Ethinium's Vault (Steam & Aether Book 1), page 23
“Oh. Okay. Uh, you’re welcome.”
He glanced over her shoulder into the other car, and could see Hilda walking toward them in the dark.
She pushed open the doors and entered the engine compartment.
“Did you give him a boon?”
“I did.”
“Then it’s my turn.”
In one smooth motion Hilda walked up to Rip and wrapped a hand around his head, pulling his face down to hers.
She kissed him, sliding her cool tongue in as well.
[You have received a boon.]
[You have received Boon: A Grateful Kiss. The kiss of a noble daughter from House Verez has been bestowed upon you, a worthy hero who has plucked this damsel from the very jaws of doom.]
[A Grateful Kiss bestows one Skill of the Vampiric Class upon the recipient.]
[You have earned a new skill: Vampiric Speed. For one second, your speed matches that of a noble in House Verez. Skill duration increases with level.]
“What did you get?”
“[Vampiric Speed].”
“Excellent! What did yours give him, Liza?”
“[Night Vision].”
“Good. I think our debts are paid in full, Sergeant.”
“Okay, sure. But, I would have done this anyway. I mean, it’s what we do, right? We’re all in this Venture Society thing together.”
The two sisters glanced at one another and laughed lightly.
Liza turned back to Rip and said, “Nobody tries to save a vampire, Sergeant Coulter, Venture Society or no.”
On the floor, the man Rip wrested away from the controls stirred back to consciousness with a groan.
The girls glanced down at him, their smiles turning into rictus grins. Rip watched as their canines grew, turning to fangs.
They pounced on the man.
He lived long enough to let out one horrid scream before it was cut short.
52
Blair returned soon after they drained the blood from the last Septic Rat. She looked down on the floor at the empty body and frowned, not in pity but disgust.
Ignoring Hilda and Liza, busily wiping their mouths, Blair said, “We’re nearing the end.”
Rip nodded and shifted the lever, bringing it from full speed reverse to partial. He kept slowing it down as ambient light in the tunnel increased, finally bringing the train to a crawl.
When the engine entered the room once more, he threw the lever into the horizontal position and pulled out another one marked, “Brake.”
A message popped up on his implant.
[You have earned a new skill: Train Driver.]
“Good grief,” he grumbled to himself. “There better not be a cap on skills. Or if there is, I need some way to discard the useless ones.”
Before anyone could comment, police whistles sounded, echoing across the concrete. A stream of men wearing dark blue uniforms, tall round hats and shiny brass buttons ran in from the far tunnel.
Blair’s eyes narrowed. Then she looked down at the body on the floor.
“Girls, toss out these corpses. We don’t want the peelers finding them with bite marks, if at all possible. At least, nowhere near you.”
They scowled at her and looked like they were about to argue for a moment.
But as dozens more officers rushed into the underground depot, they thought better of it. Both moved with incredible speed. Liza scooped up the body on the floor and jumped out the other side of the train while Hilda zipped into the next car.
Rip said, “So, you do care.”
Blair turned her frown toward him, then noticed the grin on his face.
“Needle me all you want, Ripley. But we are going to have problems enough if the peelers are planning to interfere with an RVS mission. I doubt they’re even aware of any vampire’s presence in Ethinium, much less Greater Umbria. If at all possible, it will go much easier on us all if things stay that way. Now, come along.”
She led the way off the train and they approached the Venture Society members still resting near the crates.
The policemen facing them spread out, like the parting of a sea. Chief Inspector Sperry walked in from the far tunnel, looking conspicuous in his brown fedora and grey overcoat amidst all the blue uniforms.
He stood quietly, taking in the room with a sweeping glance.
His eyes rested on Blair and Rip for a moment, then he moved on to Bixby, Sharp and Finley.
Sharp stepped forward, by some unspoken agreement between the three nobles.
“Good afternoon, Chief Inspector. We did not expect to find such a strong police presence underneath the streets.”
Hilda and Liza walked around the end of the train at that moment, heading toward the group and drawing the eyes of every man in the room.
They smiled in delight. The weight shifted on dozens of officers’ feet.
Sperry cleared his throat, pulling his own eyes away from the attractive girls.
“As far as I’m concerned, the septic system is still part of the city, Lord Sharp. A city I am sworn to protect. Someone brought up out of the Chelsea pump station what appeared to be an injured fellow, carrying him to a steam truck, which is illegally parked I might add. One of my boys was busy writing out a citation for the driver when he observed the man being loaded. He recognized the black leather togs of Lady Finley’s group. Then he realized the poor blighter was dead. At that point, he called for assistance.”
The inspector spared a quick glance at his men. They all stared at the Verez sisters, who seemed to be smiling at each man in turn.
In annoyance, he returned his attention to Sharp and resumed his tale.
“About that time, we heard reports of gunfire from underneath the street. That warranted a much larger response. In light of the recent attacks on Doctors’ Commons, I marshaled every man I could lay hands on and headed for the Chelsea pump station. Imagine my surprise to find your people already here. Lord Atkinson’s men directed us this way. And here we also find the illustrative Sergeant Coulter, recent hero of the air . . . and destroyer of clock tower tops.”
Rip cleared his throat, blushing.
“His Majesty assured me that the tower was due for reconstruction anyway, and that I shouldn’t worry about any damages.”
This statement was met with a long silence. Sperry stared at Rip for a moment, without blinking.
Finally, he said, “How convenient. Regardless, I now find a . . . mess here under the streets. And, apparently, an underground train of some sort. Recently driven by you, Sergeant. Or so it appears. How is that, would you say?”
Rip scratched his head and said, “Would you believe me if I told you I just picked up the [Train Driver] skill? Darnedest thing. Apparently, if you apply yourself, you can get certain skills.”
Or if someone kisses you.
He kept that last thought to himself.
Rip belatedly noticed the officers no longer stared at the Verez sisters. They all looked at him, now.
He felt a sinking feeling in his chest, as he realized he was the center of attention for a lot of people.
“I’m hoping there’s not a skill cap or anything. Because, that would suck. I mean, uh, that would be bad.”
“Don’t mind the Sergeant, he babbles when he’s nervous,” Blair said. “The important thing is, we are about to depart from this location and find out just where this subterranean choo-choo leads us to.”
Sperry glanced at the train again and came to a decision, one instantly etched on his face and plain for all to see.
“Very well. The sworn officers of the Ethinium Police Department will accompany you on the train.”
Not one of the RVS leaders looked happy with this decision.
Bixby said, “That may not be a good idea, Chief Inspector. You saw what happened to Lady Finley’s people. If they can do that to enhanced Venture Society members, they can do even more to mundane police officers. All of whom appear to be unarmed, I might add.”
Before an argument could fester, they were interrupted by the sound of heavy metallic footsteps thumping down the tunnel leading toward the gazebo.
One of Atkinson’s men walked out first, patting the air with his hands.
“Have no fear, everyone. Do not be alarmed. This is the latest thing from the Lyceum, there is nothing to be worried about.”
He stepped to one side and everyone peered into the tunnel’s gloom as the thumping footsteps grew louder.
Rip saw it first with his newly enhanced eyesight. His eyebrows rose.
Slowly out of the gloom a large robot emerged, its feet clanking on the concrete.
One of the officers said, “It’s a steam vault automaton!”
The police scattered, some hiding behind crates. Several blew their whistles, loudly, despite the shouts of reassurance from Atkinson’s man.
Outside the tunnel, the metallic monstrosity stopped, and the top tilted back on a hinge.
Out of the hole a human head popped out, like a bespectacled mole. Disheveled white hair flowed around thick, soda bottle glasses.
Dr. Oggolopoli smiled at everyone.
“Oggy!” Humphries said. “What are you doing here?”
“I did it, Humph! I backtracked the circuit diagram on the guardian we disabled in the vaults. Then I was able to rewire Tinny here, the one we had in Fusselton’s lab. I know, it hasn’t moved in years, but look at it now! I’ve got a splendid suit of armor. I can make it do anything!”
He adjusted some controls inside the robot. It lifted an arm and waved at everyone.
Humphries looked suitably impressed, his vast sideburns quivering.
“Brilliant, Oggy! Absolutely brilliant! You advanced our knowledge of robotics by a decade, at least.”
Oggolopoli’s smile threatened to split his face in half.
“It is brilliant. It is. This changes everything!”
53
Rip watched as the large group of people in the depot room began sorting out who would actually take the train to its destination point.
Sperry argued the police should go. This argument was countered, rather persuasively Rip thought, by Bixby and Sharp who pointed out the casualties already taken by enhanced and armed RVS personnel.
And the cops were neither armed nor enhanced.
But Sperry felt he had the authority here, even though the others were on a sanctioned RVS mission. Street cops belonged under the streets too, he asserted, even if they spent the majority of their time on the surface.
Sharp threw up his hands in disgust after several minutes of going around and around with the man. He walked away muttering something about blood on the inspector’s hands.
Bixby remained. He threw out the very real possibility that the train was pointed toward Ethinium’s steam vault. If that was the final destination, once there the police would indeed be out of their jurisdiction.
But this rather logical argument did not seem to bother Sperry.
“If the train begins in Ethinium, then where it ends is immaterial.”
Bixby conceded at last, but he encouraged Sperry to allow his older officers, and those who were family men, the opportunity to stay behind. Implied, but not stated, was the very real possibility of death.
Rip noticed Bixby made his final remarks loud enough for all the officers in the area to hear it.
Sperry noticed it too, and gave Bixby an irritated expression.
“Fine. I’ll take volunteers only.”
The look on his face suggested everyone better volunteer.
About the time this argument wrapped up, another one broke out about the automaton Dr. Oggolopoli modified.
He felt, having rushed over here with the contraption, that he should continue on the mission with police and RVS personnel.
While this seemed perfectly reasonable to the professor, Humphries felt it was a very bad idea.
“They just recently captured you, old boy. Now you want to go back into the lion’s den? That’s foolhardy, if you ask me.”
Oggolopoli grew stubborn, though.
“I took the very circuit board allowing the creation of this new control panel for our own very limited supplies of vault robots which we have tucked away in the Lyceum. I’m the only one who knows how to operate this contraption, and I should go forward from here.”
“It can’t be that difficult to operate, Oggy . . .”
“Perhaps an RVS person should take it, gents.”
Both men stared at Chance who interrupted their conversation with the suggestion. Twig stood beside him, nodding in agreement. Their fingers twitched in anticipation.
“Absolutely not,” Oggolopoli said. “It should stay in the hands of Lyceum personnel, at least until all the technical difficulties are ironed out. We are not ready to hand this weapon over to RVS just yet.”
“In that case, my good fellow, it should be me. I should be the one to operate it because I am the one authorized to tag along with this expedition for the Lyceum. You came here on your own accord, did you not?”
At last, this argument swayed Oggolopoli. Reluctantly, he stepped out of the giant robot, climbing out the rear panel on the torso.
Humphries, who stood taller than Oggolopoli but looked much skinnier, took his place inside.
“Dash it all, I have to stoop in this thing.”
“I’ve spoken with Fusselton. His team is near to producing our own models thanks to my circuit board. We can perhaps make them large enough for the majority of users, and thus have our own suits of armor. Mass production would be cheaper than bespoke models, of course. They’d all be the same size.”
Oggolopoli prattled on about the reduction in costs and what materials could be used, should they ever get to that point.
Humphries pulled up the rear panel, latching it from inside, and slid his head into the robot’s large cranial cylinder. All the internal components had been ripped out, leaving him room to see and turn his neck.
“Right, then. Let’s find out what this machinery can do.”
Several people drew near while the two old men fussed over the robot, out of curiosity. Not many had ever seen an automaton before.
“What does this one do?” Humphries said.
The robot’s left hand shot out, thwacking an officer in the face and knocking him out.
“Oh, dear. Sorry about that.”
In the process of turning the bot to look at the stricken policeman, its right arm swung wide and whapped another officer on the shoulder, knocking him over.
“Oh, my. Oggy, help the poor fellow.”
At this point, everyone gave the robot a wide berth. A couple of brave souls came forward to drag the stricken officers get out of its range, but other than that no one else approached.
“Right. I shall now endeavor to walk to the train.”
Servos whined as Humphries fiddled with the controls, and the robot took its first hesitant step under his command.
Its foot came down with a loud thump on the concrete.
“By jolly, I think I’ve got this.”
Humphries’s next step crushed a wooden crate filled with metal parts.
“I say! Takes some finesse, doesn’t it?”
At last, Humphries approached the last car of the train, leaving a trail of broken boxes and scattered cargo behind him.
He pulled himself up onto the rear platform, making the last two cars creak as the opposite wheels tried to lift off the tracks. He held on, unable to fit the contraption inside the car.
“I shall stay here. The hands are tightly gripping. See you back at the Lyceum, Oggy!”
“I suppose now is the time to say ‘all aboard,’” Bixby said to the group watching. “Sergeant, you apparently know how to operate this train.”
“Yeah, I got the skill,” Rip said, with a trace of bitterness. “Nobody seems to know if there’s a limit to the number of skills you can get. There better not be.”
“I’ve never heard of such a thing, if that’s any help.”
“Yeah. Okay.”
Rip headed for the front while Bixby called out for any police officers wishing to go.
Blair noticed the Verez sisters heading to the front, too. She hurried to catch up with Rip and cut them off.
Inside the engine compartment, all three women joined him.
At least they aren’t staring daggers at one another, he thought.
Rip looked out the window and watched everyone choose a car. It turned out some of the officers did in fact decide to stay behind.
The inspector gave them some last minute instructions. He made two of his men accompany Oggolopoli back to the surface and told the others to search the area. Then he turned and climbed onboard with the remaining officers.
Last to board the train was Lady Finley, who now looked much better after her near-death experience.
She smiled up at Rip before entering the car closest to the engine and said, “I think we can depart now, Sergeant.”
He nodded and turned back to the controls, adjusting the lever.
Reluctantly, the train crept forward, rear wheels howling in protest.
“How much does that robot weigh?” he said out loud as he cranked the lever higher.
The train slowly picked up speed.
Rip gave a final glance out the window, back in the direction they just came. He saw some of the officers poking around the crates, looking inside several.
One policeman hopped over the tracks and approached the boxes over there.
“Girls . . . where did you stash those bodies?”
Liza said, “Behind the cargo on the far side, Ripley. Why?”
He grimaced.
“I think the Ethinium police are about to find evidence of vampires in the septic system.”
Neither vampire present appeared particularly worried about this.
Blair frowned, but she often frowned around the sisters, so he remained unsure how much to be concerned about it.
Before he could dwell on the matter further, the engine entered the far tunnel, and the train plunged into darkness.
54
The train moved slower with the additional weight, not only from the giant robot hanging onto the last car, but with all the policemen onboard, too.
