Operation Ludendorff: a Leviathan fanfic

Chapter Seven

The sky was the colour of a day-old bruise, the harsh purple mingling with the muddled blacks and lingering blue. Huge grey clouds loomed out in the distance, their rounded bottoms suggesting even more rain.

"Barking cold," Bovril shivered underneath Deryn's jacket.

"Aye, cold," Deryn leaned against the trunk of a birch tree, her jacket hanging heavily from her shoulders in a soaked heap.

It seemed like ages since the sun had come out. Ever since their narrow escape from the Voyager, the sun had decided that it didn't want them getting anywhere near Bonn, and disappeared for the whole of two days. Those two days consisted of them trudging through muddy tracks—which only made Alek's shoulder more of a burden—and finding suitable inns that would accept soaked customers in the middle of the night.

But they had passed through two Clanker villages without a hitch, and managed to get into Bonn within two days. And Deryn thought that with everything they'd been though, that was nothing short of a miracle.

"How long do you suppose we wait?" Alek asked from beside her.

Deryn sighed, her hands stopping their useless attempt at rubbing warmth into her arms. "I've no idea."

And she meant it. The letter Mr. Armbrust had sent only contained two sets of coordinates: the city they were asked to meet in, and where. So when they'd arrived in Bonn and found the secluded park at the banks of the Rhine, they had no idea when he would meet them.

At first, Deryn figured that Mr. Armbrust was just waiting for nightfall because the soldiers roaming the streets lessened the later it got. But as the sun fell and the red veins of afternoon light slithered away, a new idea wormed itself in Deryn's head.

"Maybe what Dr. Barlow said was true."

"About what?" Alek winced as he stood up.

"Mr. Armbrust. Maybe he is just telling the Admiralty yackum he'd shambled together to get a pair of Darwinist agents into Clanker territory."

It made sense. Work as a double agent and make a story horrific enough to get the Admiralty's agents right in the middle of Germany, where it would be easy to set them up for the Kaiser's soldiers to capture them. That bum- rag Armbrust could be giving away their location right now; or maybe he already had, and a squad of soldiers was just waiting in the shadows for a cleaner shot.

The thought made Deryn's stomach churn. Ever since the night of her first command mission in Istanbul, the fear of getting captured had slowly grown, and working for the Society didn't help minimizing it.

"Well –"Alek began, but something made him stop.

Deryn turned, her eyes widening.

A figure sat in one of the park benches. The streetlights shining down on the slick black coat that hung from broad shoulders. He sat facing the Rhine River, seemingly unaware to them.

They turned to look at each for a moment, eyes flashing through the gloom.

Alek was the first to step forward, leaving the security of the tree's shadows. Harsh electric light lit him up immediately, giving any person close enough a more that clean shot. Deryn followed, her hand hovering just above the handle of her rigging knife.

"I sent for the Admiralty's best agents, not children." The figure said in an indistinguishable accent when they had gotten close enough.

"We're taking you're Quentin Armbrust, then? Unless of course you're just bait to lure us out into the open." Deryn said, making sure the bite in her voice could be noticed. It wasn't the first time one of the older agents ridiculed them for their age.