Drowning Utopia

Chapter 24: The Bayou Boomers

Tessa and the other captured were pushed through the dark halls of the Grand Spire, the sounds of fighting could be heard as pockets of resistance tried to hold out. Guns and small cannons punctuated the screams and war cries. Tessa thought she could feel the vibration of the steam-powered attack boats closing in on the area. Eventually, they were separated into smaller groups and deposited into a series of rooms. Tessa found herself along with several others tossed into one of the staterooms, the furnishings and tables all had been shoved to one side, a fire had been started in the marble hearth in one end of the hall.

Several lamps were the primary source of light aside from the fireplace. Many other guests were already in the room in varied conditions. Most appeared fine with superficial injuries, but others looked as though they were in serious need of medical assistance. As the Boomers organized them all into manageable groups, Tessa noticed that several of the armed assailants were wearing servant uniforms. She realized that some of the servants and workers under Higgins must have been in league with the Boomers, and sympathetic to their cause. Jeremy's warning suddenly made far more sense. He wasn't warning her about Meriwether but rather the attack. She considered just how bad things had to be for them to go to such lengths as to align themselves with these radicals.

Tessa was forced to sit down with another clump of prisoners under armed guard. Next to her, Diana clung to Meriwether's side like a frightened schoolgirl.

One of the armed servants, a larger fellow with a half-skull mask, chomped on a cigar clenched between his teeth. He looked at Gray with a tilt of his round head, before pinching his smoke between two fingers and raising his gun.

"Well, lookie here, boys. We have ourselves a V.I.P." He gave a wicked smile, "Mr. Meriwether, it is a pleasure to have you with us. If you would." He motioned for the inventor to step forward.

"Don't worry," Gray tried to reassure Diana under his breath before standing.

The cigar man snapped with a gruff voice, "No, on your knees."

Another one of the masked renegades grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and shoved Gray over, pressing a muddied boot to the back of his head. "That's right! Who's the dog now?"

The one with the cigar discouraged, "Come on, Carp, simmer down now. No need for that just yet."

"Ah, come on, Chief! I know we are supposed to take 'im alive, but you know that he deserves it!"

Sticking the pungent-smelling thing back into his mouth, the large man called Chief chewed on the cigar's end with a thoughtful glance at the other Boomers. "I know that the big man wanted this one alive, but he didn't say what condition he should be in." He looked back down at Meriwether with a wicked smile. "So, what should we do?"

"I say screw the Kigezan! We should kill him now!" a third Boomer said with a shrill voice, clearly wanting to do so herself.

"Kill him now?" The first called Carp sounded surprised. "But why kill him when we can just torture the bastard. That way the Kigezan don't kill us instead."

The man with the cigar laughed heartily. "True that, but I wouldn't mind taking my chances killing him, neither. Why don't we be democratic about this? All in favor of breaking his limbs?"

"I say we put a shell between his goddamn eyes!" the woman snapped stepping forward and pumping a round into her shotgun.

"No!" Diana cried, tears streaming down her cheeks as she begged, "Stop! Please! Why are you doing this?"

"Why indeed?" Chief smiled. "Tell them Mr. Meriweather. Tell them about the Twentieth of December. Might as well come clean, seeing as it's your funeral."