Vapnoople continued: “The Baron assured me that I would continue to do important work. Work worthy of my genius! And I have done my work and I have heard no complaint! The Baron’s secretary saw me in the corridor last week, and do you know what he said to me? Do you? He said, ‘You are doing a good job.’ That’s what he said! To me!” At this, Vapnoople hunched over, grinned, and whispered, “And he still does not know that I continue my real work! Here! In the very heart of his own castle!”
Krosp glanced at Agatha and DuMedd and looked distressed.
“Yes, Papa, we know. But now we have to—”
“I have been constructing my armies! Here! Out of sight! And I have learned! I have learned from the Baron’s own books and laboratories! I have improved my work! Each creature I build is better! Much better than the last!”
Throughout this tirade, DuMedd had gotten more and more nervous. “Dr. Vapnoople was famous for creating intelligent animals,” he whispered to Agatha. “His armies of wolf/men controlled hundreds of square kilometers. It took the Baron almost three years to defeat him and capture them all.”
“And Wulfenbach killed them!” Vapnoople roared. “He absorbs all sorts of half-finished trash into his service, but my creations he said weren’t good enough! They had to die!”
“I believe, Herr Doctor,” Theo said carefully, “that the Baron judged them as being… too good at what they did. Plus he was unable to break their loyalty to you. They couldn’t accept a place in the Baron’s forces.”
A tear ran down Vapnoople’s face. “Yes. I always did know how to build in the loyalty, eh Krosp?” He ruffled the top of Krosp’s head. The cat’s ears were flattened, but he still leaned into the big man’s hand. “But I learned. Even at the beginning, when Wulfenbach was first engaging my glorious creations, I saw how it would go. I saw that I would have to do better the next time, and I have! BEHOLD!” With that he whipped open a small door in the cart and displayed a small patchwork bear made from rags. “My beautiful bears,” he crooned. He picked it up, and holding its little paws, made slashing and growling noises before putting it back in the cart. “They will overrun Wulfenbach and send his oversized castle crashing to the ground! And you—” He patted a slumped Krosp on the head. “You will lead them to glory!” He pointed to Agatha. “I remember her. She said she would help.”
Krosp and Agatha looked at each other.
Vapnoople picked up his duster. “And so you see why I cannot leave. Now, I must get back to my important work, so that the Baron does not suspect.” So saying, he turned away and, cackling occasionally, returned to cleaning.
Agatha gently put a hand on Krosp’s shoulder and whispered, “We have to go.”
Krosp addressed Vapnoople’s broad back. “I’ll come back for you, Papa. I’ll take you and… your bears and we’ll go somewhere safe. I promise you.”
Dr. Dimitri waved a hand without looking around. “I’ll save you a fish.”
Krosp was quiet. Several times DuMedd had to prod him to get him to tell them the correct turn to take, but quickly enough they opened a large door and found themselves in one of the hundreds of airship docks that peppered the sides of the vast dirigible. This one had bays for over a dozen mid-size ships, and from the debris that littered the deck, it was obvious that there had been a great deal of activity a short time ago. The only ship in evidence was a tiny two-engine pinnace. The three headed towards it, but stopped dead when they found a half-dozen Wulfenbach crewmen, unconscious and neatly lined up next to a fuel barrel. A faint whistling was heard, and to Agatha’s amazement, a cheerful Othar straightened up from behind the ship where he was coiling some rope. He spotted them and his face broke into an easy grin. “Ah! Excellent! You made it!”
“Othar!” Agatha exclaimed. “You’re alive!”
“As always!” he replied.
Theo’s eyes widened. “That’s really him? You know a talking cat AND Othar Tryggvassen?”
“But… he… Gilgamesh…”
Othar waved this off with obvious disdain. “I knew you’d choose the side of good in the end.”
This snapped Agatha out of her confusion. “I’m not here for you—!”
She was cut short by Krosp shoving her towards Othar. “No time! Come on!”
“Yes!” Othar agreed. “Come on! It’s time for adventure!”
Agatha looked at him levelly. “Get on the airship.”
Othar looked surprised. “Don’t you want to hear the exciting tale of my escape?”
Agatha was now on the ship and at Krosp’s direction was untying ropes. Othar quickly clambered aboard. “Casting off!” she called out.
Theo came up. “Good luck.”
Agatha looked surprised. “You’re not coming?”
Theo shook his head. “I was, but now that I know you’ll be traveling with Herr Tryggvassen, I know you’ll be safe. I’ve got to see how the others are doing, I’ll bet some of them will want to come along. We’ll catch up to you in Mechanicsburg!”
Agatha looked panicked. “But—”
“That is where you’ll be going, right?”
“Yes, but I don’t want to travel alone.”
Othar clapped her on the shoulder. “Silly girl, didn’t you hear? You’ll be under the protection of Othar Tryggvassen, Gentleman Adventurer!”
Krosp pulled her skirt. “And don’t forget me.”
Agatha looked at them and turned back to Theo. “No, really. You sure you don’t want to come? There’s room. Or I could stay with you.”
Theo laughed. “Don’t be silly.”
Agatha sighed, “Well, you should know that Gil’s got some kind of invisibility device.”
Theo’s eyes lit up. “Is that what that was? Interesting.”
Agatha nodded. “It might help.” With that, she reached out, drew his head towards her and placed a kiss upon his forehead. “Thank you for everything. And take care of yourself, cousin.”
Theo grinned. “You too, cousin.” With that he stepped back and helped shove the airship out of the docking cradle. It floated beside the hanger bay until Krosp, standing atop a crate, activated the engines, and the tiny craft warped away from the side of the great airship. Suddenly Theo heard a rhythmic thudding from the corridor leading to the hanger. He ducked behind a gas tank just as Klaus’ transport clanked through the doorway.
Klaus saw the airship pulling away and swore. He then directed the clank to the nearest signaling station. He picked up the handset and cranked the handle to activate the system. Suddenly an explosion gently rocked the deck, almost causing the clank carrying the Baron to fall. A cloud of smoke rolled out of one of the hanger doorways, and several coughing figures stumbled from it. They were revealed to be some of Castle Wulfenbach’s fire-fighters. Most of them quickly recovered and rushed over to a water cistern and began refilling the pumper tanks they wore strapped to their backs. One of them saw the Baron and ran to him. “Herr Baron! You should get out of here! All of the experiments in the lower labs have either been let loose or activated, and three of the compartments are on fire.”
Klaus stared at him, and with another oath, slammed the speaker phone back into place. “Assemble your men,” he told the fire-fighter. “Have each of them grab one of those cylinders of Carbonic Acid Gas and then follow me!” He grabbed a cylinder himself, urged his clank forward, and the group ran back into the smoking doorway.
Agatha lowered the telescope she had been using. “And now they’ve gone back to fight the fire, I guess. The Baron looked pretty mad.”
Othar laughed. “I imagine so. The little diversions I arranged before we left should keep him too busy to worry about us for a while.”