Iron Rage by James Axler Read Free Book Online Page B

nervously aside. Her steely veneer was showing serious cracks now.
    â€œAye-aye, Captain,” she said.
    Ryan, J.B., Doc and Ricky had pushed onto the bridge with Krysty. Jak was doing whatever he wasdoing, as he usually did. Under the circumstances, he was as helpless as the rest of them. Arliss had come in with them. The rest of the Queen ’s crew had dispersed elsewhere.
    Flashes flickered from the bows of the oncoming craft. “Get down!” Ryan commanded.
    He did as he ordered, although he stayed just high enough to peer out the front port. Krysty did likewise. She realized he had likely ordered his people down to reduce the targets they offered. She doubted the wooden front of the cabin would offer any resistance to a solid cannonball. It had not been built for that.
    â€œYou too, Nataly,” Trace ordered. After a dubious glance her way, the mate hunkered as low as she could and still see to steer.
    The captain stayed erect. “Mildred, stay hunkered down too, but please help me stand. I need to see.”
    Mildred reached out and grabbed her hips to steady her.
    A shot whined overhead, then the ship was racked by a shuddering crash that seemed to come up through the deck by way of Krysty’s knee and boot sole. Another crash came from somewhere astern.
    â€œCaptain,” Maggie called, coming up the hatch from below, “the bow’s been holed below the waterline. We’re taking on a lot of—”
    Something moaned by Krysty’s head, between her and Ryan. A hot breath blew across her face. She saw a lock of her lover’s curly black hair tweaked briefly out from his head as by invisible fingers.
    From behind she heard a strange squelching noise,followed by another sound of rending wood. Something like hot rain fell on her shoulders and back. She heard a sizable amount of liquid hit the planks of the deck.
    She and Ryan both turned. His lone blue eye was wide.
    Maggie stood a step away from the hatch below. Or rather her slight torso did. Her head was missing entirely. A pulse of blood shot up from the terrible vacancy between her shoulders, then her headless trunk toppled down the ladder.
    Ricky puked. The stink of vomit, added to the reek of fresh blood, excrement, burned flesh and lingering peppery gunpowder smell, made Krysty’s head spin.
    â€œArliss,” Trace snapped without turning, “get every hand available to work the bilge-pumps.”
    His wrinkled, sunburned face was white beneath his beard, but he bobbed his head. “Aye, Captain.”
    He vanished below, slipping slightly in Maggie’s blood.
    â€œCaptain,” Nataly said in a strained voice, “those blasterboats are getting mighty close—”
    â€œOn my mark, start your turn to port,” the captain said. Nataly stood back upright, her hands white on the wheel.
    â€œDon’t see much of a break, up ahead,” J.B. murmured.
    Krysty didn’t, either. The summer-green reeds and rushes on the left bank waved in the breeze in a line unbroken as far as the eye could see. She realized Ryan was gripping her arm, tightly enough to hurt, but she didn’t say anything. It reassured her more than it felt bad.
    â€œThree,” Trace said. “Two…”
    â€œCaptain, I don’t see—” Nataly began.
    â€œNow! Hard aport!”
    â€œBut it’s just land!”
    â€œNow, nuke it, do it now !”
    Ryan let go of Krysty’s arm. He started to grab for the wheel.
    But Nataly, her normally narrow eyes now saucer-wide, began to crank the big spoked wheel counterclockwise for all she was worth. The Mississippi Queen began to heel to the right as her bow swung left.
    They were curving toward what indeed looked to Krysty like solid land at a good rate of speed. She gripped the sill in front of her with her right hand and Ryan’s arm with her left. Bracing was the only thing she could think of to do.
    The vessel shuddered to another hit.
    The