Airship City

Chapter 30

JOSEPH

Ione put her arms around him and hugged him tightly, and it felt so wonderful. He hugged her back, feeling her hug become even more fierce, and then his lips found hers, and he was kissing her sweet mouth, and great strong feelings were rushing through his body, and then—

“I-I’m sorry, Joseph,” she said, pulling away. “I have a beau. Back home, in New York.” Her head was down, and her eyes were shielded by her hair. 

“I don’t care,” he said, bending his head down towards hers, raising her chin with his finger, and it was true, he didn’t care, he just wanted that wonderful feeling again— 

And then he did care. It was like a fuse, burning slowly through his brain, the idea of her with someone else, some tall blond corn-fed American boy, a quarterback maybe, and suddenly he felt sick with jealousy and he knew he was a complete fool and he pulled away from her, and he turned, and ran.

“Joseph!” she called out after him but he didn’t stop and the tears made everything blurry but still he ran.

After a while the tears stopped, and then he did too. He looked around and saw he was quite close to the hotel. Taking a few moments to compose himself, he walked in and retrieved his key from the front desk. In the hotel room he dropped his jacket on the floor and flopped onto the bed. He curled up into a ball, pulling the counterpane up around him, wishing that the world would just go away and leave him alone. He hugged his misery to himself, trying not to think about Ione and Monmouth and Mickey, and after a while sleep came.

He was woken by a knock on the door. He shook his head groggily, disoriented, his mind a jumble of dark dreams and painful memories. The knocking was insistent, however, so he hoisted himself off the bed with an effort, and crossed the thick pile carpet to open the door.

“Hello, Joseph.” The face of Blake Vanross was looking up at him, but there was no trace of his usual soft smile.

Joseph’s heart dropped, and he started to close the door, but long before he could do so, Vanross kicked it open wide, and strode in, pushing Joseph back into the room with a hand on the chest as he closed the door behind him.

“What are you doing here?”

“Don’t play dumb with me.” Vanross’s eyes were hard. “Give me the package.”

“What package?” Joseph tried as hard as he could to sound innocent. But Vanross narrowed his eyes, and stepped forward again, shoving Joseph hard in the chest again, and making him stagger backwards until he fell onto the bed.

“What part of ‘don’t play dumb’ didn’t you understand? Give me the package right now, and I’ll think about not hurting you too badly.”

Joseph shook his head sullenly. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Vanross grunted in annoyance, and bent down to pick up Joseph’s suitcase, which was empty. He threw it onto the bed, then flung open the wardrobe doors, scooping up all of Joseph’s clothes and turning to dump them onto the bed next to Joseph. He rummaged roughly through them, seizing almost immediately on the packet which Monmouth had given to Joseph two days previously.

“Why did you open this?” he said, brandishing it in Joseph’s face. His voice was low and menacing. “Didn’t Monmouth tell you not to tamper with it?”

Joseph nodded.

“So you never meant to deliver it. I thought as much when you didn’t make the drop last night. I told Monmouth he was a fool to trust you.” Vanross ran a hand through his hair. He pulled one of the metal rods out of the package and looked at it suspiciously. “Have you tampered with these? Do you know what they are?”

Joseph shook his head.

“That’s good, I suppose, because they’re pretty dangerous.” He pulled the chair out from the desk, turned it around, and sat down facing Joseph. “What am I going to do with you?”

Joseph had by now recovered all of his faculties from the grip of sleep, and was thinking the same thing himself. I’m much bigger than Blake. Why should I let him push me around? But almost as if he had read Joseph’s mind, Vanross reached into his jacket pocket and brought out a dainty silver pearl-handled pistol. He levelled it at Joseph.

“I think you’re going to have to come along with me.”

The barrel of the gun seemed to be staring at Joseph, like an unblinking black eye. He fought down the fear. “Where are you going?”

“That’s on a need-to-know basis. And you don’t need to know.” He stood up. “This is the way we’re going to do this. You’ll walk in front of me, and I’ll follow behind you. My hand will be in my jacket pocket, holding the gun, pointing at you. It would be a shame to ruin this suit by shooting a hole through it, but you better believe I’ll do it if you don’t do exactly as I say. Understand?”

Joseph nodded reluctantly. Vanross motioned him to stand up with the gun.

“We’re going to walk out of that door, and you’re going to turn left, and walk to the elevators, and press the down button. When the car arrives, you’re going to get in, and press the button for level one. Not the Deck. Level one. Got it?”

“Yes, I understand. Level one.”

“Good. Let’s get going.” Vanross walked to the door and opened it a crack, peering out. He glanced back at Joseph before opening it a fraction wider and sticking his head out for a quick glance, right and left, before moving back into the room.

“No-one around, which isn’t very surprising at seven in the morning.” He motioned Joseph towards the door. “Get going. Keep walking, not fast, not slow, don’t look back at me. Left to the elevators.”

Joseph walked out and turned left, his heart hammering in his chest. His passage on the thick carpet was soundless but he heard the soft click of the door closing behind him. He suddenly got the mad urge to turn around and check that Vanross was actually behind him, that this wasn’t all some elaborate practical joke, but he fought it off, trying to stay focused on the seriousness of his situation despite the prevailing sense of unreality. He concentrated on walking at a steady pace, and soon enough came to the lobby. He went up to the lift buttons and pressed the down one. A few seconds later a soft ding announced the arrival of the lift car, and he entered, catching a glimpse of Vanross behind him from the corner of his eye. He pressed the button for level one, the doors slid smoothly closed, and the car set off downwards.

He watched the indicator light moving down through the levels, trying to ignore Vanross’s impassive reflection in the shiny inner surfaces of the doors.Desperate fantasies of hitting the emergency stop and spinning around to overpower Vanross flowed through his brain, but they seemed impossibly unlikely. The car slowed to a halt, and the doors slid open.

Vanross stepped forward, placing his left hand over the door edge to keep it open, while pressing the gun against Joseph’s back. “Move forward slowly.” As Joseph complied, Vanross peered around the edge of the doorframe, but there didn’t seem to be anyone about. He relaxed visibly, removing the gun from his jacket pocket and motioning Joseph forward with it. “Over there, to that door.”

Joseph looked for the door, and spotted a door-sized outline in the dark wood wall panelling on the other side of the lobby. As he approached it, Vanross darted forward, removing a key from his pocket, and unlocked the door, which was attached to a section of the wall panel, and opened it inwards. He stood aside and motioned for Joseph to go in.

It was pitch dark inside. When Joseph heard the door close behind him, he felt a moment of panic, but there was a click as Vanross operated a light switch, and a dim bulb in a frosted glass and wire cage illuminated the space in front of him.

They were on a landing at the top of a stairwell, with white-painted walls and and a flight of metal stairs leading down into darkness. Vanross gestured impatiently with the gun.

“Keep going.”

Joseph turned and began to descend the stairs.