Airship City

Chapter 16

When she got to the promenade, she found that she was too distracted to look at clothes, and so she returned to the suite she shared with her father on the level below his office. She decided to try to contact her friends in America. I really need to talk to someone about everything that’s been happening lately.

The radio set gleamed on the desk in her room. She turned it on, watching the valves begin to glow softly as she donned the headset. When the valves were all warmed up she slowly rotated the tuning dial towards the frequency that she and her friends normally used. The cleaner must have knocked the dial when she was dusting. Or maybe her father had been playing with the set in her absence? He was always saying how such an expensive set was wasted on girly chit-chat. She tutted in annoyance, scrolling through the snatched, distorted conversations and bursts of morse code as she traversed the airwaves.

When the band used by Aeropolis Control came up, she was momentarily distracted by the chatter of ships arriving and leaving, seeking and being granted permission to do this and that. A bit of banter between Aeropolis Control and a pilot caught her attention:

“… Not back to bother us already, are you? Thought you were off to Africa, over?”

“Couldn’t stay away from your dulcet tones. Besides, who else would bring His Royal Highness for his monthly turn at the tables, over?”

“Tough job, but I suppose someone has to do it! Mike Victor Niner Fife, maintain current heading and speed, and report when in sight of Pad 6, over.”

“Roger that Control.”

Ione normally found the gossip of the aircrews amusing, they were like a bunch of old washerwomen. She’d heard someone describe flying as endless stretches of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror, so perhaps it wasn’t surprising that the pilots took every opportunity to be sociable. But today she didn’t feel like being amused.

She scrolled the dial onwards, through bursts of static and snatches of morse code, into a clearer band. Suddenly the silence was broken by a very loud code transmission. Wincing, Ione quickly turned down the volume. 

The strength of the transmission meant that it probably originated on Aeropolis, which was odd, since she seldom heard morse transmitted from Aeropolis itself. Perhaps she had stumbled across a navigation beacon ident. She picked up a pencil and began to transcribe the transmission

Dash dot, dash dot dot, dot… the coded beeps, some long, some short, sounded in her headphones, and she translated them automatically into letters, and wrote them down. Her father had gotten one of his own radio operators to teach her morse, insisting that voice alone was not sufficient, and the hours of practice paid off now as her pencil moved fluidly over the pad.

The transmission was the same two phrases, repeated over and over again, with a pause in between for a reply. She had started in the middle of the sequence, but when it repeated, she wrote it down once complete, and on the third repetition, she checked her work, letter by letter.

Storm Tendency, this is Black Rose. Do you read me, over?

She stared at the words, perplexed. What strange names! She was about to scroll onwards with the frequency dial, when she heard a reply, much fainter. She transcribed it onto her pad.

Black Rose, this is Storm Tendency. Reading you loud and clear. Make your report, over.

A thrill of excitement ran up Ione’s spine as she read the words on her pad. It was clear she was listening in on something that was meant to be private, which must be why they were using funny names. She held her breath, waiting for Black Rose’s reply.

Attempt failed. Target unharmed. Await further instructions, over.

As she read the message back, the excitement was overtaken by a hollow feeling of fear in her stomach. Whatever these people were up to, it sounded unpleasant, even dangerous. What sort of harm do they mean?

But she didn’t have much time to mull it over, as the reply from Storm Tendency came back, fainter, and she had to concentrate to get it down.

Understood. Backup plan already in motion. Stand by for physical message contact. Check usual drop in three days’ time. Confirm, over.

Black Rose’s confirmation followed almost instantly, loud and clear.

Will check usual drop three days time. Over and out.

There was silence after that. Ione turned off the set with a shaking hand. First the news of her father’s ship coming under deliberate attack, and now sinister messages about harming targets were being broadcast directly from Aeropolis. She couldn’t but think that the two were somehow connected.

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