Ganymede (The Clockwork Century 3)

“If it sucks down a little water, that won’t be the end of the world. You might get wet when you bring it back down, but for now, it’ll have to do us, all right?”

No one responded, so Andan Cly urged the propulsion screws to full power. Then, with Deaderick’s assistance, he aimed Ganymede toward the bottleneck at the bay’s southern entrance, leaving the worst of the fighting behind them. They wouldn’t know if they’d made a difference in the battle there, not for days, but Cly was glad he’d taken a chance on it.

Maybe he was on the verge of settling down and becoming a family man, or something like it; maybe he’d go retire in the Washington Territories, leisurely swatting rotters away from Fort Decatur and the business he meant to run there.

But today he was a pirate still, and for whatever good or ill, right or wrong, holy or evil thing that word had ever meant, it felt good to wear it this one last time. Even if he wore it at the bottom of the bay, fighting the Texians by stealth and hidden in watery shadows. Even if no one would ever know he was the one who’d dropped the antiaircraft guns from the patrol ships. Even if he went down in nobody’s history for this last hurrah, that was fine by him.

Pirates didn’t have their own lands, or books, or histories, after all. Not much of it. Just one small island in one dark bay, off to the west of the Mississippi River.

But it was enough, and it was worth keeping.

“Early, how far off is this bottleneck—and Huey, how’s the air holding?”

“Getting a little sputter, sir. Keep us higher if you can do it. ”

“Higher it is, kid. Watch that tube, and if you can, watch from the scope. Can you go back and forth?”

“Not really, sir. ”

But Troost said, “I’ll watch the scope. I want to take another look up topside, anyway. ” He redeployed it, figuring out the levers, knobs, and cranks as he went along—and aiming it up above the water, and backwards. This meant he was off the stool and standing with his backside to the captain, Fang, and Deaderick.

Deaderick was the one who asked, “What are you do

ing, Troost?”

“I don’t care where we’re going, but I want to know where we’ve been. It’s looking like a real mess out there, if I do say so myself. ”

“Good. I like making messes,” Cly beamed.

“I ought to warn you, they’re coming up behind us. Not fast, but steady. And—” He tipped the scope so it aimed up nearly as far as it’d go. “—I think one of the big Texian warships is turning around to track us. ”

“We’ll lose it in the Gulf,” Deaderick promised. “Sun won’t be up for a while yet, and they’ll never see us under the waves. ”

“I expect you’re right. ” Troost nodded with satisfaction. He swiveled the scope and got up into the seat that had formerly held Houjin. “Hey, good news in this direction. ”

The captain asked, “How so?”

“I see both of our guys—Little and Mumler—one on each bank. Jesus Christ, they’re close together. They don’t mean for us to squeak between ’em, do they?”

“They don’t call it a bottleneck for nothing,” Deaderick said. “We’ll slow down and squeak between ’em, that’s right. They’ll pole us on through. Then we ought to see if we can grab them and pull them on board. I don’t want to leave them out there, not with Texas coming up behind us. ”

Cly agreed. “Good idea. Huey—how’s the air coming?”

A big burp of water sloshed inside, soaking the boy from the waist down, but he laughed. “Gotta stop for now, but that should be plenty. It was more than a couple of minutes, wasn’t it?”

“Hey, Early,” Troost said. “I’ve got another idea for an improvement on your next model. ”

“Clocks?”

“Damn right. You need some clocks in here. ”

Before long, the first tap of a pole clanked down into Ganymede’s interior, and before much longer than that, they were through the bottleneck between Grande Terre and Grand Isle. With two new passengers, they struck out for the prearranged position in the Gulf of Mexico, where the Union airship carrier Valiant awaited—surrounded at a distance by curious Texians who were too smart to come any closer, but too wily to let it alone altogether.

* * *

When Ganymede reached the Valiant, Captain Cly and First Mate Fang held the ship steady as an enormous winch—designed to retrieve airships, should they fall into the ocean during landing or takeoff—craned out over the water and affixed itself to Ganymede’s hull. A series of hydraulic cinches compressed, squeezed, and, after a few false starts … established a secure grip on the huge steel watercraft.

A crank turned, and more hydraulics stabilized the affair, counteracting the tremendous weight of something being heaved from the water. A giant arm swung, and dropped the craft onto a platform that was ordinarily used to land and park airships.