The Black Lung Captain - Chris Wooding [205]
His thoughts were interrupted by a screech and a flurry of limbs, as a Mane launched itself out of an open doorway just ahead of him. It crashed into Malvery, hard enough to knock the bulky doctor off his feet, and sank its teeth into his shoulder. Malvery rolled around bellowing as Silo and Frey tried to grab hold of the ragged ghoul. The very touch of it was appalling: taut muscles sliding under clammy skin. They pulled it away far enough for Malvery to get his boot into its throat. He slammed it against the wall, put his shotgun to its temple, and fired. Frey shuddered as he was pelted with brain flecks.
“Bastard!” snarled Malvery, as he dusted himself down and got to his feet. His face had turned red with anger. He pulled back his coat to examine his shoulder, which was dark with blood.
Frey spat in case any bits of Mane skull had got in his mouth. “You alright, Doc?”
“Got a good chunk of me,” he grumbled. “Coat got the worst of it.” He rolled his shoulder and sucked in his breath through his teeth with a hiss. “I’ll live.”
They found what they were looking for a few minutes later, tucked away in a short dead-end corridor. It was a pressure hatch set into the floor, with a turn wheel in the center. Frey spun it and pulled it open. A ladder led down.
“Whaddya know?” said Malvery, amazed. “It’s actually here.”
“Reckon the Manes don’t have escape hatches like this,” Frey said. “Didn’t occur to them to look.”
“Guess they skimped on the safety regs too,” Malvery said.
The ladder led down onto one of the gantries that surrounded the monstrous engine assembly. It was the size of a small building, a mass of oily pistons, gears, and magnets nestling inside a web of walkways. Inside that structure, prothane was processed, ready to feed to the thrusters, and aerium was pulverized into gas. It was dormant now, but it still radiated heat from recent use. The room was sweltering. Metal parts ticked and grumbled as they cooled. Shadows lurked in the folds of the room, hiding under pipes and in corners.
Frey heard voices from somewhere within the room. The echoes mangled the words, turning them ghostly and strange, but he caught the tone. Angry and fearful. Desperate men arguing.
And then, calm and measured, a woman’s voice.
Trinica!
A surge of excitement ran through him. It had to be her! It wasn’t too late, then! He could rescue her, bring her out the way they came in, and get back to the Ketty Jay. The Manes wouldn’t stop them. They didn’t care as long as they got the sphere. All he had to do was deal with Grist.
But, as well as the voices, he could hear the Manes. They were howling outside, pounding and scratching at the door. The echoes made it seem as if they were everywhere, trying to claw through the very walls.
The sound chilled him. The Manes would find a way inside somehow. He was dreadfully sure of that.
Silo closed the hatch behind them. Frey searched ahead for Grist and Trinica. The walkways were made of grilles and bars; it was possible to see through the gaps underfoot to the levels below. But he could find no sign of them, and he decided they must be on the other side of the engine assembly.
He turned to his crew and put his finger to his lips. Jez didn’t react. She had her head cocked, listening to the wails of the Manes outside. Silo had to shake her by the shoulder to make her focus.
“Concentrate!” Frey hissed.
She nodded, but she was already slipping away again.
He led them down a set of steps to a lower level and began to circle round the greasy bulk of the engine, alert for danger. It stank of aerium and prothane, strong enough to make his head feel light. The door of the engine room came into view below, visible through the intervening mesh of walkways. It was stout metal and shut tight. Frey felt slightly reassured. Not even Bess would get through that in a hurry.
Then he saw movement. At first he thought it was a trick of his vision, a product of the fumes in the air. When he narrowed his eyes and peered closer, it became more pronounced. No mistake, then. It took him a moment to work out