«I don't know how long this will last," Bantam said, grabbing Rachelle's hand. «Run!»
They bolted from the dressing room and out of the club. Within moments, they were on an outside platform thronged with people. «Air Way cars over yonder,” Rachelle said. But one look in that direction and Bantam didn't like it; there were too many people.
«No. This way," he said over Rachelle's protest.
But no sooner had they stepped onto a new platform than Rachelle shrieked in alarm: her dress was caught in something on the ground.
«Moving pavement!» Rachelle yelled at him. Bantam looked down in alarm. Rachelle pulled against the hem of her dress, but the cloth was stuck between two plates of a metal sidewalk that pulled her along with it. The plates screeched and crunched as they slid forward.
Bantam looked over his shoulder; to his dismay, Veerspike and his men were just emerging from the Magfly — and they'd been spotted.
The moving pavement yanked Rachelle mercilessly forward. Below them, clanking machinery hissed with great gouts of stream, driving the plates. Bantam dropped to the ground and pulled on the hem — to no avail. There was no time for this: he ripped the garment and freed her. Together they bolted up a nearby staircase to a platform.
A Manhattan Air Way car was just departing — they slipped inside just as the doors closed. Veerspike and his men arrived just in time to see the car speed along a cable into the fog.
«He'll only take the next car," Rachelle said.
«I know," Bantam said. «But I just bought us some time to --»
There was a gunshot and the Air Way car shook violently. The sound of a wire vibrating wildly filled the air.
«Is he … shooting at us?» Bantam asked. How? He can't see us: there's too much fog?
Bantam soon got his answer. Another gunshot, and the cable went slack. The Air Car began to fall.
«Hold on!» Bantam yelled to Rachelle.
But the Car's operator was smart enough to lock the brakes — it had a grip on the wire with crunch. Within seconds, it went taut as the car slammed into the side of the building it had just departed. The passengers landed in a pile at the rear of the Car, screaming in terror.
«C'mon," Bantam yelled to Rachelle. «We have to get out of here.» He stood and kicked out a window — to the horrified looks and panicked yells of the other passengers.
He and Rachelle looked at each, and wordlessly made a decision: they jumped onto the Helux ballon of a nearby Growler. A great many were parked nearby, and Bantam and Rachelle scampered madly across their tops, great yawning deaths on either side.
Veerspike and his men had wasted no time: they descended on the damaged Air Way cable and were already dashing across the balloons themselves.
They began shooting.
Holes appeared in front of Bantam and Rachelle, great spouts of Helux gas shot out of newly-formed bulletholes. Helux was visible as a cloud of gold particles, almost like glitter. But it vented with a terrible force that would certainly toss them over the edge if it hit them.
And it was heated, Bantam discovered with a shimmer of searing air against his face. That stuff was like lava blasting up … it would cook them where they stood if they were it.
As the shooting started, Growler passengers all around howled in terror. Nearby Air Way platforms emptied quite suddenly with a lot of uncivilized pushing and shoving.
Rachelle pointed. «There! We must jump to the next level down!» Bantam looked: another clumping of Growlers one story below. Probably a taxi line, he reasoned.
He nodded and they landed softly on a balloon top. Here, they were obscured by the taxi line above: Veerspike had no clear shot.
«Again," Bantam insisted, seeing that it had worked once. And Rachelle nodded. When they reached the next level, they slid down one ballon surface and into the carriage of another.
The woman piloting the Growler yelled, «Tut! Who are you? A screwsman and his toffer?» But Bantam pushed her away from the controls and headed back into the fog bank, away from the building. Rachelle tried to quiet her.
«Perhaps we will lose him in the vapors," she remarked to Bantam.
«Maybe," Bantam said. «I'm not going to take any chances.» He pushed the steering wheel down and the Growler descended, covered by mist. He couldn't see a thing. He could hear a constant ping! noise all around him, coming from different directions at regular intervals.
«Set the doo-dah!» the woman yelled at him. «Are you mad? Nobody can see us!»
Bantam looked at Rachelle, then nodded to the woman. «You set it.» She pushed a button near the steering wheel; instantly, Bantam's Growler began to ping as well.
Another gunshot rang out in the mist, then another. «He is vexed," Rachelle said. «He aims he knows not where, hoping by chance alone to --» Just then, a shriek rang out with a horrific popping sound. A naphtha lamp above them and to the right suddenly dropped rapidly. The terrified howling of the pilot grew fainter and fainter until it could not be heard.
This went on for several minutes, and then they finally emerged from the far side of the bank. Bantam spotted a platform on a nearby building. He let the woman have the wheel back. «Drop us off over there.» Scowling, she did so, and cursed them out as she left.
Bantam and Rachelle entered the building, but after twenty minutes or so, they were surprised that is seemed to be completely empty of people. As they descended a staircase, it began to shake violently. «Aw geez," Bantam said. «What now?»
Out the window of the next landing, they saw that the building was moving. They were below the mist layer and could see all the way down to the ground: the building was mounted atop a very wide locomotive-like vehicle. It steamed along on a giant track.
Another gunshot caused Bantam to snap away from the sight: on a landing many stories above them was Veerspike and his men. Bantam and Rachelle exited to the floor they were on.
They were in luck: this floor was open the sky on the far side, and it was literally stacked with personal dirigibles. There were hundreds of them. The craft looked like ski lifts with an Helux bubble attached. Oh, so that's why the building moves, Bantam realized. They were in a mobile parking garage! It probably rolled all over the city on a set schedule, letting people drop off and pick up --
Rachelle uttered a noise that indicated exasperation. Oh right. Somebody's trying to kill us.
Within moments, they were airborne again, doo-dah pinging and naphtha lamp cutting through the fog. «This time, I will pilot," Rachelle said. Bantam demurred.
They rose into the busy, crazy sky, barely avoiding several collisions.
«Jesus. Haven't you people invented lanes yet?» Bantam said. «A little tip from my world: look into it.»
«Lanes. Lanes are for bumpkins. This is New York City," Rachelle replied, a little smugly. «If you can't handle it, go back to the deadlurk.»
«There," Bantam said, pointed at an Air Way car that was headed their way. «I want to catch the uptown line. Those zip along a lot faster than these balloon-things. I want a lot of distance between us and Veerspike as quickly as I can get it. Set us down on the roof.»
She did so wonderfully, Bantam admired. And she can drive. I might be in love already.
They let their Growler float away aimlessly as they clung to the roof of the car. Bantam already had the top hatch opened when Veerspike and his men appeared like a hawk from clouds, their growler rising up over the prow of the car, barely avoiding a collision. Veerspike seemed as surprised as they were by this turn of events.
Bantam and Rachelle crouched in a panic as Veerspike's foot almost clipped them both in the head. «Turn around! Turn around, you fools!» Veerspike yelled. But balloons did not turn well suddenly. With a tight grin, Bantam realized that Veerspike was going to miss them — the Air Way car would be gone long before they could manage the turn.
But then there was another gunshot: with a start Bantam saw that Veerspike had shot out his own Helux balloon. As the craft fell, Veerspike jumped out and landed on the car. But his two men, taken by surprise, watched helplessly, at first confused, and then terrified as they plunged to their deaths.