Page 75 (1/2)

They arrived in Luxor as the sun set on the third day It seelobe tinted red at the bottom by the dust of the desert Prireener than Cairo, the Nile near the city dotted with half-formed islands The banks were thick with palm trees, which crowded into the sandstone of the tohile rocky grey monoliths spiked out of the desert beyond The Spotted Custard floated in over the eovernesses Primrose – Baedeker’s in hand – pointed out Karnak at one end of the town and the Temple of Luxor at the other

At Rue’s orders, The Spotted Custard and coue was sihtly The decklings were disappointed They wanted to see the Valley of the Kings up close

That evening, Rue was to host a Drifter gathering Quesnel declined to attend Primrose didn’t feel it was her place and Miss Sekhly scarce Which left Rue and Percy, of all people, to welcoht, with little wind, so the balloons perfor about each other like the nified of matrons at a church ball, they collected into pods of ten or so faroups and cast out more of those massive nets Each pod netted to another, until all hundred-plus airships were linked together

Quesnel, on deck for this occurrence, was impressed despite himself "I had a friend at university, used to draw schematics of molecules in just such a manner He theorised that chemical bonds were more net-like than stick-like in the Kekulé model" He spoke mostly to himself

"Preposterous" Percy overheard the mutter

"Yes, so our professor always said But if one were to conceive of molecules on a two-dimensional plane and then extrapolate into three di bonds is not quite so outlandish"

At that juncture, a holler and a thrown net saw the Custard bonded to the greater molecule as well

"Note how the nets allow for each individual ship to sway and bob about where a stiffer ine a o below, Mr Lefoux, do" Percy’s tone was only mildly annoyed "No one is interested in your ridiculous theories on the chemistry of airships"

With a bow, Quesnel unexpectedly did as instructed

Percy was disappointed at being denied a theoretical debate

Rue felt a twinge of pain It wasn’t like Quesnel to cede an intellectual point,quite low She stopped herself fro him

Around them, the nets became ays by whichsocial calls on other balloons Children coreetings and gift exchanges, each group decided upon a representative These converged upon Rue’s dirigible