1635: The Papal Stakes as-15 Read online

  Franchetti saw the daggerlike horn of dark-gray rock that jumped out of the shadows at them. Probably the morning sunlight had melted it clean, allowing it to lurk, camouflaged, in the shadows of dusk. As they sped sideways to meet its disemboweling slice, sure to shred the gondola and drop them thousands of feet to their collective deaths, Miro watched Franchetti struggle to get the airship down and out of the cross-valley draft. And that was when he realized that, instead, they had to “Climb!” shouted Miro. “Pitch engines for rapid ascent; throttles wide open!”

  “Wha-?”

  “Do it!” roared Miro, who leaped over to the burner and opened its choke to full burn.

  No longer trying to fight back down into and through the cross-current, the sudden increase in both lift and upward thrust pushed the dirigible suddenly higher with what seemed like a hop. Piz Calderas’ granite claw reached out for them — and bumped lightly against the bottom of the gondola, before they soared up beyond it. They were still angling toward the higher reaches of Piz Calderas, but without the same powerful side draft. They had also climbed over the most intense core of the winds. Behind Miro, people began to breathe again.

  Franchetti turned; his brow was as wet as if he emerged from the lake they were now angling back toward. “Don Estuban, I-thank you. Merde! Just thank you.” From the other end of the gondola, Miro was pretty sure he could hear the robed passenger murmuring what sounded like a prayer of thanks.

  Miro sank back into a seat and then felt something thump against his back. He turned around just as George Sutherland’s big, meaty paw landed for a second friendly pat. “Not half bad, Don Estuban, not half bad.”

  Harry, too, was smiling at him. Indeed, they all were. Miro nodded, smiled back and stared once again across the valley at the alps that had almost killed them.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  North watched the light dying in the narrow strip of sky that looked down at them from between peaks that soared up and away like walls reaching to Heaven itself. Then he lowered his gaze to peer beyond the edge of their sheltering copse, following the track that descended toward the western extent of the Val Bregaglia.

  But before the valley dipped down to where the Mera picked up speed and spread wider and shallower, the wagon track passed before the door of the humble church and cottages that comprised the hamlet of Castagena. Where, evidently, a wedding had run late; a dozen revelers were still milling about. Half seemed to be trying to tidy up the area and hush the other half. Who, for their part, seemed unwilling to realize that the festivities had ended.

  North drew a deep breath. “Pass the word: as soon as the last of these bloody merrymakers have cleared off, we travel weapons out and at the trot. We have to move swiftly to the extraction site and establish our defensive perimeter in the dark. Not a simple exercise.”

  “And still no way to know if there will be anyone there to be extracted.”

  “Yes, a bit problematic, that.”

  “How long do we wait at the extraction site, Colonel?”

  North gave Hastings a sour look. “Until it’s time to leave. How the hell do I know how long we’ll have to wait?”

  Nichols put a hand on Tom Simpson’s arm. “Hold up, there. Let me look at that wound, again.”

  “Doc, we don’t have the time-”

  “There’s a lot of things we don’t have the time for. You bleeding to death is on the top of the list. Now stand still.”

  The rest of the group moved on ahead. Melissa’s iron determination had kept her going-that and the decreased pace that Tom had set. Rita and Arco were taking turns all but carrying Ginetti as they made their way upslope around a hamlet that made tiny Piuro look like a bustling metropolis.

  Tom looked over his shoulder. “Is it bad?”

  “Not bad but messy. And unlucky. This musket ball reopened the grenade wound you picked up while rescuing Urban. I’ve got no way to stop the bleeding out here.”

  “Can’t you-I don’t know-bind it?” Tom felt idiotic even as he said it.

  James Nichols’ long silence made him feel even more stupid. “Tom, just how would you propose I bind a lateral wound on a single buttock?”

  “Okay, dumb idea. Look, we don’t have much farther to go. On the far side of the hamlet-Villa, I think they call it-the Mera widens out. There’s a light forest hugging the north bank. When we get beyond that forest, we’re at the rendezvous point. So listen: you go on ahead and-”

  Tom felt James’ shoulder muscles, corded with age but still strong, slip under his right armpit and hoist. “Nope. You’re coming with us.” Tom rose to his feet, wobbled.

  “Pain?” asked Nichols.

  “Naw, just dizzy.”

  “That’s the blood loss.”

  “Blood loss? What, do I have an artery in my ass?”

  “No, Tom. But you’ve been pushing yourself over hill and dale for hours now, and even slow bleeding is going to make you light-headed and weak.”

  “Not a good time for those symptoms,” Tom observed, trying to move without Nichols’ help, but not succeeding brilliantly.

  James Nichols paused, lifted his head to hear over the Gallegione cataract crashing down from the heights ahead and to the north. “No, not a good time at all.”

  Tom had heard it too: the fraction of a shouted order. In Spanish, and farther back along the wagon track they had been following.

  It had become so dark that Miro was uncertain how Franchetti was flying. The last light glimmered off the Lunghinsee, far to the left. The lake was the source of the River Inn, a distinction that conjured images of a broad expanse of water, cascading over rocks in a flume that would eventually reach the sea. But in actuality, the Lunghinsee was a puddle compared to the Marmelsee. It was small, stark, and alien: an absolutely unrippled mirror surface, held in the grip of mountains as barren as those of the moon.

  The dirigible dipped sharply; Miro and the other passengers braced themselves, but Franchetti’s explanation-shouted over the engines-put them back at ease. “We have gone over the Septimer Pass, which is just above seven thousand, two hundred feet. The last alps of the Oberhalbstein Range are now behind us to the left, the west. We now head down into the Val Bregaglia by turning west at Vicosoprano.”

  “And we should be at the rendezvous in how long?”

  “I cannot say until we see what the winds are like in the valley. But about half an hour. Sooner, if conditions are good.”

  Miro turned to the Wrecking Crew. “Ready your weapons.”

  North hissed at Hastings as he went past. “Keep your squad away from the banks of the river; there isn’t enough tree-cover there.”

  Hastings looked dubiously overhead at the stars that were beginning to shine through the dusty-rose and mauve of late dusk.

  North grumbled as Hastings opened his mouth to reply. “No, Lieutenant, it’s not as dark as you think. Not so dark that buckles and barrels won’t catch a bit of light and alert the Spanish. That’s why our men’s rifles went back in their cases for the nonce. The Spaniard is not always imaginative, but he’s a steady, seasoned soldier. If you get lazy, he will teach you the error of your ways: a lesson that might end with you waking up in Heaven. Or in slightly less lofty regions, in your case.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “No heroics, Hastings. When you get to the edge of the woods overlooking the cataract, set up a loose skirmish line that extends upslope thirty yards from the cart-track.”

  “Sir, this being spring in the Alps, there could be several mountain run-offs, so how can I tell which-?”

  “Hastings, this is a genuine cataract. Flows all the way down from the peak of that alp”-He pointed up at the pink-tinted snow-cap of the Piz Gallegione, towering over them just to the north-“so I don’t think you’re going to miss it. Although, in your case-”

  Hastings cleared his throat. “And you’ll be in reserve behind us, sir?”

  “Yes, but I’ll be down two men. They’ll be detached to make contact with the airship when it arrives in at the extraction site. And while we’re waiting for Captain Simpson’s group to arrive, do see if you can keep from getting killed, Lieutenant. It would take an unreasonably long amount of time to train someone to replace you. Given the high caliber of your skills, I estimate it might even require two days. Now go-and remember: even with the countersign, it’s going to be difficult distinguishing friend from foe in this light. No eager trigger-fingers.”

  “Yes, sir.” And Hastings was gone, a shadow consumed by shadows.

  North looked out over the broad spread of the Mera, smooth and quiet here, though he could make out two pinpricks of yellow light just beyond where the river gathered together and, swollen by the cataract, plunged down once again. Probably oil lamps in upper story windows of Villa, he thought. But five years ago, my eyes were keen enough that I wouldn’t have had to guess. I’m getting old, damn it. Old.

  Hell, next month, I’ll be halfway through my thirties.

  Tom ran, limping, to join the rest of them at the edge of the fuming torrent that swirled down into the Mera at the northeastern edge of Villa.

  Rita and Arco, supporting Ginetti on either side, ventured into the swift current, stumbled, righted themselves, and then fell again, going down to their knees.

  “Shit,” swore Rita, grabbing after the limp cardinal.

  “ Merde,” echoed Arco.

  A light came on in a second story window of the largest house in Villa.

  Now, reflected Tom, things are likely to get very interesting.

  As the airship passed over Castagena, Franchetti started leveling out from his descent. The Val Bregaglia was almost flat here, allowing the Mera to fan out. Miro, hand upon the covered bull’s-eye lantern that was to serve as a landing light, started looking for
the prearranged extraction zone, a meadow just north of where the river widened Melissa, forgetting her own infirmities, jumped over to help the cardinal back to his feet; James scrambled into the water after her A musket discharged from within the confines of the town. The ball struck one of the rocks flanking the ford, pieces of stone spalling upslope. The miss had been well wide of the group that was struggling over the shallows in the dark, but it was close enough to be worrisome. Orders were shouted in Spanish. From back along the upslope path they had followed to get here, a whistle shrilled in answer.

  Tom dropped into a crouch. He exhaled through the sudden flare of pain that blossomed as his right buttock hyperextended. The Spanish were coming from two directions. One group had followed the upslope trail, which put them due west. The other group-probably the larger of the bodies of troops-had stayed on the wider, better track that wound through Villa; they were approaching from the southwest. Probably at a good clip.

  Tom pulled out his revolver, checked that the priming caps were snugly seated. Not long now.

  Having just settled his squad within the trees one hundred yards west of the extraction zone-about a third of the distance to Villa-North tilted his head to listen. Yes, that was a musket report, which came across the sluggish water like a sighing pop! “Damn it.”

  The colonel’s batman, Finan, scuttled over. “Sir, what is it?”

  “Did you hear that?”

  “Hear what, sir?”

  North closed his eyes, remembered a particularly apt American exchange, reprised in so many of their movies. “I have good news and bad news.”

  “Sir?”

  “The good news is that Captain Simpson and his party are still alive, and are, in fact, quite close.”

  “And the bad news is-?”

  “That we’re not alone. Send a runner to Hastings: positive target identification before firing. It’s going to be close.”

  As Finan disappeared into the murk, another two shots came faintly over the water.

  Very close indeed.

  Harry Lefferts stood. “Okay, that wasn’t ‘just my imagination.’ Did you see the flashes?”

  Miro nodded. “At the western end of the wide part of the river, near the Piz Gallegione cataract.”

  Harry turned. “Listen, we’re not going to be able to run over there in time to save them, not if we land here at the extraction site.”

  Miro nodded again:; Lefferts’ assessment was inarguably correct. “So where’s Colonel North?”

  “If he’s here, he’ll be somewhere between the extraction zone and the anticipated contact point.”

  Miro peered at the thin woods. “I don’t see anything there.”

  “Of course not. North is good: you won’t see him until he wants you to.”

  “So what do you recommend?”

  Harry frowned, considering. “North will stay under cover until we signal. But with a firefight in progress, we’d be stupid to follow the original plan to hover out over the river. And he’d be stupid to give away his position before seeing us. So we have to change the plans. We have to send the first signal. We shoot the first whistle-bolt.”

  Miro met Harry’s eyes. He saw eagerness but no berserkergang, no indication of a battle lust that might impede judgment. He looked over Lefferts’ shoulder at Matija. “Shoot the bolt.”

  Tom couldn’t see the Spanish approaching, but he could hear them. Muttered orders, whispered acknowledgements, occasional rustling and soft footfalls: the sounds of a stealthy platoon advance.

  The only other two shots the Spanish had fired were blind misses, meaning that the first shot’s proximity had probably been the result of luck, not skill. Probably a Hail-Mary discharge in the general direction of the voices heard at the ford.

  Which the last of the group had almost traversed. The cardinal had cleared the rocks on the other side, hanging like a drowned rat between Rita and Arco. Melissa was finally picking her way out of the churning white melt-waters, too-and then she went down, quick and hard, with a most improper and biologically implausible oath.

  The timing was unfortunate. James had just turned to start back and help Tom across. Hearing Melissa’s sharp cry, Nichols spun and caught her arm before the rush of water could carry her under and away. Pretty damned spry for a guy in his sixties, thought Tom. But as James helped Melissa hobble up out of the frothing current, he glanced back over his shoulder. His eyes-desperate and apologetic-met Tom’s.

  Tom Simpson nodded his understanding and approval; a man’s first duty was to his woman. Nichols faded into the trees on the far bank, working as a human crutch for Melissa. It was obvious that her ankle was at least sprained, maybe broken.

  Tom looked at his black-powder revolver, wished it was any one of a half dozen up-time weapons he had used in the past three years. But that kind of armament had been deemed both unnecessary and too unsubtle when they set out on this journey. Back in safe, sunny Padua. Back before they were given the additional task of rendezvousing with a renegade cardinal who had the physique of a couch-potato.

  Tom hunkered down behind the largest rock he could find, took the cap-and-ball revolver in both hands-and heard a strange bird call over the water. Wait: was that-?

  North held up his hand. “Was that a-?”

  Finan nodded. “Sounded like a long-winded whip-poor-will to me, Colonel.”

  The signal. The dirigible was here.

  “Fire our bolt,” he hissed urgently at his batman. “Right now, out over the water.”

  Lefferts was focused in a way that Miro had never seen before. Now he understood why, despite his swagger and reputation for occasional impulsiveness, Harry had been so successful on operations like these. “Franchetti,” the up-timer said, “keep us close to the slope, inside the shadows if you can.”

  “ Si, but where am I-?”

  “Look dead ahead, due west, just upslope of where the cataract hits the river. You see that small pasture?”

  “Near the abandoned farmhouse?”

  “Yeah. Can you put down there?”

  “Well, yes, but-”

  “Do it. Now.” Lefferts turned to the rest of his Wrecking Crew. “Well, folks, it might be a hot LZ. Ready for some fun? ”

  Tom Simpson heard a second strange birdsong-the whistle-bolt countersign-respond promptly to the first and allowed himself a small smile. Well, I just might get out of this alive, after all…

  Four shots sputtered from between the buildings in Villa; two more came from upslope, flashes marking their sources within the tree line. Most of the balls missed by a reasonable margin; one thumped into a decayed tree trunk lying in front of the rock behind which Tom had taken cover.

  But then again, I might not.

  North stood as the runner he sent to the front rank returned. Before the winded fellow could speak, the colonel gave new orders. “Back you go. Tell Lieutenant Hastings that he has a new relief force coming in on his right flank.”

  “A new relief force? Where from, sir?”

  North pointed upward. “From thin air.” He motioned for the rest of his squad to get their rifles out of their all-weather hide cases. “Ready on the line,” he ordered, as he readied his up-time nine-millimeter pistol.

  Franchetti screamed, “Pitch the engines down! Full braking thrust!”

  Miro complied, yanking the engine angling bar up sharply. The props rotated into an earth-aimed attitude, slowing the descent. The gondola came to an unsteady halt, a mere four feet off the ground.

  Juliet-a short, round woman-looked dubiously at the gap that Lefferts, Gerd, and Sherrilyn had already jumped down.

  “C’mon!” hissed Lefferts, before disappearing into the downslope tree line, with the Gallegione cataract roiling and crashing on its downward tumult about thirty yards to his right.

  George Sutherland hopped to the ground-lightly for a man of his size-and held up his arms for his wife. “Down you come, dear.” He said it as if she were descending from a coach after a ride in the country-which is how she exited the airship.

  Franchetti glanced back. “Don Estuban, we should-”

  “Yes-yes, Virgilio; take us back to the extraction point.”

  As Miro and Franchetti swiveled the engines into a down-draft position again, and throttled the burner up, the dirigible rose and swung away from the small meadow.