Airship City

Chapter 35

JOSEPH

“Joseph Samson, that is a lie! My father has never killed anyone! How could you say such a thing?”

Joseph looked up in astonishment as Ione came charging around the curve of the corridor, face red with fury, brandishing some sort of metal rod. But when she saw him, she pulled up short, confusion and concern replacing the anger on her face as she took in the scene. “What is going on here?”

“Well, if it isn’t the brave Miss Hughes. Come to rescue your boyfriend?”

Ione narrowed her eyes at that, and seemed about to reply. But Vanross continued, turning to face Joseph. “She’s right, you know.” There was sardonic amusement in his voice. “Howard Hughes had nothing to do with the death of your father.”

“But Monmouth said—“ Joseph stopped himself as he remembered Vanross’s words from earlier. Everything Monmouth told me was a lie. Vanross looked at him knowingly.

“Yes, by golly, I do believe he’s starting to learn. Very good, Joseph.” He clapped his hands mockingly. Then he turned to Ione. “Anyway, Miss Hughes, you are most welcome to join Joseph. I’ll find you another chair, don’t you worry.” He pulled the gun from his pocket, and took a step towards her.

Ione turned to face him, almost casually, but as she did so her movement flowed into something that was obviously well-practiced, and she ended up in a narrow stance facing Vanross, her rod held lightly but steadily, pointed at his chest.

“I’m going to have to ask you to put that thing down,” said Vanross, but almost before he had finished speaking, she darted forward in stance, the rod a blur as she brought it down onto the gun hand. There was a dull thump as it impacted with flesh, and then the gun clattered to the floor. Vanross jumped back with an exclamation of pain, wringing his hand. Ione stepped forward coolly and picked up the gun.

“You better give that to me, little girl, before you hurt yourself with it.” Vanross’s voice was full of bravado, but Ione was having none of it.

“Get back,” she said, waving the gun in his general direction. “I need to speak to Joseph about something.”

She turned to face him, eyes blazing, and he felt himself curling up under the heat of her gaze like a leaf in a bonfire. But her words, when they came, were icy.

“Why were you trying to help him?” She cast a contemptuous glance at Vanross. “Why did you say that you hated my father?”

“Ione, listen to me. He’s trying to blow up Aeropolis!” This produced a look of shock from her, and so he pressed on. “I was trying to stop him! I just said that I hated your father because I was trying to get him to trust me, so that he would untie me! I was pretending to go along with him so that I could turn on him later, and stop what he’s doing. He’s a monster. Ione, you’ve got to believe me!”

She frowned. “I want to, Joseph, I really do. But I need to be absolutely sure that you have nothing to do with this.”

“I don’t. Please believe me, I don’t! I’m only trying to help.”

Vanross cleared his throat. “Is that so, Joseph? Perhaps you can explain to Miss Hughes how it was that you brought these on board, then.” He held up the package of detonators.

“What are those things?”

“Care to explain, Joseph?” Vanross paused meaningfully, a gloating smile on his face. “Thought not. Guess I’ll have to do it then. These little old boys, Miss Hughes, are detonators. When you push them through the skin of an airship, they produce a timed explosion, which ignites the lifting gas.”

Ione’s face went white. “You meant to use those in the lifting cells.” Vanross nodded. She turned to Joseph. “Is this true, what he’s saying? That you brought them on board?”

Joseph stared at her, speechless. But his lack of reply was condemnation enough. She shook her head slowly, tears filling her eyes.

“How could you? How could you do this to me? To us?”

“That ain’t the half of it, sweetheart. He’s being playing you for a fool since day one. Don’t know how Monmouth found him, but he sure can pick them.”

“You’re working for Robert Monmouth?” She put her hand over her mouth. “Daddy was right all along! The ZA do want to destroy Aeropolis.”

Joseph stared at her, his mind racing through denials and reassurances, but they sounded so false and trite to his own ear that his voice was stilled, and he felt helpless. All he could do was stare into her eyes, shaking his head slowly.

He became aware that Vanross had taken advantage of Ione’s distress to move silently up behind her. His warning cry died on his lips as Vanross pounced, wrapping his arms around Ione from behind, trapping her gun arm against her side with a whoop of triumph.

“You bet we wanna destroy Aeropolis, little lady, and we’re gonna do it too!” Vanross reached down with his right hand and grasped the silver pistol, wrenching it free from Ione’s grasp, and then he stepped back, grinning in triumph. Ione regarded him with dull eyes. Something inside her seemed to have broken. He steered her to another metal chair, sat her down, and bound her wrists behind her back. She offered no resistance.

Seeing this made Joseph even more determined to escape, and he struggled against his own bonds. He pulled and strained, flexing his arms and tightening his shoulder muscles, but the knots were tight, without the slightest give. After a few minutes he slumped back in his chair, defeated both physically and mentally.

Vanross was busily at work with the detonators. He unscrewed the cap on each one, then carefully turned the knurled knob on the base, squinting to line up the indicator lines. Once he had all of them done, he started to insert them into the fabric of the cell envelope. Two went into the fabric wall directly in front of Joseph and Ione, widely spaced, two more went into the wall beyond the girder to the left, and Monmouth took the final two off to the right, returning after a few moments empty-handed, and whistling a cheerful tune.

Joseph regarded him sullenly. He desperately wanted to say something to show that Vanross hadn’t beaten him entirely.

“Why are you using two in each cell? Are they that unreliable?”

Vanross glanced at him, a mocking smile on his lips. “They’ve been pretty reliable till now.”

Joseph frowned. “You’ve used them before?”

Vanross nodded. His smile widened into a malicious grin. “Oh yes. We used them on your father’s airship.”

An explosion of rage drove Joseph to his feet, the folding metal chair dangling behind him. He charged at Vanross, screaming and bellowing, scarcely aware of what he was saying, wanting only to strike out and cause pain and suffering. Vanross watched him coolly, neatly sidestepping his charge, and clubbed him on the temple with the pistol again. Joseph went down heavily, unable to catch his fall with his bound hands, and a sharp pain in his shoulder vied with the unfolding flower of agony in his head, and then there was nothing.