Chapter 20 - The Kraken Gate
The air-train hadn’t reached its maximum speed, but slipstream was strong enough to try to push the hatch shut against me. Inigo went and found a cup which I used to jam it open. It was just a crack, but it was sufficient to see down the length of the train and point a gun out of. The rushing wind that swirled around the opening was thick with steam and soot from the engine, making my eyes water. Eventually though, I was able to look backwards down the length of the air-train as the pylons, girders and forest rushed past. Whenever the track curved slightly, I got a reasonable view of the four carriages behind ours, each suspended from the overhead track by a pair of streamlined pillars, but when the track was straight, it was all hidden behind the pillar closest to me.
A quarter of a bell passed, with Inigo and I taking turns at the top of the ladder. I was just beginning to wonder whether I’d been overly paranoid when Inigo warned of the hatch opening two carriages down.
‘There are two of them on the roof now. There isn’t enough clearance for them to stand up straight so they’re having to stoop.’
Just then I heard Na-Su at the other end of the carriage warning someone to stay back.
‘They’ve jumped the gap. They’re on the next carriage down from us,’ said Inigo. He poked the barrel of the pistol through the narrow opening.
‘Don’t shoot until they’re on our carriage.’
‘What’s going on here?’ said a sharp voice at my side, making me jump. It was the inspector, his moustache bristling in a hostile manner. ‘Come down off that ladder. It’s for emergencies only, and certainly not when the air-train is moving, it’s too dangerous.’
As I opened my mouth to respond, a shot rang out and a window halfway along the corridor exploded, showering us with fragments. The inspector shrieked and threw himself down on the floor underneath the ladder. I was impressed. For someone unused to being shot at, it was a remarkably astute and promptly taken course of action. I left him there with his knees drawn up under his chin and went to see how Na-Su was doing. I crouched and scuttled along the corridor until I could see her. I was opposite the broken pane of glass. The turbulence whipped my hair around my face. One of the occupants of the compartment next to ours was standing at the door, staring at the damage. I motioned for him to get back and get down on the floor, but didn’t stop to see whether he did.
‘Na-Su!’ I shouted over the roaring wind. ‘You alright?’ I could see her now. She’d taken position behind the toilet cubicle just to the left of the narrow passage and door to the next carriage. She’d grabbed a bandolier and slung it around her neck. She looked at me and winked. Through the adjoining section, I caught sight of some movement and pressed myself back against the compartment just as another shot went off. Na-Su was holding her coat in one hand. She was gripping its shoulder and I could see that it was still on its hanger which was giving it shape. In her other hand she held the masher carbine. I watched her push the coat into the corridor and quickly retracted, prompting the attackers to fire again. Quick as a snake, Na-Su aimed around the corner and fired. The masher carbine made a shocking boom and the crash of splintering wood came back to me. I thought of the passengers in the compartment beside me.
‘Na-Su, I need to move the people out of this!’ I pointed to the door beside me. ‘Covering fire.’
Na-Su nodded, lowered the masher carbine to floor and pulled her revolver from her waistband. I took the spare from around my neck and slid it along the wooden floor to her. It made a wake through the sea of glass shards. I watched as she repeated the trick with her coat, provoking another volley from our attackers. A bullet tore a chunk from the panelling in front of me. Na-Su put her arm around the corner and loosed off a shot. I stood and wrenched the compartment door to one side.
‘Out now!’ I roared at the occupants; a waistcoated gentleman, a lady in an expensive vermillion dress with white lace ruff, a boy, two girls and large cuddly moose. The family I’d seen earlier. They looked terrified. Another shot and still none of them moved. They looked at me, transfixed by the gun in my hand. Oh well. I tried again, this time more menacing, waving the gun suggestively.
‘Move now, or I’ll shoot you myself.’
Na-Su fired again, underlining my point. ‘Come on, towards the front of the train!’ At last they scrambled out past me while Na-Su used up the last rounds in her gun. I steered the family towards the compartment on other side of ours, further away from the action. They squashed in with the trio of Endarchine monks who were ignoring their own strictures of “no steam” for the convenience of a speedy journey. I slammed the door on them just as Inigo fired his first shots.
‘Got one,’ he called out coolly.
‘Want me to take a turn up there?’
‘No boss. I got this. You help Na-Su.’
‘You take this then.’ I stuffed my remaining revolver into his trouser pocket. The inspector looked at me.
‘What’s going on?’ he whimpered.
‘Landlords,’ I rolled my eyes. ‘Never try to skip town without paying your rent.’ I hurried back to our compartment, wondering how to bring this siege to an end. It would only be a matter of time before the civilians got caught in the crossfire. Holding out until Lannerville wasn’t a reasonable prospect, and I was worried for Na-Su whose luck would surely run out against superior numbers. The obvious choice was to decouple the carriages and leave our attackers behind, but how? I’d noticed that, unlike land trains, the air-train’s coupling was mounted high, near the roofline. To reach it from above or below, I would need to be directly in the crossfire on the roof or in the corridor.
The distinct boom of Na-Su’s masher carbine started up again. No more than seven rounds in the magazine which means she’ll need to reload soon. C’mon Connie, think, and think fast. I would either have to go to her and reload her pistols or find a way to end this quickly. I had an idea. Ducking back out into the corridor, I returned to the inspector. He was still slumped on the floor and was looking even more defeated now that he’d removed his cap. He was rubbing his brow with one hand, and with the other he was holding an empty revolver that Inigo had discarded. I took it from him, reloaded it and passed it back up to Inigo.
‘Can you open that door?’
The inspector looked at me and then at the door that separated us from the engine. He pulled a bunch of keys from his pocket and selected one of them, passing the bunch to me.
‘You’ll all be safe if I’m not on this train,’ I explained. ‘These people only want me.’
The inspector nodded, so I moved past the ladder and opened the door. Wind whistled through the opening. Above was the sturdy steel coupling tying us to the engine unit, below was a footplate and a heady, two-hundred hands drop to the forest floor that flashed past at an alarming rate. I stepped onto the opposite footplate just as the air-train hit a curve in the rail. The gondolas swayed and the breeze roared around me. Suddenly I felt very nauseous. I screwed my eyes tight shut and then opened them again, trying to focus on the door ahead. I grabbed the handle and shoved the key in the lock. It turned and the door opened. No time to lose. I jumped back across to our carriage and yelled for Na-Su.
‘Yeah, boss?’
‘Fall back!’
‘Coming.’
‘Inigo, how long can you hold them for?’
‘I got bad news boss,’ he said to me without looking down. ‘There’s two of them on top just now and they’re using human shields. Must have threatened them at gunpoint to get on the roof.’
‘Are they holding their hostages close?’
‘Yes.’
‘Damn! Just do what you can. When I give you the order to run, follow me onto the engine.’
Another shot from along the corridor and this time I heard Na-Su cry out. I risked a look down the corridor. I could see her limping towards me, a blood slick on her trousers and another bloom on her shoulder. She wore a determined grimace. A fusillade of shots ran out as the attackers realised she’d broken cover. The wood panelling next to me exploded in a shower of fragments. Miraculously, Na-Su made it past me without taking another bullet. She handed me the masher carbine and ducked behind the compartment, almost tripping over the inspector. She withdrew a handful of shells from her bandolier with her uninjured left arm and handed them to me.
‘Get into the engine car.’
‘Yes, boss.’
Na-Su patted Inigo’s leg as she squeezed past the ladder. I finished reloading the carbine.
‘Inigo! Your turn. Move quickly.’ He didn’t have to be told twice. I put the gun to my left shoulder and aimed roughly down the middle of the corridor. There could be no waiting. The men on the roof would be moving quickly now they’d seen Inigo close the hatch. I squeezed off a deterrent shot towards the rear of the train. The noise was deafening at close quarters and the recoil savage. I stood up.
‘I’ll make sure they send another engine back for you,’ I said to the inspector. His face twitched in response. As I stepped around the ladder, I heard the hatch open, so I fired twice in quick succession at the ceiling, hoping that the attackers hadn’t forced one of the hostages to open it. I heard nothing but the hatch dropped shut so I stepped into the void between the carriage and the engine.
I looked at the coupling device above me and knew a moment of worry. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to undo it, yet it looked simple enough. There was a large pin that descended through a sturdy set of metal plates that formed a box-like cup. The carriage I’d come from extended its own metal bar into this assembly. The parallels with the sexual act of coupling ended there because the two parts were held in coitus with a thick pin dropping through from above and this, in turn was prevented from jolting out by a hook through its base. I reached up and withdrew the hook easily enough, but when I tried to push the pin out, nothing happened. I placed the butt of the carbine against it and heaved upwards. Nothing. I began to panic. The pin was trapped by the plates, the force of the engine pulling one way and the mass of the air-train hauling back. It was never intended to be released while the train was in motion.
I saw a shadow above the coupler, span the masher carbine round and fired. There was a grunt, followed by a thud and I thought I heard something roll off the side of the air-train. One more round. Inigo was looking back at me, a worried expression on his face. It changed to alarm as I slotted the muzzle of the gun over the pin. He shouted.
‘Don’t do it! The breech will explode.’
The masher carbine had a big bore. A tight fit would have presented a greater risk of pressure build-up inside the barrel. And I was out of time. Another of our attackers, seeing that Inigo was out of ammunition, peered down at me over the edge of the roof. I pulled the trigger. The noise was like a thunderclap. The gun was wrenched from my grasp, dropping to the landscape below. The only clue as to the trajectory of the coupling pin was the mess above me. The man who’d been looking down on me blinked once from the ruin of his skull. Everything above the forehead had been sheared clean off. The air-train tilted as it went round a bend and he toppled over the edge. Suddenly I noticed the locomotive was pulling clear and leaped, but the gap was already too large.
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