The Black Lung Captain - Chris Wooding [153]
“Don’t listen to him. They’re just words. You’re free now.”
“If I was free,” said Silo, “I’d’ve shot him the moment I laid eyes on him.”
A sudden explosion made them all flinch. A rolling cloud of smoky flame rose up above the machines to their right. More gunfire broke out nearby. They heard Grudge’s autocannon once again. The miners and workers would be no match for the Century Knights, but Frey was happy to have someone to draw the heat off while they made for the elevator.
“I’ve just had a thought,” said Frey. “What happens to the elevator if they shut down the refinery?”
“It stops working,” said Roke. “Obviously.”
“Bugger,” said Frey. “Let’s move, people! Time’s wasting!”
They came across several more workers as they ran through the factory, but they had an advantage that their enemies didn’t. The insurrectionists always paused to be sure they weren’t attacking their own; Frey and his companions shot on sight.
“I don’t mind saying, Cap’n, I don’t feel too great about this,” said Malvery, as he stepped over the corpse of another refinery worker. “They’ve got a fair grievance, after all. He really is selling to the Sammies. Ain’t we fighting on the wrong side?”
“Hey, I’m all for the peaceful exit, Doc. They’re the ones who want to shoot us,” said Frey. “Far as I’m concerned, we’re just getting our retaliation in first.”
“I suppose so,” said Malvery with a sigh. He fired at some kid at the end of the aisle, who threw down his weapon and went scrambling away. “Think I’m just emotional right now. Been getting that way lately when I’m hungover.”
“Uh-huh,” said Frey, not really listening.
“Maybe I should lay off the swabbing alcohol and go back to grog.”
“Maybe.”
They found the elevator soon after. It was little more than a small box with a folding gate, set inside a caged passage that rose up into the darkness. It was waiting at ground level, so Frey pulled it open and ushered everyone in. He could hear running footsteps approaching. The noise and the darkness made it hard to tell where they were coming from. The Samarlan hesitated, obviously considering the prospect of being crammed in there with so many people. This time it was Trinica who shoved him inside.
Frey pulled the gate closed and Roke hit the button. The elevator clanked and squealed and began to rise, just as a group of refinery workers ran into view. They were slow to react—it took them a few moments to spot Roke among the passengers—but when they did, they were furious. One of them pounded the button that called the elevator, but to no avail. Finally some of them started shooting, but by that time the elevator had moved high up into the darkness, and their shots only ricocheted off the protective cage.
The refinery fell away beneath them. As they rose over the machines, Frey could see more fires starting at the far end. Vats glowed with heat; troughs of molten rock were overflowing; steam engines were pumping at a distressing rate. One massive piston arm came loose and went spinning across the room to crash into a set of pipes on the other side. As predicted, the refinery was ripping itself apart.
I hope you know what you’re doing, Samandra, he thought.
Then the refinery disappeared beneath them, and they were traveling through a short passage of concrete, with gray daylight at the top. A doorway to the roof. The elevator had almost made it when they shuddered to a halt.
“I reckon they found your master override switch, then,” Malvery said. “Never doubt the Century Knights, that’s what I say.” He eyed the gap between the top of the elevator and the bottom of the doorway, which was barely large enough for a man of Malvery’s bulk to squeeze through. “We cut it a little fine, though.”
There were gates across the doorway, which Frey pulled aside. Malvery gave him a boost and he crawled out onto the flat roof. Black chimneys rose all around him. Cold air chilled his cheeks, nose, and forehead. He heard engines and looked up to see the Ketty Jay approaching through the snowy sky.
“Right on time, Cap’n,” Jez said in his ear. “Not