“With the remainder, I’ve reinforced the gates and entrances we know about, but I doubt we’ve found them all. I’ve put out a call, but we have no air power here, and thus I haven’t been able to bring down the imposter’s airship. Since it has no weapons to speak of, I haven’t made it a priority. I have the remainder of the troops patrolling the streets and guarding the armory. I thought about activating the Mechanicsburg militia, but since we’re dealing with an actual Heterodyne, I thought that could be a bad idea.”
Klaus nodded at this. “Why are you still in here? Surely there are better command posts?”
“Word of your state has spread,” Gil said frankly. “I feared assassination.”
Klaus snorted. “Any attempts?”
Gil glanced to the side. “A few. Nothing worth mentioning.”
Klaus absorbed this. “The work of your imposter’s people?”
Gil shook his head. “I… don’t think so. They’ve all been very disorganized, just random enemies taking advantage of the situation. To a degree, I believe the imposter’s people are also taking advantage of circumstances but they’re much more organized. They are following a plan.” He leaned against the window and stared out at the town below. “Killing you would seem to be a necessary step, but it’s been long enough that I have to conclude that our imposter’s people haven’t tried to do it.”
Klaus frowned. “That does seem sloppy.”
Gil nodded. “And I haven’t seen sloppiness anywhere in this. No, if they want the Empire…” Suddenly Gil felt his eye drawn to the brooding pile that was Castle Heterodyne. An errant thought trickled through his mind. “If they…want the Empire…”
Klaus had long been able to recognize when the people around him were being clever. He knew when to be silent and when to prod. He waited a second and then cleared his throat.
Gil spun about. “But what if they don’t?” He stared at his father. “What if all they want—at least for now—is Mechanicsburg?”
With a bound he was at the door to the room. He pulled it open with a jerk, startling the two troopers stationed outside. “Get Captain DuPree in here,” he ordered. “Now!”
He then spun about and went to his father’s side. As he spoke, he made a last check of the medical machinery and then began to perform a similar check upon his walking stick. “I’m afraid I must go after all, Father. When the main attack comes, it will not be here.”
“Explain.”
Gil waved towards the airship that could be seen floating above the town. “These people had a false Heterodyne all prepared. She was trained. Rehearsed. They could conceivably have known about Agatha, but you being injured? They couldn’t have planned for that.” He gave his father’s hand a gentle squeeze. “We’re not even a part of this yet. This isn’t a direct attack upon the Empire, it’s an outflanking maneuver. They’re after legitimacy.”
Klaus interrupted. “Claiming to be a Heterodyne won’t get them that.”
Gil nodded. “Not directly, no, but…” He paused to organize his thoughts. “You’ve imposed order, Father, but before you did that, ours was always a minor house. Before the Empire—”
Klaus snorted. “It was all chaos. Everyone was fighting everyone else. Fools.”
“Yes, but before that? Before the Long War?”
Klaus looked startled. “Before? Why—you’d have to go back to the Storm King, but even—” A thought struck him. “Oh! The girl!”
Gil pounced. “The Heterodyne girl!”
Klaus stared at him. “Ridiculous! That’s practically a fairy tale! Who would—”
“Everyone,” Gil declared flatly. “They have a pet Heterodyne heir, and fairy tales have a great deal of power because everyone has heard them! If they do this correctly, Europa will submit to them and cheer while they do it. But in order to do it right, they need to take Mechanicsburg!”
Klaus nodded. It was obvious that this news invigorated the wounded man. The fact was that Klaus enjoyed a well thought-out bit of insurrection. It gave the troops something to do, allowed him to do a bit of fighting, and occasionally spotlighted some genuine grievances within the Empire. This one seemed to be particularly well thought out and Klaus was already eager to begin cracking it.
“The first thing I should do—”
But Gil had been ready for this and he pitilessly smacked his father sharply upon the chest, causing the Baron to gasp in shocked surprise and pain.
“You must rest! At least for now. I will deal with this.”
Klaus angrily opened his mouth. Gil raised his hand and Klaus flinched and then grudgingly nodded. “Very well.”
Gil took a relieved breath.
“But there is one last thing,” Klaus said, and seeing the look in his son’s eye, he raised his voice. “And it’s important. The Heterodyne girl. Your Agatha, not the other one. She has a companion. She is a girl with a pair of unusual swords and long green hair.”
“Green?” Gil looked intrigued.
Klaus nodded. “Bright green. Be careful. She is a formidable fighter.” Klaus hesitated, which was uncharacteristic of him. His eyes shifted sideways. “There is a very good chance that she has been sent to Europa to kill you.”
Gil blinked in surprise. “Kill me? What did I do?”
“Absolutely nothing,” Klaus roared. The force of his anger shocked Gil and even seemed to surprise the Baron himself.
Gil’s eyes narrowed. “Father, what did you do?”
For the first time, Klaus gazed directly at his son. Pride filled his face. “I kept you alive.”
Gil was nonplussed and the Baron closed his eyes and settled back into his bed. “And now, as you yourself have said, I need to rest.”
Gil stared at the supine man and then, as it would look bad if he strangled him, settled for waving his arms in the air. “Confound it, Father!” he howled.
Klaus cracked an eye open. “And you have work to do.” He closed the eye again. “I will explain anything and everything when you return.”
Possibly nothing else could have silenced Gil as effectively. “Everything? Even my…” his breath caught. “Even my mother?”
Klaus nodded wearily. “Anything you want.” He sighed, “But especially your mother.”
This was a bombshell. Gil had often asked about his mother but Klaus had always refused to answer. As he became better at reading people, Gil realized that the subject affected his father deeply and the mere mention of it would disturb the great man for days at a time. To finally have an explanation…
Gil took a deep breath. “Then rest up, father, I have many questions.”
The corner of Klaus’s mouth quirked upwards slightly. “Don’t I know it,” he whispered. Again his eye opened but this time the look he gave his son was soulful. “But for pity’s sake—DuPree?”
Bangladesh DuPree was also one of the few people who had little or no fear of the Baron. When he was healthy, Klaus found this refreshing, in a guilty pleasure sort of way. But the idea of being trapped in the same room with her, where he would be subjected to her endless, cheerful running commentary on life, the functioning of government, and how everything would look better if it was on fire, had him seriously considering ways to knock himself out.
Gil smiled. “Oh, you have my sympathy, but she’ll keep you alive.”
This was certainly true, if only because Bangladesh was a highly functional homicidal maniac who never worried about what she called “the small stuff.” It worried Gil that he had yet to fully figure out what DuPree considered to be “the Big Stuff,” This was because whenever he thought he had an idea about what it might be, DuPree set it on fire.