Sky Pirates

Chapter 63

The pages cleared Flynn's body away, as if he were a pig carcass after a feast: two in front, two behind and one underneath. Two more pages easily cleaned up the blood from the floor before turning to Lord Greene.

"We await orders, Lord."

"Gather those who know how to fly the Robin. Bring them to me."

The small men laughed.

Parker Greene looked from one mirth-filled face to another. "What have I missed?"

A Nubian dwarf, with shining black-as-night skin, stepped forward. "sir," he stifled another pleasant laugh. "Everyone of us knows how to fly, rig, and captain our beloved Robin. Granted, most of us," here he indicated to those assembled, "can't climb the rigging. But, we can instruct anyone over four feet exactly what needs to be done. We have been preparing for this day for a very, very, very long time." He smiled bright white teeth and stepped back into formation.

"Excellent. What is your name?" Greene stepped aside as several small men unrolled a grand map of the world on the desk before him.

"I am Samuel."

"Samuel," Greene stepped up and held out his hand. "You shall be my second. You shall get us to," Greene scanned the map. "Here. You shall get us to this spot in England as quickly as possible. We all serve at your honor."

"It shall be my honor to serve you, Lord Greene." Samuel took the offered hand and pumped it joyfully. Before he'd even released it, the man had begun barking orders and the others were on their way.

"We must await..."

"We are here and we must be off. The power will shut down in less than seven minutes." Rifle Helms stood before Greene, covered in a coat of blood.

"What on earth has happened?" Greene stepped back, not toward Rifle.

"They put up a fight. We fought back. Only lost two men. Everyone is onboard. Even Miss Ebony and those men."

"She got them? All of them?" Lord Greene sat down. A page placed a glass of whiskey in his hand and he drank it off. He thought back to those men with flies walking on their faces. Near death. And, Miss Ebony, who had attempted to kill him, saving them. Such a strange turn of events.

"All but one. He bade them leave without him. He was nearly dead." Rifle pointed to the bottle. "May I?"

"Of course."

Before the blood-soaked fighter could reach the decanter, two pages arrived. One poured whiskey, the other began undressing Helms. It only took a few moments. Rifle stood naked while several men and women washed him down, blood draining into a basin he stood in. Others toweled him dry. And, still others, redressed him in perfectly fitted clothes. It was such a wonder to behold, Greene remained dumbfounded throughout the process.

"There, fresh as a daisy," Rifle finally said.

"Close enough." Greene walked to the great windows. The buildings around him were smoke and flames. He glanced over to his home island, it too belched smoke.

Samuel stopped pacing for a long moment. "Sir, we must depart. If we don't launch before the power shuts down, there will be no hope of getting the Robin into the air."

"There should be one more."

"Who?"

"Nate. He left when we arrived here. He said not to leave until he returned." Parker Greene paced before the windows. He checked the time on his watch. "How much longer?"

"Two minutes."

The energy of the great ship could be felt. It was steamed. It was ready.

"Give word to open the doors." Greene wanted an assurance, but there wasn't any.

"Once we begin, the sequence can't be stopped." Samuel stared at Greene.

"Begin." Greene strode out of the captain's quarters and began making his way to the lowest door. Much of the blood had already been cleaned up. The bodies were neatly stacked. They would be delivered to the sea once the Balsa Robin were in the mid-Atlantic. He shuddered at the numbers of dead, but continued moving downward, toward the main hatch. He scrutinized every red-headed dwarf he passed, hoping it would be Nate. None of them were.

Lord Greene passed a cabin where each little person was stopping at and depositing a heap of mail or plans that they'd been carrying on their person. They chose to save that material instead of large amounts of personal items. He admired their loyalty to the Queen.

It felt like the great air ship was pulling at its tethers. It was raring to go, to begin another journey, as if it had a life and will of its own.

Parker Greene arrived at the last hatch. This was the last one that would be closed. A few stragglers were now racing toward the gangway. None of them were Nate.

"We must close it, sir." A small man and woman reached for the ropes. "It will be ripped away if we don't."

"Hold it until the last possible second," he instructed, again eyeing the time on his watch. Merely thirty seconds. Without thought he began counting. "Twenty-nine...twenty-eight...twenty-seven..."

"We must pull it up now," said the woman to the man. "We can't stay aloft for days, let alone weeks, with this hole gaping in the hull. And, if we need to land in the water, we'll see our death."

"Nineteen...eighteen..."

No one else was in sight. They closed up the hatch tight. A few more beats and the ship rose from its birth. It was a rocky, bumpy rise, but they were over water now. Ascending into a blue sky.

Lord Greene considered that if Nate had made the ship at that last moment, that this would now be the perfect ending for the story. Instead, the mastermind of so much of the plan was nowhere to be seen. Greene hoped, for his own sake, that the little man wouldn't be murdered for his actions today.

As the ship pulledaway from the islands, gaining height and distance with each belch of smoke andsteam, everyone near an opening or open deck could see the islands in smoke andflame. While the reassuring hum stopped abruptly.