Deryn hurried down the hall to the reception area of the Zoological Society. The whole building was a display of opulent excess, full of marble pillars and oil paintings of famous scientists. The halls were lit with lamps that were powered by some sort of fabricated firefly, similar to the glowworms they had used on the Leviathan.

Deryn hurried past the large desk in the lobby, barely stopping to reply the greeting of the clerks behind the desk. She raced past the huge bronze statue of Charles Darwin on its gold-veined marble pedestal. She had memorized the inscription on the pedestal as she passed it every day.

We are not here concerned with hopes or fears, only with truth as far as our reason permits us to discover it. –Charles Darwin. In Deryn's mind, it perfectly showed the way in which the Zoological Society did things. People and their differing opinions were ignored, and problems were approached with nothing less than cold, unwavering reason.

Deryn pushed out through the doors of the building, into the bright daylight. Alek should be arriving by carriage at any moment, and she didn't want to be waiting around. The suspicious man outside her window had been hanging around in the square outside of the Zoological Society. He looked to be waiting for something. But now he appeared to be getting ready to leave, nothing having presented itself to him. It was going to be close, and she could only hope Alek arrived before the strange man departed.

As if her prayers had been heard, a large black carriage appeared in the square, being pulled by a pair of equinesques. The doors were decorated with the Zoological Society crest. Deryn hurried to the carriage as fast as she could without drawing attention from the passerby around her. She dodged around the stamping equinesques as they snorted at her.

Before Alek had a chance to open the carriage door, she had wrenched it open, and unceremoniously pulled him by his collar out onto the cobbled square. He protested, but before he could finish a single sentence, Deryn had begun to explain the situation, glancing at the odd stranger every few seconds. He appeared to be getting ready to depart.

Alek blinked at her. "Entschuldigung, Deryn, but I don't think I caught much of that. Could you maybe talk a bit slower?'

Deryn just shook her head at him. "That man looks like he's going to leave any moment. No time for that!" Then she paused for a moment.

"And Alek? One more thing." She leaned in and gave him a quick kiss. "Welcome back to London. I've missed you."

Then she grabbed firmly hold of his hand and began to run. The man on the other side of the square, turned and looked straight at her. He gave a small smile, as if to say, "Catch me if you can." Then he too was off hurrying down a small street. The chase was on.

Alek was running under his own steam now, resigned to the fact that Deryn was going on one of her little 'missions.' Together they raced after the stranger, just managing to stay in sight of him. Despite his rather unintimidating appearance, the man could run. They barely managed to stay in sight of him. They raced down twisting alleys, dodged around produce stalls, weaved through lanes of omnibuses pulled by mammothines. Just overhead, messenger terns darted to and fro, carrying letters and documents. Delivery beasts wove underfoot, packages strapped to their backs. At market stalls, fabricated birds called out products and prices at passing civilians. Everywhere, fabricated beasts could be seen perching, flying, scurrying, walking and racing.

Deryn grinned. The man couldn't shake them. Once this spy was caught, the Society would have no way of justifying their decision to keep her in London. Beside her, Alek was grumbling about the ridiculousness of this escapade, but she paid him no mind. This was her personal mission, and she would be the one to turn the spy in.

Up ahead, the man in the tweed jacket turned into a narrow alley. He had his little metal cylinder out, and it was making that irritating buzzing noise. Deryn had no idea what it was supposed to do, but it didn't appear to have any visible effects.

Alek and Deryn rounded the corner, breathing heavily. The alleyway was a dead end. Their quarry had no escape route this time. But he didn't appear worried. The stranger was pointed his cylinder at a door, and it was buzzing and emitting a green light from the end. The door clicked, and slowly swung open. Both Alek and Deryn were momentarily speechless.

Deryn thought if the Clankers have this technology, who knows what they could do with it? The war had been raging for almost a year now. How much could the Clankers have done in that time? If doors were no obstacle, Clanker spies could easily infiltrate into any building. This was very bad indeed.

Meanwhile, the man in the tweed suit showed no inclination to flee. He leaned against the wall of the alley.

"Now, what's your big rush, you two? Why are you so intent on catching me?" the man said in a perfect British accent. Okay, maybe he isn't German, Deryn thought to herself.

Alek looked a little sheepish. "My apologies, sir, but I don't really know. Deryn dragged me with her, I didn't really catch her explanation."

The strange man looked at her. "So you're Deryn? Nice name, that. Certainly not a name from 1914 London…" the man seemed to be talking to himself. "Excuse me, but could you tell me what year it is? I didn't really have time to figure that out when I arrived."

Alek looked at the stranger, a bit confused. "Sir, it is 1914. November 1914."

The man looked a little off-put. "So this isn't London? Sure looks like London to me."

Alek looked even more confused. "This is London, sir."

The strange man looked at him. "Are you sure this is 1914? Doesn't seem like 1914. Come to think of it, those animals that were in the market don't seem much like 1914 either. Got to be from 2514, at least."

"This is 1914." Both Alek and Deryn said it this time. Deryn was a little confused. 2514? This man didn't seemed like a Clanker spy. He seemed like someone who had gone off the deep end.

The man was looking very concerned. "Are you certain this is 1914? Those animals aren't supposed to be invented until 2514. But you're right… the air seems like 1914…" said the man to himself, sniffing at the air. "Except…." He turned towards them. "Why is there no smog? The air should be full of smog, I mean, really, you people burn coal for everything."

Deryn looked at the odd man. He hardly seemed threatening now, he appeared to be hopelessly lost and confused. "Well, my da told me about how the air used to be full of smog, years ago. But when Darwin found how to create new life threads… we just didn't need coal for anything anymore. Though in Germany and Austria the air is just rotten with smoke, or so I hear from Alek."

The man sighed and put his head in his hands. "Darwin, life threads… oh, I should have realized sooner! This isn't normal London at all! I must be in some sort of offshoot timeline."

Deryn had no idea what he was talking about. Alek seemed slightly uncomfortable at the man's evident insanity. He motioned to her that they should leave.

The odd man looked at Deryn. "Quickly! Tell me everything!"

Deryn began backing away from the man. "I'm sorry, sir, but I don't think you were the person I thought you were. I'm sure that you'll be fine, and because of this, I'm now behind on my work with nothing to show for it. I'll have a constable or something come by later, and you can just go with them I suppose."

The stranger called after her. "No! Deryn! You can't leave! I'm sorry, but you just can't!"

Alek stepped between them. "Sir, I'm sorry, but you need to leave now. If you don't leave her alone, I'll call the constabulary on you."

The man shook his head frenetically. "You don't understand! You can't leave because you're in danger!"

Deryn paused, curiosity getting the better of her. "What do you mean, danger? This is London, it's not as if the Kaiser's Airforce can simply fly over and drop a bomb on us all!"

The stranger continued shaking his head. "Not that kind of danger. I probably shouldn't have talked to you, but I got carried away…. But there's no time for that."

Alek interrupted him again. "Sir, I'm afraid you are making no sense whatsoever. Now, we will be going. If you try to follow us, I can have you put behind bars."

The mysterious man was quite insistent now. "You can't leave! Staying with me is your only option, now that I've talked to you. If you try to leave, you'll be dead within 24 hours."

Alek narrowed his eyes at the man. "Was that a threat?"

"No! I'm not the one who's after you!"

Deryn stepped into the conversation. "This is a bit hard to swallow, coming from someone I've never met, and who seems to have utterly lost their mind. Who is after us, then?"

The strange man froze suddenly. He pointed at something behind Alek and Deryn.

"They are."