"Who?"
Dr. Barlow handed Tazza's leash to Deryn, then reached for the birdcage. She opened the linen cover and reached inside, pulling out a bird with gray feathers and a brilliant red tuft at its tail.
"Good morning, Dr. Barlow," the bird squawked.
"Good morning, dear," she answered. Then she said in a slow, clear voice, "Captain Hobbes, greetings from Dr. Barlow. I have a message from Mr. Sharp: You appear to have some untrained men on your ropes." She looked at Deryn and shrugged. "And ... I look forward to meeting you, sir. End message."
She gathered the bird closer to her chest, then pushed it toward the airship.
As it swept up and away, Deryn murmured, "What was that?"
"A message parrot," Dr. Barlow said. "Based on the Congo African Grey. We've been training it especially for this trip. It can read airmen's uniforms and gondola markings, just like a proper Service lizard."
"Training it, ma'am?" Deryn frowned. "But I thought this Constantinople business came up all of a sudden."
"Indeed, things are moving more quickly than expected." Dr. Barlow lay one hand on the mysterious box. "But some of us have been planning this mission for years."
Deryn gave the box another wary glance, then turned to watch the parrot. It flapped through the ropes and guidelines, straight into the open windows of the bridge.
"That's brilliant, ma'am. It's like a flying message lizard!"
"They have many of the same life threads," Dr. Barlow said. "In fact, some of us believe that birds share ancestors with the ancient lizards... ." Her voice faded as the Leviathan's tanks let loose with a spray of ballast.
The ship rose a little, the men on the ropes skidding along the ground in a losing tug of war against the airship.
"Blisters!" Deryn swore. "Why's he climbing?"
"Oh dear," Dr. Barlow said, looking down. "I do hope that was Clementine."
Deryn followed her stare to the birdcage. Another hooked gray beak was poking out, gnawing on the bars. "There's two of them?"
The lady boffin nodded. "Winston tends to garble things, and I can never tell them apart. It's such a bother."
Deryn swallowed, watching as the ballast water rained down on the ground men's heads. It sparkled prettily in the sunlight, but Deryn knew where that ballast came from - it was straight from the gastric channel, clart and all.
The civilians among them thought something had gone wrong. A squad of men in cricketing whites dropped their ropes and covered their heads, retreating from the unexpected rain of smelly water. The ship rose higher as their weight left the ropes, but Deryn saw the hydrogen sniffers on the ship's topside going into a frenzy. The captain was also venting gas.
The ship steadied in the air.
Another spray of ballast came, heavier than the last. The proper ground men, who'd had clart hit their heads a hundred times, hung on. But in a few moments all the untrained men had abandoned their ropes.
"Very clever, your captain," Dr. Barlow said.
"Nothing like a bit of muck to clear things out!" Deryn said happily, then added, "So to speak, ma'am."
Dr. Barlow let out a laugh. "Indeed. I shall enjoy traveling with you, Mr. Sharp."
"Thank you, ma'am." Deryn glanced at the lady boffin's massive pile of luggage. "Perhaps you could mention that to the bosun. You see, the ship's a wee bit over-weight."
"I shall," the woman said, taking back her beastie's leash. "We'd like a little cabin boy all our own, wouldn't we, Tazza?"
"Um, that's not really what I ..." Deryn blethered, starting to explain that midshipmen were officers, practically. They certainly weren't cabin boys.
But Dr. Barlow was already leading her thylacine toward the airship, trailed by the other boffins and their mysterious box.
Deryn sighed. At least she'd earned her place aboard the Leviathan. And after his blunder with the ropes, that bum-rag Fitzroy might finally get what he deserved. Not bad for one day's work.
Of course, now there was a fresh worry to ponder.
As another female, Dr. Barlow might notice a few odd things the other crewmen hadn't. And she was a clever-boots, with all that science under her bowler. If anyone was going to guess Deryn's little secret, it would be this lady boffin.
"Brilliant," Deryn muttered, taking hold of the heavy trunk and hurrying for the ship.
SEVENTEEN
The land frigate stood atop a distant rise, its signal flags snapping in the breeze.
"That's a bother," Klopp said, lowering his field glasses. "She's a thousand-tonner, Wotan class. A new experimental model. Small enough to make good speed; big enough to pound us into dust."
Alek took the glasses from Klopp and raised them to his eyes.
The Herkules wasn't the largest landship they'd seen, but with its eight long legs - arranged like a spider's - it did look nimble. The array of smokestacks suggested a powerful engine bank inside.
"What's she doing here at the Swiss border?" Alek asked. "Isn't there a war on?"
"One might think she was waiting for us," Count Volger said.
"See that crow's nest?" Klopp pointed at a tall mast rising from the frigate's gun deck. Two tiny figures stood on the platform mounted at its top. "That lookout tower isn't standard equipment."
"And the lookouts are facing this way - into Austria," Bauer said. The pilot's cabin was crowded, the other three arranged around Alek like a family portrait. "I doubt they're stationed here to protect us from invasion."
"No, they're here to keep us in," Alek said, lowering the field glasses. "They knew we were headed to Switzerland, thanks to me."
Count Volger shrugged. "Where else would we go?"
Alek supposed he was right. With the war spreading every day, Switzerland was the only country staying neutral - the last place for fugitives and deserters to hide.
But it still didn't seem fair, running straight into this land frigate. They'd been weaving back and forth across Austria for more than a month - creeping through forests for a few hours every night. They'd been hunted, shot at, even dive-bombed by an aeroplane. They'd spent whole days scavenging parts and fuel from farm machines and junkyards, just enough to keep the Stormwalker running. And finally they'd reached a passage to safety, only to find it guarded by a giant metal spider.