Drowning Utopia

Chapter 27: Escape

It was not hard to find the hole that Gray had been talking about. The breach was massive. The wreckage of one of the airships, the Righteous Accord, was still freshly burning some distance off in the stagnant swamp water flooding the streets. From their vantage point, Tessa could see the boats that Gray had spoken of—three in all—tied up along the length of a steel suspension beam that had fallen.

The boats in question were small picket steamers, ferry boats for harbor duty with enough space to sit at least eight comfortably and twelve in a pinch. There frames were at a length of sixteen to eighteen feet. If Tessa had to guess from their vantage point, the wooden frames were heavily modified with mounted turrets at their stern and aft. The most blatant modification was to the steam engine; the standard modal being swapped out for a vertical high-pressure boiler coupled to a pair of miniature paddlewheels for locomotion slapped on to their sides, giving them an almost sea monster like appearance.

On the suspension beam where the boats were docked were three Boomers, their stances suggesting that they were off guard duty. Two of them had their weapons slung over their shoulders, and the third had his loosely clasped in his arms. Clearly, they felt they were in no imminent danger.

Crouching beside a large, dislodged pipe, Donny asked the two women, "So what do you think? Want to go at them from here or scale down and take them up close and personal?"

"We don't have the tools to take all three of them from up here without causing a scene."

Donny disagreed, "We have these." He held up his gun.

Tessa thought about how she had to kill the masked woman earlier. She did not want to spill any more blood if she did not have to. "I would think that shooting them would be our last resort."

"Besides," Lonny said, patting her brother on the shoulder, "you have never been the best shot."

"Then what should we do? It's not like we can waltz right up to them."

"No, but maybe we can get them to come to us," Tessa thought aloud, "Maybe a scene is exactly what we need, a bait and lure perhaps."

"Here? Now? I don't know." Donny looked uncertain. "They're not coppers. They won't be as predictable."

But Tessa shook her head. "I heard their orders. They're supposed to take any survivors alive if they don't resist."

"Are you volunteering to be the lure?" Lonny looked back at Tessa. "Because last time I did it, I got a shiner that lasted for a week."

"Oh, but, Lonny, you're so good at it," Donny said with a smile. "Plus, guys are always suckers for girls with big—"

Lonny elbowed her brother in the ribs cutting his sentence short.

Tessa choked down a snicker as she hissed, "Fine! I'll do it. But you better be ready when they come." Peering over the side of the hole, she worked out in her head how she would climb down. "Give me the grappling gun."

Using one of the spools of wire from the device, Tessa secured it to a sound anchor before utilizing her invention's internal pulley system to quietly lower herself until she dropped down to the same level as the Boomers. There she looked up to ensure the other two were ready before calling out, "Help! Help! Oh, please help!"

The three Boomers jumped at the sudden broken silence as they turned toward the source of the noise.

One of them called out, "Don't move!"

Another raised his gun to the ready, shouting, "Hands in the air!"

Tessa did as she was told, and she began to cry. "Please come quick! My sister, she is trapped in there! Oh, please, you must help her before she is crushed!"