Guns of Mars 61
A Martian action-adventure by The Legend Chuck Dixon
CHAPTER 17.3
The hooded man remained at the helm throughout the day, watching the peaks creep closer against the darkening sky.
“We’ll have to land soon,” Kal said from where he leaned on a rail. “You might fly us in circles or slam into a mountainside.”
“My eyes are keener in the dark.’ The hooded man had removed his visor, his large discus eyes scanning the way ahead.
“It is so dark, I cannot even tell we are moving.”
“There. Light.”
The thark followed the hooded man’s pointing finger. A nascent glow could be seen on the side of a line of ridges. The craft banked gently to make course for it. It grew as they neared, a false blue dawn.
“We can’t land there in the dark,” Kal said.
“Yes,” the other nodded. “We will make landing somewhere close and arrive in the morning.
The hooded man set the ship down on a shelf of rock protected from view of the city below by a series of crags. They camped aboard the ship, feasting on what remained of the stores left by the crew.
The following day they left the airship to climb a trail to a high ledge that overlooked Yttrium. It was early morning, and the glare of the rising sun concealed their presence in the rocks. Lying on their bellies at the edge, they scanned the city below.
Great tugs pulled barges piled with ore toward smelting plants. A haze of smoke lay over the domes and lower structures. Even so, they could see activity as markets came to life along the grand avenue.
“I see only red men. A few First Born.” The hooded man traversed his glass across the scene below.
“Yes?” Kal said, straining to make sense of the tiny figures moving below.
“No tharks. I see no tharks.”
“I don’t take your meaning.”
The hooded man turned on his side to regard his partner.
“That means this is not the cosmopolitan center it might be,” he said. “That means they might not welcome your kind. That means they might just as well hang you and me alongside you.”
“And you think they’ll tolerate you?” Kal said with a snort.
“I have the requisite number of limbs,” the hooded man said with a faint smirk. “As far as they are aware.”
“What then, do you propose?”
“I will take the airship down there. Alone. And inquire of this ‘John,’ this bounty hunter. Unless he died somewhere out there on the sand, he will have come here. And he will have acquired goods and transportation in order on carry on to this source of water he told you of.”
The thark shrugged in response. There was little argument to be made.
Kal remained on the ledge while the hooded man returned back to where they had set the airship down. After a short while, the airship rose above the crags and crossed over the thark’s position to descend to the city below. Kal shifted his position to follow its flight and saw it land in the center of an open square. He stayed where he was, enjoying the warmth of the sun on his back. He laid prone watching the minuscule figure of the hooded man walk from the airship to a collection of tents that rimmed the landing space. Men emerged from the tents to engage him. He followed them out of sight.
The thark dozed off on the simmering rock as there was nothing of real interest occurring below. Toward mid-day he spotted movement on the open square. A group of men, he counted six, were moving toward the airship with the hooded man at their head. They were carrying bundles of gear. He was taking them to the ship. Taking on supplies for their journey.
He raised himself on his four elbows, fully alert now, as the men climbed aboard the ship after tossing the bundles over the gunwale and onto the deck. Once all were boarded, the ship lifted off with a burst of dust. It soared over the city, banking about and Kal was uncertain of what had occurred below. The hooded man did not appear to be a prisoner of the men. When the airship’s deck canted toward him at the outside of one its gyrations, he could cleary see his partner at the wheel on the open bridge accompanied by three men, two red and a black. The black wore a white headdress and a curved sword at his waist. Its gold-trimmed scabbard caught the light as the ship wheeled about.
Maybe the hooded man had recruited more men for their quest or perhaps as guides to take them after the bounty man. Kal decided that this was probably likely and rose to return to the landing place of the night before in order to be picked up. A rise in the whine of the airship’s engines caused him to turn in time to see the craft come about and settle into a due east course. He watched in consternation, fists balled, as the ship made for a pass between two peaks to eventually vanish in the distance.
He returned to the lip of the ledge and looked down, his rifle in his lower fists.
There were men climbing up the slope below. They were climbing toward him.
Special Note: GUNS OF MARS is now available in a hardcover edition. It is available at Amazon and at NDM Express.
