Chapter 71 - The Kraken Gate
The floor reverberated as the nearby steam engines started up. The noise roused me from my slumber. While I got my bearings, I watched tiny streams of dust, dislodged by the vibrations, trickle down from the vaulted brickwork. My body ached in places I didn’t know I had. I’d slept lying on my side, causing my right arm to go numb, almost matching the uselessness of the other one, and my teeth set to chattering from time-to-time because the temperature in the crypt was decidedly frigid. As the fog of sleep cleared, I became aware that the batteries all around us were humming. Inigo saw me coming to.
‘You look cold, boss.’
‘I’ll be alright once I’ve done some exercises.’ Tied up, I wouldn’t be able to do my usual souficla moves, but I could work some of my muscles against each other and against the bonds. It would warm me up, and undo some of the knots. I began some stretches as Inigo spoke.
‘They’re opening the gate onto the first trig point.’
‘I guessed that. What time is it?’ I asked. I’d lost my pocket watch some time ago, probably on Ganessa. Inigo managed to fish his out of his waistcoat pocket.
‘Eight bells of the evening, ma’am.’
‘Twenty bells, at most, to get out of here. Are they going to bring us food down here?’
‘We got a small meal at midday, boss.’ This was from James, who was practically ruled by his stomach. ‘I expect they’ll be back soon, but don’t expect venison, or deepfish steak with chealberry sauce.’
‘Could we overpower them when they do come?’
‘We already discussed that, boss, and we think it would be a very long shot. If it’s anything like last time, the food will be delivered by three scullery maids with an escort of three marines, all with rifles.’
‘So, Overstrand and his men are working for Harman now!’
‘That’s right,’ said Inigo. ‘Ellen and I met Lieutenant Overstrand while we were on our way to challenge Harman. We tried to persuade him to help us, but he said he had no orders covering a situation of this kind, and insisted we wait until Lieutenant Scott returned from Ganessa.’
‘Except that he didn’t return, and neither did Banks. I suppose the loss of all his superior officers means that he’ll be waiting for new instructions from Emberly, and until that time he’ll probably take orders from Harman, especially if the old man tells him he’s going to end the war.’
‘Chief?’
‘Yes, James.’
‘Maybe Ty will get us out of here.’
I looked doubtful. ‘Maybe, but even if he made it back through the gate, he’s got no idea what this place is like, the layout or anything. He’s never been here before because he travelled to Ganessa from Winslow Hall, remember?How would he find us?’
James swore, and assumed a pensive look. Inigo and Na-Su volunteered a couple of ideas while Mahkran continued his efforts to abrade his bonds. We’d fallen into a silence, and so were startled when keys jangled outside and the door hinged open.
Obermann waddled into the room and surveyed us all coolly, as inscrutable as ever. His revolver hung on a cord around his neck. Behind him came three of Harman’s staff, bearing trays of food which they set down next to Na-Su. The bowls and cutlery were all made of wood, no doubt to prevent us smashing crockery to make sharp edges with which we could cut our bonds. The staff were careful to remain out of reach, leaving as soon as the meagre fare was set down. Then Harman’s butler summoned the man who was standing guard outside and instructed him to come and check that we were still tied securely, which he did. Satisfied, they were both about to leave, but I hailed Obermann and challenged him.
‘Mr. Obermann. Your employer is scheming to kill more than half a million people tomorrow. Are you content running wet-nurse’s errands for a mass murderer?’
‘He is trying to put a stop to the war, Ms. Derringer.’
‘Half a million, Obermann. Isn’t it possible that the cure is worse than the disease?’
The man looked down at me for a moment. ‘I’m no physician or accountant, Ms. Derringer, so I’ll not be doing any reckoning on that score, but the Director says he can drive the enemy from our homeland. Is that not what you want?’ I had no answer for him, so he turned and left, locking us in once more.
‘There has to be a better way,’ I said to no one in particular. There was a better way, but its success was far from certain, and we wouldn’t even get a crack at it unless we could escape.
Na-Su passed the food down the line. It was an awkward process because of the restricted movement allowed us by our shackles, but we managed it without spilling a drop. It wasn’t much; a thin chicken stew and some buttered bread. We were all ravenous, scraping it into our mouths as fast as we could. The food revived me a little, so I quizzed Inigo how we might go about disabling the Koulomb Gate.
‘What, blow it up?’ he asked.
‘Yes,’ I replied. ‘Just a little? You know, so it’s unusable for a while?’
‘What are you thinking, chief?’
‘I haven’t worked out how we escape from here, but I am trying to work out how to stop Harman, or at least delay him for while.’ I had that tight prickling sensation low down in my body that I sometimes get when I’m on the verge of a good idea; then again it might have just been the broth.
‘How would a delay help?’
‘Well, as soon as Chancellor Gordon realises that Lieutenant Scott isn’t sending him reports any more, he’ll either return here himself, or send a task force to find out what’s going on.’
‘And we need to make sure that Harman can’t use the gate until then?’
‘Exactly,’ I said.
Na-Su cleared her throat. ’Why we not just blow up?’
‘That was my first thought, Na-Su,’ I said, nodding. ‘But it would be a ruinous waste of an amazing invention. It could be the most important thing draxilkind has ever invented, and I really don’t want to be remembered for blowing it up twice. Besides, I’m not sure how we could do it without killing everyone working on it.’ Na-Su made a disappointed face, and when she didn’t press further, Inigo continued where he had left off.
‘We could damage a component, perhaps remove several gauges and hide them?’
‘That’s a risky option. What if they have spares?’
While Inigo considered the question it was James who spoke up.
‘When I worked on the docks, there was a time when we had trouble with youths vandalising the cranes.’
‘Children?’ said Mahkran, looking puzzled. ‘Why would children damage cranes?’ My father had told me once that vandalism was almost unknown in Gulreimia. Young men and women were put to work early on civic projects or trained for the military. Exceptions were rare and absenteeism was dealt with harshly, usually by the parents of the offender, for bringing dishonour to the family.
‘Not children,’ James explained. ‘Young men, probably bored, or maybe one or more of them had been turned down for work by the dock owner and wanted revenge. Anyway, it was petty stuff to begin with. Security was beefed up, but the dock owner was stingy, so the company they hired were rubbish, so the lads kept getting past them. So one night, they decided it would be fun to open the relief valves on the main water tank.’
‘How much damage could a bit of water do?’ asked Inigo.
‘Well my friend, the cranes are steam driven, and the fireboxes are always red hot at the end of the shift, so when the cold water hit one of the steam engines, its firebox cracked, and when that happened, the boiler just exploded. You should have seen it! Thick metal plating, peeled open like a ripe gravath fruit.’
‘Would this work on the Koulomb Gate’s engines?’ I asked.
‘I don’t see why not, chief. I’m pretty sure those things run at maximum capacity.’
‘James, you are an Aripole-blessed genius,’ I exclaimed. ‘It just might work. We need to smash the water pipes that feed the engines.’
‘Wait a tick.’ Inigo didn’t like it. ‘Won’t that take ages to repair.’
‘All fairly standard steam engine parts, Inigo,’ I countered. ‘Anyway, stopping Harman is our first priority. So what if it takes a cycle or two to fix the Koulomb Gate?’
Everyone liked the idea, especially after we’d worked out some of the details, with everyone contributing to the plan. James said that the steam engines needed to be at their hottest when we dumped the water onto them, otherwise they they wouldn’t fracture. There was only one problem, we didn’t know where the pipes were buried. We knew that they were filled from a sluice beneath the boat house, and we’d seen the engine room where they discharged the water. Na-Su convinced us that there would be a way into the engine room through the engine’s air intakes, and if we could get in there, we could destroy the pipes where they entered the room.
After the excitement that James’ idea caused, time passed agonisingly slowly in the gloom. Mahkran had finally given up trying to wear out the cords that bound him. The skin on his wrists looked very sore from the effort. Like me, Na-Su was in no shape to exert herself against the bonds, and Inigo probably just knew better. We sat and thought, and waited.
I tried to work out how I could use a toilet break as an opportunity to fight back. We couldn’t sit back and rely on Ty Rendish. I hoped that my pitiful diversion had been enough, but with every passing bell, it was an increasingly forlorn hope. Toilet breaks were only granted when the guard outside was changed, and there were always two extra people during the changeover to make sure no one tried anything. James and Mahkran, returning from their respective toilet breaks, reported that they hadn’t been given the slenderest opportunity.
In spite of the boys’ bad news, I decided that I would have to try something when it was my turn. Sitting here and doing nothing while Harman and Ms. Betz burned down the world was not an option. In my weakened condition, I didn’t hold out much hope, but I would summon the Demons of Pelagria to lend me strength, and to Aballas with the consequences.
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