The Old Firm: A Steampunk Tale

V

     Rebecca lifted her skirt in both hands as she made her way across the empty rails to join Maureen as she wrote in her notebook. The twisted border gates hung twisted and cracked from their rollers, the mighty gears that powered them broken and shattered, strewn about from the force of the blast. The wind whipped Maureen's brown hair about her face as she worked her skirts tight to her legs.

     "Definitely not the work of Welsh Separatists," Maureen said as she tucked her notebook into her purse.

     John was off on a hilltop his array of optics out as Stefania helped him assemble them.

     "I don't see why we were called in for this," Stefania said her accent more pronounced when she was concentrating on other tasks. "This is a job for the Blackguards."

     "Politics m'dear. Too many of the Blackguards have connections to the  Scotia Nostra. You've seen the broadsheets. Their pets in the High Command are screaming for blood while pressuring the more level headed staff. They even have their whipping boys in parliament brewing up a storm of hot air." John shook his head and raised his optics to his eyes peering over the border into Britannia.

     "Lots of nervous people down there," Rebecca said as she and Maureen topped the hill and joined John and Stefania. 

     John chuckled. "As long as no one gets a twitchy finger in a pod everything will be fine. he handed the optics over to Rebecca who began to scan the sky.

     "No Air Patrol's on either side I see," she said after a few moments.

 

     "Too risky, both governments pulled them back, all too easy to drift across a border and cause an incident." 

     "None of this makes any sense, " Stefania muttered. 'An empty train, no note taking responsibility, what type of organization does that?"

     "A smart one that's for sure,John said. "Makes our job that much harder." He squinted peering over the border. 

     Maureen looked about. 'Do you hear that?"

     "I don't hear anything," john and Stefania both said looking to Maureen Johns head cocked as he listened.

     "There," she pointed to a bank of cottony clouds towards Edinburgh. "Sounds like engines."

     "Rebecca swung the optics around and peered into them. 'I see something," she finally said. 'It's big whatever it is."

  To Be Continued............