IRONHEART: The Primal Deception

Chapter 5

"That was only because you was going on and on about proving yourself, is all," Gurney objected. "I was giving you the chance you deserve..."

Jack turned back to the alley's entrance, ignoring the rest of the argument. Black Jim would keep him honest. Or at least too fearful to leave.

But the old man hadn't been lying about the airship. The flying vessels rarely arrived after nightfall, so Jack had assumed the tale only an excuse to sneak away, but a cargo ship was sailing from the clouds, lit up with lanterns and illuminated by the dock's high lighthouses. The quays nearby were all occupied, however, just as he'd said, and it descended further south.

Jack gazed at the airship with a mixture of longing and curiosity. He'd loved to watch the airships as a boy, to see the massive wooden hulls sailing out and away over Victorian's streets. The smokestacks churning out steam from the aft boiler, the zeppelin balloon filling into a long oval above the ship, the lines connected to the hull straining to lift the vessel over the highest towers and into the sky... he had thought he could go anywhere, if he could only board one. He might go out to the wilds of the west beyond Jackson, or even sail up to the Celestial Realm. On occasion, he heard airships were even ordered to sail down to the Abyss to unload new groups of unfortunates, but he could live just fine without ever seeing the Dark Realm.

The gliding fins were spread out on this airship to aid its gradual descent. The horizontal sails, fanned out wide to either side, bulged with the wind they caught, and the balloon above the ship slowly deflated as the steam engine in the rear worked to help regulate the speed of the landing. He watched the ship until it was out of sight behind the warehouse roofs, and then shook himself. It wouldn't do to drift from the present tonight; the risk was too great.

Across the street and down the block, a dim light bloomed as a small lantern was uncovered.

"You're in luck, Gurney," Jack growled, turning back to the others. "Someone needs to tell Harry to bring the wagons around, and you got a shifty look in your eye like you're ready to bolt." He checked his coach and Bull Dog one last time as he addressed the old man. "I guess you get to keep out of the thick of it again."

"You know I would never–"

"Gurney, just go tell him."

"My pleasure." The old man grinned, tipping his hat. He slipped away.

Black Jim shot him a disappointed look, and Jack shrugged. "Best to send him off now, that way he doesn't disappear when we think he's got our backs."

Black Jim sighed heavily, the sound whistling through his broken nose, but he straightened his bowler in readiness. Jack did the same, eyeing Goldilocks, who gripped his club inside his coat. He was suddenly satisfied with his decision not to trust the lad with a gun; Goldilocks was far too eager to prove himself, and the last thing they needed tonight was an overzealous gunshot bringing every copper near the docks down on them.

Jack tucked the short-barreled coach under his coat and swung out to cross the lamplit street. His two companions followed close behind. He moved at a brisk pace, not too hurried and not too leisurely. Just some chaps finishing up late-night business. This being the warehouse district at an exceptionally late hour, they saw almost no one as they wound toward their destination. He kept to the alleys as much as possible and out of the incriminating light of the streetlamps. A few beggars and heroin addicts curled up against the cobblestones as they slipped by, but none spoke or acknowledged their passing, and they reached their destination without incident.

Jack stepped down Wilshire, which seemed to blaze with light after the expedition through the backstreets. He crossed the gutter behind the target warehouse and stopped at the mouth to the back alley, then swept the street behind them with his eyes one last time before sliding into the dark. Jim and Goldilocks crouched in the shadows just beyond the light of the streetlamps to cover the alley entrance.