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There seemed no way into the tank Madame Lefoux had never intended to open it once it was built

Lady Maccon was getting frantic to stop the screaly aware of tiet out of the contrivance chamber and stop Madame Lefoux’s mad scheme to build a monster to kill the queen Why would Genevieve, of all people, want to do such a thing?

Desperate, she flipped her parasol, hefted it as far behind her back as her condition would allow, and swung it around with all her lass tank with the hard pineapple-looking handle The tank cracked and then broke, spilling the yellow fluid and with it a strong, suffocating scent Lady Maccon backed away hurriedly, lifting her ruffled skirts out of the toxic liquid Her eyes began burning and watering She coughed as the sensation asps Luckily, most of the liquid was absorbed quickly by the hard, compact dirt of the contrivance chaainst the cracked side of the tank, one hand dangling out through the broken glass Quickly, Alexia tugged off her glove and stepped up to it She touched the cold dead hand once, flesh to flesh, and just like that, it was over

The wailing stopped The body part wisps vanished-- sound of Madame Lefoux’s machines in motion and the empty air

"May you find your stillness, Formerly Lefoux," said Alexia

She looked ruefully at the lass, fractured tank, dead body She abhorred such untidiness, but she had no time to see to the cleanup Best to contact Floote on the matter as soon as she found some time

With that, she turned away and waddled back out of the chaeway She hoped the clientele above her was still arguing over hair Madame Lefoux’s secret entrance this time She must stop her friend from imprudent action And, more importantly, she desperately needed to find out why Why Madaent wo so dull-witted as haland

Fortunately, the hairmuff obsession was still in full sway Alioose, out of the door in the wall She thenhats and out of the shop A few remarked upon the smell of fornified ascension into the depths of her fancy carriage, but few thought to connect the two However, the head shopgirl did, andto the sudden increase in hairmuff orders

Lady Maccon remembered what Madaed to utilize space in the Pantechnicon Alexia was unaware of the location of the warehouse consortiu Lady Maccon ought to know So interests led her into the most peculiar parts of London Alexia had, of course, heard of the Pantechnicon but had never had occasion to visit such a thing as the facility in which Giffard’s Incorporated housed and ible fleet The Pantechnicon stored and distributed a good deal of furniture as well The very idea of a lady of good breeding visiting such a place There would be tables lying about, on their sides, naked! Not to ibles! Alexia shuddered at the very idea However, soo where Lady Maccon would not, and so she gave the order and trusted her driver to know the location, which turned out to be Belgravia, a deeply suspect part of London

After clattering for so passed through the worst andtoward Chelsea, the carriage drew to a stop Lady Maccon’s speaking tube rang i trumpet "Yes?"

"Motcomb Street, madam"

"Thank you" Never heard of it She looked suspiciously out the carriageWhat Lady Maccon had never quite fathoe the Pantechnicon had to be in order to accoibles and naked tables She was in front of a massive caterpillar of warehouses Each one reseh with arched metal roofs Alexia assumed these must soibles The street was diht rather than by the steady white of gas, and the area was bereft of humanity This was a part of the city that catered to day dealers, workers of transport and industry who loaded and unloaded their contraptions and carriers under the light of the sun It was not a place for the likes of Lady Maccon to be traipsing about on fulllike the dark e with her intent to assist a friend in dire need of sensible council So she alighted froe, Ethel in one hand and her parasol in the other She waddled slowly along the row of gigantic structures, listening at the door of each, standing on tiptoe to peer in at s the interior She rubbed the grilove The Pantechnicon appeared to be as abandoned as the street There was no sign of Madame Lefoux or her contraption

Then, finally, inside the last building in the row, Alexia caught sight of a spark of light Inside, Madame Lefoux, or the person she assulass andof athetorch, welding great slabs of iant mechanical construct had taken its final forasp of a

It was colossal, at least two stories high The briht articulateddown like pillars, but if Lady Maccon knew Madame Lefoux, each would be able to move independently of the others A re so ht octopus on tiptoe Alexia wondered what it said about her current state that this coed on theto attract Madame Lefoux’s attention, but the French woman clearly could not hear, for she did not pause in her activities

Lady Maccon circu for an entrance It haddoors street-side, but these were bolted firmly shut There must be a smaller, more convenient, one-person door somewhere about the place

Finally, she found it It, too, was locked She whacked at it with her parasol in frustration, but brute force was also ineffectual Not for the first time, Alexia wished she kne to pick a lock Conall had frowned most severely upon that particular request and on her proposed venture into Newgate Prison in order to hire the necessary criminally minded individual as instructor