Steam City Pirates by Jim Musgrave Page B

open window overlooking the street three stories below. Was she going to come up behind me and slice me into steaks? If she went after the sword now I knew I could hear her in time to fire.
    I decided to go over into the bedroom to cut Becky loose. What if our visitor had other mazikeen with her? I walked into the bedroom, bent down, and pulled my Bowie knife out with my other hand. I reached over and cut the ropes on Becky’s hands and feet. I sliced off the gag over her mouth.
    “What are you doing? Go out there! She can get the sword!” Becky screamed.
    “She’s already gone,” I said, lifting Becky to her feet. I stood there with my Queen Victoria for a moment. She seemed confused.
    “What do you mean? I saw you pointing your gun at her,” said Becky, grabbing my forearm.
    “She has the other skill,” I said, stroking Becky’s red wrists with my fingers. “I knew there was no chance to capture this mazikeen .”
    “She must be out there,” Becky said, and she broke away from me to run into the parlor. She waved her hands wildly in the air, running in circles all around the room, but Becky came into no other human contact.
    “Her other skill is flight,” I said, as I walked over to the open window. “An invisible woman, even with gold teeth, can easily fly out this window,” I reached up and pulled down the window pane. “She flew the coop.”
    “I swear, O’Malley. It wasn’t my fault. She must have entered when she was invisible, and I had the door open while bringing in some things from the market. You never said there were these mazikeen people on the other side!” said Becky, sitting down on her divan and resting her head back against the cushion. “Why me? Was she just waiting until you got here?”
    “Yes. Also, we did know there might be creatures like her on the other side. Remember after the theater matinee? Seth instructed us about the two kinds of mazikeen . She is the evil variety. This group is using this one just the way we are using Seth,” I said, sitting down next to Becky.
    “It certainly is a terrible development. How do we counter it?” She placed her hand upon my shoulder.
    “We need to ask Seth and possibly Doctor Adler. What I was going to tell you about Seth was that he saw a vision into the future. He foretold an invasion by pirates who are going to attack our ships in the harbor. At least, I would assume it’s going to happen in New York harbor. He also saw a huge balloon that was able to bring up the stolen cargo with a system of ropes and pulleys. I was in Pennsylvania talking about how we might prepare for these pirates. I visited the head of the Army’s Balloon Corps during the war. His name is Professor Thaddeus Lowe. I believe he will be able to help us,” I said.
    “I hope so. Did you like the temple? Bessie said Doctor Adler prepared a room for us there, and now we even have a way to travel through time. Won’t that make us their equals?” said Becky.
    “No, not quite. First of all, this group has obviously been at their craft far longer than we have. Secondly, they seem to be collecting a group of professionals who can use technology from the future in order to take advantage of our inferior technology in the present. Finally, we have no idea when they will strike and how they will accomplish it. We can only make educated guesses.” I stood up. “I want to stay with you tonight, Becky. I don’t want to risk another entry by our golden lady until we can talk to Seth.”
    Becky also stood up. She placed her arms around my waist and looked up into my eyes. “I am happy to have you home, Patrick James O’Malley. Will we all be moving into the temple starting tomorrow?”
    “Yes. That is the plan. Even McKenzie and his men are going to stay there sometimes. Until we can see where these adversaries of ours strike first, we can only protect ourselves and attempt to learn how to use our own time travel machine. It’s our only hope. If this group is as