Imperial Clock (The Steam Clock Legacy) (32 page)

Cranking
the hydraulic spring mechanism on your belt panel decided how much velocity you could generate. To aim, you adjusted the telemetry by raising or lowering your fly arm
before
you began the cranking. Then the S shape was locked. The rest was about body position. When you were ready to shoot, you gripped the handle located at your hip and pressed the trigger. The jolt of release knocked her off balance until she learned to widen her stance.

You caught the ball with padded
leather glove. Donnelly was a good catcher. Meredith? Not so good. But her strength lay in her aim. Straight-shot duelling involved a kind of cat and mouse battle of wits, using obstacles such as trees or bushes to sneak up your opponent and fire at him. The first hit won. Ideally duellists were supposed to wear padded jackets, and use balls that left an undeniable mark—coated with dye, say—but Donnelly had only brought soft balls. He won the first three duels, whereafter Meredith beat him every time, her aim improving dramatically with each shot. She suspected he let her win, but she milked the victories nonetheless.

When it was time for him to leave, he collapsed her harness and belt and packe
d them, along with all her fly-mech accessories, into a special wooden valise he’d had inscribed with her initials.

“
Thank you. That’s lovely.”

He kissed her cheek wit
h such simple honesty it almost made her cry. She knew it was a farewell kiss, and she couldn’t face losing another treasured person from her life today. “Just remember, safety first,” he said.

“
Yes.”

“
Good, good. Well then, I’m off. I’ve a new client pestering me six ways from Sunday—the sooner I crack the case, the sooner she stops cracking the whip. Take care of yourself, Meredith.”

“
Donnelly?”

“
Hmm?”

“
Will you call on me sometime? Just to see how I’m getting on? I’d hate for us to be strangers.”

The contents of his own bag clattered as he slung it over his shoulder. “
Don’t you worry about that. It’s not every day a private investigator gets out-meddled by his own client, even if she did go and stir up a bleedin’ hornet’s nest. If there’s any further word from Scotland Yard about you-know-what, I’ll be sure to pass that along. And if you ever need my help, for anything, I’ll be there.”

“
Thank you.”

“
Look after yourself, Lady Skyhawk. Give my regards to Swanny when you see her.”

“
I will. And my best to your family.”

With that they parted
. Meredith’s vision misted as she watched him leave.

After wiping her eyes,
she went straight back to her apartment to drink as much sherry as she could until she passed out or her world was set to rights again, whichever came first.

S
he didn’t get that chance. Another gentleman caller was waiting on the front step outside her apartment. He spun a letter in his hands, and leapt to his feet, startled, when he recognised her in her new attire. He’d grown rather dashing since the last time she’d seen him, and was well-groomed to boot.

The gentleman was
William Elgin. The letter was from her father.

My dearest Meredith,

Forgiv
e me for not writing to you directly. The official courier channels are being watched, and I would not have my whereabouts known to anyone outside the expedition, save Messrs Sorensen, Elgin, and Tangeni, whom you will by now have guessed I hold in the highest regard. I trust no other to deliver this letter to you, and nor have I disclosed any geographical names in it. Suffice it to say my fellow travellers and I have arrived at our remote destination, though not without considerable hardships—two of our number were killed by natives en route, and a further five have contracted a wicked, though thankfully curable, fever.

There is every indication that our way into Subterranea remains unchanged since the last expedition. If all goes as planned,
we shall have begun our descent by the time you read this. It is a most remarkable thing, to be faced by the ancient perils of this vast, unexplored underworld and yet, even as I look upon our light-starved point of ingress, to feel somehow at home. As it was the last time, the closer I venture to the secret I am certain lies deep within, the closer I feel to your mother, whose very essence exists all around me here. If I should find a civilisation in Subterranea, she will have led me there. And if not, I will return until I find it. This I have sworn.

How are you, Meredith? Word has reached me that you
’ve moved to London for a spell. I’m glad you’re spreading your wings, my dear, and hope you find it exciting there. But I worry for your safety when the inevitable civil unrest spills on to the streets as a result of several radical political reforms the Leviacrum is said to be pushing through Parliament. You may have heard of them by now. The first is a mandate for military conscription to be effected whenever the powers-that-be deem it warranted, and not, as was previously the case, only during wartime.

Consider the implications of that. Anyone
, man or woman, can be called into service at any time, answerable only to whomever is pulling the strings of power. It is the most radical move yet by the Leviacrum Council, which there can be no doubt now controls the empire itself. It will make slaves of us all before it is finished, and its scientific “utopia” will spread to all corners of the globe. I fear Subterranea may soon be the last free realm anywhere, and therefore when the time is right, should I find a hidden civilisation, I will have no choice but to warn it of the danger of intercourse with the world above.

I would not tell you any of this in a letter we
re my concerns for your safety not urgent. My advice is to return to Southsea as soon as you are able. From there at least you will be able to gauge the happenings in London from a place of safe remove, and take whatever action is necessary to avoid the shockwaves that will surely spread.

Listen to your Aunt Lily; she speaks for me on all matters. Learn from Lady Catarina, who has been a good friend to your mother and I for years, and
who knows a great deal more than I about London and its politics. And finally, be supportive of your sister during this important time for her. I like Derek Auric very much from what I’ve seen and heard of him, and whatever happens between them, they have my deepest blessings.

Have you found anyone in London, Meredith? I think
of it often, and I’m confident you will find happiness when you least expect it. Somewhere out there is a young man worthy of my lovely eldest daughter. Will he have the courage to declare himself, I wonder?

The sun is
starting to set here, and we have to see to the camp’s defences before nightfall. So I must leave you here, with the promise to return home sometime next year. Whatever the outcome of my expedition, seeing my two brave daughters again will have made it all worthwhile.

With love, always
—

From
Subterranea,

Father

P.S. It is probably best that you destroy this letter after reading, lest unsavoury eyes discover it.

Their taxi made its turn onto
Cromwell Road as she refolded the letter after reading it for the third time. She stuffed it in the inside pocket of her coat. London’s Natural History Museum loomed ahead. Though dwarfed by the more popular and newly expanded Science Museum, the NHM held Britain’s most famous exhibit, the giant baryonyx, which was the focus of this month’s gala exhibition. A red carpet laid over the stone steps up to the NHM’s entrance was packed with ticket holders, a few hundred at least, while massive red and brown banners flapping from the upper balcony read, A PREHISTORIC JOURNEY—Brave the
Real
Perils of the Age of the Dinosaurs. Ticket Holders Only. Parental Caution Advised.

William
paid the driver and escorted Meredith to the back of the queue. Wherever she turned, quizzical gazes leeched her rebellious glow until she’d rather they look elsewhere and ignore her bold new apparel altogether. But they didn’t stop looking, and after a while she stopped looking to see who was looking. She engaged William instead, who hadn’t said much since inviting her here from her front step. “Did you know my sister’s engaged to be married?”

“
No. No, I didn’t.” He seemed genuinely surprised. “Is it to her teacher—the one from the Steam Fair?”

“
It is. Derek Auric’s his name. He recently won a prestigious apprenticeship in the Leviacrum tower.”

“
I know.”

“
How do you know?”

The qu
eue started advancing, so tightly packed that everyone had to take penguin steps or else clip the heels of the person in front. Meredith and William relinquished their tickets at the door and he led her inside, following the course of the carpet but at an appreciable distance from the crowd. He stopped under the windows, where he finally answered her question at a whisper: “I know all about you and Sonja, and what happened to you in the Atlas tunnels the other night.”

She considered him for a moment, his ac
quaintances, the fact that Father had entrusted him with her letter. “You’re Coalition, aren’t you.”

He disguised his affirmation by nodding up at the flying reptile exhibits, enormous monsters with
elongated beaks and wing-spans of about forty feet. A flash of recognition seemed to make him shudder. He looked away. “Welcome aboard, Miss McEwan.”

“
Don’t be glib. I know very well I was to blame for what happened, and I know they can never forgive me. But are they truly all right—Aunt Lily and Cathy?”

“
Safe and both on the mend. They’re both important players in the social scene in London, so the Leviacrum Council has gone to great lengths to look after them. Your aunt’s an absolute master at recruiting new talent, and so is Lady Catarina. They can sniff out a person’s loyalties from across the room, or so I’m told. Which is why they’re never away from social functions.”

“
I see. And while they’re ostensibly recruiting talent for the Leviacrum, they’re really creating Coalition agents, spies?”

“
Exactly,” he said. “And those agents might not even know they’re Coalition agents. They go about their Leviacrum business, maybe working their way up the hierarchy, and all the while their every move is followed, their telephone conversations recorded, their contacts put under surveillance, etcetera.”

“
A grubby little business.”

“
Yes, and it works both ways, of course. The Leviacrum has infiltrated the Coalition from the beginning as well. We don’t know how high up they’ve reached. But it’s doubtful they have anyone as successful as your aunt, or Cathy. When you turned up that night, they were guests of the first eight of that particular sect, invited to sit in on the monthly meeting, to discuss recruitment. People like Connorwyle Denton, Sybil Aames, John Patrick Smythe, Ardet Ibn Zishan: all noted high-ups in the Atlas organisation, almost members of Council itself. Now they’re all dead, and Cathy and your aunt had a narrow escape. Your little stunt has had the rats investigating their own maze, trying to figure out how the raiders got in, who told them how to get in. You’re certain no one saw your face?”

“
No one who still lives.” Her turn to shudder.

“
You cut your hands and feet on the glass, didn’t you?”

“
Yes. Why?”

“
It’s nothing. They have samples of your blood, that’s all. From the carpet as you were leaving, the walls of the stairwell, and from the magnetic sled. They know someone fled the fight that way. For all they know, it was a bunch of raiders. But they’re now extremely paranoid about any documents that may have been stolen. One item in particular—”

“
Denton’s device, the miniature document reader. You can have it if you like. Cathy only gave it me to keep safe, and I haven’t even looked at it. I promise.”

“
Don’t be so jumpy. We’re on the same side, remember? I’ll escort you to your apartment later—you can give it to me then.”

“
You’re welcome. But just so you know, you’d be jumpy, too, Billy boy, if you’d been through what I went through.”

“
I dare say.”

She stepped in front of him
. “I dare say,
I dare say
? Who are you trying to be now? One minute you’re from Manchester, the next it’s Norway, now you’re a full-blown toff. Make up your mind!”

“
Sshh!
”

“
Don’t you
sshh
me.”

Taking her by the arm, he grunted and said, “
Come with me,” before finding them a place in the busy thoroughfare. “The pterosaurs up there are called Hatzegopteryx.”

“
Huh? Oh yes, I almost forgot, you were there to see firsthand—”