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Fang had been his usual unflappable self, nodding his agreement to investigate the craft and, later, when Houjin could not see his hands, signing to the captain, Very dangerous? To which Cly had shrugged a maybe. Then, while the boy’s nose was still stuck in the diagrams and drawings, Fang had added, I will do this, for the Union.
Cly signed back, Didn’t know you cared one way or the other.
I care for the West. If the South wins, and claims new states, they will be states where men can be owned as slaves. If the North wins, maybe the new states will be … He paused. Not much better. But where freedom is declared, it can be negotiated. Besides, I liked Josephine. Smart woman. Easy to agree with.
“Easier to agree with her than to argue with her, that’s for damn sure. ”
As Cly finished up his shaving, wiping down his face and neck, a knock on the door was followed shortly by the entrance of Fang, Houjin, and Kirby Troost, who touched the edge of his hat in Ruthie’s general direction.
Ruthie stood to her full height—three inches taller than Troost, though that was emphasized by the boots she wore—and announced, “If everyone is ready, we should go catch a carriage. ”
“Shouldn’t we just grab the street rails, instead?” Cly asked. “Surely that’d be faster than a cabriolet. ”
“A carriage to the edge of the Quarter, and then we can take the rails to the far side of Metairie, but no farther. Where we go beyond the City of the Dead … only trusted eyes may lead us. ”
Together they followed Ruthie’s lead down to the street, where she nabbed a carriage in the blink of an eye, even though she needed a larger transport than was usually running. Before long, they were back at the street rail station where they’d first entered the city, and then on the car to Metairie, to Houjin’s continued joy.
On the way, Kirby Troost sat beside the captain. When Ruthie stood at the protective guardrail, likely out of hearing distance, the engineer asked quietly, “Are you sure about this?”
“No. ”
“Me either. Did they tell you about what happened to Betters and Cardiff?”
“Who are Betters and Cardiff?” Cly asked.
“The Texians who went missing. They’re the reason New Orleans has a curfew. ”
“No, the ladies didn’t mention it. ”
“Josephine knows,” Troost said softly. “The girls at the house say she was there when they died. Do you know they’ve got a rotter problem, here in New Orleans?”
Taken aback, Cly gave Troost a hard stare of uncertainty. “That’s impossible. No gas, no rotters. ”
“Impossible or not, that’s what they sound like to me. Except they don’t call ’em rotters here. They call ’em zombis. And I don’t think they’re made by the gas. I think they’re made by the sap. ”
Cly considered this and said, “We’ve known for a while that the drug makes people sick, if they use it too long. ”
“I think it does worse than make them sick. I think it kills them, and keeps them upright, just like the dead in Seattle. All I’m saying is, when you meet back up with this lady friend of yours, you should ask her about it. The girls say she saw the whole thing. Her and some voudou queen, but I don’t rightly know what to make of that part. ”
The captain stayed hung up on the undead particulars. “I’m not saying there aren’t any rotters outside the city, Troost. Ten minutes talking to Mercy Lynch’ll tell you that much. But those rotters happened because a dirigible crashed, and the gas got loose—poisoning the air where all those people were. That was a mess of an accident, but I don’t think that could happen around here, not without people noticing it. ”
“I’m not arguing with you. A big load of hungry dead folks didn’t just appear one night down by the river. They weren’t here ten years ago, were they?”
“If they were, I never heard about it. ”
“That’s what I mean,” the engineer said. He was wheedling now; he had an idea and he was determined to share it—by verbal force if necessary. “They didn’t spring up overnight, but they’ve been happening gradual-like. One or two sap-heads, here and there, going so deep into the drugs that they didn’t ever come back. Then what happens if another one or two, here and there, does the same thing? And another few?”
“It’s a stretch, Troost. ”
“I know it is. But it’s not a big stretch, and I don’t think I’m wrong. The streets aren’t crawling with them, not like in Seattle, but they’re a problem down by the river, and the Texians are on a rampage, trying to wipe them out and make the place safe again. ”
“How do you know that?” the captain asked.
“You saw that Texian in the lobby, the fellow who practically lives there? His name’
s Fenn Calais, and as long as you’re buying, he’s talking. You know what else he told me?”
“Go on. ”
