The Doomsday Vault (52 page)

One of the trees moved. It actually leaned down and in, as if to get a closer look at Gavin. The blue blossoms shifted, and a glint of brass caught the light. Long wires and strips of metal ran up the bark. Gavin's breath caught in his throat. For a moment, time flipped backward, and he was fleeing through a blur of leaves and branches that were actively trying to kill him. A tall, bearded clockworker in an opera cloak rode one of the walking trees, steering it by yanking levers and pressing pedals. His partner, Simon, shouted something as Gavin spun and fired the electric rifle attached to the battery pack on his back.

“L'Arbre Magnifique,” Gavin whispered. “This is his forest. But the greenhouse wasn't here before, and you aren't him.”

“I heard him mention my father, L'Arbre Magnifique,” the clockworker said. “But I don't believe he asked
my
name.” He paused again. “Yes, that was indeed rude of him. He should know my name is Antoine.”

Gavin's mouth went dry. Fantastic. What were the odds of two clockworkers showing up in the same family, or of Gavin running into both of them in one lifetime? The shackles continued to bite into his ankles with iron teeth.

“Look, Antoine, your father is alive and well,” Gavin said, hoping he was telling the truth. “In London. We gave him a huge laboratory and he invents great . . . uh, inventions all day long. I can take you to him, if you want.”

Antoine spun Gavin back around and slugged him high in the stomach. The air burst from Gavin's lungs. Pain sank into him, and he couldn't speak.

“Ah,” Antoine said. “Do you think I hurt him? I do.” Another pause, with a glance at the trees. “No, it was not as painful as watching him kidnap my father.” He turned his back to Gavin and gestured at one of the towering trees. “That is true. My father only taught me to work with plants. I will teach myself how to work with meat. Slowly.”

An object flashed past Gavin face and landed soundlessly on the grass where Antoine couldn't see. It was a perfect saucer of glass, perhaps two feet in diameter. Startled, Gavin looked up toward the faraway ceiling in time to see a brass cat, claws extended, leap through a new hole in the roof. The cat fell straight down and crashed into some bushes a few feet away. Antoine spun.

“What was that?”

It took Gavin a moment to realize Antoine was talking to him and not to the trees. “It was my stomach growling,” he gasped through the pain. “Don't you feed your prisoners?”

A string of saliva hung from Antoine's lower lip. “Yes. I feed them to my forest.”

The leaves on the lower bushes parted, and the brass cat slipped under the worktable, out of Antoine's field of view. It gave Gavin a phosphorescent green stare from the shadows. A ray of hope touched Gavin.

“Your father is a genius, Antoine,” he said earnestly. “A true artist. Queen Victoria herself said so.”

The trees whispered among themselves, and a storm crossed Antoine's face. “You are right! He should never mention that horrible woman's name, not when her Third Ward agents took my father away from me!”

“Simon and I captured a tree with him, remember? The tree turned out to be really useful,” Gavin continued, a little too loudly. The pain from the punch was fading a little, but his ankles still burned. “It helped us track down a clockworker who hurt a lot of people.”

Another glance at the trees. “Ah, yes. I miss Number Eight, too. What? No, I have definitely improved your design since then. Look at yourselves. I can make you blossom and create seedlings that grow their own metal frameworks, if only you have enough minerals in your roots. The entire forest will walk at my command! I only need more money. Money to buy more metal for my hungry trees.”

Through the hole in the roof flew a small whirligig, its propeller twirling madly to keep it aloft. It trailed a rope. The whirligig zipped down to a support beam close to the ground and grabbed it with six spidery limbs, leaving the slanted rope behind it. Two of the trees creaked and leaned sideways, as if they were searching for something. Antoine, sensitive to their moods, started to turn. The unnatural position of his arms started new pains in Gavin's shoulders. The aches made Gavin's concentration waver, and he had to force himself to speak up and divert Antoine's attention.

“Where are you going to get money?” he said. “You live in a forest.”

Distracted, Antoine turned his attention back to Gavin. “He doesn't know that I will collect a reward for capturing him. Yes, I will. But will I play with him first? Also, yes.”

Gavin froze. “What reward? What are you talking about?”

“Is it a large reward? Enormous!” Antoine began to pace. The cat watched him intently, and when Antoine's twisted back was turned, it bolted out from under the table and took a flying leap onto Gavin's back. His claws sank into Gavin's skin, and Gavin sucked in a sharp breath at the pricks and stabs of eighteen claws.

“Ow! Click!” Gavin gasped.

Antoine glanced sharply at him, but the cat was hidden from view behind Gavin's body. “Click?”

“I said I'm sick,” Gavin managed. “Who could be offering a reward for me? I've only been in France a few days.”

“That would be Lieutenant Susan Phipps.”

Gavin's blood chilled. “No,” he whispered.

“Ah. Did you see the way I frightened my new subject?” A pause, and his expression turned churlish. “But I should be allowed to play before I turn him over to Lieutenant Phipps. Just a little. Just enough.”

“What about Alice?” Gavin couldn't help blurting. “Is there a reward for her, too?”

“Would I like to double the reward?” Click the cat climbed higher just as Antoine snaked out a hand and pulled Gavin closer by his hair, which gave Gavin an excuse to yelp in pain. “Where is your little baroness?”

At that moment, a woman in a brown explorer's shirt, trousers, and gloves slid through the hole in the roof and down the slanted rope. Her hair was tucked under a pith helmet, and her belt sported a glass cutlass. Her expression was tight, like a dirigible that might explode. Alice Michaels. Oh God.

“We split up,” Gavin gasped, too aware of the cat on his back. What the hell was the damned thing doing? “Right after we left England. The Third Ward was chasing us and we decided it would be safer. You'll never find her.”

“Do I believe him? No, I do not. Do I think his Alice is somewhere nearby? Yes, I—”

“MON SEIGNEUR!”
boomed one of the trees.
“MON SEIGNEUR! ROCAILLEUX!”

Everything happened at once. Antoine snatched up the brass pistol from the worktable. Click scrambled up Gavin's legs to his ankles and extended a claw into the shackles. Alice whipped the glass cutlass free with one hand and sliced the rope below her. Clinging to the top piece like a liana vine, she swung downward. With a
clack
, Gavin's shackles came open and he dropped to the ground, barely managing to tuck and roll so he wouldn't hit his head. Antoine fired the pistol at Alice. Yellow lightning snapped from the barrel. Thunder smashed through the greenhouse. A shout tore itself from Gavin's throat. The bolt missed its target, and four windows shattered. Alice landed several yards away from the circle of trees, stumbled, then regained her feet in waist-high shrubbery. Click dropped to the ground in front of Gavin. Antoine took aim at Alice again.

Gavin tried to come to his feet, but his legs, chained for too many hours, gave way. Instead, he snatched up Click and threw him. Click landed on Antoine's head with a mechanical yowl. Antoine's arm jerked. The pistol spoke, and thunder slammed the air as the yellow bolt tore through the top of one of the trees. Another window shattered.

“ROCAILLEUX,”
the tree cursed.

Alice crashed through the bushes toward Antoine, who was still struggling with Click. Blood flowed from a dozen tiny cuts on his face and head. He finally managed to fling the cat aside and bring the pistol around on her.