Airships: The Job at Hand

Everything happened at once. Gladstone passed out the grappling hooks, connected to long coils of rope. She took it, weighed it for a moment and tossed it in a gently curving arc over the gunwales of the _Clear Air Turbulence_. Others followed; roughly half of them including hers caught on the first go. She busied herself making the rope fast to the nearest cleat.

She looked up and caught sight of Hawkeye talking with the captain and a few others she didn't recognise. Wearing an armoured version of his usual coat and a carbine slung over his back, he suddenly looked very different. A lot more serious, and much more dangerous.

He looked away from the captain and glanced at her when she approached.

"I'm going with them," she announced.

Gladstone made some kind of protest, but Hawkeye cut through it, declaring: "She comes. She can handle herself."