Changes in the Wind - Part III: Gordon and the Extinct Ones

Chapter 10: Treachery

Thomas looked carefully at the buildings around him, they were not dark at all compared to the yards he was at previously on the mainland. They looked quite unique. Gale began to slow down in front of him and he did the same, slowing. He looked over to Papyrus, he looked to be very tensed up and on edge. Thomas did not blame him though, he had been through a lot, Gordon told him to keep an eye on him though. From what Thomas had heard, Papyrus could very well turn away from them or betray BoCo or Gale. Thomas would not allow that to happen. They continued down the line and reached the entrance to the depot. Immediately, they were greeted by diesels. They are looked confused by the presence of BoCo and Gale, with a tank engine and a tender engine. But they allowed them through nonetheless, only eyeing them intensely as they passed. Thomas looked around, more and more diesels appeared and as they soon reached the middle of the depot, Thomas could see a massive diesel in front. It looked to be one of the deltics. A massive beast this was. The deltic watched as the four came up to him, all now on individual lines, they stopped together as they faced the deltic.

"D9016," greeted Gale, "or would you like to prefer to be called Highlander?"

"D9016 at the moment," replied the deltic, "but I will still call you Gale, old friend."

"Old friend?" whispered BoCo.

"I get around," replied Gale, he then ventured forward, "D9016, you must know why I am here."

"To join you on your failed attempt at saving steam engines?" quizzed D9016, a small smile on his face, "we already had this conversation, dear friend."

"Yes... well... this is different," said Gale, the Deltic raised his brow with interest, allowing the diesel to proceed, "we have organised an attack on the yards where most of the Warclaws lay. But we need your help, there might not be enough for us to distract them from the main objective."

"And that is?"

"Save the captured steam engines there."

The diesels surrounding them all muttered under their breath on the issue. "Do you have proof of this?" asked D9016 curiously.

"I went there and they are holding engines, hostages," interjected BoCo, "I assure you, they are not killing steam engines, they are holding them hostage."

"To most likely be used as bait," added D9016, "please, they know if they hoard a large number of steam engines there, they will most likely use them as bait to capture other steam engines who are dumb enough to after them."

"Dumb?" fumed Papyrus, "we are not dumb, we want to help them!"

D9016 just glanced at the Pacific. "Ahh yes, you must be Papyrus, the runaway Pacific, smuggling steam engines across the country," he said, "pleasure to meet you in person."

"Cannot say the same with you," Papyrus said darkly, "what is to say you haven't called the Warclaws to our location to come and kill us?"

A laugh then burst out of the deltic, Papyrus' brow lowered and the other three engines looked to D9016 with concerned expressions. "No, we're not like you steam engines here," he said, "we would never do that, we just let you get on your merry way and we live our lives without getting involved."

"Not like us steam engines?" Papyrus seethed, his teeth gritting hard against each other, "what do you mean by that?"

"Well... it was said in the news that steam engines blew up a shed full of diesels a couple of nights ago," said D9016, he eyed Papyrus suspiciously, "you might know anything about that?"

Papyrus glared, but his teeth stopped gritting and he subsided, looking away. Gale, who was glaring at Papyrus the entire time, looked back at D9016. "I know steam engines have not treated us as well as we wished they did," he said, "but we have not been better either. All we can do is help them. Actions speak louder than words."