At that moment, a force very much like gravity pulled him toward the arc. He resisted and turned to flee, but it grew stronger with every passing second. It was like running through water. Two of Alice’s little automatons were sucked squeaking toward the arc. They struggled against the force that pulled at them, but their propellers had been damaged by the Impossible Cube and in the end they were dragged through the arc. The automatons sheered and shredded and vanished with a human-sounding scream. On the other side, the water bubbled and boiled like a cauldron, though it stayed on the other side. The Impossible Cube sat perfectly still on the table.
Dr. Clef managed to wrap his arms around one of the table legs and hold on. Gavin, now on hands and knees, made it back to Alice, who was still lying on the ground. She had braced her feet against an outcrop of brick on the floor and had caught hold of Feng’s wrist with her iron-bound hand. The spider’s eyes glowed green. How were they going to get out? Gavin felt himself being dragged backward. Alice’s hair was drawn forward over her face. Fear for himself and for Alice and Feng made Gavin’s heart beat against his spine. The force abruptly strengthened, and it lifted Feng bodily from the ground. Wind roared through the turbine room.
“Hang on, Feng!” Alice cried. “Don’t let go!”
And then Gavin lost his grip on the floor and tumbled backward toward the arc.
Susan Phipps felt the strange pull even on the staircase, and she nearly lost her balance. So did Glenda, who only saved herself by clutching at the handrail.
“What the bloody hell?” Glenda said.
“It’s that clockworker,” Phipps replied. “If I read those notes we found on the train correctly, he’s planning to do something with time. Michaels and Ennock must be helping him.”
Her fury grew. It felt like she had been chasing Alice Michaels and Gavin Ennock for most of her life. She couldn’t remember when she’d last had a good night’s sleep or actually enjoyed a meal or simply sat and rested. Michaels and Ennock had become her entire world, and when had that happened?
A sudden urge overcame her, an overwhelming desire to simply turn and walk away. No one would know except Glenda, and she would keep her mouth shut if ordered. It would be so easy.
Then an image of her father standing on the front steps with the carpet bags at his feet sprang into her mind. Justice and fairness, always. They had gotten her where she was now. It was impossible to give them up just because it was inconvenient. She firmed her jaw and continued more carefully down the stairs, ready to do what was right.
And if her current path was wrong? Even… unjust? She paused for a long moment, caught between balanced concepts.
“Lieutenant?” Glenda asked behind her.
Phipps abruptly straightened her back. “I’m fine,” she said sharply. “Let’s keep going.”
At the bottom, she found the door already open, and beyond lay an enormous room filled with giant metal snail shells, strange machinery, and the very people she’d been chasing all this time. A metal arc glowed an evil red and seemed to be sucking everything greedily into itself, gaining power with every passing moment. Even as she watched, two of Alice’s little automatons were sucked into it and destroyed. The other automatons, including that stupid cat Click, managed to limp around to the back of one of the turbines and cling there as Alice braced herself against a line of bricks on the floor. The force reached outward and pulled at Phipps even more strongly.
“What’s happening?” Glenda said.
“Run up and grab that rope from the top of the stairwell.” Phipps drew a multiple coil dispersal pistol that she had snatched from the Cossack armory and twisted the charging unit. It whined with eager power. “We’re going to end this.”
Alice saw Gavin go by. Without thinking, she flung out her right hand and actually managed to catch his arm. Her shoulders burned. She was holding two men now, with her feet braced against the brick outcrop as wind tore past her face and hair. Her eyes met Gavin’s. Oh God—her grip was slipping, and it felt like her arms were coming out of their sockets. Feng clutched her forearm with the power she had ordered him to use. She couldn’t keep this up.
The dreadful force increased again. Alice screamed, still holding on.
“Let go!” Feng shouted. His words came out framed by the horrible spider on his face. “Alice, let me go! If you don’t, we’ll all die!”
The idea was unthinkable. Guilt overwhelmed her. It was her fault Feng was in this position in the first place. She could save him. She would save him. Both him and Gavin.
“No!” she shouted back. “I won’t let you die!”
“You can’t save us both,” he said. “Some people don’t want to be saved. Let go!”
Her arms burned like lava and her fingers quivered. Dr. Clef huddled at the table, able to use his arms and legs to resist the power of the arc. Alice swallowed. She had been forced to give up her mother, her brother, and her father. Why should she give up her friend?
“Let me go, Alice!” Feng shouted. “I can help!”
A tear formed in her eye and leaped across the room into the boiling water of the arc. She didn’t have the strength to save them both, to save everyone. Either a few would die, or everyone would die. It wasn’t fair, but it would be even worse to let everyone perish because she couldn’t let go. She looked at Gavin again, and he nodded. With a scream of agony and anger, she let Feng go.
Feng flew backward, straight toward the arc. But as he fell, he angled his body so that he struck the table. Even over the wind, Alice heard bone snap, though Feng’s face remained stoic. He bounced sideways and managed to latch on to Dr. Clef.
“Was, denn?” Dr. Clef sputtered.
Feng snap-punched him twice. Dr. Clef’s eyes glazed over, and he let go of the table. Together Feng and Dr. Clef fell toward the arc and hit the eye. Alice wanted to look away, but couldn’t. When the two men struck the eye, flesh and bone shredded as if forced through a sieve made of razors. A cloud of blood and meat misted before the arc, hung for a tiny moment, and was sucked into the boiling water beyond. Alice cried out again.
Do whatever it takes to help! Gavin had ordered. Feng had done exactly that and gotten just what he had wanted. Alice felt only heart-wrenching sorrow.
Gavin grabbed hold of Alice’s free hand, the one with the spider on it, and the spider’s eyes glowed red. It was easier to hold on to one person, though she couldn’t do it indefinitely, and whatever force was pulling them toward the arc showed no signs of abating. Her desperation grew, as did the fear on Gavin’s face.
“What do we do?” she shouted.
He shook his head. His feet were trying to find purchase on the brick floor, but they were continually drawn out from under him. His hand slipped, and Alice forced herself to grab harder, though she was growing more and more tired.
“You have the cure,” he yelled. “Let me go and save yourself!”
A cold fist clutched her heart and her breath came hard. “Not you. Never you!”
“Alice—”
And then Susan Phipps was there. A rope was wrapped around her waist and she was playing it out with her mechanical hand like a mountain climber. Her silver-streaked hair streamed out like Alice’s. The sight was so surprising, it took Alice a moment to understand what—who—she was looking at.
“You’re both idiots,” Phipps shouted. From a holster at her waist, she drew a fat pistol.