Iron Rage (32 page)

From the yellow flash and the knife-sharp sound, it
was
enough to detonate like a high explosive.

The enemy ironclad actually rose perceptibly from the water.

And then a second, vastly louder blast knocked her at least four feet into the air. The sound of her back breaking was not as loud as the second detonation. She settled back down amid a cloud of smoke and steam that instantly shrouded her midsection. Before he pulled back from the port to avoid possible flying debris, Ryan thought he saw her settle in the middle, with bow and stern angling up.

She was finished, he knew that much.

“Whoa,” Ricky breathed.

“Magazine explosion,” J.B. said. “Ace job of driving.”

“It would appear,” Doc intoned, “that our captain attained the Viking funeral he desired, for himself and his lost loved ones.”

“And then some,” Mildred said.

Nataly just wept.

“What now?” Abner asked, as Ryan pushed his way through the crowd back to the helm.

“We steam south out of this place,” Ryan said, studying the controls.

“You know how to pilot this thing?” Jake asked.

Ryan leaned toward a speaking tube. “Engine, bridge. All ahead, full.”

He waited for what seemed like forever. After he had concluded that the engine room crew had fled their posts like sensible people, he heard, faintly, “Aye-aye, sir!” rattle out from the horn.

He felt the vibration as
Pearl
's screws began to bite water.

He turned to the others. “Yeah. I can pilot her.”

“Didn't the engine crew hear the abandon ship?” Jake asked. The perpetually gloomy navigator actually sounded skeptical that what was happening was happening.

“Do I look like I know?”

Nataly wiped tears from her reddened face. “Ryan, she's holed and probably sinking. And from the smell I'm almost sure she's on fire.”

Krysty came up beside Ryan and slipped her arm around his waist. He put his arm around her and smiled down at her.

Then he turned his face south. That was where their future lay, and he always tried to keep facing the future.

Whatever it held.

“Then we ride her until she won't go any farther,” he said. “And then we'll play whatever cards we happen to hold at the time. Same as we always do.”

“I have an idea,” Mildred said. “Next time, let's not sign on for the adventure cruise, okay?”

* * *

E
XHAUSTED FROM HER
crosscurrent swim, Baron Tanya Krakowitz of New Vickville hauled herself to her feet in the shallows of the Sippi's eastern bank.

She saw
Pearl
—her flagship—steaming south with black smoke trailing from her stacks. Behind her, and now to the north of her, the
Tyrant
was sinking with her bow and stern jutting from the water and her middle underwater.

“Cawdor, you magnificent bastard!”

Her cry startled a bittern, which exploded from the tall grass to her left that had hidden it and went winging majestically across the mighty river.

“This doesn't end anything. Our paths will cross again.”

She raised her hand to her brow in salute, then she gave the departing ironclad the finger.

No longer a baron after that major goatscrew, she turned to make her way inland. In her mind, she had already started a brand-new life.

Again.

* * * * *

ISBN: 978-1-474-02900-1

IRON RAGE

© 2015 Worldwide Library

Special thanks and acknowledgment to Victor Milan for his contribution to this work.

Published in Great Britain 2015
by Mills & Boon, an imprint of Harlequin (UK) Limited
Eton House, 18-24 Paradise Road, Richmond, Surrey TW9 1SR

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