Agatha H. and the Airship City

CHAPTER 10

Lilith went white. “Klaus!” Adam set Agatha down and moved forward. Klaus saw him and his brows lowered. “Punch?” Without taking his eyes off of the little group he snapped out orders. “Contain them, and find my son!” Several of the guards began to spread out, and a small squad raced off, no doubt to try to encircle the three. The others began to move forward, but the Baron checked them with an upraised hand. Agatha noticed that he was dirty, and that his clothes were torn; with surprise, she saw that his left hand was bandaged. Another part of her mind took note of the fact that she was shocked that he could be injured. The rest of the group had obviously been through a tough ordeal. Many were injured, and all looked weary.

“Something very odd is going on here,” Klaus muttered.

Lilith swallowed. “Klaus, we—”

Suddenly a lone Jägermonster pushed its way forward until it was right behind the Baron. A distant memory was obviously fighting its way to the surface of its mind. “Vait! Meester Ponch?”

Without hesitation, Klaus backfisted the Jäger in the face and it dropped to the ground unconscious. “Damn! He’ll be a problem.” To the others he said, “Seal the area, and keep the Jägers out of here.”

At this point Agatha didn’t know what was happening, but thought to correct things before they got further out of hand. “Herr Baron,” she piped up, “there’s been some sort of a mistake. These are my parents: Adam and Lilith Clay.”

Klaus nodded slowly. “Punch and Judy. So you’re the unfindable Clays. This explains so much. But the girl—she’s not your real daughter.”

“She’s just an orphan we took in,” Lilith interjected.

“I’m sure she is. Lucrezia and Bill’s, I imagine. Or is she a surprise from Barry’s past?”

Agatha blinked. It almost sounded like the Baron knew her parents. He must be confused. They’d had many a laugh around the dinner table about the coincidence of the names—

A shriek caught them all by surprise. A wild-eyed Von Pinn pushed her way to the fore. Klaus put up a hand to check her progress, and she glared at him while she panted in short, excited bursts. “Yes!” She spoke in a strained voice. Gone now was the controlled fury that Agatha had seen before. “She is the daughter of Lucrezia Mongfish! When first she came, she gave to me an order, which I obeyed without thinking!” She whipped her head around and glared at Agatha with unreadable emotions distorting her face. “That will not work again, Girl Agatha. Now you are mine!” She clutched at Klaus’ hand and, shockingly, pleaded with him. “She—Klaus, she is mine! Nothing have I ever asked, but now—!”

“Hold.” Klaus did not speak loudly, but Von Pinn instantly went silent, and returned to staring, quivering, at Agatha. The Baron closed his eyes, and pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Yesss… so she was the Spark in Beetleburg. It’s so obvious now.” He sighed. “I must be getting old.”

Lilith took a small step backward. “Klaus, we’re going to leave now.”

The Baron’s eyes snapped open. “Oh no. Not this time. Not without an explanation. I was gone for less than four years, and I came back to a world in ruins! Death, destruction, chaos—the endless fighting—it was like the Heterodyne Boys had never existed. Things were worse than ever.

“So I stopped it. And I did it my way this time. No more negotiating, no more promises, no more second chances. Rule by conquest and peace by intimidation because that was all the geniuses I dealt with could understand. And I did it alone because I had to. All my friends and companions were gone, gone without a trace! I thought them all dead and gone and no one even knew what happened to them—and now here you are, the Heterodyne Boys’ steadfast companions. I had considered us mutual friends; I had always thought of you as people, decent people, and yet you’ve obviously been hiding from me for all these years.

“Well, I will find out why you were hiding from me. I will find out where the Heterodyne Boys went and I will find out what else you have been hiding from me, because I assure you, you will tell me.”

Lilith glowered. “You always could play to the gallery, Klaus, but Barry came back.”

Klaus sighed. “Wonderful. More puzzles. Apparently that’s supposed to worry me?” He waved a hand dismissively. “Soon enough. Katz!” A Lackya stepped forward. “Have these people locked up—In separate quarters. I want them guarded by at least two guards each around the clock.” Klaus frowned. “And not by the Jägers; in fact they’re not to know of this until I’ve sorted this mess out.”

Katz nodded. The door swung open. Everyone tensed, but the only one there was Bangladesh DuPree. She was obviously trying to keep herself from laughing about something. “Hey, Klaus,” she announced, “we found your boy! Babbling a bit, but that’s pretty normal. Get this—Says his fiancée knocked him out.”

Few announcements could have broken Klaus’ concentration, but this certainly appeared to be one of them. “His what?”

He spun about in time to see Agatha wearily rest her face in her hands. He went white. “Ah,” he said a trifle unsteadily. “I see that history repeats itself. That will stop—”

Again DuPree interrupted. “Hey! That’s her!”

Klaus tensed. “Explain.”

Bangladesh waved towards Agatha. “That girl I told you about. The one in my Phenomena Log, the one with Gil and the Geisterdamen. That’s her!”

“Worse and worse! All right, in addition to being confined, this girl is to be kept sedated—”

With a hollow sound, the head of the Lackya standing next to Klaus snapped back and the guard dropped to the deck.

In the next second, a small object tore through the Baron’s leg. He roared with pain and dropped to one knee. Almost simultaneously, another object glanced off of Boris’ skull and knocked the wind out of Bangladesh, sending them down.

A brief pause as Adam poured another handful of rivets into his immense hand. Lilith touched his arm. “I’ll get Agatha out of here. Meet us at the dock.” Adam absentmindedly blew her a small kiss as, in the space of half a second, six more rivets flew to their targets, taking out one of the giant battle clanks, a Radiohead, and three crewmen. The only surprise was Von Pinn, who coolly plucked the rivet out of the air and dropped it to her feet. Before it hit the deck, Adam had sent another dozen at her. She darted forward, her arms blurring into invisibility as she successfully deflected them all, but this did prevent her from being able to stop Adam himself, who, moving like a juggernaut, caught her with a roundhouse blow to the jaw that snapped her head to one side. But even as her ruby-red monocle flew back, her arms whipped upwards and grasped Adam’s arm. Adam tried to recoil and he blinked as his arm remained where it was. With that, Von Pinn flashed him a toothy grin of triumph, and effortlessly tore his arm free from its socket.

Adam stared in shock as a gout of purplish fluid pulsed from his shoulder, then he gasped as Von Pinn tossed his arm aside and then swung back and punched her hand through his chest, crushing his spasming heart in her grasp before tossing it to the deck.

Adam blinked, then his eyes rolled up into his head and he pitched forward. Agatha found herself screaming until a hand grabbed her arm and brutally dragged her up to Lilith’s terrifyingly calm face. “Go.” Her voice was as calm as her face. “Get to Castle Heterodyne. It will help you.”

Before Agatha could respond, she felt herself flung upwards. She caught a brief glimpse of Von Pinn centimeters away from Lilith, who was smiling calmly. “We love you!” She called out, “Now run!”

Agatha arced upwards and sailed over the railing of the balcony that circled the room. To her astonishment, she saw a huddled mass of wide-eyed figures, onto which she landed. Desperately she clawed her way back to the railing, in time to see Von Pinn finish ripping Lilith to bloody bits. Just as Agatha realized what she was seeing, Von Pinn’s head snapped towards her with a glare that burned its way into her memory, where it resurfaced in nightmares for several years to come. Upon seeing Agatha, Von Pinn shrieked, “MINE!” and darted out of the room.

A hand dropped onto Agatha’s shoulder, causing her to scream in terror, but it was only Theo DuMedd. She realized that the figures were, in fact, the other students who were staring at her. It was Hezekiah who broke the silence. “We’d better get out of here!” He glanced back over the balcony at the mess below, and took Agatha’s other arm. “Now!”

Agatha shook herself free. “But I have to—”

A number of the others began to speak up, when a commanding voice cut through the babble. “Move! Or their deaths will be wasted!”

Everyone turned in surprise, and there, poised regally before them atop a canister, was Krosp. “Follow me,” he ordered. “I can take you to the airship that the constructs used to get here. Now hurry!” With that he leapt to the ground and strode off. Unhesitatingly, Agatha moved, and with the briefest of pauses, the rest quickly followed.

It was Z who felt he had to state the obvious. “It’s a talking cat.”

Theo shrugged. “Well, we’re in a Heterodyne story now. These things happen.” The others nodded.

“Hey, Theo,” Nicodeamus realized, “she’s your cousin!”

Theo stumbled. “Wow. I never had any family before.” He considered this briefly. “I mean that wasn’t dead, or missing, or a head in a jar or something.”

Meanwhile at the front of the crowd, Agatha was trying to cope with the events of the last few minutes. “Lilith! She—”

“Focus!” Krosp roared over his shoulder.

Agatha swallowed and nodded. “I… I don’t know how to fly an airship.”

“Well, you’re in luck. I do.” He frowned. “I’ll need something to stand on, though.”

Agatha’s brain gratefully seized the memory that bubbled up. “The airship manual—and the controls laid out on the floor. Those were yours?”

“Yes. I think I have everything memorized, so it wasn’t that big a setback.”

Agatha glanced back over her shoulder at the crowd following. Hezekiah puffed along behind her, a disbelieving grin on his face. Agatha dropped back slightly so she was running alongside him. “So what are you guys doing here?”

“We came to help you and Gil. We sure didn’t expect this,” he admitted. “You’re a Heterodyne heir. Wow!”

Agatha shrugged. “Even if it’s true, it doesn’t change—”

“Don’t be even more absurd,” Zulenna interrupted. It was obvious from her face that the girl was almost as upset by the day’s events as Agatha. “It changes everything. The Heterodynes saved my family’s lands. Designed our defenses. When he incorporated our lands into the Empire, the Baron had to treat us with respect. We would have been another backwater former monarchy without their help.” Zulenna sighed. “Whereas you yourself have done nothing; many of those who owe your family will feel obligated to support you. This could be a problem if you are not under the Baron’s direct control. Arguably, to best preserve the stability of the Pax Transylvania, perhaps you should—”

“Naughty children!” The voice sent chills down their spines, and without conscious volition, the group stumbled to a halt. Filling the corridor behind them was the figure of Von Pinn, who glided forward. “Stop this at once,” she hissed. “Bring me the Agatha girl.”

The group was frozen until Zulenna suddenly stepped forward and, with a whisper, drew the rapier from the scabbard at her waist. Without looking back at the group she ordered them, “Go! I’ll hold her off!”

Theo blinked. “Zulenna, what are you--”

“My family owes her family. Everything that I am dictates that I do this. Now GO!”

“Good luck,” Krosp offered. “Now move!” With that the group reluctantly ran off. Seeing this, Von Pinn flowed forward impossibly fast, but found herself blocked in the narrow corridor by Zulenna’s sword. She reared up. “Get out of my way, child.”

Zulenna’s hand shook slightly, but her voice remained firm. “You talk a good game, Madam, but you’ve never actually hurt any of us. Don’t make me hurt you.”

Vonn Pinn made a few lightning fast swipes at Zulenna’s sword, but was unable to grab it. “You cannot hurt me, but I will hurt you in order to pass.”

“Then that is what you will have to do.”

Von Pinn screamed and lunged forward. Zulenna retreated slightly and slashed at Von Pinn’s face. The construct flinched. “I am charged with your safety. I do not want to hurt you!” she muttered.

A friendly hand dropped onto her shoulder. Von Pinn spun and found Bangladesh at her side with a sympathetic look sitting incongruously on her face. “Kids, huh? What are you gonna do?” She patted the construct’s leather-clad shoulder. “Let me take care of this.”

“You must not—”

Bangladesh raised a hand in reassurance. “Relax. I ain’t gonna hurt her. I’ll just get her out of the way.” With that she strode forward, a gleaming cutlass weaving idle figures in the air. “Hi, girlie, let’s play!”

Zulenna brought her sword up, but clearly was unsure how to handle DuPree’s casual advance. “I’m warning you—”

Bangladesh smiled. “Say, that’s mighty nice of you.” Her cutlass flicked out and Zulenna barely intercepted it in time. Bangladesh continued to walk forward, casually engaging the girl in a lightning fast series of moves. She spoke conversationally. “And really, a lot of people would consider you pretty good.” With that, she brought her sword down from above. Zulenna raised her arm to block it, allowing Bangladesh to step forward and deftly sink a slim dagger into the girl’s breast with her other hand.

Zulenna froze and stared at the spreading patch of red on her shirt. DuPree sighed and patted her shoulder. “But you know, I’m a Pirate Queen. I do this for a living. Adios, kid.” With that, Zulenna’s eyes rolled up into her head and she slumped to the ground. Bangladesh pirouetted around her as she fell, and grinned back at Von Pinn. “See? She never felt a thing. Now let’s get the rest of them. This is fun!”

Von Pinn screamed and launched herself forward, claws extended.

For a fraction of a second, a look of surprise crossed Bangladesh’s face, then she fell back laughing. “Oh yeah! Better and better!” Moving like a dancer, she swiveled and cut at the enraged construct as Von Pinn roared past her. The sword cut through the leather and a deep gash appeared. “So big and scary,” DuPree taunted. “But you’ve got no teeth when it comes to the kids, hey? Well that’ll make it even more fun when I catch ‘em.”

Von Pinn snarled in pain, spun to a halt and examined the wound. A tiny part of DuPree’s brain offered up the observation that Von Pinn seemed more annoyed about the damage to her outfit than the large cut into her flesh. “Aw, does that hurt?”

Von Pinn swiveled her head towards Bangladesh, and the captain felt her smile falter. “Pain does not bother me.” She slowly swayed forward and extended a hand toward Bangladesh. “I live with it.”

Bangladesh raised her cutlass. Von Pinn continued to reach forward. She jabbed towards the construct’s hand. With a sudden move, Von Pinn impaled her own hand upon the sword. DuPree was shocked and froze as Von Pinn drove her hand down the length of the sword until she could grasp the guard. “I use pain. Cultivate it.” Effortlessly she squeezed and the sword guard crumpled, trapping DuPree’s hand within. “Shape it.” Delicate bones snapped within DuPree’s hand and she screamed. A leather-clad claw slapped over her nose and mouth, cutting off her breathing. She found herself face to face with a toothily grinning Von Pinn, who drew her close. “Ah-ah-ah—” she whispered. “Time for a lesson. A final lesson.” She began to tighten the hand covering the struggling captain’s face, and suddenly became aware of the slim dagger that DuPree was desperately trying to slide past the belts and buckles of her outfit and between her ribs. She grinned, but then both women were distracted by a small object arcing through the air and landing at their feet. They just had time to recognize the C-Gas canister for what it was when it went off, belching forth a cloud of thick gas that caused the two combatants to fall over unconscious.

The gas cleared quickly, and a shape loomed in the corridor. It was a combat clank. Its eyes broken by Adam’s rivet attack. In its arms it carried Baron Wulfenbach. Leg bandaged, and wearing a small facemask. A lapful of similar canisters clunked whenever the big clank moved. Klaus looked down at the three women and sighed in exasperation. “I’ll deal with you idiots later.” He addressed the clank carrying him. “Continue forward.”

The machine continued down the corridor. Behind the Baron, he heard running footsteps and a Lackya appeared at his elbow. “Herr Baron!” he inquired. “Are you—”

Klaus interrupted him. “I am fine. Scout ahead and—” A thought struck him. “No—wait. Back there with Von Pinn and DuPree—There was someone else.”

The Lackya nodded. “Ah. The Princess Zulenna. I checked them all, Herr Baron, and I regret to say that the princess appears to be dead.”

Klaus pounded his fist on his leg. “Damnation!” he snarled. “You will take the princess to my medical lab and place her in the cold room.”

The Lackya looked distressed. “You—The Baron would revive her? But she is—was a Royal. The Fifty Families expressly forbid—”

Klaus cut him off furiously. “The Fifty Families haven’t got the authority or the power to forbid me from doing anything. Zulenna was under my protection, and I don’t give a damn about their ridiculous games of succession.”

“But Herr Baron—The princess will.”

“That is her privilege. But she is the one who will choose her fate.”

The Lackya opened his mouth, and Klaus roared, “GO! You’re wasting time!”

The Lackya bowed, but could not resist adding, “I go, Herr Baron, but while the Royals have little obvious power, that which they do have, they use with deadly finesse. Beware.” With that, he swiveled about and set off at great speed.

The Baron frowned. “The Lackya are getting… argumentative.” He sighed and settled back into the arms of the clank. “It’s always something.”

“Herr Baron.” Klaus raised his eyebrows in surprise as a group of students appeared from around the edge of a doorway where they had been hiding. Sleipnir stepped forward. “Thank you for taking care of Zulenna, sir.”

Klaus looked uncomfortable. “Not a word about her revivification. We shall talk about this later. Now stand aside. I have—”

“No, Herr Baron.” It was Hezekiah who spoke up. He was sweating profusely, but stood tall. “You’re trying to capture

Agatha, yes?”

Sun Ming chimed in. “Please, just let her go.”

Hezekiah nodded. “She’s a good person, sir. She won’t cause trouble.”

“She didn’t even know she was a Spark.”

“Or a Heterodyne.”

Z looked at the Baron’s face. “But you aren’t going to let her go. Why?”

Klaus sighed. “Because you hardly know her and still you rally to her side, even in defiance of me. If all of you—who have studied under me for so long, and have the best chance of understanding what it is that I have built and how terribly fragile it is—will do so, imagine what the populace at large will do?”

The group of students looked at each other uncertainly, which was when Klaus slipped the mask over his face and activated a new canister of C-Gas. They dropped to the floor and the great clank delicately stepped over them.

“I think it time you all returned home,” he sighed. “Your use to me is ended. I can only hope you’ve learned your lessons.”

Agatha and Theo followed Krosp. Theo suddenly called out, “This isn’t the way to the docking bays! We’ve gotten turned around!”

Krosp paused. “No. I know where we are, but there’s someone we have to bring with us!” Again he took off, leaving Agatha and Theo no choice but to follow. Everywhere there were signs that things were not going well aboard the great airship. In every corridor, lights were flashing orange, and swarms of people were rushing about in a surprisingly orderly fashion.

“Krosp,” Agatha called out, “where are we going?”

“It’s Monday! He’ll be in the chemical locker,” Krosp replied unhelpfully. They reached a large door marked “CHEMICAL STORAGE & DISPOSAL LOCKER 55.”Krosp motioned to Theo. “Open it.”

Theo did. Inside were racks and racks of metal shelves, holding endless canisters and glass tubes. Halfway down the second aisle, the large, hulking figure of Dr. Dim pushed a small cart and delicately wielded a feather duster.

“Papa!” Krosp cried as he ran up and leapt up onto Dim’s cart. The man smiled at the sight of him, and patted his head.

“Hello, Krosp. Are you hungry?” He saw Agatha and DuMedd, and a guilty look crossed his face. “This is a good cat,” he said defensively.

Krosp patted his hand. “It’s all right, Papa. They’re friends. They are here to help us. It’s time for us to leave Castle Wulfenbach.”

Dimitri looked confused. “Leave? I don’t think we can do that.”

“Yes we can. I have a ship, I have a crew, and the Baron is distracted. We have to take this opportunity to escape.”

Dimitri took a step away from his cart and then stopped. Conflicting emotions played across his face. “But, I haven’t finished dusting.”

Krosp stared at him. “Forget the dusting, Papa. It’s not important. We’ve got to—”

The man slammed a hand down on the cart. “You forget yourself, cat.” His face was filled with a cold arrogance that Agatha had seen on any number of Sparks when their knowledge or competence had been questioned. “I am Dr. Dimitri Vapnoople!”

At this declaration, DuMedd started, and looked from the large man to Krosp, and Agatha could see connections being made.

Vapnoople continued: “The Baron assured me that I would continue to do important work. Work worthy of my genius! And I have done my work and I have heard no complaint! The Baron’s secretary saw me in the corridor last week, and do you know what he said to me? Do you? He said, ‘You are doing a good job.’ That’s what he said! To me!” At this, Vapnoople hunched over, grinned, and whispered, “And he still does not know that I continue my real work! Here! In the very heart of his own castle!”

Krosp glanced at Agatha and DuMedd and looked distressed.

“Yes, Papa, we know. But now we have to—”

“I have been constructing my armies! Here! Out of sight! And I have learned! I have learned from the Baron’s own books and laboratories! I have improved my work! Each creature I build is better! Much better than the last!”

Throughout this tirade, DuMedd had gotten more and more nervous. “Dr. Vapnoople was famous for creating intelligent animals,” he whispered to Agatha. “His armies of wolf/men controlled hundreds of square kilometers. It took the Baron almost three years to defeat him and capture them all.”

“And Wulfenbach killed them!” Vapnoople roared. “He absorbs all sorts of half-finished trash into his service, but my creations he said weren’t good enough! They had to die!”

“I believe, Herr Doctor,” Theo said carefully, “that the Baron judged them as being… too good at what they did. Plus he was unable to break their loyalty to you. They couldn’t accept a place in the Baron’s forces.”

A tear ran down Vapnoople’s face. “Yes. I always did know how to build in the loyalty, eh Krosp?” He ruffled the top of Krosp’s head. The cat’s ears were flattened, but he still leaned into the big man’s hand. “But I learned. Even at the beginning, when Wulfenbach was first engaging my glorious creations, I saw how it would go. I saw that I would have to do better the next time, and I have! BEHOLD!” With that he whipped open a small door in the cart and displayed a small patchwork bear made from rags. “My beautiful bears,” he crooned. He picked it up, and holding its little paws, made slashing and growling noises before putting it back in the cart. “They will overrun Wulfenbach and send his oversized castle crashing to the ground! And you—” He patted a slumped Krosp on the head. “You will lead them to glory!” He pointed to Agatha. “I remember her. She said she would help.”

Krosp and Agatha looked at each other.

Vapnoople picked up his duster. “And so you see why I cannot leave. Now, I must get back to my important work, so that the Baron does not suspect.” So saying, he turned away and, cackling occasionally, returned to cleaning.

Agatha gently put a hand on Krosp’s shoulder and whispered, “We have to go.”

Krosp addressed Vapnoople’s broad back. “I’ll come back for you, Papa. I’ll take you and… your bears and we’ll go somewhere safe. I promise you.”

Dr. Dimitri waved a hand without looking around. “I’ll save you a fish.”

Krosp was quiet. Several times DuMedd had to prod him to get him to tell them the correct turn to take, but quickly enough they opened a large door and found themselves in one of the hundreds of airship docks that peppered the sides of the vast dirigible. This one had bays for over a dozen mid-size ships, and from the debris that littered the deck, it was obvious that there had been a great deal of activity a short time ago. The only ship in evidence was a tiny two-engine pinnace. The three headed towards it, but stopped dead when they found a half-dozen Wulfenbach crewmen, unconscious and neatly lined up next to a fuel barrel. A faint whistling was heard, and to Agatha’s amazement, a cheerful Othar straightened up from behind the ship where he was coiling some rope. He spotted them and his face broke into an easy grin. “Ah! Excellent! You made it!”

“Othar!” Agatha exclaimed. “You’re alive!”

“As always!” he replied.

Theo’s eyes widened. “That’s really him? You know a talking cat AND Othar Tryggvassen?”

“But… he… Gilgamesh…”

Othar waved this off with obvious disdain. “I knew you’d choose the side of good in the end.”

This snapped Agatha out of her confusion. “I’m not here for you—!”

She was cut short by Krosp shoving her towards Othar. “No time! Come on!”

“Yes!” Othar agreed. “Come on! It’s time for adventure!”

Agatha looked at him levelly. “Get on the airship.”

Othar looked surprised. “Don’t you want to hear the exciting tale of my escape?”

Agatha was now on the ship and at Krosp’s direction was untying ropes. Othar quickly clambered aboard. “Casting off!” she called out.

Theo came up. “Good luck.”

Agatha looked surprised. “You’re not coming?”

Theo shook his head. “I was, but now that I know you’ll be traveling with Herr Tryggvassen, I know you’ll be safe. I’ve got to see how the others are doing, I’ll bet some of them will want to come along. We’ll catch up to you in Mechanicsburg!”

Agatha looked panicked. “But—”

“That is where you’ll be going, right?”

“Yes, but I don’t want to travel alone.”

Othar clapped her on the shoulder. “Silly girl, didn’t you hear? You’ll be under the protection of Othar Tryggvassen, Gentleman Adventurer!”

Krosp pulled her skirt. “And don’t forget me.”

Agatha looked at them and turned back to Theo. “No, really. You sure you don’t want to come? There’s room. Or I could stay with you.”

Theo laughed. “Don’t be silly.”

Agatha sighed, “Well, you should know that Gil’s got some kind of invisibility device.”

Theo’s eyes lit up. “Is that what that was? Interesting.”

Agatha nodded. “It might help.” With that, she reached out, drew his head towards her and placed a kiss upon his forehead. “Thank you for everything. And take care of yourself, cousin.”

Theo grinned. “You too, cousin.” With that he stepped back and helped shove the airship out of the docking cradle. It floated beside the hanger bay until Krosp, standing atop a crate, activated the engines, and the tiny craft warped away from the side of the great airship. Suddenly Theo heard a rhythmic thudding from the corridor leading to the hanger. He ducked behind a gas tank just as Klaus’ transport clanked through the doorway.

Klaus saw the airship pulling away and swore. He then directed the clank to the nearest signaling station. He picked up the handset and cranked the handle to activate the system. Suddenly an explosion gently rocked the deck, almost causing the clank carrying the Baron to fall. A cloud of smoke rolled out of one of the hanger doorways, and several coughing figures stumbled from it. They were revealed to be some of Castle Wulfenbach’s fire-fighters. Most of them quickly recovered and rushed over to a water cistern and began refilling the pumper tanks they wore strapped to their backs. One of them saw the Baron and ran to him. “Herr Baron! You should get out of here! All of the experiments in the lower labs have either been let loose or activated, and three of the compartments are on fire.”

Klaus stared at him, and with another oath, slammed the speaker phone back into place. “Assemble your men,” he told the fire-fighter. “Have each of them grab one of those cylinders of Carbonic Acid Gas and then follow me!” He grabbed a cylinder himself, urged his clank forward, and the group ran back into the smoking doorway.

Agatha lowered the telescope she had been using. “And now they’ve gone back to fight the fire, I guess. The Baron looked pretty mad.”

Othar laughed. “I imagine so. The little diversions I arranged before we left should keep him too busy to worry about us for a while.”

Krosp nodded. “There’s a lot of smoke, but I don’t think the envelope is going to catch. But it’s looking bad enough that the support fleet is moving in to assist. They’re not going to waste time on us. We need to put as much distance behind us as we can.” He turned back and spun the ship’s wheel so that they were traveling in the opposite direction as the Castle.

“Normally I don’t work with children or animals,” Othar murmured, “but that is one amazing cat.”

Agatha nodded. “Yes. I guess I’ll have to get used to things like this now.”

Othar grinned and clasped her shoulder. “Ah! So you’re taking the sidekick job! Now it’s strictly a profit-sharing situation, so—”

Agatha shrugged his hand off. “No. I’m not. I’m my own Spark, thank you. I’m going to have to get my own sidekicks.”

Othar went still. “What?”

Agatha nodded and leaned on the railing. Below her the countryside sailed serenely past. “I’m a Spark. I’m afraid it’s true, it explains so much.”

Othar came up behind her. “I’m… very sorry to hear that.”

Agatha rolled her eyes. “Yes, well, you don’t have to make it sound like a death sentence.”

“But it is.”

The tone of Othar’s voice brought Agatha around quickly. Othar’s face was different. It was set in a grimace, and a small pistol was pointed unwaveringly at Agatha. “I’m really sorry about this,” he muttered. “But you have to die.”

Agatha realized that the comically jovial Othar she thought she knew had vanished entirely. “Why?” she asked.

For a terrible moment she thought he wasn’t going to answer. When he did, his voice was strained and intense. “What is the cause of everything wrong in the world today? Madboys. The Spark. They create monsters. Rip apart the cities with their constant fighting and terrorize the countryside… They can’t help it. They’re like mad dogs. They’ve almost completely destroyed civilization. Surely you can see that. For the good of the world, all Sparks have to die, and since you are one of them—”

“But you—You have the Spark.”

Othar grimaced. “Yes! But I alone have the resolve to do what must be done! I must hunt down and destroy every Spark in existence! And then—” He threw his head up and screamed to the heavens, “And then I can finally kill myself! And rid the world of this scourge once and for all!”

He stood there panting and trembling while Agatha stared at him. “Well, why didn’t you say so?” she exclaimed.

Othar paused. “I—what?”

Agatha nodded furiously. “Being a Spark has ruined my life! My parents were killed by some insane construct! I spent most of my life crippled by some mind-altering device! Everyone wants me dead or on an examining table!”

Othar raised his pistol. “You do understand.”

Agatha stepped up to him and grabbed his sweater in both hands. “Of course! And now you say that I can work with you to destroy them all? Count me in!”

Othar’s jaw dropped. Slowly a tentative smile, not the forced jocularity of his public face, but a genuine smile, blossomed upon his face. “At last.” He whispered, “Do you really mean it?”

Agatha rolled her eyes and puffed out her cheeks in dismissal. “No.” And she shoved Othar over the side of the airship.

As he plummeted from sight, he called out, “Foul!” and snapped off a single shot from his pistol before he vanished into a cloud below.

Agatha and Krosp peered over the side for a moment. When nothing happened, Agatha slumped down and cupped her head in her hands. “I really owe Gil an apology,” she muttered.

A faint sound caused Krosp to peer upwards. He frowned. “The idiot hit the envelope. But we should still be able to stay up for a few hours.”

Agatha roused herself. “Perhaps they have a patch kit.”

Krosp shrugged as he hauled himself back onto his crate. “Doubt it. Ship like this, they judge every gram. A minor repair like this would get fixed at a dock before it was a problem. Won’t hurt to check though,” he conceded. “We’ll need to see what we have available anyway.”

“Oh?”

“We’ve got to steer clear of civilization. Our best bet is the Wastelands.”

Agatha shivered. She had heard stories about the Wastelands. Although the Empire of the Baron was extensive, there were large tracts of land that were still uncontrolled, wild expanses where entire towns had disappeared overnight. It was the perfect place to hide, but there was a distinct possibility that once in, they’d never return. Agatha felt a sense of desolation filling her. The future looked bleak.

Mad, Othar may have been, but he certainly had a point. The last several hundred years had been filled with a distressingly long list of catastrophes, disasters, blights, monstrosities and terror directly attributable to a small handful of crazed geniuses.

“Why am I bothering?” she whispered.

Krosp shrugged. “What?”

“Why shouldn’t I just turn myself over to the Baron? Why shouldn’t I just throw myself over the side right now?”

Krosp scratched his chin and then jerked the steering wheel. The little airship lurched to the side. Agatha grabbed onto the railing and held on tightly. Krosp pointed to her hands. “Because you don’t want to die.”

“But Othar had a point. Sparks—”

“Not all Sparks,” Krosp interrupted. “Most of them are dangerous,” he conceded. “But what about the ones who fight the monsters, save the towns, build the machines that help people. It’s not what you are, it’s what you do with it.”

“But so many of them are monsters!”

Krosp grinned. “That’s because being a monster is easy. Doing good, making a positive difference. That’s hard. But that’s what your parents did.” He considered her. “Unless you think the construct was lying about the Heterodynes being your parents.”

Agatha didn’t even have to think about that. “Lilith wouldn’t lie to me. Not about that. Not then.”

Krosp nodded. “I have to agree. It’s not like she did you any favors acknowledging it.”

“And everybody is making such a big deal about it. The Baron must discover new Sparks all the time.”

Krosp glared at her. “Because you’re not just a Spark. You’re the last of the Heterodyne family. Surely you must understand how momentous that is. As long as you’re around, the Baron and every other major power in Europe will want to control you, and everyone else will either want to follow you or kill you. You’ve got to understand that.”

“But that’s all… politics. I don’t care about any of that.”

“Well you’d better start to care. Because everyone’s going to care about you.”

“You mean they’re all going to want something from me.”

Krosp nodded. “That’s right, and like it or not, you’ll cause a lot of trouble just by existing.”

Agatha thought about this and had to admit the logic of it. Her jaw tightened and she straightened up. “All right then,” she declared. “Let’s go cause some trouble.”

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