Operation Ludendorff: a Leviathan fanfic

Chapter Four

 "Mr. Sharp, Dylan, Deryn!"

Deryn sat up from bed, hands immediately searching for her rigging knife. She found it below the cot she slept in and held it tight in her hands. "What's happening?"

Dr. Barlow was standing at her desk, the practiced mask of aloofness plastered onto her face. Deryn had learned that whenever the lady boffin never showed even irritation on her face, that she was holding in very strong emotions.

And calling her barking Deryn out loud was a clue too.

"Wake Aleksandar up and return here; and do so covertly, Mr. Sharp." The woman's tone made Deryn scramble out of bed and pull her suitcase open.

Deryn dug around for her bindings and wound them around her chest until they pinched much more than she was used to. Her hands found one of her old Midshipman jackets and she threw it over the shirt she'd worn to bed. The rigging knife she tucked into the band of her trousers, the leather sheath's familiar weight on her hip a comfort.

The door to the stateroom was locked, and after a good scan of the room, Deryn noticed the little key on the desk. She grabbed the key in her hand and inserted it into the lock.

Just as the door clicked open, Deryn spared a look back at Dr Barlow. The lady boffin was digging in one of the desk's drawer's again, the woman's back to the opening stateroom door. Deryn pulled the key from the lock and stepped out into the corridor.

Alek's room was just beside theirs, and seemed like a large broom closet, not a Swedish cargo airship's stateroom. Deryn gave the fabricated wood of his door a sharp knock then jiggled the brass handle. Locked.

Deryn was glad she kept the key now, and inserted it into the lock.

She had only been in Alek's room once during their trip, when she helped him rescue a message lizard that had managed to jam itself into the message lizard tube in the stateroom. Deryn had commented that it was small then, but it was when she swung the door open that she realized how small it was.

The door's edge banged against the iron bedframe of the bed, sending a sharp ring throughout the little room. Deryn was certain that the sound reached the end of the corridor, where crew members keeping watch on the cargo in the airbeast's gut surely heard them.

Deryn swore and stepped into the stateroom. Dr. Barlow was going to skin her alive for this.

"Mein Gott!"

"Change," Deryn mouthed, gesturing to her clothes. Alek scrambled out of bed and Deryn turned, opening the door a squick. The corridor was empty.

Apart from the fact that the bed was close enough to the door to be hit when it was swung open too hard, the small space of floor that served as all the room was only about two feet wide. Alek was quickly changing in that small space, and when Deryn stepped away from the door, one of his elbows jabbed her in the back.

"Sorry," Alek whispered and tucked the hunting knife into his belt. The boy grabbed Bovril from the foot of his bed where the beastie was still sleeping. Whatever the Loris was about to say was muffled between the folds of Alek's clothes.

Deryn stuck her head out the door and looked out into the corridor. She focused on the shadows that crisscrossed the corridor, her eyes straining to make out the strange shape of a crew member. When she was certain that nothing was hiding in the shadows, she got out of the room and gestured for Alek to come out.

When they reached the next stateroom, Dr. Barlow barely looked up at them. This must be some mission. Dr. Barlow never missed out on a chance to get mad at them before.