Chapter 18:
"The Illusion of Victory"
August 4, 1915
Red Star Chemicals
Research Laboratory Headquarters
Deryn wondered if anyone else noticed that Alek's hands were shaking. His knuckles were stark white, the dumkopf. Deryn knew he was anxious. The daft prince hated guns, and there he was, doing his best to pretend he wasn't quaking in his boots. She wanted to walk right up to him, rip the pistol away from him, toss it aside, and hold his hands until they stopped shaking.
Of course, that wouldn't be the smartest move, seeing as how he was pointing the revolver at a dangerous madman who would probably take advantage of the situation and snatch the gun right off the floor. Also, Deryn wouldn't make it two steps before the lady boffin shot her that icy glare and ordered her to "sit down, young lady!"
Deryn apparently wasn't the only one who noticed Alek's jitters. Count Volger strode coolly up to him and clapped a hand on Alek's shoulder. The boy nearly jumped a mile. If she wasn't so worried about him, Deryn might have snorted.
"Allow me, your Serene Highness," Volger drawled, gesturing for Alek to hand him the pistol. "We wouldn't want your royal arms to get tired, now would we? Besides, your form is terrible."
Deryn knew the Count well enough to know that he was trying to help Alek without drawing attention to his weakness. Or maybe, Deryn reconsidered, Volger was incapable of speaking to anyone without adding a splash of his usual sarcastic flair.
Either way, Alek offered the gun to him without protest. "You know quite well that I'm no longer royalty," he said to the Count with a pointed look, but Volger only sniffed, accepted the weapon, and aimed it at Vost's back.
Dr. Barlow's interjected abruptly. "I can tell that you gentlemen are all quite eager to uncover Mr. Vost's deepest darkest secrets. I, however, shall need some assistance with Miss Sharp here."
"I am fine," Deryn insisted. The Count raised an eyebrow and shifted his gaze to her bloody, bandaged shoulder. "I can walk by myself," Deryn rephrased, but no one paid her a squick of attention. Bum rags.
Dr. Barlow gestured towards Edward, who was staring at the ground with glassy eyes. "Edward, is it? Perhaps you would like to accompany us ladies out to the automobile."
Deryn expected Edward to refuse. After all, she lied to him about her identity, stolen his clothes, and punched him in the face.
But she was wrong. Edward obediently broke off from the group of men with nothing but a forlorn last look at Elliot Vost. He seemed neither angry nor frustrated at the sight of his father's killer. Instead he looked utterly hopeless, as if someone had drained all the light from his eyes.
"Please," Alek implored softly with a glance towards Deryn, "watch out for her."
"I am right here," Deryn reminded them, but of course she was ignored again.
Edward met Alek's eyes and nodded.
"Barking spiders," Derny snapped at Alek with a steely glare. "You're the ones who ought to watch out, you daft prince. Don't let that viper get the better of you." She shot Vost a venomous glance. "And don't you worry about me. If I can survive a zeppelin attack, I can survive one wee bullet."
"She's right, you know," Sullivan pitched in. "That young lady can certainly take a beating."
"She can give a hell of a beating, too," Edward mumbled under his breath.
Alek grinned. "I'll see you soon, Deryn," he promised.
Deryn winked mischievously at him. "Course you will."
"This is all very touching," Count Volger said dryly, "but I do believe it's high time that we got all got a move on." He prodded Vost in the back with the pistol. "Let's be on our way. Take us to…wherever it is that we're going."
The two groups parted ways without another word. A little part of Deryn wanted to call Alek back to her and plant a kiss on his lips. But it was too late- the moment had passed.
…
As Vost began leading them down the imposing stone staircase to the lower levels, Alek and Sullivan explained the situation to Volger, who had only heard Dr. Barlow's suspicions about Elliot.
"I must admit I was a bit surprised to see Deryn and Dr. Sullivan," Volger replied once he had been filled in. "And, while I did have my doubts about Vost, I never expected him to be working with the Brigade."
Elliot remained silent as he led them through the complex. It was…odd. Alek had expected some resistance from him. After all, they were ordering the man to lead them to his best kept secret, the clandestine laboratory dedicated to Black Star research. It was eerie how compliant he was.
Perhaps it had something to do with being held at gunpoint- although Alek doubted that this was the case. Vost had tackled Sullivan without any reservation, and he had a revolver pointed straight at him then, too.
Alek considered the idea that Vost was leading them into a trap. But that seemed unlikely. He'd had no time to prepare something like this, and it would be difficult for him to beat Alek, Volger, and Sullivan in a fight. Still, Alek could not shake the feeling growing within him that something was not right.
Silently, Elliot led them down to the sixth level and into a storage room filled with crates of chemicals.
"This can't be it," Alek protested. "I saw this room, there's nothing in here."
For the first time since his tirade against Edward, Elliot spoke up. "One of you help me move this," he ordered, gesturing to an empty shelf.
"I think not," Volger remarked. "Alek, Sullivan, you both move the shelf. You," he said, tapping Vost with the pistol, "stay right where you are."
The shelf seemed surprisingly light to Alek. He and Sullivan shoved it aside with little effort to reveal a narrow doorway painted the same grey shade as the wall. Alek turned the handle and pushed it open to reveal a staircase that descended into darkness.
"What secrets you must be hiding down there, partner," Sullivan chided.
"Take us down," the Count directed. "Alek, stay behind me."
Alek found himself wishing for a lantern filled with glowworms as he followed Volger down into whatever depths waited for them below. Disgusting creatures they were, yet it would have been comforting to have some light, even if it was green and eerie. Alek kept feeling Sullivan's hot breath on the back of his neck, and it made him shudder.
When they finally reached the base of the staircase, Sullivan lurched forward, shoving Alek, who in turn bumped into Volger. There was a loud clatter as someone was sent crashing into something in the pitch black.
"Aleksander, where are you?" Count Volger asked calmly.
"I'm all right. I'm still behind you," Alek replied. "Sullivan must have tripped on the last stair."
"I'm doing quite well, too, thanks," Sullivan grumbled from behind him.
"Unfortunately," came Elliot Vost's menacing voice from across the room, "that won't last long." Without warning, electric lights suddenly flickered to life above them, revealing a scene before them that made Alek's gut sink.
Littering the floor were small metal canisters, all of them bearing Black Star's label. Among them lay the locked silver briefcase that Vost had been carrying at the gala. Glass cages were lined up all around the wall, a spider, frog, or snake inside each one. These are the venomous creatures used to create Black Star's toxin, Alek realized. If any one of those cages had shattered, the creatures could have easily escaped.
Worse than all of the creatures, however, was Elliot Vost. He stood facing the three of them, brandishing a canister of Black Star in hand.
Count Volger was the first to break the silence. He never lowered the gun, or broke eye contact with Vost. He issued a command, although it wasn't to Elliot. "Aleksander," he ordered gruffly, "get out of here, now."
Alek was about to protest when Vost spoke up. "None of you are to leave. None of you are to move. Do so and I will open this canister without hesitation."
"Do you mean to sacrifice all of us, then?" Alek asked incredulously. "You would take your own life to keep this secret?"
Sullivan guffawed. "This is a bluff. He would never do such a thing. If there's one thing I know about this man, it's that he's far too selfish to risk his own life."
"You're right, for once," Vost replied. "I would never risk my own life. But this is no bluff." His face remained stoic, revealing nothing.
"Are you…somehow immune to the gas?" Alek asked cautiously. That nagging feeling that something was wrong resurfaced in the back of his head. There has to be something else going on here.
"Correct." Vost sneered. "I never anticipated that I would be discovered so quickly, but I have always been prepared." He bent and recovered the metal briefcase from the floor. He slipped a hand into his pocket, retrieved a small key, and unlocked the case. Inside, carefully encased in foam, were glass vials filled with clear liquid. Vost retrieved one, snapped the briefcase shut, and locked it, replacing the key in his pocket. In one smooth motion, he popped the vial's cork and swallowed the liquid inside in one gulp.
"You prepared an antidote," Sullivan realized aloud. "But…how? I never told you the formula, and even if I did, you wouldn't understand it well enough to create something like that!"
Vost tossed the empty vial aside without a second glance. The glass collided with the wall and shattered.
"If there's one thing I've learned about boffins, it's that they're all arrogant." Vost explained. "They never consider the idea that anyone could be as smart as they are, and they're never quick to realize when someone is playing the fool. Darwinists, Clankers, they're all the same. They all think they're the smartest one in the room."
"What is it that you want?" Count Volger challenged. "You may have the antidote, but you know that I will shoot you if you open that canister. Not to mention, there are three of us and one of you. Even if you opened the canister, we could easily overpower you, take your key, and open the briefcase to reach the antidote. So you must be willing to make a deal."
Elliot nodded. "You make an excellent point." Before any of them had a moment to react, he removed the cover on one of the glass cages, reached into his pocket, and dropped the key inside.
"Feel free to reach inside this cage filled with venomous spiders to retrieve the key. Although I would advise against it," he said haughtily.
Sullivan approached the cage and sighed. "Those are Yellow Funnel spiders," he began. The creatures inside were indeed spiders, Alek saw. They had swollen yellow bodies and long, hairy dark legs. They were at least ten in the cage, all of them scrabbling around in a frenzy. They were the ugliest creatures Alek had ever seen- and he'd seen plenty of ugly fabrications.
"They're fabrications made from combining the genomes of the Australian Funnel spider and the Yellow Sac spider, both of which are venomous, but would take at least a day to kill you. However, Yellow Funnel Spider venom is even more lethal. It will kill a human in less than ten minutes." Sullivan said gravely.
"Correct." Elliot replied smugly. "So now that that's out of the way, let's make a deal. Give me the gun, and I'll put this gas canister down. You let me leave this place, and I will vow to forget the formula for Black Star. I'll never make another chemical weapon again. Let me go free and I'll vanish. The Society can destroy Red Star Chemicals for all I care. I just want my freedom."
Suddenly, it came to Alek. "The guards!" He interrupted. "That's what's been bothering me!" He directed his next question at Elliot. "This facility is patrolled by armed guards. I saw at least five when we came here. One of them escorted Dr. Barlow and me to you. So why is it that when you were being held at gunpoint, you never once called for your guards?"
Vost's composed expression finally gave way to a sinister smile. "So you've finally noticed," he declared.
"I dispatched every guard I met on my way down to meet you," Count Volger assured Alek. "They're all unconscious. They wouldn't have come if he had called."
Sullivan faltered. "But he had no way of knowing that." He said. "As far as Vost knew, the guards were all awake and ready to follow orders. So why didn't he call for them?"
It dawned upon Alek with horror. "Because he knew something like this would happen. He knew that Dr. Barlow and I, at the very least, would discover his betrayal. He planned to take us down here all along. We haven't beaten him. We're exactly where he wants us to be." He turned to face Vost. "You're not planning on allowing us to leave here alive, are you?"
"The illusion of victory has finally been shattered," Elliot Vost sighed. "While I never expected that Sullivan and the princess…or rather, that imposter, would escape my brother, everything else was expected. Either you let me escape free, or no one will leave here alive."
"You're wrong!" Alek fumed. "Deryn, Edward, and Dr. Barlow got away! They can still expose you and bring an end to Black Star!"
Vost raised an eyebrow. "Is that so? It will be quite difficult for them to expose me after they've turned to stone."
Alek froze. A horrific fear blossomed inside of him. "What do you mean?"
"What do you think my guards were up to while you traipsed around inside my facility? Playing cards? No. I had the foresight to instruct them to plant a canister of Black Star into your automobile once you came inside, and rig it so that the gas would be released when the engine is started."
"But they might take the car Count Volger came in," Alek insisted. "There wouldn't have been time for them to tamper with that one."
Count Volger's voice was quiet when he spoke up. "I didn't want the guards to notice me as I approached. I hid the automobile in a grove of trees outside the gate and snuck in on foot." He sighed. "It's very unlikely that they will find it."
"But it's possible," Alek insisted frantically. He could feel his heart thudding inside his chest. "It's possible, right?" He looked from Sullivan to the Count.
Sullivan said nothing. He looked as stricken as Alek felt.
There was a long moment before the Count responded. "It's unlikely, Aleksander."
Vost interrupted them. "It's a very slow acting toxin, of course, so it's unlikely that they will realize something is amiss until it is too late."
"Stop it," Alek whispered. He could not help but imagine Deryn, struggling to breathe, choking as she breathed in poison.
"First, a mere five minutes after being exposed to the gas, they will find it difficult to breathe," Elliot continued. "Their lungs will be the first to solidify, making breathing an agony."
"Stop talking," Alek repeated, louder this time.
Vost only ignored him. "Next their muscles will begin to grow stiff, freezing them in place like statues. This part is unbearably painful. Many of the animal test subjects writhed in pain, and perhaps half attempted suicide before the process was complete."
"NO!" Alek heard himself scream, but his voice sounded distant and far away. Visions of Deryn suffering invaded his thoughts. He squeezed his eyes shut but it did no good.
"After that, their internal organs will shut down, one by one. It will take hours, perhaps even days, for them to finally die."
"I will kill you," Alek vowed to Elliot. "I swear that if anything happens to Deryn, you will never get away!"
"She's as good as dead, now." Vost replied stonily. "The only thing you can do now is worry about your own life. Yours and theirs," he said, gesturing to the Count and Sullivan.
Alek set his jaw. "You may think that you've won. You may be sure of your victory. But you made one mistake." He bared his teeth at Elliot Vost in a ferocious snarl. "I gave up my throne- my single most important responsibility- for Deryn," Alek snarled. "Do you really think that I wouldn't give up my life, too?"
Alek turned and met Volger's eyes. "Don't let him escape with that briefcase. Shoot him if you have to."
"What are you talking about?" The Count began, but Alek was already striding towards Elliot.
Sullivan reached out and grasped Alek's arm. "Don't do anything stupid, boy," he warned.
"Don't worry," Alek promised. "Both of you will be fine once you have the antidote." He set his gaze on the cage filled with Yellow Funnel spiders. They scuttled around inside menacingly. Alek shuddered at the thought of going anywhere near them. "I'll get the key."
"NO, ALEKSANDER!" The Count shouted, lurching towards him, but it was too late. Alek had already approached the cage and plunged his arm inside.