The Shadows of God - J. Gregory Keyes [35]
Oglethorpe could see only one officer.
“Surrender, sir,” Oglethorpe called. “Surrender, and no more of you shall die. Resist, and every man of you will be cut down.”
The officer, a Russian, stared hopelessly for another moment or two, then motioned for his men to lower their weapons. Instantly, Oglethorpe's regulars moved in to confis cate them.
Oglethorpe confronted the officer.
“Do you speak English, sir?”
“Some.”
“You have ships down there. I want them up and open.”
“I have no more ships.”
“I just saw them. Man, how do you think we knew to be right here, at the very moment when you came to surface? Mar told us all. Not only that, he ordered his troops here to move elsewhere, so you would have no cover. Downstream, my men have already stretched chains, but they won't be needed. At this range, we can use the same device we've used against your airships to render your amphibians powerless. I'd rather have them working, naturally, but I have one already, and that will do.”
The man hesitated a long moment. “I shall have to use the aquaphore in my ship. By the time the wretched smoke you filled it with clears enough, the others will either surface to fight or try to run. There is nothing I can do until the smoke clears.”
“That is if they surface.”
In the end, they ran. A detachment followed them down the river a safe distance from the captured ship, then used the devil gun. An hour later, two ships surfaced and floated until they fetched against the chains. The stuff of their hulls was too hard to break through with the weapons Oglethorpe's men had, but they unmounted one of the blue-fire guns, took it downstream, and tried that. It cut the ships open quite nicely, and they sank. As they took on water, the hatches came open then, damn fast, and after the first three men on each had fallen dead from musket shot, the rest came out with hands raised high.
They marched the prisoners back to Oglethorpe's mansion and added them to those chained in the servants’ quarters. Meanwhile, Oglethorpe set the more scientifically minded of his men to finding out who the pilots of the ships were.
“I want us to be able to use that ship by morning,” he said. “And I'll need volunteers to learn its operation.”
“Sir, I'd like to do that!” MacKay said.
“You've experience in this line?”
“I ran a steam galliot against the Spanish, Margrave.”
“Good. You'll be our chief pilot, then.”
“Thank you, Margrave.”
Oglethorpe nodded briskly. “Meanwhile, I want an order to go down for half of those redcoats laying siege to Nairne and his people to march south, away from here. Have Mar sign it, as he did the last.”
“Sir, this can't last forever,” Parmenter said. “Sooner or later they will realize they've been tricked.”
“Indeed, and I will not count on this succeeding. But it is certainly worth trying.”
“And now what, General?”
“We move by morning, using the amphibian boat. We'll attack from the river side, coming out of their own ship. They'll never know what hit ‘em. The real trick is to get Nairne to start something at the same moment, so we can have the confusion as great as possible.”
“I can do that, sir,” Parmenter replied.
“How?”
“I know that fort, sir. I can get near enough to put a message over the wall.”
“Without getting caught? Because if you're caught, they'll be onto us.”
“I can do it, sir. I swear it.”
Oglethorpe regarded the ranger for a moment, thinking that he had never known a man with a more level head.
“Very well, Captain. How many men will you need?”
“Two will do, sir. If they'll do it, I prefer Unoka and Jehpath.”
“Both Maroons?”
“Best for this sort of work.”
“And damned hard to see at night, eh?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Go to it then.”
Two months ago, Oglethorpe mused as he watched Parmenter go, no white man or Indian I knew trusted those Africans as far as they could spit. Now we can hardly do without them, no more than we could do without the Indians.