The artery carriage arrived in the Persian city of Isfahon at noon. It stopped at a station in the city’s commercial district for a half hour layover. Passengers disembarked and new passengers boarded.
Emma stepped off the carriage, strolling through the entry/exit tube connecting the carriage to the boarding platform. She told the conductor that she wanted to stretch her legs, although she needn’t have explained herself. In spite of the carriage’s comforts, those passengers who faced hours of travel after having put hours behind them reveled in the opportunity to be free of its confinement if only for a few minutes. Still, it didn’t hurt to allay possible suspicions with an innocuous comment here and there.
Looming spires and majestic minarets greeted Emma when she emerged from the tube. Isfahon’s skyline stretched like a geometric cutout across the horizon. Airships of all sizes soared above and between the towers. The platform overlooked a wide avenue teeming with people attired in a mix of fashion, from Western top hats and spectacles to traditional sarbands and Buluchi dresses.
Emma soaked in the scenery for the benefit of whoever may have been observing her. Although not all of the attention with which she graced her surroundings was an affectation. She genuinely admired Isfahon’s exotic beauty. Locals seemed to be taken by Emma as well, African faces being a novel sight in Persia.
Emma moved on, exchanging courteous nods and greetings with passersby. She entered the trans-artery office, approached the ticket window and requested the use of a telegraph. The clerk graciously directed her to an adjacent dispatch room where a telegraph operator relayed the message she verbalized.
To: Mary Thianne, Mandinka Republic, Freetown, Sierre Leone Province. From: Clarice Thianne: Hello, Mother. We just arrived in Isfahon, Persia. Will be leaving shortly. Percival and I are so enjoying this trip. China was fantastic. I have souvenirs that I’m sure you will like. See you soon. Love you.
Emma departed after the operator confirmed her message’s transmittal.
After a momentary pause on the platform, Emma returned to the carriage to find Oduwa in the refreshment section engaging in friendly chitchat with a couple of passengers. He excused himself after seeing Emma and held up a long stemmed wine filled glass. “Ah my dear sister, did you send mother a communiqué? I’m sure she’s fraught with worry in regard to our well-being.”
“I sent it. Hopefully her worries will be put to rest.”
Emma and Oduwa headed to their cabins, both knowing that the coded message Emma sent had set gears in motion. There could be no turning back.
A blast of steam issued from dispensers lining the inner conduit at the carriage’s rear. Two minutes of intense steam buildup provided the necessary push to send the carriage on its way. Dispensers every 20 yards added more propulsion to its momentum building up its speed until the carriage became the fastest object on the ground.
********
Emma stirred to wakefulness and sat up in her cabin bunk. The gold colored clock with the gold colored hands embedded in the wall above her door said 8pm. She and Oduwa agreed to rendezvous in the cabin aisle at nine.
She looked out her window, seeing nothing but darkness and her own reflection in the glass. Nerves started to set in. Emma had been on missions before. But this was the first time an assignment carried her beyond the African continent, and no mission she ever undertook had been this critical. She and Oduwa were to track down and kidnap a Chinese engineer who possessed a formula for new kinds of weapons; weapons her enthused superiors claimed would revolutionize warfare.
More newfangled gadgetry, she huffed. She had analyzed first hand accounts, smuggled out of China, of the various types of weapons being tested that utilized this formula. The results chilled her. Being decidedly non-progressive had not impeded her ability to extrapolate many years down the road how truly monstrous, weapons fueled by this formula, could become. In the wrong hands this formula would have devastating consequences.
Emma hopped out of her bunk and pulled the largest of her travel cases from the storage bin. She removed clothes from the case and opened a false bottom, revealing crossbow components a short sword, a dozen cross bow bolts, six palm size throwing knives, and a double edged dagger.
Her nerves evaporated like morning mist touched by sunlight when she beheld all that fine steel at her fingertips. She took out the crossbow components and began assembling them into a deadly and efficient caster.
********
Emma appeared in the aisle a minute before the appointed hour. She wore black slacks, black calf high leather boots, black leather short sleeve tunic, and a black headscarf to contain her flowing braids. A dark gray waist belt held her throwing knives and sword. A sheathed dagger hung off her left hip.
Oduwa emerged from the cabin across from Emma’s dressed in similar attire, minus the headscarf.
Their crossbows were notched.
“Stunning as always, my dear,” Oduwa remarked wryly, giving his partner a smile and a wink.
“Could you have picked a better time to flirt?”
“I promise the next flirt will come your way on a more pleasurable occasion,” Oduwa replied with a grin. He led the way toward the far end of the aisle where Mao Li’s cabin was located.
Suddenly, a huge creature bounded from around an intersecting corner ten yards ahead. It stood upright like a man, but bore the face of a beast. The creature’s appearance was lupine, its long mouth, hanging open in a wet snarl, revealing teeth perfectly suited for rending flesh. A pelt of brownish fur covered a body bursting at the seams with musculature. Its arms were outstretched, clawed hands poised to grab hold and not let go. A werewolf!
Comments