“Good Lord,” Mrs. Finchley said. “Do you suppose it was a gas leak?”
“It’s not an accident,” Mr. Socrates said gravely. “And if they’ve found one of our houses, they may know the whereabouts of all of them. Perhaps even the Permanent Association itself has been compromised. That clockwork spider must have led them here.”
“Then what do we do?” Octavia asked.
“We find a hole to hide in,” Mr. Socrates said, then shouted out the window. “Driver! Take us back to the docks at once!”
“A hole?” Modo asked. “Where?”
“That will be a secret best kept until we arrive,” Mr. Socrates said.
Outside the carriage, Modo watched the familiar London streets pass by. If they weren’t safe here in the heart of the Empire, was there anywhere in the world for them to hide?
They arrived at Victoria Dock and unloaded the few carpetbags they had; Mr. Socrates hurried away to buy tickets. Modo and Octavia stood with Tharpa, watching the crowds. Mrs. Finchley looked calm, but Modo caught her fidgeting with her hands.
“What does it mean for us?” Modo directed his question toward Tharpa. “Has the Association collapsed?”
Tharpa shrugged. “We do not know. Better to discover this from a distance.”
When Mr. Socrates returned, they followed him down the pier, stopping before a ship called the SS Canadian.
“That’s a mail steamer, sir,” Modo said.
“Yes, and it leaves in twenty-five minutes. We will be on board. We have commissioned cabins.”
“Are you certain you want to take me with you?” Modo asked.
Mr. Socrates gave him a hard look, weighing his answer. “You need to be retrained,” he said. “And I will not abandon you here.”
Modo nodded. They climbed up the gangplank, and Modo turned to watch it drawn up behind them, half expecting an enemy agent to come running after them.
But no one appeared. And, just as Mr. Socrates had said, soon the ship was tugged out to the Thames and they began steaming toward what he hoped would be a place of warmth, rest, and safety.
ARTHUR SLADE has published several novels for young readers, including The Hunchback Assignments and The Dark Deeps, books one and two in the series The Hunchback Assignments; Jolted: Newton Starker’s Rules for Survival; Megiddo’s Shadow; Tribes; and Dust, which won the Governor General’s Literary Award for Children’s Literature. He lives in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, with his wife, Brenda Baker, and their daughter. Visit him on the Web at arthurslade.com.
Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Prologue - A Fierce Pursuit
Chapter 1 - The God Face
Chapter 2 - The Unexpected Guest
Chapter 3 - Into Bedlam
Chapter 4 - The Funeral
Chapter 5 - The Key Master
Chapter 6 - A Trusted Associate
Chapter 7 - A Hidey-Hole Discovered
Chapter 8 - An Uneasy Journey
Chapter 9 - One Last Passenger
Chapter 10 - A Game of Cricket
Chapter 11 - Stop. Expendable. Stop.
Chapter 12 - An Important Meeting
Chapter 13 - The Horn of Africa Ball
Chapter 14 - Interesting Scars
Chapter 15 - A Thorny Fence
Chapter 16 - Flushing Out the Enemy
Chapter 17 - An Outlandish Request
Chapter 18 - A Marvelous Piece of Workmanship
Chapter 19 - Manning an Expedition
Chapter 21 - A Journey Ends
Chapter 22 - The Rag and Famish, and Hades Acres
Chapter 23 - A Shortcut Through the Sky
Chapter 24 - Through a Spyglass
Chapter 25 - The Lofty Heights
Chapter 26 - The Solution for Closed Doors
Chapter 27 - The Necessary Mask
Chapter 28 - A Speck in the Darkening Sky
Chapter 29 - The Sparrow and the Hawk
Chapter 30 - Stupid, Stupid Fool
Chapter 31 - A Swan Dive
Chapter 32 - A Sudden Descent
Chapter 33 - Looking Death in the Eye
Chapter 34 - A Perfectly Fine Trophy
Chapter 35 - A Touch, a Word
Chapter 36 - A Now Dream
Chapter 37 - Freshly Chewed Meat
Chapter 38 - Cutting a Path
Chapter 39 - A Swollen River
Chapter 40 - The Temple
Chapter 41 - Scope of Duties
Chapter 42 - A Visage Revealed
Chapter 43 - The Thrum Inside Her Mind
Chapter 44 - Married to Adventure
Chapter 45 - The Horus Stone
Chapter 46 - Thinking Like an Egyptian
Chapter 47 - Too Many Days Behind a Desk
Chapter 48 - Promises Worth Nothing
Chapter 49 - The God Face
Chapter 50 - The People Who Fell from the Sky
Chapter 51 - A Horrible Whisper
Chapter 52 - An Uncontrolled Retreat
Chapter 53 - Driving the Enemy Before You
Chapter 54 - The Message
Chapter 55 - One by One They Fall
Epilogue - Homeward Bound
About the Author