Clockwork Universe by John W Dennehy

Author:John W Dennehy [Dennehy, John W]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Severed Press
Published: 2016-11-14T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

Floating high above the city in a two-man airship, Kevin scanned for possible access points in which the Rhino-pards could surface from tunnels. He used a long telescope. The extended tubes and eyepieces were brass, but the main housing was wrapped in hand-stenciled teak veneer.

Cunningham stood beside him, manning the air balloon. The Great Hunter’s pudgy face was squeezed into a pair of brass goggles. His walrus mustache fluttered in the breeze. Cunningham obviously enjoyed flying the airship, cackling at the control stick. Kevin could hardly keep the telescope focused. The Great Hunter sailed the airship along, swaying the basket from side to side, as he navigated it through the sky.

“Cheer up, lad,” Cunningham jibed. “This could be a lot worse, so you might as well make the best of it. Try to enjoy the ride.”

Kevin nodded. “But we’re out here to get a job done, and I can hardly focus with the balloon swaying back and forth.”

“Airship,” Cunningham chided him. “How many times do I have to tell you… it’s a bloody airship. Self-propelled and all.”

The airship looked similar to hot air balloons from Kevin’s world, except the basket protruded at the front and came equipped with a steam boiler in the rear. It had an iron cylinder stoked with coal for heating air in the balloon. A long tube ran to a burner above them. Cunningham occasionally reached overhead and pulled on a platinum handle. A flame roared and heated the air, raising the balloon higher.

The airship had a peculiar engineering aspect that Kevin couldn’t understand. A propeller was attached to the rear by intricate wooden buttresses that ran up to a brass ring at the base of the balloon. The propeller appeared to be solid mahogany.

Even as it spun through the air, Kevin noticed a shiny laminate, as though it was well kept. A rudder extended from the rear of the basket and a control stick jutted from the basket floor, similar to bi-planes used in the Great War. The entire airship was immaculate, not unlike the steam train he’d ridden on.

Kevin used the long telescope to search for signs of the Rhino-pards. He understood the beasts would exit the tunnels beneath the city, and so he knew enough to scan areas adjacent to established infrastructure.

Blueprints of the underground systems fluttered in the breeze. Kevin used them to determine where the steam lines ran. All the piping went through tunnels, so he had a good idea where the passageways were located. By confining his search to the adjacent areas near the park, he’d narrowed the effort. Some of the tunnels ran beneath streets and under buildings.

Despite the pilot’s antics, Kevin was able to spot a few paths leading from heavily wooded areas in the park, and a few occasional embankments located near open lots, overpasses, and railway bridges.

He marked up the blueprints with a colored pencil. They had passed the major strategic points a few times circling around the city. Kevin gave it a last, hasty scan.

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