Iron Seas 03 - Riveted

or Dutch.”
    “They’re flying Norwegian colors.”
    She nodded and looked toward the quarterdeck, where Vashon issued orders. “We’ll hail them and ask their captain if they’ve heard of anything similar to Heimaey. Since they’re sailing around the rim, they might be headed there—or to Smoke Cove.”
    “So we can warn them, spread the news.”
    “Yes.”
    Phatéon slowly banked south—taking them farther away from Iceland’s shore. “This will delay our arrival in Vik.”
    “Yes.” She held his gaze for a long second. Then her smile faded, and she looked west. Heimaey rose in the distance. “Do you think the women were killed because of what they did?”
    “An act of God?”
    “No. Someone else.”
    “Someone who hated them enough to kill them all?”
    “Or feared them.”
    It would probably be a combination. He hesitated, but therewas no delicate way to say it. “If someone hated them that much, I don’t think he’d kill them so painlessly.”
    “‘He?’”
    “Or she.” Though David couldn’t imagine that.
    Annika nodded. “I’ve seen that before—a crowd cheering as two men were hanged.”
    Jesus Christ. She’d seen that? David never had, but he’d heard of the mob executions. “Yes.”
    “So you believe it was a natural death?”
    He nodded. “Probably a toxic gas that formed naturally.”
    “Like the fissure eruptions? The gases poisoned some—and others were smothered by ash.”
    “Yes. That’s not what happened here, but it could be similar.”
    She seemed to take comfort in that. He wished to hell that it was appropriate to do more. Hold her, perhaps—or touch her hand.
    In all this time, he hadn’t touched her. Not her skin, not her clothes. He wanted to, before leaving Phatéon . He would hold the memory close until he saw her again.
    Her mittened fingers rested lightly on the rail. He could slide his gloved right hand against her left—or cover it with his. Maybe she wouldn’t pull away.
    His heart raced as he screwed up his courage. Damn it, he should just kiss her. She’d admired him for taking a risk. But he’d never feared the port officer’s reaction—and he’d never longed for anything as much as this.
    He’d wait until she closed her eyes.
    They widened, instead, at the same time a commotion on the deck alerted him. Aviators shouted to each other, while Vashon trained her spyglass to the south.
    David looked out toward the ship. “What happened?”
    “The fluyt ran up a flag,” Annika told him. “They’re asking for help.”
    A puff of smoke appeared at the fluyt’s side. Another. Behind the ship, two geysers of water erupted.
    Annika’s mouth dropped. “Did they fire their cannons?”
    “Yes,” David said, watching.
    Men scrambled on the decks. The cannons blasted again. What were they shooting at? He searched the rolling waves behind the ship. No other vessels…just an enormous shadow on the water.
    He glanced up. Aside from Phatéon , the skies were clear of airships. Not a shadow, then. Something under the water. Something huge—four times the length of the cargo ship.
    Impossible.
    David shook his head, looked again. His estimate had to be wrong, or his perception of the depth and distance was. The shadow followed directly behind the ship’s tail. “How long is a fluyt?”
    “Sixty feet or so. What are you seeing? What are they firing at?”
    A megalodon? But he’d never heard of those giant sharks approaching this size. Only krakens, yet they were all south of the equator.
    “I don’t know, but—”
    A whale. The massive squared head burst up out of the water, dwarfing the fluyt. Heavy jaws yawned open. Masts snapped, sails crumpling. The monster engulfed the cargo ship in a single bite.
    Annika shrieked, clapped her hands over her mouth. The shouts from Phatéon ’s deck echoed David’s own disbelief. Impossible. The jaws clamped shut. The head submerged, followed by the sleek back of the long body as it dove.
    The fluyt was gone. A thick swell rolled out from the site, the edges of the water churning.
    Annika’s breath came in gasps. “Was that a whale?”
    “A machine,” David said, then repeated it as Vashon appeared at the side, looking over with a stunned expression. “It was a machine, Captain. A steel submersible.”
    The biggest one he’d ever seen or heard of.
    “The megalodons have steel armor,” Vashon said.
    “Not armor made of square plates.”
    “A submersible, then. Pirates?”
    “I didn’t