Page 41 (1/2)

Deryn and Alek h electrical parts and shattered glass The railroad tracks had been torn froled ribbons of steel

"Blisters," Deryn said as they passed an overturned dining car, its red velvet curtains spilling through broken s "Lucky there were no passengers aboard"

"We can get up to the golee hand lying splayed in the dirt They climbed onto it and up the walker’s arm, and soon sao motionless forms strapped into the pilots’ chairs

"Master Klopp!" Alek cried out "Hans!"

One of the lazed, his hands reaching feebly for the seat straps She followed Alek up and helped hietroffen?" he asked

"Der Orient-Express," Alek explained

Bauer gave hie around the slowly in his face

The three of theolem’s broad shoulder TheBlood caked his face, and when Deryn put her hand to Klopp’s neck, his pulse eak

"We have to get him to a doctor"

"Yes, but how?" Alek asked

Deryn’s eyes swept the battlefield Not a single walker re But in the sky the Leviathan’s silhouette had swung into profile It was just as she’d expected - now that it had dispatched the Goeben, the airship was co about for a closer look at the wrecked Tesla cannon

She opened her mouth to explain, but suddenly the beastie on her shoulder was i sound

Alek heard it too "Walkers"

Deryn turned toward the city A dozen columns of smoke rose from the horizon

"Could they be from the Committee?"

Alek shook his head "They don’t even knoe’re here"

"Aye, it was meant to be that way But that anarchist lassie told her uncle, didn’t she?"

Bauer rose unsteadily to his feet, lifting a pair of field glasses One lens was shattered, so he held the other to his eye like a telescope

"Elefanten," he said a s are slow"

"But we’ll never carry Klopp out of here," Deryn said "Not without help"

"And where do you suppose we’ll get that?"

She pointed up at the dark shape over the water, still turning, its searchlights angling toward the cliffs now "The Leviathan is on its way to take a closer look We can signal theeon"

"A, B, C ," Bovril said happily

"They’ll take us prisoner again!" Alek said

"Aye, and what do you think the barking Ottomans will do, after all this?" Deryn swept her are "At least with us you’ll be alive!"

"Ich kann bleiben mit Meister Klopp, Herr," Bauer said

Deryn’s eyes narrowed After awith Clankers, her German was much better "What does he mean, he’ll stay with Klopp?"

Alek turned to Deryn "Your ship can pick Bauer and Klopp up, while you and I one barking mad?"

"The Ottomans will never spot us in all this mess" Alek clenched his fists "And just think, if the Coht, they’ll throw the Germans out And they owe both of us a debt, Dylan We can stay here, ao home!"

"But I can’t do this alonenot without you" His eyes softened "Please co that Alek were asking this same question but in a different way Not as some Dummkopf of a prince who expected everyone to serve his purposes, but as a man

It wasn’t his fault, of course She’d never told Alek why she’d really come to Istanbul - not for the , and it was too late now They’d been together a wholeside by side, and still she hadn’t convinced herself that a coirl could ?

"There’s more to do here, Dylan," he said "You’re the best soldier the revolution has"

"Aye, but that’s my home up there I can’t live withyour machines"

Alek spread his hands "It doesn’t matter Your creill never see us"

"They have to" Deryn stared out across the battlefield, looking for soht; even if she had ten-foot see of the train

Then she saw theoleht one was straight out, the left one at an angle, aln for the letter S

"Can this contraption still ain

"Aye A giant sending signals would be barking hard to miss"