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Above and behind the captain, Laive ht never ing so loudly that he heard only part of it, but he got the gist and reached again for the Rattler’s crank He turned it, and flipped the switch to feed the last of his aun, and it exploded out from under the ship with a rat-a-tat-tat to wake the dead

Larunt and a slide on the ground beneath it; he recovered immediately, and took a mallet to the pried-apart rivets that affixed the panel into place Soon the hatch was sealed and he was back up onto the steps, saying, "Sir, stop firing and hop inside Siot the stair lever and we’ll seal ourselves up Do it fast," he begged

Hainey tried to say so back, but he didn’t think he could , and al under the gun

Si the captain or knocking him back down into the service yard unarmed; but he yelped when his hands touched so skin and hair o hold smell like a charnel house Lamar helped the captain lift himself up the last few steps, and no sooner had the stairs retreated and the bay doors closed than a trickle of bullets caed as if they were being shot at a very big bell

"Sir, are you all right?" Lamar demanded

To which Simeon said, "I’ve burned ineer said as he patted down a place on Hainey’s jacket where an eh the fabric "You’ve set yourself on fire!"

"It’s…the…Rattler," he wheezed, hoping he’d heard everything correctly His ears were banging as if soether over and over again He waggled his head like he could shake the residual sounds out of it, and he climbed to his feet "Simeon, your hand?"

"I’ll survive," the firstpink of the burn as it tightened and wrinkled across his otherwise coffee-dark skin

"Find soot to fly her out of here, before those idiots out there breach the hull, or blow up our neighboring ships--or scare up soet airborne noe can shake or bully our way past the security dirigibles…if they’ve even got the balls to chase us," he added as he stu on the cargo hold floor

"Way ahead of you," Simeon said He’d already opened one of the packs that Hainey had thrown aboard, and taken out his only clean shirt Using his teeth and his one good hand, he tore off the sleeve and began to bind himself Lae

"This bird is loaded up to the gills, ain’t she?" the captain asked onder

After they’d braced the bay doors from the interior, Sih the windshield where the sheriff and a pair of deputies were joining the fray down front

"She sure is," Sireed "Between the three of us, I think we can fly her all right," he said

"We’d better be able to, or else our goose is cooked," Hainey observed

Then, froely cal a deadly weapon, and is fully aware of how it ought to perforon Hainey"

All threeon the bridge with a six-shooter half as long as her forearm--but there she was, Maria Isabella Boyd, Confederate spy and operative for the Pinkerton National Detective Agency

The captain recovered fastest He let the unscarred side of hislike a slow smile, and he said to her, "Lady, mine and yours, and everybody within a half-nored the warning "Disarm yourselves Immediately All of you, or I’ll shoot"

Hainey held out a hand that forbade his crew He said, "If you shoot, we’re all dead You don’t know the first thing about these ships, do you?"

Maria faltered, but not"Maybe not, but I know plenty about what happens to a man when a bullet sticks between his ribs, and if you don’t want the knowledge firsthand yourself, you’d better set your weapons aside"

"You see," he said as if he hadn’t heard her, "We’re surrounded by hydrogen--three quarters of this craft is designed to hold it, and this bird is all full up right now Do you knohat happens when you start firing bullets around hydrogen?"