Chapter 6

Levi knew he was sore before he even moved. He could feel his arms and legs struggling under the thick thermal blanket that rested on top of him, barely even able to keep it from crushing him. With a groan, he urged his arms to move, tossing the blanket from him. The process continued for some time, with short motions and audible grunts, until he at last stood next to the bed. Rubbing his face and looking around, he noticed that Hank was already gone. The clock on the wall read eight o’clock, which was a late morning for as far as Levi was concerned. He usually arose around five or six. He was rather glad he hadn’t done so that morning.

It took him a while to get ready for the day in the surprisingly small bathroom allotted to his room. It took longer, in fact, than he was ready to admit. His thirtieth birthday was coming up soon. He wasn’t that old; not by most accounts, anyway. But getting out of bed wasn’t getting any easier as the years past. After a rather warm shower, however, his muscles relaxed and he put such thoughts out of his mind. Cleaned and dressed, he went downstairs to the inn’s café area.

“Levi,” Quincy exclaimed as he entered the room. “Come, you must taste this cappuccino. Even if it did come from that antique over there on the counter, I’d have to say this is the best stuff I’ve had in quite some time.”

“Don’t do it,” Abigail said, glancing up from a newspaper. “He’s just goading you.”

Levi looked about the room, trying to find they thing he had missed. Hank thankfully filled him in.

“He fiddled with the machine. So now if you think it’s good, he’s a genius or something like that.”

“I don’t fiddle, boy. I increased that things efficiency by at least fifteen percent. That’s not even considerin’ the new hose and filter. The result in a much more satisfying drink, all told.”

“How long did that take you,” Levi asked, puzzled.

“That’s not important, really. What’s important is the fact that this stuff –”

“He’s been down here since seven o’clock.”

Quincy shot Abigail a pretend glare, before shrugging and taking a sip. Levi smiled as sat down at the table with the rest.

“Even if it is a trick, I think I’ll take some all the same, thanks.” Quincy handed him a mug and he took a sip. “French Vanilla. I like.”

“Ha! I told you it was good,” Quincy said rather smugly.

“And we’ll never hear the end of it,” Abigail said, though she had a smile on her face.

“So, my good man. I suppose we won’t be able to catch your Tipper up to North today, hmm?” Quincy took another drink.

“No, there’s little chance of that. It’s currently still lying up at the harbor, most of its cladding burned away.”

“That’s unfortunate.”

“Yes it is. If you’d like, we can put you up here for a few days, free of charge. After yesterday… well, maybe you’d like to take a breather.”

“Actually,” Abigail said, “I’d rather be on my way. I’d like to put the experience of the Walton Harbor behind me.”

“I’d have to agree with the little lady,” Quincy nodded. “Besides, I’d go stir crazy if I was left to my own devices for too long.”

“Fair enough. While I was getting ready earlier, I was thinking. I may know of someone who can get us up to North Mine. Maybe even set out today.”

“Oh?”

“There’s this guy I know. He runs a small delivery service of sorts. Generally, he takes supplies to some of the further flung towns and villages throughout the Reach. He’s got at least one ship that I know can reach all the way to North. Wouldn’t be as fancy as the Tipper, though.”

“I think we could manage. It sounds like a plan to me. Abigail?”

‘“Yes, of course. Whatever you think is best.”

“Not that it matters, but I think it’s a swell idea, too,” Hank said.

“Alright. Then until further notice, that’s the plan.”

They continued to sit there for a time, drinking and making idle chatter, none of them really feeling like rushing out to face the day. Abigail would cut in on occasion to read something from the paper, generally concerning the explosions of the day before. It had a way of dampening the spirits of the room slightly, though it was also a strange item of solidarity because of it. He couldn’t quite put his finger on why, but they all seemed more comfortable with one another. It was simply in the way they spoke, or they way they held themselves. Some of the professional pretense was gone. Levi noticed that even he wasn’t always using his official business voice.

As the sun continued to grow higher in the sky, Levi decided that he better do the same. Standing, he sat his mug on the table and told the others he would go see about the ship. Before he was able to leave the inn, however, he was stopped at the door by a hurrying servant.

“Mr. Wyman, sir. A message came through for you on the wire.”

“Thank you,” he said, taking it.

He unfolded the paper and looked at the quaint, tiny handwriting scrawled upon the page. After a moment, he was able to decipher the message. It was from Fred Rutton back in Meadowshire. He had obviously heard of the previous day’s happenings and seemed, by all accounts, to be in something of a tizzy. Folding up the message and placing it in his pocket, he looked back to the servant, who hadn’t moved.

“Is there anywhere I could use a telephone?”

“Of course, sir. Feel free to use ours. Right this way.” The little man led him over to a side room off from the front desk. “The phone is right in there. Take all the time you need. Please let me know if you need anything else.”

“Thank you,” Levi said once more. The phone is question was of a rather old model, all told, but he got it working. After speaking through a few operators, he was finally put through to the Hannan Securities office in Meadowshire.

“Levi? Levi, is that you,” a rattled voiced asked through the receiver.

“Yeah, Fred, it’s me.”

“Good grief, are you alright? Were you involved in what happened yesterday?”

“Thanks for the concern. Yeah, we’re all fine. And we witnessed the event, but we weren’t caught in it. We mainly helped with cleanup yesterday.”

“Well thank goodness for that, then. So will you be back in this afternoon, then?”

“What? I still have two people that need to get north.”

“You can’t be serious. You’re going to go flying around the day after the largest pirate attack in the history of Franklin Reach?”

“The thought had crossed my mind, yeah.”

“You’re suicidal, that’s all there is to it. I knew this would be a bad trip from the beginning. There are hordes of people coming through the office, demanding we increase security here, post guards there, call out the militia or something. There’s a real fear that these guys could strike again.”

“That’s probably why they did it, if I had to bet.”

“Well yeah, obviously. It seemed to work. And I’m not even supposed to be working this job. I’m just the Assistant Chief, for goodness sake. I carry the heavy binders, I get the coffee. I’m not supposed to be making decisions like this.” His voice was growing increasingly quick as he talked.

“Fred?”

“Yeah?”

“Just calm down. It’s fine. You know as well as I that you can’t do anything for those people, anyway. There are protocols that have been written and all you have to do is follow them if the main office tells you to. Alright? Just ask Alice about it, she knows where they are.”

“Right,” Fred said. Levi could hear the man take a few deep breaths. “Well, anyway, I think you’ll be coming back regardless. Word is Hannan’s going to lock its operations down for a few days and all ‘officers’ are going to have to report for duty.”

“That would be a difficult message for me to get when I’m in the air, I think.”

“How are you even going to go? From the sound of it, most of the airships are toast. Are you going to ride the train as far it’ll go then walk?”

“I was actually thinking about asking Simon for a ride.”

There was a pause.

“Your friend Simon from the Navy?”

“Yeah.”

“Uh-huh. And you recall that he’s a hired thug, right?”

“He also runs his own cargo service.”

“Is that what you told them?”

“Well it’s true.”

“Maybe. But you’re going to get a mercenary crew to take your two to the North Mine. Am I hearing this correctly?”

“I really don’t see what the problem is.”

“Well I don’t know, let’s see…you’re going to put an old man, a young woman, and a teenager on a boat full of blood-thirsty guns-for-hire.”

“You have no real concept of what it is Simon does, do you?”

“Well… he’s a mercenary. What’s more to know.”

“He runs security details, just like we do. He just caters to a different market. I’d think you’d really be surprised if you met him.”

“Yeah, that would be great. I can hardly wait.”

“Ah, there’s the Fred I remember. Glad to see a little catastrophe hasn’t dampened your sarcasm.”

“Funny. So you’re really going with him, then?”

“Look at it this way: who is currently best equipped to deal with anything should a pirate ship cross our path?”

There was another pause.

“That’s right. Besides, I wouldn’t worry about guns-for-hire as long as I was the one doing the hiring.”

“I assume Hannan will be paying for this, then?”

“Umm, yeah. I can’t afford Simon any other way.”

“Alice will have your neck.”

“She’s always upset. She’ll live.”

“Alright, alright. You don’t need my permission but you have it. Just be careful up there, alright? I don’t know if I could handle taking your job over fulltime. It’s getting the best of me and you’ve only been gone a day.”

“Just follow the standard procedures and you’ll do great. I’ll be back before you know it. Talk to you later, Fred.”

“Aye. Goodbye, Levi.”

Levi squeezed the bridge of his nose as he hung up the phone. He really hadn’t expected anything to befall poor Fred while he was gone. He felt bad about that. Fred was a good guy, but sometimes the pressure got to him. Levi had always attributed that to the fact that Fred hadn’t fought during the war. It changed how a man faced pressure. Up until yesterday, he had thought that he generally handled it fairly well. Now he wasn’t so sure.

As he exited the little room, he thanked the servant once more for the use of the phone then headed out the door, sliding his hat on as he went. There was a little chill to the air but otherwise it was an absolutely beautiful day. That was something that Levi liked about the Reach. Ninety percent of the time, the sky was blue, large fluffy clouds floated through the air, and the sun shined down. The temperature changed with the seasons, just as they did back on Key, but it never grew unbearably cold or warm. Now the other ten percent, the massive storm systems that moved in off the giant plains, weren’t so great. But one learned to weather such things.

Levi hopped onto one of the trolleys as it rattled down the middle of the street. It was full of people who were, for lack of a better word, resolute. While the attack may have spurred panic down south in Meadowshire, the people of Walton Harbor took it in stride. They were a factory town, where the large majority of the inhabitants worked in the refineries. They were used to grueling work and tragedy. They were going to soldier through this, much like the soldiered through everything. But he could see a glint of anger in some eyes. He wasn’t sure if that was good or bad.

The trolley, just as it happened, passed the harbor on its way to its ultimate destination. Levi was one of only a few who actually looked as they went by. It looked much like it had when he had left the night before. Some machinery had been brought in to move some of the larger pieces of debris and the area now seemed closed to the public. But the pile of concrete that was the command center still sat there, mainly undisturbed. It was the airship husks that really caught the eye, though. Like some perverse elephant graveyard, the metal framing for balloons and decks lofted into the air at impossibly angles. Wreckage lay scattered about, of course, but each fallen ship seemed to be an island unto itself. There was no way to describe or explain it, but Levi thought that they seemed to look sad.

He was left to his musings for a time as the trolley shook its way through Walton Harbor. People got on and off regularly, but there was little chatter. Everyone seemed intent on going about their business. Finally, Levi arrived in front of a somewhat nondescript, rusty hangar with a sign that said, “Spriggs’ Delivery” hanging above the door. Jumping down from the still-moving trolley, Levi straightened his coat and hat and went in through the front.

A moderately tall man with shoulder-length blond hair pulled back in a ponytail and the beginnings of a beard upon his face sat at a desk, flipping through a magazine.

“Excuse me, but I need something delivered and I hear this is the place to do it.”

The man looked up and, after a momentary pause, jumped to his feet, a huge smile upon his face. He came around the desk and grabbed Levi’s shoulders.

“Levi!”

“Simon.”

“You old devil, I didn’t know you were to be in Walton today. Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Well, I wasn’t originally supposed to be in town all that long.”

“Ah, I see,” Simon said. “Bloody Devilfish messed everything up, eh?”

“Aye.”

“You didn’t get caught up in any of that mess, did you?”

“No, not really. It just delayed my trip, that’s all.”

“Ah. So where are you headed nowadays, anyway? Busy man like you and all.”

“I’m going up to the North Mine, actually.”

“North? You don’t say. Gonna be hard to get someone to take you all the way up there now that the pirates seem a little more daring than usual.”

“And that’s kind of why I’m here.”

“Wha’? You didn’t just stop by to see your old friend Spriggs? I’m hurt.”

“Yeah, yeah. There you are, you look fine, how’s the family? I’m glad we had this moment. Now I really need to get headed toward North as soon as possible.”

“What’s the rush?”

“I’m escorting two new Hannan employees up there.”

“More grease for the gears, eh? And look at them, getting an escort by you, of all people. I thought you were some sort of grand master down there. What are you doing taking these folk personally?”

“Just getting out of the office for a while. I’m sure you can understand that.”

“That’s true. I hardly get out much,” Simon said, smiling. “So you’re wanting to leave today, I’m guessing? And you’re wanting to go all the way to North. Sorry, friend, but all the ships are booked up solid for a month. I can waitlist you, though.”

“Come on, you can’t be serious. All of your ships are in the air?”

“Why is that so hard to believe? I only have four, to start, and I’m a popular man around these parts.”

Levi simply stared at him. Balking, Simon returned himself to his seat at the desk. Glancing over some paperwork lying scattered about, he seemed hard at thought. Then he looked up again.

“It’s not going to be cheap.”

“Hannan has lots of money.”

That brought a smile from Simon’s face.

“Hannan’s paying, that’s right. I’ve always enjoyed taking your company’s money. There’s something poetic about, don’t you think?”

“Will you take us or not?”

“Here’s the thing. I had a job lined up to run some supplies out to that science research facility thing out by the Baby Bush and I was going to take my baby, the Iron Dove, along for the ride. I suppose, however, if the cash flow were redirected properly, I can have another ship take the supplies out. And we were geared to set out tomorrow. Sorry, old sport, but I just can’t have her ready any sooner than that. You don’t just hop into the steering room and take off on a trip like this.”

“Yes, I’m well aware. And there’s no way you could leave later today?”

“Sorry, mate. It’ll be a stretch just hitting tomorrow morning now that we have to unload all that cargo.”

“That’ll have to do, then. Nothing will be leaving the harbor sooner than that, anyway. Besides, I’d like to see the Iron Dove again. It’s been a while.”

“Yes it has.”

“Alright, then. You launching from here?” Simon nodded. “Okay. If you can have her ready by the morning, we’ll be here and ready to ride.”

“Sounds like a plan. Should be fun. Just like old times, yeah?”

“No. Not like those.” Simon nodded again.

“Aye.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow, Simon.”

“Right, then. Tomorrow.”

Levi took his time going back to the Hollow Oak, as he suddenly had the afternoon off. As he wandered through the streets of Walton Harbor, memories flickered through his mind. Some were old memories of his childhood on Key. Others concerned the time he had spent with Simon. Most, however, were very new. Like the image of three men gunned down right in front of him before he could blink. Or the deformed shape of the boy’s leg, lying in that temporary hospital. Or even more recently, the way Abigail had smiled when she wished him goodnight.

Eventually, however, he finally found his way back to the inn. The three other members of his little party were still lingering around, not really knowing what to do with themselves. He informed them that Simon would be able to take them out first thing in the morning, which had elicited a groan from Hank, but that was all. They accepted his word and then returned to whatever it was they had previously been doing. It was simply a waiting game, now, and one that Levi didn’t mind playing, for once.

He got himself another cup of Quincy’s cappuccino, sat down with his two guests, and talked idly about nothing until the sun finally went down once more.