"What if he had? For all we know, he’s reporting you to Air Fleet headquarters as we speak. Impersonating an officer isn’t the sort of thing they’d be likely to overlook."
"Fine, I’ll go talk to Bobby in the morning. We’re going to need his help to find Annette anyway." She peeled off her jacket and tossed it across the back of a chair. "Still feels like Bobby owes her, after Jack. Now, you going to help me out of these stays?"
Athos rolled his eyes and tugged the back of Svetlana’s shirt out from the waistband of her slacks. "How did your airwave chat with Kavisoli go? Any chance we could get some help from him?"
"I’m not sure what help he could offer. He’s on Rrusadon, with no signs of wanting to leave there. Can’t say that I blame him. I bet they’ve got plenty of bathhouses for fine upstanding women there."
"Wouldn’t you like to find out?" Athos asked. Svetlana could hear the smirk in his words. He slid his hands up her back deftly, loosening the laces that kept her stays tight. With a brief twinge of pain, the pressure compressing her torso began to lessen.
"I thought I heard--" Jo trailed off as she walked through the door to the mess and surveyed the scene in front of her. After a moment’s hesitation, she laughed. "Anyone other than you, Captain, and I might be a little jealous."
"Get over it, Jo," Athos snapped at her. "This is strictly ship business."
"I know," she spat back. She turned her attention to Svetlana. "So no luck on the doc?"
"No. Did you actually see Richards take her in the building?"
"Yes."
"The front door?"
Jo scoffed. "No, the side door."
Svetlana frowned. "Well, that explains one thing. But you’d think that officer would have realized if they had Annette locked up somewhere in the building."
"Sure, maybe. But it’s a big building."
Athos tugged at Svetlana’s corset, and it slid down past her hips.
She stepped out of it and kicked it to the side. "If you’re going to burn your coat, take care of that while you’re at it." Glancing at him and then at Jo, she continued. "We’ll have to figure out where Annette is in the morning. Meantime, get some rest."
"Aye, Captain," Athos said with a quick nod.
Svetlana walked back to her cabin, one hand probing her back as she walked. The pain had subsided considerably, but she still felt it twinge when she twisted to the side. She stopped in the infirmary, which felt cold and sterile without the doctor bustling around inside. Svetlana had no idea what she should look for to help ease her pain. "Gods be cursed, Annette," she muttered under her breath. "I need you."
She stumbled over the threshold of her cabin and closed the door. A breeze slipped through the open windows, cutting through her thin blouse. Pulling off her eyepatch, she moved to the windows to close them.
Something white and wispy appeared out of the corner of her right eye. She turned to look in that direction with her good eye. The moonlight played across a heavy cloud bank, turning it into something that looked like a sailing ship from the old days, before the seas had boiled. "There’s your ghost ship, Mirage. Nothing more than moonlight on clouds."
Svetlana slipped out of her blouse and tailored pants and into a worn shirt and a pair of loose slacks. She turned back the threadbare sheets on her bed, but rather than climbing beneath them, she sat on the edge of the bed. Her boots, discarded a moment ago, seemed to call to her.
She couldn’t be certain that Annette was at Port Authority headquarters, and even if she was there, Svetlana had no idea where in the building the doctor might be held. While she could wake Athos or Jo to take them with her, Svetlana suspected that they might both be in one or the other’s cabin at this point. And Indigo wouldn’t be much help for an attempt to sneak in and break Annette out.
Athos had mentioned Kavisoli, but even if she was willing to ask for his help on this, she doubted the newly minted mayor had enough pull to get information out of the Heliopolis Port Authority from his home platform. And if he did have that sort of pull, it seemed like the sort of information he might have mentioned, since he knew the bomb had originated on Heliopolis. Svetlana had heard that the Kavisoli played their cards close to their chests, but there was a distinct difference between that and withholding information from someone who was helping them investigate a threat against their new position of respectability.
Low, mournful bells signaled impending Lift. "I’m sorry, Annette," she muttered to herself. "We’ll find you as soon as we can."
~
Svetlana stumbled into the mess in the morning and tried to peer through her squinted eye as she yawned. The cook stove had something nearing a boil atop it, and someone was bustling around in the kitchen. "Annette?" she ventured.
"No such luck," Athos answered. "Kettle’s on. We should have tea soon."
"Make the stuff we got at Indy’s village." She shook her head as she banged her shin against the leg of the mess table. "I’m going to need it."
"You too, eh?"
Svetlana twisted around to look at Athos, glad that her back seemed to be healing. "Kept trying to come up with a way to go get Annette. I almost came to get you about half a dozen times."
"Oh, yeah, umm, me too," Athos said, turning away to rummage through the heavy ceramic tea mugs. He almost looked like he was turning pink, but she’d rarely seen Athos get embarrassed by anything.
Svetlana chuckled as she put two and two together. "So you and Jo did make up, then?"
Athos spun back to face her, his eyes dark. But he looked at the doorway instead, and the stormy look passed. "Morning."
"Tea?" Jo asked.
"Soon enough."
"Good." Jo sat to Svetlana’s left, and began combing out her long hair.
With the position Jo had taken, Svetlana couldn’t keep her good eye on both Jo and Athos at the same time. She more than suspected that they had, in fact, shared a bed last night, a fact that neither of them wanted their captain to know about. But The Silent Monsoon was a small enough ship that secrets rarely stayed that way for long. Even without seeing both their faces at the same time, she’d know sooner or later what the current state of their on-again, off-again relationship was.
Athos spooned tea from a battered tin into a thin muslin bag, which he placed into the now boiling water on the stove. The kettle was little more than a spare pot with a snug-fitting lid, but it served its purpose. And all of them had gotten quite adept at pouring the steaming liquid from the pot into their mugs without spilling a drop.
Jo spoke again, drawing Svetlana’s attention. "So, what’s on the agenda today, Cap’n?"
Svetlana sighed. "I’m not sure. I should send a message to Bobby to see if he can pull some strings and locate Annette."
"That’ll take too long," Jo said with a shake of her head.
"Well, we could go see him in person." She hesitated then rephrased her thoughts. "Or, rather, I could go to headquarters."
"Nope," Indigo said, dropping the morning newspaper on the table to Svetlana’s right. By the time she turned to look at it, the boy had already clambered onto the counter between the kitchen and the mess and was spooning hefty scoops of sugar into one of the mugs that Athos had set out.
The headline on the newspaper, splotchy from the powdered sugar of Indigo’s favorite morning treat, read "Suspects in Bar Brawl Sought" and was placed directly above photographs of Svetlana, Athos, and Jo. Svetlana shook her head. "One day you’re a hero, the next you’re wanted. Lovely."
Jo grabbed the paper and scanned the article. "Sweet Skyfather! It’s naught but lies. Listen to this: ‘The pictured suspects are said to have assaulted an officer of the Port Authority, who was making a routine arrest.’" Growling beneath her breath, she threw it back onto the table. "It doesn’t even say a word about Annette."
Svetlana looked at the paper again. "And there’s no byline. I don’t even know who to complain to."
Athos carried steaming mugs to the table and placed them in front of Jo and Svetlana. A creamy cloud bloomed in Jo’s cup, but Svetlana’s was a deep brown. She picked it up and swallowed a gulp, ignoring the temperature as it scalded her tongue.
"So, change of plans, then?" Athos asked from across the top of his mug.
"Well, we could still try to go to Air Fleet headquarters, convince Bobby that this is all a set up. Surely, there’d be witnesses at the bar who could--" She trailed off. "But who am I kidding? Bobby might take me at my word. I think we’re back to sending him a note and hoping."
Jo shrugged. "Sure, he might believe you. But honestly, if someone is serious about arresting you or taking you in for questioning, why haven’t they already come knocking?"
"That’s a good point," Athos said. "Sure, Jo’s an elusive criminal, but everyone knows where to find Captain Tereshchenko. Makes me think that headline’s more of a scare tactic than anything else."
"To what end?" Svetlana asked. "Get me running scared? Anyone who knows me would realize I won’t just take off without Annette."
Athos nodded. "But for all we know, Port Authority’s just waiting for us to cut and run."
Laughing, Svetlana said, "Then they definitely don’t know who they’re dealing with. But all the more reason to stick around to find Annette before we deal with any of the other problems we’ve got on our plate."
"I still think we should just go to the Port Authority headquarters and find her ourselves," Jo said. "I can get off ship without anyone spotting me, easy."
"I’m sure you can. But we still haven’t a clue where to start looking for her. I’ve never been past the front desk, and I don’t believe any of the rest of you have either?"
Athos and Indigo shook their heads, but Jo tapped on the newspaper to get Svetlana’s attention. "What if we use this? We go turn ourselves in for questioning. They’ll take us back, maybe even to the same area where they’re holding Annette."
"If they’re holding Annette," Athos reminded her.
"Where else would she be?" Jo asked.
"Wait, wait," Svetlana said. "You think we should turn ourselves in, get locked up, and then get Annette out?"
Jo shrugged, tilting her head back and forth. "Okay, some of us turn ourselves in, and the rest of us break everyone out?"
"No. If you turn yourself in, I doubt they’d put you anywhere near Annette," Svetlana said. "Same with Athos. Maybe I’d get lucky and they’d put me near her. But if they know us, then they’ll want us as far from each other as possible. And even if only one of us turns ourself in, then it’s Indy and two of us trying to get the other two out." She shook her head, emphasizing her point. "It’s not going to work."
"We could get a copy of the building plans in town," Athos suggested. "If we look it over, we could at least narrow down where they’d be likely to hold her."
"Or I could just tell you where the cells are." Annette’s voice rang out from the doorway of the mess, and Svetlana leapt out of her chair to turn and face the doctor.
"You’re back! Are you alright?" Rushing over and enveloping Annette in a bear hug, Svetlana pinned the doctor’s arms to her sides.
Annette laughed. "I’m fine, yes. Could use a bit of breakfast. And maybe less squeezing my insides?"
Svetlana released her hold on Annette. Leaping down from the counter and into the kitchen, Indigo banged around through the pots and pans. When the din died down, Svetlana asked, "What happened?"
"Richards took me in through some sort of tunnel network," Annette said. "Service tunnels, I guess. He tossed me in a cell and then vanished for a while. When the morning crew came in, they were a bit perplexed as to how I had gotten myself locked up. I told them it was Richards, and they let me out of there, no questions asked. Even hired a cab to get me back to the ship."
Svetlana frowned. "That seems odd. Do you suppose you were followed?"
"Wouldn’t surprise me if the cabbie went straight back and told them where she dropped me off. But I don’t think they’d need that information. They knew who I was." She paused. "I did hear one thing as I was going out. Something about Richards making a mess of things for the last time. Oh, and it seems you’ve seen that nonsense in the paper."
"Yeah, did you read it?" Jo asked.
"I did. And I’ve already seen a retraction."
"Of the lead story?" Athos asked, a smile playing across his lips. "Ooh, someone’s going to be in trouble."
"Got something else, too," Annette said, fumbling through the many pockets on her jacket. "Indy’s little pigtailed friend found me on my way back to the ship."
A clatter of pots and pans emanated from the kitchen, and the crew all turned to look. Indigo’s face had turned a brilliant shade of pink, a startling contrast to his hair.
"What’s wrong, Indy? Did you burn yourself?" Svetlana asked, hurrying toward the kitchen.
Indigo shook his head vigorously. "Pigtailed friend. Deliah?"
"That’s her name," Annette said. "She wanted me to tell you that she hopes to see you soon and to give you this note."
Indigo slipped out of the kitchen and took the note from Annette, scurrying back just as quickly as he had emerged.
Turning to Svetlana and handing her a second note, Annette continued. "And she told me to tell my captain that she’s sorry about the Rrusadon mistake, and that you need to seek out Bonebriar."
Svetlana’s brow furrowed. "What in the abyss is a Bonebriar?"
Chapter Seven
"Bonebriar," Athos said, jabbing a finger at the map and shaking his head. "It’s uninhabited, according to this. If I had to guess, I’d say it probably got too hot when the seas boiled."
Indigo leaned in close to the map, tracing a spiral out from the location Athos had found. His finger completed several rotations before it came across another island. "Nothing there either."
Annette closed a book and added it to the stack beside her. "That’s five histories of the Republic with no reference to a place called Bonebriar."
"Alright, so a named, uninhabited island that’s not in the history books. Sounds like another wild goose chase to me," Svetlana said. "How many more histories do we have to look at?"
