Iron and Blood Read Online Free Page B

merely nodded in response. “Very well, sir. Ring if you need anything.” He left almost as quickly as he had arrived.
    Nicki sank into one of the armchairs. Her hands grasped the arm rests as if she was not quite ready to believe their ordeal was over. “We made it!” Now that they were safe, her eyes sparkled with excitement.
    Jake was peering out the port side while Rick scanned the starboard skies. “I’ll hand it to Cullan,” Rick said. “He shook off our uninvited guests.”
    Jake gazed down at the gray water that rolled far beneath them. “If that big bang was the mothership, then I doubt any of the mini-craft could have made it back to land, even if the drones didn’t knock them out. I’m guessing Cullan had us too far over the ocean by then for them to turn back.”
    A hard glint lit Rick’s eyes. “All the better. Let whoever sent them wonder.”
    Jake collapsed into a chair. “But why? If it’s the urn they want, they’re remarkably persistent. And if it’s related to Father’s murder, then why are they after us? Whoever sent that airship after us has resources, and I’m betting we haven’t seen the last of them.”
    “Maybe they don’t want the urn,” Nicki replied, staring at the ruined window. “Maybe they just wanted to make sure that we don’t make it back to New Pittsburgh.”
    That sobering thought left them silently weighing the repercussions, until the door flew open and Cullan stepped inside, wearing an ear-to-ear grin. “Mighty fine flying, if I do say so myself!”
    “You nearly killed us!” Nicki retorted.
    Cullan feigned a hurt look. “Did our maneuvering scare you?”
    “Out of a year of my life!” Nicki replied, then grinned. “But it’ll make an amazing story someday for my grandchildren.”
    Jake and Rick congratulated Cullan with hearty backslapping, and Nicki favored him with a kiss on the cheek. Cullan was playing the daredevil, but Jake knew him well enough to see that the battle had given the pilot a run for his money.
    “Any casualties?” Jake asked. It was exactly what his father would have done, worrying about the crew over the hardware.
    Cullan shook his head. “Nothing worse than some bruises and cuts. Mueller’s got a nice shiner from where he rapped himself on a speaking tube. It could have been worse.”
    “What were those... things you launched? The hovering metal disks with the guns?” Jake asked.
    Cullan leaned against a walnut-paneled pillar and crossed his arms. “Another illicit invention, courtesy of Adam Farber and Tesla-Westinghouse labs. With some input from you as well, I hear,” Cullan said, giving Rick a grin.
    “Just another mechanical nightmare Adam and I cooked up in his lab,” Rick replied. “Didn’t even tell me they were ready,” he muttered, still annoyed.
    Cullan shook his head. “The real beauty of it is, those things don’t need pilots. Whoever was after us had men in their mini-dirigibles; I’m quite certain of it. Made for nasty business. Farber’s flying automatons let us even the score without putting any of our crew at risk.”
    “How did you make sure they were shooting in the right direction?” Jake asked. “They’re too small to have a difference engine aboard.”
    Cullan laughed. “I don’t think even Adam Farber would try putting a difference engine into one of those things—although,” he mused, “it might not be a bad idea. I’ll have to mention that next time I see him, if Rick doesn’t beat me to it.”
    “Actually, it’s ingenious,” Rick jumped in. “Adam’s been toying with the idea of a radio telegraph—a telegraph that can transmit through thin air, without wires. Cullan can control the disks from the bridge, with Adam’s new contraption. He said it sends Morse code signals through aetheric waves.”
    “Adam’s been burning the midnight oil again.” Cullan shook his head. “That boy is brilliant. I’m glad he’s on our side.”
    Cullan glanced around the lounge, seeming