Goliath

"REMOTELY FACING AN EMERGING THREAT."

It looked like a fleet of wee metal boats, each only a few feet long. Antennae whipped back and forth on their decks as the ripples from the emerging walker reached them. The boats were heading straight toward the German craft.

"Do you see those, ma'am?"

Dr. Barlow squinted into the darkness, then nodded. "Ah, yes. Mr. Tesla's remote controlled boats. He's been trying to sell them to the Royal Navy for years. How pleased he must be to finally make use of them."

As the first of the boats disappeared beneath the walker, light flared out across the water, and a jet of flame curled up around the metal. A few crewmen on the top deck cowered, but the machine hardly paused in its march toward the shore.

"A bit disappointing," the lady boffin said.

"A few sticks of dy***ite and some kerosene, I reckon." Deryn frown"Did Mr. Tesla think he'd be fighting wooden ships?"

Dr. Barlow gave a shrug. "He never was one for chemistry."

"Not to worry," the captain said. "We'll show him how it's done. Starboard engine to half. Bomb bay, release when ready!"

Deryn stepped closer to the window, leaning out to see beneath the ship.

The water-walker's left foreleg was just stepping onto the beach when the shiver went through the deck. Deryn's knee twinged, and she held her breath until the bomb struck home.

It fell between the walker's two right legs, landing in a few yards of water. A dark column of sand shot into the air, fringed with silvery moonlit spray. Tesla's boats were tossed aside, bursting into flames that spilled across the surface of the sound. The Clanker machine was thrown sideways by the blast, almost tipping over. But finally it crashed back down, its right legs twisting and splitting.

The shock wave reached the Leviathan then, a great shudder traveling through the ship, the windows of the bridge rattling like teacups. Deryn kept her eyes trained on the walker. It was still trying to move, but its two working legs could only drag it a few yards with every step.

"Please give the bomb bay my compliments," Captain Hobbes said. "They've left her quite in one piece."

"What about her deck gun, sir?" the first officer asked.

"Keep an eye on it. If any more crewmen stick their heads out, we'll introduce them to our flechette bats."

More orders were called, and a searchlight lanced out across the darkness. The burned and battered hulk of the walker suddenly shone brightly.

Deryn's eye caught a sparkle in the distance beyond. The central tower of Goliath was still dark, but the four smaller structures around it were starting to glow.

"Dr. Barlow?" she said. "I think Tesla's contraption is charging up."

"He means to complete his test?" The lady boffin tutted. "Captain, perhaps we should give Mr. Tesla some room. Even a test firing could prove unpleasant up here."

"Indeed, Doctor. Engines at one-half reverse."

The Leviathan hesitated for a moment in the air, then Deryn felt the gentle tug of the ship sliding backward. The black water of Long Island Sound pulled into view, and the tableau of the damaged walker and the sparkling towers spread out before them.

"Sir!" the pilot called. "There's another exhaust trail!"

The officers crowded the windows, and Deryn took a step forward. Something metal was breaking the surface near the shore.

It was a smaller walker, its four legs thrashing in the dark water of the sound, heading toward the beach.

"One of the escorts?" The captain shook his head. "But where's it been hiding?"

"It must have shut down after our attack," Dr. Barlow said. "Just long enough for us to follow the big one away. Or it may have ridden on the larger walker's back, mingling their exhaust streams."

"Who cares!" Deryn cried. "We need to stop that barking thing!"

"Well put, Mr. Sharp," the captain said. "Go to full-ahead."

A moment later the roar of engines rumbled through the bridge, and the Leviathan was moving forward again.

But the small walker had already made its way onto land. It was scrambling quickly through the trees, headed straight for the towers half a mile away. The machine hardly seemed large enough to tear Goliath apart, but it could certainly make a mess of things.

Suddenly a burst of sparks and flame ignited on the walker's back, arcing across the darkness. An explosion thudded in the distance.

"It's got a deck gun!" the first officer announced. "Captain?"

"Flechette bats," came the answer. "We'll sweep them off the topside!"

Deryn's fingers curled into two fists. The airship was gaining on the walker, and the searchlights swung out to find it in the darkness. She heard the pop of an air gun overhead, and saw the first cloud of flechette bats streaking away.

But as her eyes drifted past the German walker, Deryn's breath caught.

The outer towers of Mr. Tesla's weapon were glowing brighter now, covered with nervous snakes made of fire and lightning. The tall central tower, Goliath itself, had begun to softly glow in the darkness, like the envelope of a hot-air balloon with its burner turned to full.

Deryn tasted acid in the back of her throat, and felt the awful, paralyzing fear of her nightmares. She remembered how the Goeben's Tesla cannon had almost burned them all to a cinder. But Goliath was much more powerful, mighty enough to set the sky aflame thousands of miles away.

And the Leviathan was headed straight for it.

Chapter Forty

The first shell landed at the edge of the compound, sending a length of barbed wire fence flailing and coiling in the air. A cloud of dust rolled outward from the explosion, and Alek heard pieces of torn metal hitting the rooftops around him.

He cupped his hands against the glass as the dust cleared, and saw the attacker striding through the trees - a smaller walker, a four-legged corvette. Two searchlights bore down from the Leviathan, revealing the deck gun on the machine's back, its barrel spilling smoke.

"Mr. Tesla," Alek called. "Perhaps we should evacuate."

"Your British friends may have deserted us, but I shall not abandon my life's work."

Alek turned. Tesla's hands were on the levers on the central bank of controls, his hair sticking out in all directions. Sparks flew about the room, and Alek felt the air humming with power.

"You haven't been abandoned, sir!" He pointed at the window. "The Leviathan's still here."

"Can't you see they're too late? I have no choice but to fire."

Alek opened his mouth to argue, but another boom sounded in the distance, and the shriek of the incoming shell sent him into a crouch. This one landed inside the compound, throwing dirt and debris against the control room windows.

Suddenly the night turned red outside, the Leviathan's searchlights changing color, and then glimmers of metal were streaking from the sky. The men on the deck of the walker twisted and fell as the flechettes struck home. A moment later the gun was unmanned, rolling from side to side with the machine's gait.

The metal rain swept closer and closer, slicing through trees and sending up clods of dirt. As the torrent dwindled, one last flechette hit the window with a smack. A crack slithered across the glass, and Alek scrambled a few steps backward, but the attack had ended.

He cleared his throat, willing his voice to stay firm. "The Leviathan has silenced that German gun, sir. We can stand down."

"But the walker is still coming, isn't it?"

Alek took a wary step closer to the window. The spikes had done nothing to the corvette's metal armor, of course. But in the sky above, the Leviathan was still closing in, its bomb bay doors already open.

Then he remembered what Tesla had said about firing Goliath in earnest - any aircraft within ten kilometers would be in danger. The Leviathan was no more than a kilometer distant, and Deryn was still aboard, thanks to Alek and his deal with Eddie Malone.

This madness had to stop.

Alek turned and strode to the main bank of controls, taking Tesla by the arm. "Sir, I can't let you do this. It's too horrific."

Tesla looked up. "Don't you think I know that? To destroy a whole city . . . It's the most horrible thing any human could conceive."

"Then, why are you doing it?"

Tesla closed his eyes. "It will take a year to rebuild this tower, Alek. And in that year, how many more will die in battle? Hundreds of thousands? A million?"

"Perhaps. But you're talking about Berlin . . . two million people."

Tesla stared down at his controls. "I can dampen the effect, I think."

"You think?"

"I won't destroy the whole city, just enough to prove my theories. Otherwise Goliath will be lost forever! No one will invest money in a smoking crater." He looked out the window at the walker scrambling across the dunes. "And the Germans will only grow bolder. If they aren't stopped now, do you think their assassins will let either of us live out the year?"

Alek took a step closer. "I know what it is to be hunted, sir. I have been hounded since the night my parents died. But proving your invention isn't worth this!"

A clamor of gunfire came from behind Alek, and he spun about. In the red glare of the Leviathan's searchlights, the Pinkerton walker was venturing out to meet the German machine. A Gatling gun had popped up on its back and was chattering away.

But bullets were useless against steel armor, and the Pinkerton was far too small to stop the water-walker with brute force. It could only buy them time.

The Leviathan's vast shape had slowed to a halt and was starting to reverse course. The corvette was inside the compound walls now - too close to Goliath for Leviathan to drop an aerial bomb. The airship's officers had to know that Tesla's weapon would be deadly to anything in the sky.

But there wasn't time to fly ten kilometers away. The air in the control room had begun to crackle, and Alek felt his hair standing on end. The buttons of his jacket softly glowed as the electrikal lights faded around them.

The weapon would be ready to fire soon.

Alek turned to Tesla. "The people of Berlin haven't had fair warning! You said we'd give them a chance to evacuate!"

The man pulled on a pair of thick black rubber gloves. "That chance has been stolen, but by their own kaiser, not by me. Please go back down to the dining room, Your Highness."

"Mr. Tesla, I insist that you stop this!"

Without looking up from his controls, Tesla waved a gloved hand at his men. "Show His Highness back to the dining room, please."

Alek reached for his sword, but he hadn't worn it tonight. The two men approaching were much larger than him, and there were another dozen that Tesla could call upon in the control room.

"Mr. Tesla, please . . ."

The inventor shook his head. "I've dreaded this moment for years, but fate has taken control."

The men took Alek firmly by the arms and led him to the stairs.

Most of the guests had fled the dining room, but Klopp was still there, a cigar in one hand, his cane in the other. Miss Rogers sat with him, scribbling madly.

"Sounds like quite a battle up there," she said.

Alek sat heavily, staring at the empty chairs around the table, all askew. Even down here the floor was humming.

"He's going to fire at Berlin. Not a test, the real thing. What have I done?"

Klopp said in German, "The others should be back in a moment, young master."

"Back? Where in blazes have they gone?"

"To check on the luggage," Klopp said simply.

"What?"

"Your Highness?" Miss Rogers asked. "Would you say that Mr. Tesla has become unhinged?"

Alek spun to face her. "He means to destroy a city, without warning or negotiation. What would you say?"