Another silence met that.
“You cannot have my mechanimal.”
The fortune-teller’s eyes narrowed. She cocked her head threateningly, like an angry rooster. A red fringed scarf about her neck contributed to the effect, looking like a wattle.
Sophronia added, “But you may
Madame Spetuna pursed her lips. “One month.”
“Two weeks.”
“Three.”
“Done.”
“And I want to know why you came on board to report in. What was so important you had to leave your post and abandon all those embroidered pillows?”
“My, my, you are a devious little thing, aren’t you?” Madame Spetuna made a decision. “I came to report that the flywaymen are assembling a float gather. This has not occurred in some fifty years. Also, they are allying formally with the Picklemen.”
“Which is why you need Bumbersnoot. This is an opportunity for you to trade up to a more significant position in sky ranking.”
“Bumbersnoot?”
“My mechanimal.”
Madame Spetuna inclined her head.
“Why are they gathering?”
“Giffard’s dirigible. If he can travel the aetherosphere, so could they.”
Sophronia wrinkled her nose. “They aren’t trying to kidnap my friend Dimity, are they?”
Madame Spetuna looked genuinely confused.
Sophronia nodded to herself. Either Madame Spetuna wasn’t high enough up to know, or the Picklemen weren’t revealing this plan to their flywaymen allies, or it wasn’t the Picklemen.
“When can I get the mechanimal?” demanded Madame Spetuna.
“Tomorrow evening, in the boiler room,” said Sophronia.
“Done.”
“How do I know you won’t steal him forever?”
“You don’t.”
They parted, and Sophronia was left feeling both forlorn and triumphant, although her prevailing emotion was one of relief. She was wrung out, like wilted spinach.
By the next morning, however, Sophronia was more controlled. She went, during their brief free time before breakfast, hunting for Vieve.
The thing about Vieve was the scamp turned up when she pleased, and no one was entirely certain where she spent the bulk of her time. So when one was looking for Vieve, it could prove difficult to actually find her. Sophronia pestered the hall steward, one of the human staff members, into getting the word out that Vieve was wanted. And after searching for a bit, she gave up.
The younger girl appeared, dimpling excitedly, to escort her to breakfast an hour later. They hung back, despite Monique’s teasing, for a quick exchange. Sophronia shook her head quite firmly at Felix when the boy looked as if he would come over and take her arm. She indicated that she already had an escort, and even Lord Mersey was well mannered enough not to interfere. He did, however, look offended.
“Quickly,” said Sophronia. “Your Bunson’s plan is getting me into heaps of trouble. I’ve had to promise the loan of Bumbersnoot to a
Vieve gave her best effort at a guilty look.
Sophronia was not fooled—Vieve rarely felt guilty about anything. “Can you kit him out to emit a timed explosive? Set the timer for three weeks in the future, give her incentive to get him back to me quickly?”
“I won’t ask for the details.”
“Nor should you. Well, can you?”
Vieve scrunched up her nose. “Explosives aren’t my strongest suit. It’s ridiculously difficult to acquire them when one is only ten. Then again, I could link something under pressure to his own functionality, get the viscosity of the oil down enough to begin a gradual buildup.” Her forehead wrinkled. “You’d have to shut him down and clean him out if you got him back early.”
“Show me how?”
“Of course.”
“The boiler room, this evening?”
Vieve nodded and then skittered off.
At breakfast Professor Shrimpdittle was red-eyed and panicky, with a very high cravat tied about his neck.
Soap was thrilled to see Sophronia that night. “My goodness, miss, I thought you’d forgotten all about us.” His grin practically lit up the boiler room.
Sophronia thought he was looking remarkably fit. Had he got himself new clothing? Well,
“And with all them fine visiting gentlemen?” Soap’s tone was overly casual.
“Now, Soap. You know you’ll always be my favorite.”
Soap tugged his own ear self-consciously. “Aw, miss.”
Sophronia unstrung Bumbersnoot from his reticule disguise and put him down on the floor. His tail tick- tocked happily as he nibbled chips of coal and snuffled in the black dust.
“So, miss, what’s the doggerel?”
Sophronia relayed to Soap some of what she was currently scheming—the bits she was tolerably certain wouldn’t offend. She told him of Vieve’s plan to relocate, her own plotting against Shrimpdittle, the fortune-teller spy, and the possible attempted kidnapping of Dimity and Pillover. And how it all might be tied to Giffard’s fancy new dirigible technology and the guidance valve that was once a prototype.
It was a like telling an adventure story to a child. Sophronia made the most of it, exaggerating her own actions rather more than was truthful, and detailing the Chaise Longue Attack as if it were some epic battle.
Soap, and the small crowd of sooties who joined him, were entranced. They gasped in all the right places. When Vieve arrived and scooped up Bumbersnoot, they barely noticed. The younger girl settled herself to tinker with the mechanimal, making a host of adjustments and configurations. She placed a round spidery thing inside his storage compartment that looked uncomfortably deadly and hooked it into the dog’s tiny steam engine with various cables.
By the time Sophronia had finished her tale, Vieve was done with Bumbersnoot. Sensing that story time was over, the sooties dispersed.
Vieve showed Sophronia the adjustments she’d made.
“You detach it here, like so.” She tapped the side of the spider in a pattern of pressed buttons and twisted nobs.
Sophronia memorized it.
“That’s the only shut-down sequence that will incapacitate the explosive. Otherwise, it’s timed to be heat dependent. If you try to remove it early, it will explode. What I’ve done is connected it to Bumbersnoot’s boiler. This will cause a slow buildup. He already has a safety thermometer in his storage stomach to prevent overheating; this will cause him to regurgitate the explosive in exactly twenty-four days, if my calculations are correct. If the device is disconnected, it will explode in minutes. All this timing is rather delicate and requires that Bumbersnoot runs standard practices. If he is walked at high speed too frequently, he’ll emit the explosive
