by Pavel Kornev
"And still? If the Crown Princess does leave the Old City, what then?"
The senior inspector frowned.
"As infuriating as it may be to admit, a miraculous rescue of the heiress to the throne could bring the negative situation to an abrupt end. I do not have warm feelings for her Highness, but the Empire is above all else. The coronation of the illustrious girl is not the highest price that can be paid for the salvation of the country. Anna wants compromise less than anyone. The Duke will have to retreat."
"After the coronation, there will be no more need for a regent."
"That is true," Moran nodded. "As long as her Highness survives until the coronation. Oh, that sick heart of hers..."
"Will you shoot me for preventative purposes?" I squinted.
Moran shook his head.
"That doesn’t make any sense now. The Princess will not get out of the Old City. She is only alive due to the reserve batteries feeding the palace defense. But they only have enough power for a few days."
I cursed.
"Can you provide me passage to the combat zone?"
"Why all this self-sacrifice?"
"I have my own reasons," I said, not telling him about the hook my cousin had in my lip. Devil take that poorly-considered oath!
Bastian Moran thought briefly, then shrugged his shoulders.
"My people are keeping watch near Kelvin tunnel. If you want to risk it, you'll be let through."
After saying that, the senior inspector went back upstairs. I scampered up after him and asked:
"Do you want to pressure the regent?"
Moran turned and arched a brow.
"Is there something you didn't mention?"
"Today's explosion at the Sublime Electricity lyceum–I'm sure that the Duke or his allies are behind it."
"According to the preliminary investigation, the Tesla generator blew up."
"The detonation was caused by an explosive charge. The signal that set it off, most likely, was transferred via telephone wire. On the square, you will find the body of a Yemelyan Krasin, a Russian anarchist. His partner was Ivan Sokolov, a man from Petrograd who claims to be a society observer."
"Where did you obtain this information?"
"I was there."
"I should lock you up in the Newton-Markt..." Bastian Moran frowned, but shook a hand and went outside. "Call a carriage!" he commanded a young guardsman in the yard, then took out a pack of Chesterfields and lit one up, taking one long drag after the other.
The senior inspector’s subordinate was not in the least bit surprised by his order. He ran out to the intersection with a small case, threw back its lid and pulled out a pair of telescoping rods with hooks on the end. The policeman skillfully clipped them onto the wire of the aerial telephone line, placed a call with the portable device, then packed up the equipment and returned to the courtyard.
"The carriage is on its way!" he said to the senior inspector. "It'll be here in fifteen minutes."
Bastian Moran nodded and lit another cigarette.
"Is Liliana being brought here?" I started worrying.
"Yes," the senior inspector confirmed and went outside, ordering the investigator with the lupara to keep tabs on me.
4
BASTIAN MORAN kept his word. Not ten minutes later, a self-propelled carriage stopped at the intersection with a metropolitan police crest on the radiator grill. The driver in a new uniform got out of the cabin first and threw open the back door, allowing Liliana Montague to come out.
My heart skipped a beat.
My girlfriend looked around in alarm, noticed me and ran across the street. Bastian Moran exchanged bows with her with a considerate smile and got into the passenger's seat next to the driver. His subordinates sat in the back and the carriage rolled on, leaving Liliana and I alone.
"Leo!" she shouted in alarm. "What is happening?"
I embraced Lily, pressed her to me and calmed her down:
"Nothing. Everything is fine."
"Leo, don't take me for a fool!" Liliana objected, freeing herself from my embrace. "I was detained in the Newton-Markt then, without asking me a single question, I was brought here! What does that all mean?!"
"The senior inspector thought it would be the simplest method of getting me in for a meeting."
"You gave yourself up for me?" she guessed and threw herself on my chest. "Oh, Leo!"
"Like I'm saying, it's a simple misunderstanding. And It's already solved Everything will be fine. I promise."
Liliana suddenly looked over my shoulder and said in surprise:
"Mary? What are you doing here?!"
"Oh, I don't have the slightest bit to do with this!" the succubus assured her friend. "Leopold just needed a driver."
"So where is your carriage?"
"We had to park it nearby," I said, walking into the courtyard, taking the pistols off the table and stashing them in my pockets before my girlfriend saw them.
"And what is in that building?" Liliana asked, looking from side to side. "It's looks strange..."
"It's a house for Department Three's secret meetings. You know how paranoid they are!" I lied with my heart at ease and extended a hand to Lily. "Well, let's go?"
Elizabeth-Maria snorted behind me, attracting attention.
"Do I need to bring you somewhere again, Leopold?" she asked when I had come back.
"Yes, Leonardo-da-Vinci-Platz."
"And what's there?" Liliana asked in surprise.
"I need to pay a visit to an acquaintance," I answered and asked: "Lily, have you got your passport with you?"
"Yes. Why does that matter?"
"I'll explain later," I dodged a direct answer. "Well! Let's go, on the double!"
ELIZABETH-MARIA took us to Mechanisms and Rarities at the speed of the wind. Either she could detect empty streets with some otherworldly ability, or the city-dwellers were all hidden in their houses, but the drive took just fifteen minutes. And that was great–otherwise, I'd have fallen asleep right in the passenger's seat where I sat in embrace with Liliana.
"I'll be right back!" I warned the girls, running into the shop.
"Has something happened to Mr. Dyak?" the student shop-minder asked, shooting up from the counter at once. "The only thing anyone's talking about is the explosion in the lyceum!"
"Alexander got a concussion," I said, walking into the back room. There, I threw my underwear into the first bag I came across, set a clean vest, pants and a jacket over them, left back into the front room and handed the things to the student. "I don't know what hospital he was brought to, start with the ones nearest the Sublime Electricity lyceum."
"But..." the student stammered.
I didn't listen though, digging a few rumpled fivers and tenners from the cash register and slipping them to the boy, then pushing him out the door.
"Run! I'll look after the shop!"
The student looked around timidly, but didn't argue, throwing the strap of the bag over his shoulder and dashing across the intersection at a skip. I immediately hung a "Closed" sign on the door, entered the code of the massive combination safe in the back room and pulled out the traveling bag I had given to Alexander a few days earlier.
The money was all there. I put one bundle into my jacket pocket and went outside. Liliana was talking with Elizabeth-Maria, discussing the succubus's enticing getup; I lead my girlfriend aside and handed her the traveling bag.
"What is that?" Lily asked in surprise.
"Ninety-five thousand francs," I said. With my heart seizing, I told her: "You need to leave New Babylon at once!"
"What are you talking about, Leo? But why?!"
"Staying in the city is too dangerous."
"But I cannot just pick up and leave! What will I tell my parents?"
"Send them a telegram from the continent. And it would better for them to not sit around in the capital, either. It's going to be pretty wild here for the next few days."
"Leo! I don't understand this
at all!" My girlfriend was upset, and tears glistened in her colorless gray eyes. "What is happening?!"
"Lily, everything will be alright," I assured her. "Just go to Switzerland, to Geneva. I'll finish my business and find you there. I'll either come straight to your place or send you a letter of demand to the main post office. I have to stay here for just a few days."
"I'm not going anywhere until you explain what is going on!" Liliana shot out.
"You heard what happened last night in the Old City?"
"Yes, but what does that have..."
"The same thing could happen in any other neighborhood! Any one, you get it?"
"And you?"
"I have obligations. I cannot simply drop everything and leave." I embraced Lily and whispered into her ear: "Everything will be alright. I'll find you in Geneva and we'll head on our honeymoon to Zuid-India. Just believe in me. Alright?"
"I believe in you, Leo." Liliana took a step away, kissed me and added: "I believe in you, but I don't believe you. I'd just get in the way, right? Achilles heel, weak spot. You're afraid that someone will use me against you, right?"
Her suspicions were not far from the truth, but I didn't confirm them. Instead, I told her as convincingly as possible:
"I'm afraid Atlantis will share the fate of its mythical predecessor! As soon as possible, send a telegram to your parents, have them drive to the continent."
"And the others? Albert, Mary?"
"I'll talk with them, but I doubt they'll consider my fears well-founded. They don't know what you know."
Liliana sighed and suddenly patted me on the cheek.
"Geneva?" she asked and smiled. "Why not Paris? I always wanted to walk down the Champs-Élysées. They have such fine stores and ateliers there..."
I laughed unwillingly.
"Alright, you can stop in Paris on your way to Geneva. But you need to leave right now. Elizabeth-Maria will take you to port."
"Take the money," Lily extended me the traveling bag. "It feels like you're paying me off!"
"I need you to keep it safe. I'm not sure I'll be able to retain access to my accounts. It may happen that the last of my fortune is in your hands."
Liliana went gloomy and warned:
"If this is a trick and you don't come, I'll chase you to the ends of the earth, Leopold! Know that!"
"Just believe in me."
"I believe in you, Leo. I believe!"
They weren't empty words at all, such was Liliana's talent. With her faith, she could add a little push to reality. When I was next to her, my heart beat without its usual anguish.
Simple autosuggestion? Maybe that was so.
In any case, I was intending to find Lily in Switzerland as soon as I got the chance. And though I didn't know for certain whether my feelings for Lily were sincere or had been foisted on me by the dead hypnotist, I was positive that that no longer had any meaning. I needed this relationship, needed this love.
More than forgivable weakness for a person in my position.
More than, yes...
"Take her to the port and make sure she gets on the ferry to Lisbon," I asked the succubus after sitting Lily in the self-propelled carriage.
Elizabeth-Maria rolled her eyes ostentatiously, but didn't protest, got behind the wheel and the steam carriage rolled abruptly away.
Immediately, such weariness rolled over me my arms just sank. My heart seized, the back of my head was splitting, and I was also yawning so much my jaw nearly fell off.
I wanted madly to leave the city with Liliana, but such an unreasonable outburst could not lead to anything good. As it was, if I played my part properly, there was a small chance of escaping alive. A miserable chance, but human nature is such that a man will grasp at any straw.
I locked the door, walked into the back room of the shop and collapsed on a sagging couch. I fell back in it, stretched out my legs and fell asleep as soon as I closed my eyes.
FIRE. What awaited me in this dream was fire. A sulfur rain was pouring down from the heavens from horizon to horizon. A sharp gust of wind rolled over me from head to toe like a liquid flame and my burned flesh immediately cried out with a ghastly pain.
The pain forced me to wake up; I crawled off the sofa to the floor and writhed, burning unbearably from inside. I was torn apart by the fire. It flew from the carpet to the wall, and the room was filled with a thick black smoke. I don't even know if I burned to death or suffocated.
That death was the beginning of a new nightmare. Uncountable times, I had to die in those fierce flame before the final awakening cast me out into the back room of Mechanisms and Rarities.
My whole body was aching unbearably. The smell of sulfur and burned flesh caused waves of nausea to roll over me. I had no idea that I had awoken until I saw the figure of a person standing next to me. To be more accurate, I saw his boots right before my face lacquered to a shine.
"Don't touch him, Willy!" a derisive voice came through the vexing ringing in my ears. "Can't you see the boy isn't well?"
But the weakness had already left me; I braced my arms on the floor, raised my head and, without any surprise, met gazes with the barrel of my very own Steyr-Han.
"Now this is funny," I muttered, getting to my feet. After that, I calmly pulled a mug from the workbench, scooped some water into it from a bucket in the corner and took a drink.
All that time, William Grace was holding me in the sights of his gun.
"Willy, drop the weapon," the lady-in-waiting asked, her feet up on the little sofa. "It looks like the boy has something to say."
William didn't twitch, just squinted his left eye, then the oracle raised her voice:
"Lieutenant! Lower your weapon! Now!"
Grace frowned and lowered his pistol hand, but didn't stop aiming at me, just prevented the lady-in-waiting from seeing the Steyr-Han.
"I suppose her Highness is not pleased with me," I chuckled.
"Her Highness thirsts for blood," the lady-in-waiting confirmed, mechanically stroking the large pearl on her neck with her left hand.
"Her Highness is in no position to throw her weight around with those loyal to her."
"Loyal?" the lieutenant hissed and threw up the pistol again. "I should shoot you through the head right now! You were supposed to blow up the regent's carriage!"
"And I would have," I smiled calmly in reply. "But her Highness forgot to mention that the regent needed to be blown up before he visited the mint."
"What does that have to do with anything?" William Grace didn't understand.
"So, you don't know?" I suddenly guessed. "You really don't know? That must be it!"
The lieutenant's face turned to stone and, holding back intently as not to burst into a scream, asked:
"What do we not know?"
I looked at the very comfortable sofa with doubt, but I didn't get near the lady-in-waiting and sat on the wooden stool.
"What do we not know?!" the lieutenant growled out again, finally having lost his patience. So, I had to tell the story of the regent's conspiracy for the second time today.
Near the end, William Grace swore to shoot the traitor with his own hands, while the lady-in-waiting didn't lose her calm demeanor.
"Get out of here Willy, stop gadding about!" she demanded and smiled. "This is all very interesting, Leopold, but how can you be of use to her Highness now? You don't have any proof of the Duke's betrayal."
"I suggest her Highness be evacuated from the palace."
"Complete nonsense!" Grace exploded. "The Old City is covered. The soldiers can at will, and even I couldn't get permission to enter. I was told it was too dangerous! It's a conspiracy! The conspirators will not allow us to save the Princess!"
I sighed and extended a mug to the lieutenant.
"Drink some water and cool down. And as for getting to the Old City, I can arrange it."
"You?" William cringed in mistrust.
"Me."
"Even if that is so, what does it give us?"
the lady-in-waiting inquired with unhidden skepticism. "Last night, half a dozen army dirigibles were lost, and a countless number of armored vehicles. None of them even got near the palace! Observers are saying that a ring of magical energy has formed, which has fully encased the Imperial Palace and the area around it. There's no way through. It's certain death."
To me, that news came as an unpleasant surprise, but I didn't lose my presence of mind, and suggested:
"We'll have to concern ourselves with defense against infernal effects."
"As if that's so easy! The electric grid in the Old City is totally shut off!" the lieutenant declared. Then, he suddenly froze in place after hearing a knock from the front room.
"Calm down!" I whispered out. "That, most likely, is the shop owner returning."
And that was true, I heard Dyak's voice shortly:
"Leopold Borisovich, are you here?"
"Not a word!" the lieutenant warned me and started aiming at the door into the main room just in case. But he miscalculated.
"Drop your weapon!" sounded out from the back entrance.
William Grace froze, and the lady-in-waiting reacted to the unexpected turn of events with an unexpectedly calculated calm. While all Thomas Smith’s attention was wrapped up in the Imperial Guard lieutenant, she pulled a nickel-plated lady's pistol from her reticule and aimed it at the private investigator.
"Be so kind, mysterious stranger," she smiled, "as to not move or even breath. I wouldn't like to put a hole in such a handsome man."
"Leopold?" Alexander Dyak called me again. "Can I come in?"
"Just a minute!" I called back and tried to take the situation under control: "Allow me to introduce Thomas Eliot Smith, an investigator from the Pinkerton Detective Agency. He has been looking into the ritual murders and helped me get a handle on everything. Thomas, these are the gentlepeople of her Highness's inner circle. And now, if you promise not to kill one another, I'll leave you for a moment. I need to have a talk with the shop owner, he's an elderly person and was injured in today's explosion."
Before anyone managed to object, I went out into the main room.
To my significant relief, Alexander Dyak didn't look that bad. His split head hadn't even been bandaged, just some scratch on his forehead had been given a crisscross of adhesive plaster.
