Фил Фоглио - Agatha H. and the Siege of Mechanicsburg

Agatha touched the locket at her throat. Tarvek guessed at her thoughts and put his hand atop hers. “Don’t even think about letting Lucrezia out. She lied about this for so long, I doubt that I could get her to recant just because I could show her I knew she was lying. She’d just take it as a challenge”

“So . . . ” Agatha stared at the shimmering Castle. Glowing red spots were beginning to appear again throughout the structure. She had a sinking feeling every one of them was something important. “So Lucrezia is the one who damaged the Castle? But she was one of its masters. It was the main thing protecting her and her . . . ” Agatha remembered the tiny tombstone she had seen in the crypts. The one that purportedly held the bones of her infant brother.17 She stared at Tarvek. “She wouldn’t have killed her own child, would she?”

Tarvek gently placed a hand on Agatha’s shoulder. “It certainly hasn’t slowed her down as far as you’re concerned.” He

glanced back at the still glowing model. “But I wonder what really happened there?”

Sleipnir stared at Theo in annoyance. “Theo! Please! You have to move Von Pinn!”

“Impossible!” Theo briefly stepped back from the jumble of equipment and snagged a hypodermic needle. “She is prepped and ready! I can’t just disconnect her and then hook her back up like a set of toy trains! It shouldn’t be much longer.” He glanced up at the ceiling as a few small bits of debris pattered down about him. “The others will be back soon, and then we can complete the transfer.”

Sleipnir stamped her foot. “But I’m telling you, the ceiling is unstable! It could collapse at any moment!”

Theo nodded. “That is why you are over there. Out of harm’s way.”

Sleipnir furiously jerked at the shackle that bound her wrist to the wall. She couldn’t believe how easily Theo had suckered her into it. “If you die, I’ll hate you forever you selfish pig!”

A larger shard fell and shattered at Theo’s feet. “Good,” he growled. “Hate me for years and years and years!”

A faint rolling rumble sounded from somewhere distant and began to grow. Sleipnir felt panic slice through her. “NO! THEO! Get away!”

The rumbling grew louder and a faint vibration could be felt. Theo stared upwards. “It-it’s not the ceiling,” he yelled back. “What could cause—?”

Sleipnir screamed. “It’s over here! It’s coming for me!” She stared up into the blackness of the secret stairwell. The noise was growing louder by the second. It sounded like an avalanche of ironmongery. “It’s coming down the stairs!”

“Sleipnir!” In a flash, Theo was at her side. Frantically he jammed the key into the shackle’s lock and tried to turn it, but the vibration and the noise was stronger here, washing over them. He enveloped Sleipnir in his arms and slammed her against the wall as the great mechanical security clank roared past them like a golden locomotive, steam pouring out as it spun about to a gentle halt.

Frдulein Snaug rode on its back, squealing with delight and squeezing its other occupant, von Zinzer, tightly from behind. When the great clank had stopped, she bounced down to the ground and took in a great lungful of air before whooping: “That was so much fun!”

A faint wheeze from von Zinzer was the only indication the frozen man was actually still alive.

No longer panicking, Theo quickly freed Sleipnir and they stared at the great metal construct with awe. It looked like a giant cat over two meters tall. A cat covered in decorative metal plates with wicked-looking spikes on all its joints. A pair of huge red eyes glowed above a mouth of dagger teeth. The great head swiveled towards them and grinned to show them off.

Theo and Sleipnir stepped back. “Agatha really wants us to load Von Pinn into this?’

Snaug patted the great clank’s head. “Yeah!”

“Has she seen it? Now that it’s moving around, it seems . . . bigger?”

“Oh, it is,” Snaug admitted cheerfully. “And they gave it more teeth. It’s all ready to go.” She banged the side of the clank’s head again, and it tipped forward. Now they could see that—where a small cognitive enginette would normally reside—a gang of Agatha’s helper clanks crowded together, operating a makeshift control panel. They waved at Theo who, in response, looked bemused.

Snaug continued. “All you have to do is disconnect this external control panel, hook your patient into the blank enginette inside, and presto!” She waved her hand, airily dismissing several technical hurdles and one outright Abomination of Science18 with the blithe casualness of one who associates with sparks far more than is good for them.

Theo nodded slowly and then, with more enthusiasm: “Yes, I see. Well done! Very elegant!” He clapped his hands. “Let’s get started!” A slight whimper caught his attention and he glanced up. “Um, Herr von Zinzer? You can let go now.”

The man slowly looked at him. “Nyrrrrg,” he growled through clenched teeth.

Theo nodded amicably. “Ooorrr not.”

Snaug tapped Sleipnir on the shoulder. “How do you think the patient will handle the change?”

Sleipnir looked at her blankly.

“Psychologically, I mean,” Snaug said patiently. She gestured towards the recumbent Von Pinn. “She’s been in her current form all these years and now you’re putting her mind inside a giant tiger clank with steel claws instead of hands.”

Sleipnir considered this. “An interesting consideration, but given the similarities, I think it quite likely that Mistress Von Pinn won’t notice much of a difference.”

Snaug blinked, then looked at Von Pinn askance. “Ooh, you people are fun.” She grinned.

Her reverie was broken by the entrance of Mittelmind and Mezzasalma, who had chosen a statelier method of descending the stairs. “My, my!” Mittelmind said approvingly. “This does look like an interesting setup.”

Mezzasalma sniffed. “Rather modest, as secret lairs go.”19

Theo hurried up. “Ah! Herr Doktor! Professor! I wondered where you were.”

“We did have to see to poor Professor Diaz. That adventuress killed him.”

Theo paused. “Oh . . . I’m so sorry. The loss of your friend must be—”

Mittelmind waved a hand. “He helped make us the men we are today.”

Mezzasalma nodded. “He’d have done the same to us.”

Theo paused. “Wait—to?”

Mittelmind grinned at his colleague. “He did do the same to you. Remember? That time you were knocked out?”

“And now it’s back,” Mezzasalma huffed righteously. “The nerve of the man! That was my favorite pancreas!”

Theo sighed. “Come, gentlemen, we have a delicate procedure to undertake and I require your assistance. Let us focus on the matter to hand.”

Agatha removed a jeweler’s loupe from her eye and sat back with a satisfied “ah-ha!” The map shimmered before her.

Tarvek looked up from where he lay face down, peering down through the glass at the mechanism below. “Found something?”

“I hope so. You know those lines we think represent the Castle’s nervous system analog?”

“I know the lines you mean. It would be easier to be sure if the thing wasn’t so blurry.”

“After sixteen-some-odd years without maintenance, you’d be a bit blurry too. That’s why we’re here to fix it. Anyway, one of the main ones runs right through this library.”

“That certainly makes sense. So where is it in actuality?”

Agatha got up and headed towards one of the book-covered walls. “If I’m reading it correctly, there’s a hidden room. Several of them, actually, but the one we want now is here.” She waved her hands. “—ish.”

Tarvek rolled his eyes. “Great. All we have to do is figure out where an evil, paranoid genius would put the access to a secret room that protects his family’s greatest secrets.”