Steemjammer: The Deeper Truth (18 page)

“Roof?”

“We can try.”

“The airship,” Giselle said, craning her neck at a window, “is lowering rope ladders and men!”

“No matter,” Klazee said bravely, lifting her dress so she could hustle up the steps. “If we can get to the Hemel Snoor, we’ll outrun them!”

They followed her upstairs and found Will and Cobee hard at work on the steemball. With a large wrench, they’d already opened one of the covers.

“Angelica?” Will called, but there was no answer.

He glanced around while Cobee turned the large wrench.

“Where’d she go?” Will said. “I wanted to ask her more about the lights she saw.”

“Maybe she’s hiding,” Giselle suggested. “That’s what she’s supposed to do when danger hits, right?”

The thud of heavy boots on the roof made them look up with fright. Rasmussen agents had come down ropes from the airship, at least ten of them by the sound they made. They tore off slate shingles, trying to get into the attic. The kids could hear glass shattering below and the noise of the Klazee’s front door being battered open.

“Get weapons!” Coby said, trying not to sound terrified.

***

“All right, you people,” a commanding, feminine voice boomed from above. “Your psychotic burglar alarm doesn’t frighten me. I know you’re down there because I could hear noises, so you’d better come out this instant.”

Down in the sub-basement, Marteenus pulled out his pistol and hid behind a pillar. Was this, he shuddered, that gigantic Amazon girl? No, he realized, this intruder was somehow even worse.

“You’re violating at least three dozen health and safety codes,” the woman continued. He could hear her tromping down the stairs. “Exposed pipes? Whirring gears? This is absurd and completely unsafe! I’m sure that OSHA and the Department of Homeland Security will want to be informed!”

Summoning his courage, Marteenus stepped out, aiming the pistol right into the face of a tall, imposing woman with strange, black hair and penetrating eyes. Each let out an exclamation of shock, but Marteenus, hand shaking, managed to keep the pistol pointed at her.

“You wouldn’t dare,” the woman asserted, “shoot an unarmed lady.”

“I’d shoot an army of them,” he countered, “if it meant getting off of this retched pigsty of a world!”

She attempted to argue but found she was so scared that only a strange guttural sound could come out.

Marteenus scowled. “Who are you? Did Hendrelmus send you?”

“I’m the neighbor across the street.”

“We’ll see about that. Back up!”

Threatening with the shiny revolver, he forced her to retreat until her back was against a pillar. He found a rope and wrapped it around her several times.

***

Marteenus was so absorbed in his task that he didn’t notice a clicking at the control panel. Stefana had been right about her brothers, and they’d designed this machine with many layers of fail-safes. One of their fears had been a parts-failure or a random object blocking the lever. The machinery under the panel, after using a steam-driven wheel to rewind itself, began anew, tugging at the lever. The chair slipped a bit each time.

***

“You’d better not do that,” Waverly Norman bluffed as he jerked the rope and tied it snuggly. “I’ve already called the police, and they’ll be here soon. You’re only making things worse for yourself.”

“You idiot,” he growled. “I won’t be here much longer.”

She flinched. No one had ever before called her an idiot, but the glinting pistol in the small, oddly dressed man’s hand kept her from protesting. She found herself staring at his strange hair, almost mesmerized and wondering against all reason why it stuck out like that.

“Have you been in a strong wind?” she asked, but then her eyes opened wide with shock as she noticed something across the room.

About to insult her again, Marteenus paused as he realized something was wrong. Dazzling flickers of light reflected off the walls. Twisting his head, he saw the machine spinning and a fully opened verltgaat.

“Verdoor!” he cried.

Dashing over, he noticed that the chair had slid off the lever. He jerked on the lever, and in moments the hole mercifully closed.

Glancing this way and that, he aimed at shadows with the gun. Waverly gasped, and out of nervousness he spun and fired, just missing her. Having never experienced such a thing, she fainted. Marteenus kept scanning.

No sign of Hendrelmus, he realized with a feeling of intense relief. Replacing the chair on top of the lever, he decided to use some rope to tie it in place. That, he was quite sure, would keep the machine from turning itself on again.

***

“It’s not here!” Cobee cried with dismay.

He and Will had just opened the third of three panels on the steemball and tugged out the heavy, cylindrical weight. Like the first two, there was no Tracium visible. They inspected the weights and the chambers in the ball, and there was no sign of a hatch or lid to an inner compartment.

“It might be hidden,” Will said, rubbing the weights. “Feel for it.”

Cobee felt for seams inside the holes in the steemball, but he found nothing. They winced as a crossbow bolt stuck into the wooden banister between their heads. It had been shot by a Raz Agent who’d snuck to the staircase below.

“Get back, kinter,” Tante Klazee warned, handing each a dagger. “Giselle, pass out the swords.”

They’d opened a hidden panel nearby filled with various melee weapons, and she distributed them. Alfonz had a saber, and Donell held a heavy, two-handed hammer.

“Maybe you were wrong,” Cobee said, nodding at the opened steemball and weights. “It isn’t here.”

Will’s eyes opened wide. “Yes, it is. The problem is that it’s too heavy to roll through, when the verltgaat opens.” He examined one of the holes in the steemball, getting an idea. “Donell, I need that Incendium.”

“Och!” he growled, slapping his forehead hard enough to hurt. “I left it down there.”

“Leaving it behind you always are,” Alfonz commented. “Too dangerous now.”

Will glanced downstairs and saw several Rasmussen agents on the first floor. One reloaded a crossbow, and the others seemed to be preparing to charge up the stairs.

“We really need it,” Will said.

Donell grunted. “All right, lad. I’ve come tah trust ye.” He grabbed a heavy cabinet and bellowed, “A FIN!”

Spinning, he hurled the piece of furniture over the banister. Grabbing his hammer, he charged downstairs. The first two Raz spun and fled in fear. The one reloading his crossbow rushed his shot but missed because Alfonz had come down to join Donell and threw a flower vase at him. The agent ran.

“A FIN!” Donell cried, taking out the fourth one with a mighty hammer blow.

Out of nowhere a sword jabbed at him, and he had no chance to block it.

“Hoy!” screamed a tiny but furious voice.

Gus, who’d followed him down unnoticed, leaped through the air and kicked the blade out of the Raz agent’s hand. The man backed off in fright and then fled.

“Good one!” Donell told the Gnome.

More agents, however, gathered around the front doorway, preparing to make a charge.

“Will?” Donell called. “Hurry!”

Will was already running down the stairs behind him. He saw the box on a table and grabbed it.

“Got it!” he cried.

Escorted by Gus and Alfonz, he ran back up, while Donell took a defensive stance on the stairs.

“Must be a hundred Raz outside,” he panted. “A wee guddle, I’d say. Nothin’ we can’t handle.”

“Help me,” Will said, opening the metal box and staring at the cold Incendium ingots resting on the sheet of Moderacium inside.

Cobee made a face. “With what?”

“The Tracium is
in
the ball. Don’t you get it?”

“Oh!” Giselle said. “It’s in the bronze itself?”

“Right. We’ve got to melt it out.”

Over to the side, Jack and Kate held the swords they’d been handed awkwardly. They stared on with horrified silence, wishing they hadn’t so rashly agreed to come with the others.

Will held the opened box over the top hole in the steemball and began sliding an ingot of Incendium with his dagger.

“But Will,” Cobee objected, “you can’t!”

“Ya,” Alfonz echoed. “The haas down-burning will be!”

“Not before we escape,” Will assured them, “through the verltgaat.”

“If it opens!” Cobee said.

“It will.”

“But what if the heat destroys the Tracium?”

“Then, at least the Raz won’t get it.”

Will dropped the first ingot into the hole, where it glowed red-hot. With Cobee and Giselle’s help, all the ingots were soon placed inside the ball. They could feel ripples of intense heat coming from the hole.

“They’re massing up,” Donell warned, coming back to the landing, “to rush the stairs.”

“More furniture,” Will said. “Block it!”

They tossed down dressers and chairs.

“This isn’t good!” Cobee said, pointing. “The floor’s already smoldering!”

The steemball got so hot that wisps of blue smoke rose from its base, where it touched the floorboards. Above them, ripping and tearing sounds stopped, and the sound of stomping feet got much louder.

“Gevoor!” Tante Klazee called.
Alert
! “They’re in the attic!”

“Listen,” Cobee said, trying not to panic, “we’re going to have a blazing fire here any moment. We’ve got to do something, or we’ll burn up!”

Will kept his eyes on the steemball. “Angelica? Is anyone watching the bathroom?”

“I am now,” Klazee called, moving to look in the door. “Nothing. No verltgaat, and your sister’s not there.”

“Someone find Angelica, please. I need to know more about what she saw.”

“What if she’s hiding?” Giselle said. “Try the secret knock, the one you used at Beverkenhaas to let her know she can come out.”

Nodding, Will made a fist and knocked a pattern on the wall. Three times, once, and then three times again. Giselle tried it at other places, but there was no sign of her. Will felt his heart race.

“Where is she?” he asked.

At the top of the steps, Donell gripped his hammer. “Here they come!”

***

In the sub-basement of Beverkenhaas, Marteenus tied a piece of rope to the lever and made it tight. There, he thought. The repeated tugging from some sort of spring in the panel would never overcome that. He was safe.

Still flummoxed from the close call, he took a deep breath and tried to gather his wits. Seeing an open verltgaat had been terrifying. The large woman remained unconscious, limp and hanging against the ropes that held her to the pillar.

As he got up from the panel, he almost didn’t notice a small thing that was out of place. Glancing back, he still wasn’t sure if he was imagining it or not. But yes, he realized, over behind a piece of machinery, he could see a tuft of hair. Blonde hair.

For a second he felt like the world had vanished beneath his feet, making him fall into an abyss, but it wasn’t Henry. This was someone else’s hair. Putting his hand on the pistol in his belt, Marteenus crept forward.

“I see you,” he said, trying not to sound scared.

The hair didn’t move.

“I know you’re there,” he said, “and I’m well armed.”

Still, no movement.

“Better come out, now,” he warned.

Taking out the pistol, he dashed to the side and found himself aiming at a ten-year-old girl in a homespun dress. She glared at him defiantly. With hair nearly as tall as she was, he recognized her: Hendrelmus’ daughter.

“Angelica Steemjammer,” he said, grinning ear to ear. “How delightful of you to drop in.”

This was fabulous, he realized. Not only was he going back, he was returning in triumph with the enemy’s precious little girl. For this, the Rasmussens would pay
anything
.

“Don’t make me hurt you,” he warned.

“EAT ROCK!” she shouted.

Something whirled blisteringly fast in her right hand. Suddenly scared, Marteenus began to shoot. But he stopped himself. He couldn’t kill his hostage, and what if he damaged the Variable Engine? He’d be stuck.

THWAP! In a fluid motion she released her sling, and a rock hit Marteenus right in his mouth. He felt a bolt of white-hot pain and tasted blood.

“My tooth!” he whimpered, utterly shocked. “You broke my tooth!”

He could feel a big piece of his left front tooth on his tongue. This was terrible, and she was already whirling her sling, ready to nail him again.

THWAP! She slung another, but he dodged. The rock thumped off his shoulder, stinging but doing no real harm. He thought he heard something breaking upstairs but put it out of his mind. His priority was this girl.