Goliath

Page 39

As they walked along the asphalt streets of Manhattan, Deryn began to feel her knee. It hadn't hurt all day, but the autumn chill and Lilit's quick pace had started it buzzing again. When Deryn shifted more weight onto her cane, Lilit raised an eyebrow.
"That isn't just for show?"
"I had a dodgy landing on glider wings. We probably shouldn't walk so fast."
"Of course." Lilit slowed a squick. "But can you still fight?"
Deryn snorted. "You haven't changed much, have you?"
"The world hasn't changed." Lilit shifted her daringly cut dress to reveal a tiny Mauser pistol gartered to her leg. "I wish you weren't in that Air Service uniform. It's a bit conspicuous."
Deryn looked about. The streets were full of bustling people, steam trams, and pushcarts. She'd heard snatches of several languages as they'd walked, and had even seen a few shop signs in German.
She shrugged. "I'm an airman. This is my uniform."
"I preferred you in Turkish clothes," Lilit said. "Perhaps we shouldget off the street and into someplace dark. Fancy a moving-picture show?"
"Aye, I would," Deryn said. She'd been curious about the whole business after Alek had become so enthralled. "Is there a cinema about?"
Lilit smiled. "In New York City? Yes, a few."
They took the next right turn, and a block away Deryn found herself looking up at a huge sign. It was covered in small electric lights that flicked on and off in sequence, as if wee beasties were skittering across it. In the center, giant letters spelled out EMBASSY CINEMA - NEWSREELS ALL DAY.
As they approached the ticket booth, Deryn's hands went to her pockets, but of course she hadn't a single coin.
"Sorry, Lilit, but I've got no American money."
"Well, you did risk your life fighting for the revolution," the girl said, producing a folded bill from a hidden pocket. "I suppose the Ottoman Republic can buy you a movie ticket."
The cinema was in most ways like an ordinary theater, with a few hundred seats spread out before a wide proscenium arch. But instead of a stage, a silvery white rectangle faced the audience. It was still late afternoon, and only a handful of people were present. As Deryn and Lilit made their way to seats near the back, the gaslights began to dim.
"Why exactly are we sneaking about?" Deryn asked once they were settled. "Are you afraid of making the Germans angry?"
"The Ottoman people have enjoyed the kaiser's generosity for a long time. We still need his engineers to make our machines work."
"Aye, of course." Every bit of Istanbul that Deryn had seen was wrapped in steam pipes and other mechanical contraptions.
"The Germans are desperate for more allies." Lilit leaned closer. "Austria-Hungary is falling to pieces. A few weeks ago they repulsed a Russian attack, but the fighting bears only scattered into the woods. And the creatures still have to eat."
Deryn swallowed, remembering the starving bears in Siberia. In a populated countryside the beasties would be much worse. It would be like living in some horrid old fairy tale, with every forest full of monsters.
Lilit gave a shrug. "So we pretend to consider joining the Clankers. A profitable ruse, so far."
A sudden clattering came from behind them, and Deryn glanced back. Behind the audience a large machine with a single eye was sputtering and spinning. Light erupted from it to spill across the screen.
At first it was shadowy and blurred, just as Alek had said. But in a few moments Deryn's eyes adjusted, and a smoky auditorium appeared before her, two ghostly pale boxers in the ring cheered on by a silent crowd.
Lilit was settled back into her seat, her eyes wide and glittering. "It's not just Austria's weakness that has the Germans worried. They're convinced that Goliath will work."
"Aye. You should have seen what it did in Siberia. Not a tree left standing for miles."
"I've seen it. Everyone has." Lilit gestured at the screen. "Mr. Tesla was filming in Siberia, you know. The first of his newsreels appeared two weeks ago. We may see one today."
"Aye, he almost crashed our ship!" Deryn cried. "Bringing aboard all his cameras and scientific equipment."
But perhaps it made sense now. As Alek kept saying, the whole point of a weapon like Goliath was to scare everyone so much that you never had to use it.
Lilit was watching the boxing now, her shoulders twitching a bit, as if she were throwing the punches herself. But she went on talking.
"Last week the ambassador asked his German friends, 'How can we side with you now? We don't want Istanbul going up in a ball of flame.' They told him not to worry. They have plans for Mr. Tesla."
"Aye, that rocket attack."
"That was just a warning." Lilit swept her gaze across the audience. Two school-age girls sat a few rows away, but there was no one else within earshot. "And if Tesla doesn't heed it, they intend to destroy Goliath once and for all. With an invasion if necessary."
"An invasion! Right here? Won't that drag the Americans into the war?"
"An enemy across the ocean is better than their cities being leveled." Lilit's voice sank to a whisper. "A Wasserwanderer is on its way. That's all we know."
"A water-walker?" Deryn said.
"The ambassador thinks it's some sort of U-boat, but amphibious."
Deryn frowned. She'd never heard the word "amphibious" applied to a machine before, but it had a certain logic. Goliath was on an island near New York City - within a short stroll of the sea, Mr. Tesla always said.
Tesla might think to guard himself against saboteurs, but an armored walker popping out of the water?
"It will attack without warning one night," Lilit said. "Then slip away into the ocean again, leaving only wreckage and a mystery. The Americans might never realize what happened."
"Have you warned Tesla?"
Lilit shook her head. "He'd only blab to the press about it. He can't afford a private army, after all. And telling the Americans is pointless. They won't send a battleship to protect one man's property against a rumor. Especially when that man wants to wage war like some sort of demigod!"
Deryn nodded. Some of the newspapers were already questioning whether Tesla should be allowed to wield such power. After all, if Goliath worked the way he claimed, he could become ruler of the world with the flick of a switch.
"So you want us to help?"
"You'll be helping yourself." Lilit turned from the screen. The boxing show had sputtered to a halt, and while the projector was being reloaded, the two nearby girls began to chatter about boys. "The Leviathan is powerful enough to stop a walker, and stealthy enough to lay in wait while Tesla completes his tests. And may I remind you, Mr. Sharp, that his success is entirely in British interests."
"Aye, true."
"Can you deliver this message without revealing who gave it to you?"
Deryn nodded. Only the lady boffin had to know. Now that Tesla was off the ship, she would have free rein to order people about again.
"I knew I could count on you." Lilit smiled. "You're still in love with Alek, aren't you?"
Deryn opened her mouth, but behind her the projector began sputtering again, filling the cinema with flickering light. She cleared her throat, her mouth too dry to speak.
"He seems to have grown up a bit," Lilit said. "Now that he's got a purpose in life."
Deryn found her voice. "Aye. He's convinced himself that he's destined to end the war. It's all part of a plan."
"Ah. So he's forgotten the most important rule of warfare."
"Which is . . ."
"That nothing ever goes to plan. But he finally knows your secret, right?"
Deryn took a sharp breath. She'd forgotten how annoyingly perspicacious Lilit could be. "Aye. It's made things a bit tricky between us."
"It shouldn't. Now you can tell him what you want."
"Aye, but to do that I'd have to know what I want," Deryn said.
Part of her wished more than anything to remain here in America with Alek, but that meant throwing away her career. She could take up the lady boffin's offer of working for the London Zoological Society, or even stay in the Air Service, but there would always be the danger of being found out and losing everything.
It was all a great barking mess.
She turned from Lilit's gaze and stared up as the next newsreel began. . . .
And there it was before her, the Leviathan soaring over a hilly expanse of desert, the image muddy and colorless on the screen, but vibrant in her memory. The point of view banked into a turn, and Deryn realized that there'd been cameras aboard General Villa's manta ships.
Then she was seeing the Leviathan from above, the camera peeking over a steep cliff as the airship descended into Pancho Villa's canyon. Crewmen and beasties scurried across the topside like bugs, the steel talons of the ship's ring of strafing hawks glittering in the sun.
Suddenly a winged figure rose into view, an airman staring wide-eyed into the camera. Deryn blinked, not quite believing - it was her own face up there on the screen.
The image was replaced by a sign . . . THE BRAVE AIRMAN TESTS HIS WINGS!
"Tests his wings?" she said aloud. As if she'd been larking about instead of preventing disaster! Giggles came from the pair of girls nearby as the sign disappeared. They were pointing up at her on the screen.
"They seem to think you make a dashing boy," Lilit said. "Quite right too. When do you leave?"
"Our twenty-four hours will be up tonight."
"Too bad. And Alek's staying, isn't he?"
"Aye. He works for Tesla now."
"Oh, poor Dylan." The flickering screen showed Alek now, standing face-to-face with Pancho Villa's massive fighting bulls. "But Dylan isn't your real name, is it?"
Deryn shook her head but supplied nothing more. Lilit seemed to have guessed everything else about her; she might as well figure out the rest on her own.
"Do you want to stay a man forever?"
"It doesn't seem possible. Too many people know already." Deryn looked at the schoolgirls, who were unescorted and didn't seem ashamed about it. "Though maybe I don't have to. Women can ride in balloons here, and they can pilot walkers. Dr. Barlow says that British women will get the vote, once the war is over."
"Fah. The Committee promised the same thing, back when we were rebels." Lilit shook her head. "But now that we're in power, there seems to be no rush. And when I complained, I was sent five thousand miles away."
"Aye, but I'm glad you're here," Deryn said softly.
She'd never talked about Alek aloud before, not to anyone. That was the problem with leading a secret life. The whole unsoldierly business of wanting him had all taken place between her own ears, except for that one brief moment on the topside.
"I kissed him once," she whispered.
"Well done. What did he do?"
"Um . . ." Deryn sighed. "He woke up."
"Woke up? Had you snuck into his cabin, Mr. Sharp?"
"No! He'd fallen and knocked his daft head. It was a medical emergency!"
Lilit snorted out a laugh, and Deryn turned from her to stare glumly at the screen. Maybe she should just confess to the world what she was. Then she could stop having secrets forever.
But the reason why she couldn't was right in front of her, written in flickering light. The air was the air, and every minute aboard the Leviathan was worth a lifetime of lies.
"Do you love him?"
Deryn swallowed, then pointed at the screen. "He makes me feel like that. Like flying."
"Then, you have to tell him."