Sky Pirates of the Rio Grande - Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Eden stepped out into the hallway, checking both ways to be sure the lone guard wasn't in sight, but everything was quiet. She stepped away from the door and beckoned. "Come on, this way."

Zenobia blinked. "The lift is that way." She pointed down the hall in the opposite direction.

"We're not taking the lift. Follow me." She went to the end of the hall and peeked around the corner, turned back and beckoned. When she rounded the corner, light blazed into her face.

She winced and drew back, flinching from the guard's light. Her hands went up in front of her face and she heard the click of a pistol hammer drawn back.

"I thought I heard something down here," the guard said. Eden couldn't even see him past the light, just a shape. "Who are you? What d'you think you're doing down here at this time of--"

Zenobia came around the corner so fast the wind of her passing stirred Eden's hair. The tiger-woman leaped up and planted one foot on the far wall, then pushed off and rebounded, slammed into the guard and took him down to the floor. He yelled and his light went spinning away, something hit Eden in the chest and she clutched it, realized it was his pistol. She heard the sickening thud as his head hit the hard floor, and then he was quiet.

Eden heard Zenobia growl - a low, frightening sound that rumbled in her bones. Her eyes still dazzled by the light, she couldn't see what was happening. "Don't kill him!" she hissed, irrationally trying to stay quiet.

Zenobia paused. "Why not?"

"Because... well, just don't. Please?"

"Mmm." Zenobia let the unconscious guard drop to the floor. "Fine, then."

Eden blinked away the afterimages of the light. She saw the guard lying twisted on the floor, a pool of blood spreading around his head. "Oh God," she said, starting forward. "Is he all right?"

"I don't care," Zenobia snarled. "Let us be gone from here." She looked at Eden. "You going to do something with that?"

"What?" Eden looked down into the muzzle of the pistol. She was still clutching it with both hands against her chest, the barrel pointed straight up at her face. Feeling dizzy, she pointed it away and carefully let the hammer back down. She thought about keeping it, but she had no place to carry it.

Zenobia held out her hand. "Give it to me," she said, and Eden handed it over. Zenobia hefted it, spun it, and checked it over. "Good," she said. She bent and stripped the gunbelt off the guard, strapped it tight around her waist and holstered the pistol.

"Well," Eden said, trying not to look at the bleeding guard. She stepped around him, picked up his light, and led Zenobia down the hallway. Instead of heading for the Elevator, she led them to a blank wall. Zenobia sniffed as Eden crouched down and brushed at the floor, revealing a corroded ring set flat in the cement.

"Here it is!" With difficulty she pried it up.

"What is it?" Zenobia said.

"A hatch that leads down into the tunnels. Can you pull it up?  It's too heavy for me."

"Mmm." Zenobia bent down and gripped the iron ring. Eden watched as the bigger woman's arm muscles rippled impressively, her shoulders bulging out against the worn fabric of her shift. For a moment she thought nothing would happen, but then there was a cracking sound and the plaster seal gave way. A foot-thick block of concrete three feet on a side came loose from the floor. Zenobia lifted it clear easily and swung it aside, set it down on the floor with a grating thud.

Revealed beneath it was a shaft leading straight down. Eden snapped on the light and shone it into the hole, illuminating a line of rungs leading into the darkness below. Damp, cool air flowed past their faces.

Zenobia sniffed. "Mold, earth, dead men, and... a river?"

"The Potomac," Eden said. "This leads to the escape tunnels that were built here back when the Institute was new.  They'll take us all the way to the river, not far from Long Bridge." She looked down into the dark with distaste. "I didn't think it would be so dirty." She shrugged. "Oh, well. I'll go first."

Zenobia looked dubious. "You sure of that?"

"Yes, I'm the one who knows the way. I have the whole plan in here," she tapped her forehead. "Besides, you'll have to pull the slab back into place or they'll know which way we went."

"Mmm. All right. Go."

Eden got the clip on the light clamped onto her bodice and gathered her skirts up as best she could. This was not ideal attire for crawling around in tunnels, but she didn't own anything more practical. She put a knot in the front of her skirt so it would stay up off her feet and turned, backed down the first few rungs. Her belly lurched as she tried to get her hands down on the rungs without losing her balance. Zenobia grunted and caught her arms, just held her while she lowered herself down.

Once on the ladder, Eden could feel the rust flaking off the rungs wherever she touched them, hoped they would hold. She looked down but couldn't see anything but blackness. They were already more than a hundred feet underground, and she knew the original plans had the shaft descending another sixty feet before it connected to a lateral tunnel.

She hoped the plans had been followed closely. It was common for executed plans to differ slightly from the originals. In her office she had been sure she could make it through, now it seemed more a pressing concern.

Nothing for it now, she was committed. She pictured Gray's smug face and summoned up some of her anger from before. She wasn't going to back out now, not for anything. She started down, testing the rungs as she went.

When she was far enough down Zenobia started after her. Eden heard the grating sound as she dragged the block across the floor, and then the deep thudding sound as it dropped into place, cutting off the light from above.

---

The tunnels were dank and dripping with water, so far below the earth. The walls were cracked with age, mortar split by running water and the bricks pushed down to scatter on the floor. The domed brick roof arched low overhead. Eden ducked because of the roots that trailed down through the cracked bricks here and there, Zenobia ducked out of genuine necessity.

The way was harder than Eden expected. In places the walls had given way entirely, and spills of broken brick and muddy soil partially blocked the passageway. There was no light save the lantern taken from the guard, and beyond the glow of the beam Eden heard rats scuttling away from them. Cockroaches the size of her hand with sickly pallid carapaces crept on the walls, and unnervingly huge spiderwebs sometimes blocked the way, though they thankfully saw no spiders to match them.

The smell was bad, and only became worse as they traveled deeper. More water stood in puddles on the floor, and Eden had to hop carefully to avoid stepping in the brackish pools. Huge, yellow fungi grew on the walls, in places completely obscuring the brickwork.

At last they came to a shaft leading up, and this time Eden motioned Zenobia to go first. "Something might have blocked the way, you'll be better able to move it than me."

Zenobia just grunted and went up the rusty iron rungs with a liquid ease and fearlessness Eden couldn't help but envy. The tiger-woman apparently had no trouble seeing in the darkness, moved with absolute certainty. Eden followed her cautiously, feeling her way with the light turned off. It was already weakening, and she didn't want it to fail with them still far below the earth.

They climbed, the rungs slimy and rotting under their hands. Eden kept her face down so the rust showering on her from Zenobia's passage wouldn't get in her eyes. She climbed by feel until she heard the other woman's voice from above her.

"There's a grate here, just above me."

Eden stopped. "That opens into the sewer line. Can you move it?"

Metal rattled above her. "Easily."

"Do you hear anyone?"

A snort. "Nothing but rats."

"Then do it," Eden said.

A scrape and clang of iron on stone and then quiet again. Eden snapped on the light and shone it upwards, saw the opening there and Zenobia's eyes glowing at her like coins. She climbed up the last dozen feet and squeaked as Zenobia grabbed her by the collar and just hoisted her up out of the hole.

"This way," the tiger-woman said. "I can smell the water." She cocked her head. "And I hear a train."

"Oh blast it," Eden said. "The freight is early. We have to catch it!" She turned and ran up the tunnel, the light swinging crazily with her movements. Zenobia loped after her, and after a few moments they emerged from a sewer mouth on the shoreline a dozen yards above the tidemark.

"There," Eden pointed to their right, where the Long Bridge that led south stretched across the Potomac towards Alexander's Island and then on into Virginia. It was a humid summer night, the sky hazy and the moon only a red half-crescent almost set. She listened. "I don't hear the train."

"I'm sure you don't," Zenobia said. "You will soon, though."

"Let's go, we have to get on the bridge."

"How am I going to ride a train?" Zenobia said.

"It's a freight train, no passengers. Coming through the city at night, it will be moving slow. We just climb aboard and ride it to Norfolk. No one will see us." Eden started picking her way along the shoreline.

"What is in Norfolk?" Zenobia said. "I thought you wanted to go West."

"Travel by train is too slow. Norfolk is where they scrapped the Confederate Air Brigade ships. I know for a fact there are still a few in working order. We'll take one and be on our way." She turned and beckoned impatiently. "Come on."

Zenobia looked up at the sky, breathing free air for the first time in years, and thought about just running away into the night. Then she shrugged and turned to follow her small savior. She had followed worse plans in her time.

---

Heavy stones were heaped up where the bridge left the shore and headed out across the bay. The slope was steep and rugged, and Eden found it hard going. The rocks were almost as big as she was, and clambering over them in her knotted-up skirts was much harder than she expected. On top of that, she was already tiring - she wasn't used to this kind of sustained exertion. Normally, by now she would be fast asleep, and even the excitement of the escape was starting to ebb and leave her tired.

Zenobia bounded up the slope as easily as if she weighed nothing at all. Her movements were graceful and quick as she leaped from rock to rock, crouching like a real tiger before each jump. She was at the top in just moments. When she looked back down all Eden could see was her eyes gleaming with the reflected starlight. She beckoned. "Come on!" Now it was her turn to be impatient.

Eden heard the train now, more felt it, the deep rumble as the engine came clattering down the track. It made a vibration she could feel through the stone under her hands and she struggled to go faster. The rough rock scraped at her hands, barked her shins when she slipped. Her breathing was fast, her chest burned with exertion.

Suddenly Zenobia dropped down beside her and hoisted her unceremoniously with one hand. Eden yelped as the bigger woman tucked her under her arm like an errant puppy and proceeded to spring back up the slope as if the additional weight mattered not at all. In just a few moments they both stood beside the iron framework of the bridge.

"Dios mio, little mouse, don't you ever exercise?" Zenobia seemed both amused and annoyed. "I've seen nuns who move faster."

Eden panted, bent over and rested her aching hands on her thighs. It was warm out, and humid down beside the river. She was sweating like a lathered horse inside her clothes. "We don't all... all have your gifts Miss Santiago," she gasped.

"Mmm. Even before this I could ride a hundred miles, out-drink any man and then fuck six more of them before I did it all over again." She gave Eden a little shove that almost tipped her over. "You are weak from too many books. I think maybe they were right to keep this quest from you."

"To hell with them," Eden panted. "And you too." She clapped a hand over her mouth, looked at Zenobia as if she expected to have her arms wrenched off, but her companion just laughed.

"Now you speak like that and I do believe you might do this. When I was thirteen and men said all I could be was a whore, I did not listen." She laughed again. "It is good that you will not listen."

The sound of the train was louder, and in the fading moonlight Eden saw the pillar of smoke from the locomotive coming closer. The sound was a steady chun-chun-chun and her brain did the calculations for her in a half-second. "Twelve miles per hour," she said absently.

"The devil does that mean?" Zenobia snorted.

"It's a measure of speed, it's scientific," Eden said.

"Fine, but how fast is that?"

"Oh not very. A fast man can go that quickly." Eden looked at her. "You can probably run twice that fast." The sound was getting louder, and Eden had to shout to be heard. "We'll let six or eight cars pass - look for a lumber car, that will be best!"

Zenobia nodded, and then they both stepped back as the engine came roaring past, spewing steam and smoke like a dragon. Eden had only ever been on trains twice in her life, and they still intimidated her - the speed, the sheer weight and power of the engine was overwhelming. They both winced as the whistle blared like a chorus of trumpets and then the locomotive was gone and the train was dragging past, steel wheels clacking over the rails.

Eden counted, unnerved by how fast the train seemed to be going. She knew it wasn't going that fast, but up close it certainly seemed fast. She had a hard time even seeing the grab-irons in the dark. She started to fumble at the light clamped to her belt, suddenly afraid that she would miss the train - how long was it? Eight cars past. Ten.

Zenobia hooked an arm around her waist and jumped for the train. One hand caught the grab-iron and swung them in between the cars so quickly that Eden's stomach lurched and she felt dizzy. She grabbed for support and her hands closed over the ladder that led to the top of the car.

She closed her eyes and fought for balance, then she climbed up the short ladder to the top of the car. A canvas tarp billowed in front of her face and she saw the sawed-off ends of thick logs. A lumber car - excellent.

Ignoring the ladder, Zenobia jumped lightly up to the top and crouched there. She climbed up over the lip of the car and on top of the lashed-together logs covered over with canvas sheets. She shook her head and reached down, gripped Eden's hand and pulled her up.

Eden sat down with a sigh of relief. Up here over the water there was a bit of a cool breeze, and the setting moon reflected in the Potomac was beautiful. To the north she could even see the half-built stump of Washington's Monument against the sky.

"Well, you were right," Zenobia said. "You do need me."

Eden nodded. "Thank you."

Zenobia shrugged. "De nada," she said. "So far, anyway." She looked out over the river. "How long will this take to get us where we are going?"

Eden leaned back against a log. "The train will speed up once it's off the bridge. We should get there just about dawn."

"And then we steal an airship," Zenobia said, settling herself.

"Just so," Eden said, the steady rocking of the train soothing her and making her drowsy. "Then we steal an airship."

Continued in Chapter 5...

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