The Impossible Cube: A Novel of the Clockwork Empire (30 page)

“Feng is in terrible trouble, we could be chopped into pieces at any moment, and the second we leave this lift, we’re going to be fighting our way through god-knows-what, but you’re thinking about the children.” He continued to smile. “You saved me back there, you know.”

She blinked. “Did I? I thought you were saving me.”

“Not at all,” he said seriously. “You led me into hell, Alice, and now I know you’re going to lead me back out.”

The lift slammed to a halt, and for a horrible moment Alice thought the Cossacks had stopped them, but through the gate she could see the main floor of the great house. “Feng,” she said, “open the lift.”

Feng leaped forward like a puppet on strings and slammed the iron gate aside with the sound of a death bell. Alice felt sick again at the way his scarred body obeyed, but made herself focus. Right now, they had to get out of the Gonta-Zalizniak house intact, and if success required her to bark orders at Feng, she would do it.

Kemp was waiting for them in the marble foyer. The surreal sight of his familiar head on a different body gave Alice a turn, even though she’d been prepared for it. “I see Madam and Sir were successful in their attempt,” he said. “Excellent work, if I may be so bold.”

“Thank you, Kemp,” Alice said. She herded the children out of the lift. They were gaining confidence in her now, seemed to understand that she was there to help, and they were more willing to follow her. They were fearful, innocent, and trusting, children who had lived through things no child should dream of, let alone experience. She felt a deep need to ensure their safety and was quite sure she would die to protect them. For a moment, she wondered if this was what it was like to have children of her own, though she didn’t think that she would want to start off—or even finish—with ten of them. She did a quick head count and led everyone toward the front door, her parasol at the ready. Feng and Kemp took up the rear, with Gavin among the children. He looked like a rather distracted
young father on an outing, and Alice pushed the thought away to examine later.

The house seemed to be in confusion. Human servants rushed about or stood uncertainly in corners. A smell of burned food hung in the air. Alice put on the air of a lady and strode confidently, ignoring everyone around her. No one would dare challenge her; it would never occur to her that someone might. Keep moving, keep moving. Check the children, ensure none had wandered away. Push past the handwringing housekeeper who babbled at her in Ukrainian. Thread through the maze of rooms. Nearly at the exit. Keep moving, keep moving.

She found herself in the middle of an enormous two-storied room with red marble floors and pillars. A grand staircase swept up to a balcony that ran around the entire chamber. High arched windows provided light, and ten-foot-high double doors stood opposite her. A patch of floor in front of the doors gleamed like a diamond. Alice glanced around, halted in confusion. It was the wrong room. She had taken a bad turn somewhere.

“This is the entry foyer,” Kemp said helpfully. “The front doors are straight ahead of Madam.”

Alice hesitated and fingered the whistle on its chain around her neck. “I think we should find a side door. I don’t want to walk out onto the front steps and into the middle of that party.”

“Ivana Gonta sent everyone home some time after Madam and Sir took the lift down,” Kemp sniffed. “According to the servants, she was quite rude about
it, even by Cossack standards. It is why everyone is in such a panic. The circus left, except for the elephant, which won’t obey orders from anyone. Perhaps it has broken down.”

“So the entire banquet existed only to lure us here,” Alice said.

“Who cares?” Gavin said. “We have a clear sky. Let’s go!”

A door up on the balcony slammed open and a stream of mechanical guards, all dressed in red uniforms, stormed down the stairs. Faster than any human, they lined up in ranks in front of the main doors. The other doors in the great room crashed shut and locks clicked. The children clustered around Gavin and Alice, whimpering in fear. Alice spread her arms to embrace and reassure as many of them as she could, though her own heart was racing.

“Madam!” Kemp cried. “Madam!”

His body marched over to join the automatic army, his arms and legs stiff, his head turning left and right. Alice started to go after him, but Gavin took her shoulder.

“Wait,” he cautioned. “We don’t know what we’re dealing with yet.”

“Good advice,” said all the automatons at the same time, in the same voice. Even Kemp. The absolute unity of the sound made Alice’s skin crawl. “We are masters here. You will not leave.”

“Madam!” Kemp added.

“Who is this?” Alice demanded as she turned the handle of her parasol.

“We are Gonta-Zalizniak,” said the automatons. All of them, including Kemp, drew swords.

“You couldn’t get out of the basement in time to stop us, so you took over your guards. Is one of you controlling all of them,” Alice asked, not really caring but trying to stall so she could think, “or do each of you control one automaton?”

“You will not leave.” The swords vibrated with a sound like a pack of snarling dogs.

“Madam! I am trying to change the memory wheels, but I cannot. Help me, Madam!”

“Where are Phipps and Glenda and Simon?” Alice asked.

The automatons and Kemp took a step forward in unison. “You will not leave.”

“Stop us.” Gavin shoved the ear protectors back over his ears and cranked the generator again. The eerie sound rippled through the red marble room. All the automatons and Kemp jerked their heads in unison, then laughed together. Gavin stopped playing in confusion.

“Siren song is very beautiful,” the automatons said, “but not so enticing when we hear through metallic ears. Alice will exit and go to China. Gavin and pretty Oriental boy will come back downstairs with children. But first we will slice one or two open while you watch.”

“What?” Alice cried. “Why?”

“To punish you and Gavin, little baroness. To show that you are not in charge here. If you behave well after that, we promise to use nitrous oxide on Gavin and children before more experiments, though little baroness will have to take our word on that.”

Feng was trembling and his torso was sheathed in
sweat, though his spidery face stayed impassive and he remained where he was at the back of the group of children. Alice glanced at Kemp, then back at the children. Damn it. She twisted her parasol handle again, and the high-pitched whine shrilled. Her hands shook.

“Madam, what are you doing?” Kemp asked. “Madam, please don’t!”

“I’m sorry, Kemp,” she said. “I’m so sorry.” And she fired a bolt of electricity. The children cried out and scrambled backward. The crackling bolt struck the center automaton square on and spread to the others, including Kemp. Alice bit her lip, but held her grip firm. All the hair on the back of her neck stood up, and the smell of ozone tanged the air.

The automatons stood still for a moment. Then they laughed again, even Kemp. One of the automatons extended a hand. Its forearm separated from its upper arm and shot across the room, still connected to the body by a stiff cable. The move caught Alice off guard, and the automaton’s hand was able to snatch the parasol from her hand and haul it back. It snapped the weapon in two and flung it aside. “No, no, no. We know about electric umbrella. We saw it work.”

“They’re standing on glass flooring,” Gavin said. “They aren’t grounded.”

“Good heavens,” Alice whispered, staring at the gleaming patch of floor. Kemp remained silent.

“You have no weapons now,” the automatons said. “You belong to us.”

The little clockwork army, including Kemp, spread out into a semicircle and stormed forward, their terrible growling swords at the ready. Before Alice could
react, a bolt of red energy slashed through the air and punched through the chest of one of the automatons. It keeled over backward. Its sword went still. Alice spun. On the balcony behind and above them all stood Susan Phipps in her scarlet uniform with a large rifle in her hands and a battery pack on her back. Her brass monocle stared coldly down into the stone foyer. Beside her, also armed, were Simon d’Arco in black and Glenda Teasdale in yellow.

“Sorry it took so long to get here,” Phipps said. “We had to raid the Gonta armory first.”

“Oh God,” Gavin muttered.

“Fire!” Phipps ordered. Glenda and Simon obeyed. The air crackled with energies Alice couldn’t name. Gavin dropped the paradox generator, and they pushed the children to the floor while terrible thunder boomed overhead. The smell of hot metal filled Alice’s nose. It went on and on. Several of the children began to cry. Heat pressed on Alice’s back.

And then it stopped. Alice raised her head and slowly got to her feet. Smoke choked the air and it took some time to make out the warped figures of the automatons scattered about the floor, arms and legs skewed at odd angles, bodies and heads half melted. The marble floor was pitted and scorched, and the glass plate in front of the door had shattered into a thousand pieces. The children coughed and continued to cry. The sound wrenched Alice’s heart, but she forced herself to concentrate on the matter at hand.

“Madam,” said Kemp’s voice from among the wreckage. “Madam. Madam. Madam.”

Alice gasped upon hearing this, heartened at this
small bit of mechanical life among the strange carnage. Beside her, Gavin got to his feet. Feng remained upright. No one had told him to duck.

“Madam. Madam. Madam.”

Phipps came down the stairs, followed by Glenda and Simon. The brass barrel of the energy rifle glowed a soft red. “That was satisfying,” she said. “I imagine the Cossacks themselves will come upstairs eventually, but we should have time. And
my
shackles are rather more effective than the ones those disgusting clockworkers used.”

Glenda put a hand to her ear, which had a metal cup over it. “I have access to the memory engines that run the house, Lieutenant. The Gontas have abandoned the automaton controls and are coming now.”

The smoke caught in Alice’s throat, and she had to cough before she could speak. “Susan—Lieutenant—I can’t go back with you.”

“I’m not offering a choice.”

In that moment, all the frustration and anger and fear she’d been keeping under control got away from her. “Why are you doing this?” she burst out. “What do you have to gain? The plague in England is dead. There are no more clockworkers. The Third Ward’s purpose is no more!”

Phipps strode forward and grabbed Alice by the front of her blouse in a metal fist. Her breath smelled of stale bread and long-forgotten wine. Alice grabbed Phipps’s wrist with her own metal gauntlet, but Phipps was stronger by far. “You endanger the world. You diminish me. You destroyed my reason to exist.”

“Let her go, Phipps!” Gavin barked, but Simon
pointed his rifle at him, and he went still. The paradox generator sat uselessly at his feet like a half-dead flower.

“So now you’ve replaced your purpose with an obsession to destroy me?” Alice countered. “Is it worth the cost? You’ve dragged Simon and Glenda into hell, and these children are paying the price as well. Let us go to China, Susan, and we’ll restore balance to the world. It won’t be the balance you remember, but it’ll be balance nonetheless.”

“Madam. Madam. Madam.”

Phipps’s six-fingered hand tightened on the white cloth at Alice’s throat, and Alice found it a bit hard to breathe. “Balance is restored only through justice. I will have justice.”

“The Gontas will be here in two minutes, Lieutenant,” said Glenda from behind her rifle.

“Susan,” Gavin said evenly, “we shouldn’t be talking about this here. These children need our help, our assistance, our aid. Isn’t that also your duty, your responsibility, your obligation?”

“A fine try, Ennock,” Phipps said. “But I’m not a clockworker.”

“Listen to me, Lieutenant.” The words came out half-choked, and Alice could barely draw breath through the iron grip at her throat. She fumbled for the whistle on its chain, but couldn’t get to it. “You have a chance here to build instead of destroy. You can save these children and thousands like them. Just let us go.”

Phipps stared at Alice, her ice-blue eyes meeting Alice’s brown ones. She wavered. The grip at Alice’s throat relaxed and she could breathe freely again.
Relief made Alice relax. Everything was going to be fine. The children continued to huddle around Gavin, and she wanted to tell them it would be all right now, but she had no way to—

“No!” Phipps snarled. Her grip tightened again. “No! No!
No!
I will have justice! Glenda, chain them both. Simon, keep them covered. If they move wrong, shoot to kill. Alice first. That’ll keep Gavin in line.”

“Madam. Madam. Madam.”

“We have barely sixty seconds,” Glenda reported, setting her rifle aside and producing a set of heavy handcuffs.

“Feng!” Alice cried in desperation. “Attack Phipps!”

Feng instantly launched himself at Phipps. The move caught Phipps off guard and he slammed into her, knocking her down. Alice went down, too, but Phipps released her grip and she was able to roll free. Gavin’s wristbands snapped a cog at Glenda, who ducked by reflex. Gavin shoved through the crying group of children and swept the rifle from Glenda’s hands with a hook kick. It hit the floor and slid away. Simon spun and aimed his weapon straight at Gavin. The tip glowed red.

Feng and Phipps rolled across the floor, trading and blocking blows faster than Alice could track. “No!” Phipps chanted. “No! No! No! No!” Feng was getting tired, and Phipps landed several choice hits on him. Alice struggled to her feet, fumbling for the whistle.

Gavin faced Simon across the glowing rifle barrel. Simon’s eyes were sunken, his hair disheveled, his black coat torn. “Are you going to shoot me, Simon?”
Gavin said. “Simon Peter d’Arco, the man who killed his friend and partner?”

“I have my orders,” he said hoarsely.

“What orders come from your soul?” Gavin asked. “You once gave up happiness to give me Alice. I can’t imagine that someone so unselfish would kill for shallow reasons.”

“You never wanted me,” Simon said. “So I found someone else, and Phipps ripped me away from him to follow you. It always comes back to you, Gavin. You!”