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"Boy, are you alive?"

Felix blinked at hienuine surprise Perhaps it was true and he had never fully believed in the intimacy between his father’s secret society and the cri out of a flywaye or their accomplice And he had not wanted his son to know, or he would have been the one to contact theet that he had been shot, or perhaps to think it slightly less important and put on a brave face

"Father? What are you doing here?" he asked, tre here? You’re supposed to be in school"

"Technically," answered Felix, "I’m supposed to be at a ball Remember, I wrote you of the invitation?"

"Ah, yes, soentry Odd acquaintance to cultivate, but you thought the father’s business interests valuable to the cause"

Sophronia blinked, te her all along because of so Papa was up to in civil service? Then she realized--hoped, really--that Felix et pere, as they do It became necessary to borrow a train and head north"

"Oh, it did, did it?" The duke did not look convinced "And you interfered with our business why, exactly?"

"I didn’t know, Father We took this train off a handful of drones"

Sophronia risked a ses: Please don’t tell the duke too nored her and went on, "And they happened to be at a station near the ball, and headed in the right direction So we took their train and bumped them off"

The duke nodded "And what happened at that ball?"

Felix frowned at this sudden change of topic "Well, the two-bit country gentleman, I don’t think he’ll be all that useful"

"No, Iunusual occur?"

"You mean the mechanical failure in all the papers?"

"Ah, so you read about it Did you see it in action?"

Felix came over suddenly quite still and suspicious "Father, what are you up to? What’s going on? Did you…? Was it…?" He trailed off

But Sophronia put all the pieces together at that moment The Picklemen had chosen her brother’s party on purpose because they knew Felix would be there They kneould give them a full report if asked Perhaps they hadn’t knoide-reaching the effect would be, or that the papers would pick it up Or perhaps they had run that test again in the Oxford area, to see ould happen But Felix’s father, these flywaymen, they were responsible for all of it And the drones, Monique and the train, they had been tracking the out of the way Sophronia and her band had co up

The train hadn’t fortuitously been at Wootton Bassett, and the mechanicals hadn’t spontaneously chosen the Temminnicks for "Rule, Britannia!" As Lady Linette always said, there were no coincidences, certainly not with Picklemen, simply an endless stream of increased probability

Because she wanted confirht her one of Felix’s Piston cronies and thus safe, Sophronia asked, "You caused that entertaining malfunction, didn’t you, my lord?"

The duke focused his attention on her And because he, too, had training, he didn’t give her the outright answer she wanted He wasn’t loose lipped enough, or he didn’t have that kind of hubris "Who are you? You’re not one of ular associates You do look awfully fah"

Sophronia said, "I have that kind of face"

The duke’s eyes turned to Sidheag and the prostrate Di her in the side in a worried manner "None of your usual companions, boy," he said suspiciously "Are they even Pistons? You know I don’t like you fraternizing with the hoi polloi of the aristocracy" He seeo so far as to control Felix’s friendships? Hoful for Felix, thought Sophronia, briefly distracted from concerns over her immediate welfare

Stubby stepped in at this juncture "Sir, there is definitely so funny about those boys Particularly that one" He pointed at Diain at her fallen forot hiht connections No, it’s these other two I don’t know"