“No prob,” the Armorer said, reaching into his shoulder bag to extract a short, fat, brass can.
Sliding the antique telescope to its full length, he swept the landscape. The storm clouds were thin in the sky, admitting a wealth of silvery moonlight, the jungle turning black in the reflected illumination. No birds were in flight, no campfires visible. Other than the burning wreckage they had left behind, the entire valley was peaceful.
Then tiny jots of yellow flickered into existence to the south. Following the river, J.B. adjusted the length of the telescope and brought into focus the outline of a predark bridge with a small ville built on top. The shore at one end was sealed off with some form of bamboo wall, tiny figures moving along the top. Beyond the bridge was more forest, partly masked by great clouds of mist.
“There’s a ville dead ahead,” he reported, struggling to hold the telescope steady against the rhythmic rocking of the rope basket. “Seems to be a waterfall just beyond. Must be Cascade.”
“How picturesque,” Doc rumbled in amusement. “A city on a waterfall.”
Mildred added, “Pretty slick if they know anything about building waterwheels.”
“Fireblast,” Ryan cursed, throwing his weight to the left to try to stop the rope basket from turning. The trick worked and the craft settled. “No wonder there are so many bastard wags in the area. Cascade was only a few miles away from the crashed plane. We were right on top of the baron’s troops.”
“Yeah, but do they know we’re coming?” Dean asked urgently, drawing his bowie knife and holding the blade to a plastic rope.
“Don’t think so,” J.B. answered slowly. As the Pegasus moved steadily toward the ville, more details were coming into focus, but the balloon was making him queasy with its crazy motions. His guts felt watery and cold.
“There are” he swallowed hard and tried again “there are some sec men moving along a defensive wall. But they’re smoking cigs, and one guy is taking a leak in the river.”
He lowered the brass scope and compacted it down in size, “The ville is way too quiet. I’d say they have no idea we’re coming.”
“Good,” Ryan said, drawing the SIG-Sauer. “Mebbe we can sail by and they never know it.”
“We’re going to be dangerously low as we pass,” Krysty reminded him, easing out the clip of the Hamp;K blaster and counting the rounds she had remaining before sliding it back into the grip. “Mebbe we should drop another bag.”
“Only six left,” Mildred warned. “Best we save them for emergencies.”
As the ville swelled closer, J.B. tucked away the telescope. Now they could see the lit windows of brick houses, cooking fires scattered about on the ground and sputtering torches moving along the concrete streets. They heard the sounds of drunken singing and the crack of a whip followed by yowls of pain.
“Backpacks on the flooring,” Ryan ordered, sliding his off and stepping onto the canvas bag. The companions copied his action, but withheld shooting at the small figures of the sec men, knowing they were out of range.
In graceful majesty, the Pegasus silently floated over the wall of the ville, and a sec man screamed loud enough to be heard by the companions.
Calmly, they watched as the guards frantically dashed about waving their arms, and several dived into the river to escape from the horrifying sky machine. Then a cannon roared, throwing a smoke ring across the ville square, and a bonfire grew bright and strong to cast harsh light across the ville as a bell began to ring in strident urgency.
“Get ready,” Ryan said, tucking away the SIG-Sauer and drawing his Hamp;K blaster. If silence was no longer important, he’d rather use the autofire. The sound suppressor on the SIG-Sauer cut down muzzle-blast, and he might need those few extra foot-pounds of pressure to accurately hit a target two hundred feet away.
Suddenly, a flight of arrows shot up from the ville to arc across the dark sky and impotently fell away, completely unable to reach the balloon.
“Thank God. These people have never heard of the longbow,” Doc muttered, one hand holding his Hamp;K, the other resting on the checkered grip of the LeMat snug in its holster.