Agatha H. and the Clockwork Princess

recognition that it was Gil who had slain the Hive Engine’s Queen. Unfortunately, just to make things more complicated, people had seen him being aided by the Heterodyne girl.

Klaus sighed. Another day, another crisis.

Almost as tall as his sire, Gil moved stiffly through the crowd. The young man was under a great deal of strain, but was doing a masterful job of hiding it. It would take someone who knew him well to see it. Klaus approved. A commander should not let his underlings see that he was under pressure.

Gil had a lot to be worried about, certainly, but could see that his father was in no mood to ease his mind. He stepped up and ran a critical eye over the healing engine.

Gil was a strong Spark, and his medical training had been excellent, but he could find no fault in the setup. He would have been astonished if he had. Dr. Merrilwee looked unassuming, but he knew that she was one of the finest medical minds of the Empire.

As always, his father’s expression was one of barely-suppressed irritation. Gil was unsure just how angry his father was, so he took a neutral tone. “You wished to see me, father?”

“Idiot!” Klaus snapped back.

Gil winced mentally, but kept his face straight. Chastising him in front of the assembled command staff? His father must be very angry indeed.

The Baron continued: “How long have you known that the girl was a Spark?”

Gil sighed. His father had good cause to be annoyed. “I suspected it back in Beetleburg. I knew this morning.”

Klaus’ eyes narrowed. “And yet you let me continue to believe that the Spark was Moloch von Zinzer, and that the girl was just his assistant. Wasting the valuable opportunity to study an apparently powerful Spark—a Heterodyne, no less—in the breakthrough stage! A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity like that, gone! ”

Gil could see the shrewd sadness in his father’s eyes. “Was it that important to you to catch me in an error?”

Gil felt like he’d been punched in the stomach. Had he been that obvious?

He had never known his father to be wrong, never.

He had always hoped, in a childish sort of way, that one day he would actually get to see his father make a mistake about something—anything.

Well he’d gotten his wish, and then some. He’d made a game of it, right from the moment he had noticed the grease under Agatha’s nails. Helping Von Zinzer fake the Spark, taking Agatha to assist in his own lab—it was true that Gil had hoped to prove his father wrong, but there had been so much more to it.

Agatha had been something very new to him. He had wanted to keep her to himself, hidden away in his lab, for as long as he could before his father took her away. Watching her break through as a Spark had been miraculous. The delight that had played across her face when she had first laid eyes on the little pocket-watch clank and realized that she had built it—and that it actually worked—that alone had been worth all the trouble he could possibly be in now.

And there had been the fear, too. The fear of what would happen to her if his father were to study her, as he had so many other Sparks.

And then Gil had panicked. He’d moved too fast, said all the wrong things, and she had been angry, of course... and now he couldn’t even apologize...

When Gil still said nothing, Klaus continued. “Did you know she was a Heterodyne? ”

Gil shook his head. In that at least, he could honestly claim innocence. “No. I admit, that was a surprise. I didn’t know about any of that until DuPree told me. She thinks the whole thing is hilarious.” He winced again, visibly this time.

His father nodded briefly and he growled: “Well, now I know it too, as will the whole of Europa! And she’s gone off with Othar Tryggvassen no less![10] For all we know, Othar might have killed her himself, once he discovered she was a Spark!”

Gil paled visibly at this. His body tensed, and he glanced toward the door. DuPree hadn’t told him that Agatha had escaped with Othar. She’d been too busy laughing. If he went after her right now, would he be too late?

Klaus noticed the reaction and swore silently. Gil’s obvious agitation confirmed several suspicions that he had hoped were unfounded. “I want you to leave immediately with Captain DuPree. The two of you will find this girl and bring her back.”

Gil nodded. He’d been expecting this, and was happy to go, but the addition of Bangladesh DuPree made things... difficult. “Father, I can’t just grab her by force and drag her back here. She’s a Spark, but she hasn’t broken the peace.” This was a rather fatuous argument, as Klaus had people dragged off all the time. These were usually people who had broken the peace, and spectacularly so, but the fact remained that the ruler of the Wulfenbach Empire certainly could arrest anyone he pleased, no matter what the reason. And so could his son.

Gil started as Klaus thumped his bed. “Don’t be an idiot! She’s not just a Spark—she is a Heterodyne!”

It was true. Agatha’s very existence would be a threat to the Empire. The Heterodynes loomed large in the hearts of the people of Europa, and those who chafed under the Baron’s rule, especially among the old ruling classes, would not hesitate to make use of their legend. A genuine Heterodyne heir would be the perfect nucleus around which a well-organized “popular” revolt could made to crystallize. However Gil felt about Agatha, to his father, she could only be a powerful wild card that threatened his control over the all-consuming game he been playing—and winning—for so many years. Gil knew his father well enough to know that the Baron would already be laying detailed plans in advance against the plots that would hatch, the uprisings, betrayals and power-grabs that would follow—if news of a new Heterodyne was allowed to spread. Gil also knew that, politically, having the Heterodyne heir firmly in the control of the Empire would be the most important of all those plans. But this was Agatha, not some hypothetical “Heterodyne Heir,” and he found he didn’t much like what “firmly in the control of the Empire” might mean for her.

Klaus continued: “Plus, she is the daughter of Lucrezia Mongfish. That alone warrants our attention—and our extreme caution.”

This surprised Gil. He had heard rumors about his father and the wife of Bill Heterodyne, but they were rumors he had never paid much attention to. Scientifically speaking, he found the idea “icky.” It seemed those rumors may have been true after all. Still, this was obviously neither the time nor the place to ask.

He tried a different tack. “Father, she’s already angry with me. If I just go and arrest her—and with DuPree —” This argument slammed into the granite cliffside of Klaus’ determination.

“You will bring her back here. As a prisoner. Is this understood?”

Gil tried one more time. “Father, of course I’ll go after her. But if I can just talk to her, she might—”

“As a prisoner!” Klaus roared. “There will be no argument! You can save any romantic ideas you have for later.” Gil’s face went scarlet. Klaus paused, then continued, his voice slightly softer. “She must be contained as quickly as possible. There is no time for negotiations or compromises. Blame me, if you must. Let DuPree do the dirty work. Once she’s here, you can talk all you want—although I would advise against it. Now go. DuPree is waiting on Dock Forty-Three.”

With that, the Baron laid back and closed his eyes. With a touch of concern, Gil noted the evidence of strain on his father’s face, and checked the actual settings on the speed healer. He blinked as he realized how much pain his father must be experiencing. Arguments at this time would be counter-productive. He would have to do what he could on his own. With a simple “Yes, Father,” he turned to go. Gil closed the great doors behind him, still feeling slightly ill. His thoughts were racing—he would have to move quickly. Suddenly, a plaintive cry of: “Hey! Wulfenbach! Over here!” caused him to look around.

Gil’s eyes widened in dismay and surprise. Moloch von Zinzer sat uncomfortably in a steel cage, hung from a rolling framework and flanked by a pair of guard clanks. Gil could see that he had arrived too late. The hapless soldier’s fate had been determined.

“I did what you wanted,” Von Zinzer complained. “I pretended I was the Spark like you told me to. I didn’t tell