"This time all of you who can stand." Madi turned back to the troops and raised his sword. "Again!"
Chapter 22
Billy Clanton and Frank McLowry commenced to draw their pistols at the same time Tom McLowry jumped behind a horse. I had my pistol in my overcoat pocket where I had put it. When I saw Billy and Frank draw their pistols I drew my pistol, I knew that the McLowry brothers had the reputation of having wizard's magic and I aimed at Frank McLowry. The two first shots which were fired were fired by Billy Clanton and myself. He shot at me, and I shot at Frank McLowry. I do not know which shot was first; we fired almost together. Morgan then shot Billy Clanton. The fight then became general. After several shots were fired Ike Clanton ran up and grabbed my arm. I could see no weapon in his hand and thought at the time he had none, and so I said to him, "The fight has now commenced. Go to fighting or get away." At the same time I pushed him off with my left hand. He started and ran down the side of the building and disappeared between the lodging house and the photograph gallery. My next shot struck Frank McLowry in the belly. He staggered off on the sidewalk but was still able to pick up a horse to throw at us. Virgil was struck by the flying horse before Holliday, who had the shotgun, fired at and killed Frank McLowry. Tom McLowry was unarmed. It made no difference, for his kind does not need a pistol to kill, and I shot him in the head.
– Testimony of Wyatt Earp, Tombstone Epitaph, 1881 UBF Tempest "Captain, I've found them again," the teleradioscope operator said.
I wish they'd quit calling me that. Francis walked over and looked over the UBF employee's shoulder. All he could see were green lights moving up and down, some fast, some slow, and some not at all. They'd tried to explain to him how the machine worked, but it was all about electrical resonance against metallic objects and the frequency and speed of return and traversing whatnots and so forth, and it just made him want a drink really bad. "Where?"
"About a hundred miles further south than we expected. They've changed course. I think they're heading for the Marianas."
That didn't make any sense, but at least they weren't getting any closer to Japan. That had been making him really nervous. "Driver!"
"Uh… It's Helm, sir," replied the man stationed at the very front of the glass bubble cockpit. Francis was still trying to learn the volunteers' names.
"Very well, Mr. Helm," he said, and couldn't figure out why that caused Lance to snicker. "Follow that blimp."
Lance was sitting in one of the vacant chairs in the command center, with his boots up on a bank of sensitive electronics. "You've really got no idea what you're doing, do you?" At least he was decent enough to lower his voice so the men wouldn't be able to hear them over the engines.
"Frankly, not even the slightest." He took a seat at the empty communications station. Most of the seats were empty in the command center. Less than a quarter of the Tempest's crew had volunteered to stay, and that was only after he'd promised some very hefty bonuses.
Two security men had stuck around, and one was a Brute. Grandfather's Healer had told him politely to go to hell, but at least he'd convinced the man to stick around San Francisco long enough to help Mr. Browning once his Power had recovered. The only other functionary who'd stayed was, surprisingly enough, Mr. Chandler, Grandfather's accountant. All the rest had assured him that they would see to company business, and he had no doubt that they were currently maneuvering to get the UBF board to somehow get rid of him before Grandfather's body was even cold.
So he had a handful of barely-mended Grimnoir knights, a drastically undermanned and unarmed prototype ship, and no clue what he was doing. He'd broken a direct order from a Grimnoir elder and would probably be cast out of the Society he'd devoted his life to, if he lived that long. And he still hadn't even really come to terms with the fact that he was now, theoretically, the richest man in the world.
"Mind if I make a suggestion?" Lance didn't bother to wait for the reply. "If we're going to try this, then we need every advantage we can get. The Tokugawa is probably still running a skeleton crew, but that means they'll have five times as many men, and at least one mean son of a bitch of an Iron Guard. They won't be expecting this, but they will have men on watch, and they'll probably be doing it from behind mounted guns, which we don't happen to have. So how about we use that radio bouncer to keep track of 'em, and not get into visual range until dark?"
Francis sighed. "How about I just make you captain?"
The grizzled knight thought about it. "Do I get to wear the fancy hat?"
"You figure out how to get Jane off the Tokugawa alive, I'll have your old cowboy hat gold-plated." Banish Island, Micronesia Pirate Bob Southunder, Scourge of the South Seas, Terror of the Marianas, killer of men, sinker of ships, and general pain in the Imperium's rear took the time to pass out treats to all the village children like some sort of kindly South Pacific Santa Claus before joining his men on a mission.
"Where'd you get Mr. Goodbars?" Sullivan asked, as Southunder gave a candy bar to a kid, patted him on the head, and sent him on his way.
"They were on an Imperium cargo ship, believe it or not. Why? You want one?"
"Sure." As a general rule, Jake Sullivan never turned down anything free. The two of them walked up the forest path toward the remains of what had once been a mighty volcano. There were five heavily armed pirates right behind, and he was sure that was no accident. He'd not yet earned Southunder's trust.
The pirate had refused to talk further about the Geo-Tel yesterday. He'd slept in the village as a guest, but he'd seen the occasional flashes of cigarettes glowing in the jungle from the men assigned to watch him all night.
He'd woken up with one of the Japanese serving girls crawling onto his sleeping mat, but he'd turned her away as politely as he could without her speaking hardly any English. "No like girls?" "No. Like girls just fine." "No like me then?" "No. You're nice." "Oh. Have girl already." "… Yeah… something like that." She'd left him alone, and he'd gone back to staring at the tin roof, hating himself because he'd finally fallen asleep again only to catch himself dreaming of Delilah's body, her soft skin pressed against him, his lips on her neck, and he had awoken again, cursing himself as a selfish, pathetic failure of a man. He'd lain there awake until the sun came up.
They'd eaten breakfast in silence: more fish, fruit, and wild boar. None of the pirates commented on the.45 on his hip or the automatic rifle he'd reassembled. They might not trust him yet, but anybody worthy of sharing your hospitality should be worthy of helping to defend it. The men had been excited. Something was happening. After breakfast Southunder had invited him on this walk.
"Are we going to destroy the Geo-Tel now?" he asked.
"It's not here," Southunder answered.
"I don't care where it is, as long as it gets broken into a million pieces and burned. Are we going to go get it then?"
"I've kept it safe since you were wearing short pants, Mr. Sullivan. A few more hours won't kill you."
"Nope. But if the Chairman gets it, he'll kill the whole world."
Laughter always seemed to come easy to Southunder. "Truth be told, I'll be glad to be rid of it. I would have gone last night but my ship was still getting patched from our last job. I didn't dare keep it with me, because if they found me, they'd find it. No, not even Pershing knew exactly where it is for exactly that reason. I'm the only one who knows. It's well hidden. We'll dig it up later."
Sullivan stopped walking, right in the middle of the trail. The men following paused, uneasy. "You buried it?"