The Dragon and the Lotus (Chimera #1) (27 page)
Read The Dragon and the Lotus (Chimera #1) Online
Authors: Joseph Robert Lewis
Chaotic shouting broke out across the field and Taziri looked up to see a dozen firefighters wrestling frantically with one of the water pump engines. The pistons were cycling furiously, the entire apparatus shaking violently as the pumps worked faster and faster. High-pitched voices barked orders over the screams of two men rolling on the ground, pressing their gloved hands against their bright red, peeling faces.
Taziri was on her feet in an instant, jogging toward the panicking crowd around the engine. The machine hissed and groaned as the pressure built inside it. She broke into a run and snatched up a firefighter’s axe lying in the grass. People shouted, a cacophony of panic and white noise punctuated by the cries of the two men still ignored on the ground. As Taziri reached the outer edge of the circle of firefighters, one of them glanced over his shoulder and they locked eyes for a moment.
“Everybody back!” The man yelled. Half the firefighters stumbled back and craned over each others’ heads to see what was happening, while the other half pushed forward to wave the intruder off.
Taziri plowed through the objectors and lifted her axe above the wagon. She swung once across the main line and smashed a gauge off the pipe. A scalding white jet erupted into the air from the headless junction. Without pausing, she dashed to the end of the wagon, hollered, “Get back!” and brought the axe straight down on the boiler’s drain cap. The small iron lid shattered, releasing a small torrent beneath the wagon, and steam erupted from the withering grass.
The firefighters leapt away from the boiling pool spreading across the ground, and even as the engine cycled slower and quieter behind them, they shouted, “What do you think you’re doing?”
Taziri was already a dozen paces away, heading back toward the grassy patch where she had been sitting a moment earlier. She tossed the axe aside and shouted over her shoulder, “Medic! See to those men!”
A single fire chief still trailed after her. “Lieutenant! You just destroyed my engine!” She pointed back at the machine bathing in its own steam.
Taziri paused to glare back at her. “I broke the two cheapest parts. I’m sure you’ll have it working again within the hour, but those men will be harder to replace unless you see to their injuries,
Captain
. ”
The fire chief turned away to bark more orders and point at her damaged equipment.
Taziri sighed, feeling all the heat and tension in her back flooding away, draining her, leaving her cold and tired. She walked back toward the spot on the grass where they had put her before, where she had watched them take Isoke away. There was no reason to be there now, but there was no reason to be anywhere now. Not yet. She couldn’t think yet. She stopped to stare at the smoking hangar.
“Lieutenant Taziri Ohana?”
To her left, Taziri saw a middle-aged man in a blood-red coat decorated with brass studs and bars striding toward her. She cleared her throat and dragged a filthy glove through her hair. “Yes?”
“I’m Major Syfax Zidane, Security Section Two, royal marshals. I’m here to oversee the investigation.” He glanced at the hangar. “Sorry for your loss.”
“My loss?” She stared at him as though he had spoken a foreign language.
Did he mean Isoke? Or…no, oh no. The other airship crews? Or the ground crew? Or all of them?
All of them dead?
Taziri wiped a dirty hand across her sweaty face and took a long breath. “Is there something I can do for you, sir?”
“I need to ask you a few questions about what happened here.” He had a deep voice and he spoke just a little too slowly, as though he were just waking up from a deep sleep, or as though he didn’t find the burning airfield particularly interesting.
“Uhm.” Taziri looked away, her eyes itching. She looked back at him, a huge thick-necked man with a sleepy-eyed squint.
Since when are men promoted above captain? He must be part of some special transfer program with the army.
“Can it wait until tomorrow? I’d really like to go home to my family right now.”
“I’ll get you home as soon as I can.”
She swallowed and nodded. “All right, sir.”
Continued in THE BURNING SKY
About the Author
Joseph Robert Lewis began his career writing about deadly firefights in Iraq and Afghanistan, studying cutting-edge military technologies, and chronicling personal journeys across south Asia. Now he writes novels that bring together his love of wild adventure, rich character studies, stunning scientific concepts, and the amazing history of human civilization.
Table of Contents