Airship City

Chapter 33

JOSEPH

He opened his eyes. Spots swam in his vision, and he shook his head to clear them. This turned out to be a mistake. Pain exploded behind his eyes, and he gasped, closing them. When the pain had receded to a dull ache, he tried opening them again. The spots were still there. They were dark against a grey background, and as he watched, another one appeared, and then another. He suddenly realised they were drops of blood. His blood. His head was hanging down, his chin against his chest, and he could feel the blood running down his right temple, and see it dropping onto the floor.

He was sitting in a steel chair, with his hands tied behind his back. His body was slumped forward, and the rope was biting painfully into his wrists. He leaned back to relieve the strain.

“Ah, Sleeping Beauty awakes.” It was Vanross’s voice, but Joseph couldn’t see him. There was a curved wall in front of him that seemed to be covered in some type of silver-painted fabric, and to the left he could see a curved metal girder running from floor to ceiling.

Footsteps. Vanross appeared in his field of view, staring at him balefully.

“That wasn’t a very smart thing to do, now was it? You could have come along with me quietly, and witnessed my greatest triumph in relative freedom and comfort. But instead you had to try to be a hero. So now you’re immobilised, and in pain. And you’re going to be closer to the action than you want to be.”

Joseph shook his head, slowly and carefully. “What are you talking about?” His voice was a croak.

“I’m talking about these.” Vanross produced the package with a flourish, and extracted one of the metal tubes. “Beautiful piece of work, isn’t it?” He held it up as though it were an object of fine art, turning it this way and that. “Monmouth gets one of his mad German engineers to make them.”

“What is it?”

Vanross unscrewed the cap, revealing the wicked spike. “Well, it’s pretty simple. This spike is made to penetrate the envelope of an airship, and these barbs then prevent it from falling out again. You set the timer delay by turning this knob here, and then the timer counts down.”

“Until what?”

“Until detonation, of course! This will make a small but hot explosion, which in turn will detonate the lifting gas. Boom! Bye-bye airship.” He bared his teeth in a feral smile.

Joseph frowned. “What airship? H-1?”

“Nope, not H-1. Something much, much bigger.”

“I don’t know what you are talking about.” Joseph found it hard to concentrate on what Vanross was saying.

Vanross turned to the fabric-covered wall. “Aeropolis is nothing but a giant airship, isn’t she? Now that over there is the envelope of one of her lifting cells!”

Joseph wished he could rub his aching head. “So you’re going to try to blow up Aeropolis?”

“Oh, yes.” Vanross stared at the detonator in his hand with a strange expression on his face. “Indeed I am.” His voice had dropped to a whisper. “Yes, sirree. Gonna blow it sky-high.”

A cold fear settled in Joseph’s stomach as he stared at Vanross. The man sounded deranged. But something nagged at him, something that didn’t make sense. He tried to concentrate on it, but his head hurt distractingly, and the thought was elusive. He closed his eyes, and concentrated.

Then it burst into his mind.

“That’s not going to work. Aeropolis is filled with helium, not hydrogen. Helium doesn’t burn or explode.” Relief flooded through him. Vanross obviously was deranged, if he had forgotten that elementary fact.

But Vanross simply smiled knowingly. “What makes you think that Aeropolis is filled with helium?”

Joseph frowned. “Well, Monmouth told me—“ He stopped as a sick realisation hit him.

Vanross smiled gloatingly. “Yes, Monmouth told you. But, like a lot of things he said to you, it was a lie. Aeropolis is filled with hydrogen, and she’ll go up like a Roman candle.” He laughed, and the sound was dreadful, maniacal.

Joseph stared at him, as the worst fear he had ever known settled on him like a black cloud, snuffing out all hope and life. I’m going to die, and so is everyone else on Aeropolis.