Skykeep by Joseph R. Lallo Page A

friendly. Clemens Isle is the closest airport
that passenger dirigibles are willing to make stops at, I
recall.”
    “I’m visiting family in Keystone.”
    “I’m sure.”
    “Listen, if you are going to accuse me of
something, just come right out and say it.”
    “I think you’re working with the fuggers. I
think you either conspired with them to kill my friends or
conspired with them to cover it up. But there is no reason
for you to want those women dead and there is every reason
for the fuggers to want them dead, and as a man who moved from a
cushy career to a back-breaking one on their whims, I’ve got to
imagine you’d do just about anything to get back in their good
graces. I don’t know what the truth is, but I know for certain that
it isn’t what’s come out of your mouth thus far.”
    Matthews was silent, sweat trickling down his
brow.
    Gunner continued. “I’m going to explain
something to you right now, Matthews. You know the two women you
escorted into that mine and did not escort back out? The
little one was a woman named Chastity Cooper. Her older brother is
on our ship right now. I’m going to ask you some questions, and I
want honest answers. If I get them, you can go on your way and do
whatever you choose. Might I recommend you choose to hide from us,
because even though we’ve got bigger fish to fry at the moment, it
doesn’t mean you’re safe from the skillet. If I don’t get honest
answers, you’ll be meeting the man who blames you for burying his
sister. As frightening as you might find these guns, Coop will be
using his bare hands, and between the two of us, I think your
better chance is with me.”
    Matthews looked around. There was nothing
quite like a gunshot to bring a handful of drunks back to their
wits. Almost every resident of Lock had a bone to pick with the fug
folk, and if Gunner’s accusations were true, they now had a bone to
pick with Matthews. Half of them would hate him because a bone
deep, bitter hatred of the fug folk had been brewing for years and
anyone who worked with them was an excellent target for that
hostility. The other half would hate him out of envy of the fact he
had managed to find a way back to the life from which they had been
forced.
    “May I do this outside?” he said quietly.
    “If you think it will help,” Gunner said,
letting Matthews lead the way.

Chapter
4
    As though they had arranged it, the captain and
Gunner arrived at the Wind Breaker at the same time. Eight
hours had passed since the explosion.
    “What’ve we got?” both men asked the
other.
    “You first,” ordered the captain.
    “Sure enough, Matthews was in on it, and the
fug folk are behind it. He was kept in the dark about the details,
but he was told that there would be an explosion once Nita was
nearly through with the repair, and that he was to keep her inside
the chamber until it happened. He got paid piles of money and has
had his repair privileges reinstated in exchange for what he did.
He may not have killed Nita and Lil with his own hands, but he was
handsomely rewarded for making sure it happened,” Gunner explained
quickly.
    “So where you got him tied up?” called a
voice from above as the gig began to lower.
    Standing in the lowering gig like an avenging
angel descending from heaven was Coop. He wore no coat and had a
pair of rifles strapped to his back, a pair of pistols on his hips,
and a cruel pair of brass knuckles on each hand.
    “I let him go. It was the only way to get the
full story,” Gunner said, looking up to Coop.
    The deckhand didn’t wait for the gig to touch
down. He leaped from the boat and came down hard on Gunner,
knocking him to the ground. Coop stood over the downed armory
officer and grabbed a handful of his shirt, stooping down and
hauling him face to face.
    “You telling me that pile of filth killed my
sister and our engineer and you let him go?” He pulled a pistol
with his free hand and put it to Gunner’s cheek. “I always knew