James’ face brightened. “Wait—you’re Hayden’s Follies, I’ve heard of you.”
“Good things, I hope,” Hattie preened.
An all-female band of, well, he had a feeling they were air pirates.
Steven rubbed his chin, taking this all in. “If women can’t legally fly airships, how can you operate?”
Hittie wrinkled her turned-up nose in distain. “Do you think we care?”
“No, of course not.” Well, that was one way to look at the law.
Hattie checked her pocket watch and tapped the toe of her manly boots. “Are you in?”
Steven and James exchanged glances. It beat their other options.
Standing, he offered his hand. “We’re in.”
Hattie shook his hand, grip stronger than he expected and jerked her pointed chin toward the door of the bar. “Good, let’s go rescue some little girls.”
“Hope you’re rested because the next twenty hours are going to be hell,” Hittie sneered as she showed them around the microscopic ship.
“Why?” Steven took an instant dislike to Hittie, the younger sister. Truly, a sparrow-class ship held three people comfortably. Hattie was the pilot and captain, Hittie the engineer. They’d lost their gunner, which James had been assigned to. The ladies had deemed him useless and told him to stay out of the way.
Useless? Him? Then again, he never felt the need to learn to shoot.
“Because your own strength is unequal to the task, do not assume that it is beyond the powers of man … ” he quoted under his breath.
“As soon as we meet up with Vix, we’re going to be flying decoy. Fastest way to San Fran is through Deseret Territory—MoBatt country.” Hittie looked to James. “Which is why we need a good gunner.”
None of this meant anything to Steven and he didn’t want to sound stupid or anger her by asking. All he knew from Noli was that sparrow-class ships were fairly useless except for the fact that they could go very fast.
“Wait—Vix, as in Captain Vix?” James asked.
Hittie’s blond eyebrows rose. “You know her?”
“I met her a few months ago. I know her first mate.” James turned to Steven, eyes alight. “This is good—really good.”
Steven’s brows knitted. “Sorry, I’m not following.”
“The Vixen’s Revenge is Jeff’s ship. They’ll be far more likely to hand Rahel over to us.” James’ forehead wrinkled. “Well, you better let me do the asking. He probably still wants to kick the stuffing out of you.”
It took a moment for this to sink in. “Jeff’s ship. As in Noli’s Jeff?” He made a face trying to assimilate this information. The Bright Lady played tricks, surely. “Is the air pirate community truly that small?”
“Pretty much–which is why we’re the one’s stealing the children,” Hittie retorted. “The men don’t have the gall to break the rules and the government doesn’t give a gear.” Her lips formed a smirk. “Why does Jeff want to beat the stuffing out of you?”
“Um,” Steven’s cheeks warmed. “I want to marry his sister.” James’ eyebrows rose. “What?” he retorted. “I will find some way to be with her, no matter what people say.”
He had to. Not just because he’d promised, but because Noli made his life better, him better, in so many ways.
“Good. I like Noli. She keeps you from being insufferable.” James shoved his hands into his pockets. “You should still let me do talking, just in case.”
Hittie held up her stubby and rough hands. “Enough chatter, we should be meeting up with the ship any moment. Then it’s time to hold on.”
The sound of another airship’s engines woke Noli. Sparrow-class by the sound of it.
“Noli?” Jeff whispered from outside her door.
“Come in.” She sat up and yawned. “Trouble?”
“Our decoy in case we encounter MoBatts. Not only are we limping, we’re about to limp through Deseret.” Jeff shook his head as he stood in the doorway. “Crazy, I tell you, but the sooner we get these kids to San Fran the better. When we get to there I want you to meet them.” Circles hung under his eyes. Dark shadows colored his chin. Shaving didn’t seem to be a priority. Neither did sleep.
“Air pirates worthy of my acquaintance?” She laughed, remembering his reluctance to introduce her to his friend back in Los Angeles. How long ago that seemed.
Jeff grinned and leaned against the door frame. “An all-female crew. They’re part of Vix’s women’s equality movement and the children’s liberation front—female air pirates who try to stop human trafficking. It’s their engineer I think you’d like.”
“I’d like to meet a female engineer.” She’d never met another girl who liked to fix things.
“The reason why I’m here is that we need you to be on hand. Also, being chased by MoBatts is … interesting. We need the girls to stay with you up here in case they become scared. We can’t risk having you away from the engines.”
Noli crossed her arms over her chest. “I should have had time to do repairs. How are we flying with holes in our hull?”
“We’ve patched them the best we can—believe me,” he replied. “This is a very risky venture.”
“Oh.” Noli nodded, understanding. “Because the law won’t see what we’re doing as a good deed. We’re as guilty as those who stole the children in the first place.”
“Exactly—and the authorities will probably know where we’re headed as soon as they find the other ship, so we need to beat them to San Fran. If there are no children onboard, they can’t do anything.” His smile grew lopsided. “Sometimes there are perks to the holes in legislation.”
“I’m scared, Noli.” The little blonde girl, Rahel, wrapped her arms around Noli’s leg as Noli attempted to tighten a loose screw on the fan of the starboard engine. It was always the starboard side. At least the ship held up. But the fans weren’t and if the fans didn’t hold up the ship could overheat. She should have replaced all the fans when she had the chance.
Gunfire rang in the distance. Making sure the screw was tight, she tucked her screwdriver in its loop on her tool-belt and embraced tiny Rahel. The other girls slept soundly in the corner of the engine room. Fear of them being caught—or shot down—balled in the pit of her own belly, so she could hardly blame the little girl for being afraid.
“Everything will be fine,” Noli soothed, running her fingers through Rahel’s long blonde hair as a loud noise boomed behind them followed by the rat-tat-tat of a gatling gun. “Why don’t you go to sleep? When you wake everything should be over.”
She hoped.
“I want my bed,” she sobbed. “And my popi.” Fat tears streamed down her little face.
“Would you like to sleep in my bed?” Noli took her by the hand and led her to her room, trying to think of a way to make her happy and quiet before she woke the other girls. Again. “Look, you may sleep in my hammock.”
Rahel peered into the dim room and made a face. “You sleep there?”
“It’s actually quite comfortable.” Noli helped the little girl into the hammock. “Here’s a pillow and blanket.” She tucked the little pillow under Rahel’s head and covered her with the green blanket. “You may even hold my doll.”
Rahel took the offered doll and fingered her red curls. “What’s her name?”
“Charlotte,” she replied without a thought. The ship shook and the engines made a noise of protest. “You go to sleep. I’ll return to check on you.”
Rahel closed her eyes and nodded. Noli caressed the little girl’s cheek then ran back into the engine room just as something boomed in the distance.
Steven gripped the bolted-down table in tiny common area as Hayden’s Follies rolled, the entire ship tilting to one side as everything not secured slid around, creating a merry mess. A slew of gunfire punctuated the evasive maneuver, every rat-tat-tat of the patrol’s gatling gun sounding as if it would pierce the hull and shoot him.