The alarm, painfully loud, continued. There was no maid nearby to receive shutdown protocols. Professor Braithwope hurried off, and the other teachers disappeared into their rooms, presumably to hide from the noise.
Sophronia and Vieve continued on their way, reassured that attention was directed elsewhere.
“What was that about?” Vieve wondered.
“Viscount Mersey might have taken something Pillover said after dinner as encouragement.”
“Sophronia, you didn’t plant ideas in that poor nobleman’s head? You are a naughty girl.”
“Where’s your aunt? I didn’t see her just now.”
“Down in the laboratory with Shrimpdittle, I think. They’re working on something together, despite bad blood over the prototype.”
“Is that the real reason the boys are on board, as cover for this project?”
“Possibly.”
“Vieve,” said Sophronia slowly, “how would vampires handle floating through the aetherosphere?”
“I’ve no idea. Ah, here we are.”
When entering the engineering chamber from the proper door, rather than the outside hatch, they came in from above onto a wide landing with the whole of the massive room spread out before them. Sophronia loved the view. It was so impressive, with multiple boilers flaming and smoking, engines and machines moving and sparking, sooties running between massive mounds of coal. Usually, two-thirds of the sooties slept during evening shift, but tonight everyone was awake. A full complement of supervisors stood guard—firemen, greasers, engineers, and coal runners. Something is definitely afoot. Or should one say “a soot”?
Sophronia and Vieve, unnoticed, made their way down the spiral staircase and through the crowds to the far corner of the room, ending up behind the coal pile that had long since become their regular meeting spot.
Soap was waiting, fairly vibrating with anticipation.
“What took you so long?”
“Someone set off the alarm.”
“Not you two? Never you two.” Soap’s faith was endearing.
“Course not. Sophronia set up a patsy to take the fall.”
Soap swung to look at her.
Sophronia smiled slyly. “What can I say? Boys need lessons sometimes.”
Soap arched an eyebrow at her.
“Not you, Soap. You’re not a real boy. But Felix is being difficult.”
“Felix, is it?” Soap did not look pleased.
“Lord Mersey, I mean,” Sophronia corrected herself.
Soap looked even less pleased.
Sophronia didn’t quite understand where she’d gone wrong. Soap was usually such a good-natured chap. She changed the subject. “So, what’s the surprise?”
Soap brightened. “We’re going undercover for the next three days. Weather not being obliging.”
“What do you mean? It’s been lovely for March.”
“Just so. We can’t go sailing to London all visible. So they brought out the steam machine. We’re going to white!”
“Well, that explains all the extra water that flute took on.”
“You saw that?” Soap looked away from Sophronia. “What else did you see?”
Sophronia tried to look more mysterious than embarrassed.
Vieve was not interested in innuendo—a new machine was about to be cranked up! “I’ve heard about it but never seen it in action.”
“I’ve only helped do it twice before,” said Soap. “Come watch.” He led them to sit atop a pile of coal. “Don’t interfere!” He shook a finger at Vieve.
The sooties wheeled out a massive apparatus, one that usually huddled at the back of the room. They arranged it to sit straddling the distribution hatch—a massive opening used to bring in coal and shovel out ash.
The contraption was hooked up to boilers and attached to a complex series of metal tubes, springs, and gears, the range of which charmed Vieve.
“Oh my goodness, is that an electrosplit goopslimer port? I do believe it is. And is that a Thrushbotham pip-monger swizzle sprocket? Oh, two swizzle sprockets!” Vieve was practically squeaking in excitement.
The machine was cranked up and began to puff.