She nodded. Every last scrap of evidence against Julian was bound in that tiny book, her only hope of revealing the truth of his conspiracy.
The magistrate opened the front cover and set the stack of telegrams and folded letters aside, reading the lieutenant-general’s neat scrawl as he turned the first few pages. “Where was this evidence of yours obtained?”
“From the lieutenant-general’s office, aboard the Royal Forces flagship,” she said. “I suspected the lieutenant-general was conspiring with the minister, so I decided to investigate.”
“Why were you aboard the flagship?” he asked, scanning the next page.
“The minister put me there.”
“That is a lie,” said Julian, drawing the magistrate’s attention away from the logbook splayed in front of him. “Miss Wade was not aboard that airship by any means of mine. She snuck onto the airship herself in order to attempt further sabotage of the quadrupeds’ mission. I have a written statement from the lieutenant-general of that flagship, detailing her efforts to—”
“I was on that airship because you put me there,” she said. “You wanted me to see how badly I failed to stop you and your war. You wanted me to see those soldiers die, to see what you were capable of. Well, I did.” She resisted a shudder, the stench of blood and death still ripe in her nose, burned into her memory with acrid clarity. “I saw everything. You want evidence?” she asked, facing the magistrate again. “Turn to the entry for June 5th and see what’s written there.”
The magistrate flipped halfway through the thin journal and stopped suddenly, his eyebrows rising steadily higher as he read. “ ‘Attack at Amiens,’ ” he read. “ ‘Quadruped army destroyed by French aerial assault. Sabotage suspected. Aerial counterattack successful. Significant losses. British deaths estimated at—’ ” He glanced up. “The rest is left blank.”
“I found that in the lieutenant-general’s office just moments after the quadrupeds launched from the airships,” she said. “That entry was written before the battle commenced, long before the quadrupeds malfunctioned or the army fell. Yet he knew how it would end. He knew the quadrupeds would fall.”
“All lies,” said Julian. “Clearly, the girl forged the entry to disguise her own guilt. How could the lieutenant-general know what would happen?”
“Because it was planned,” she said. “All of it.”
“Preposterous.”
The magistrate glanced up. “You wish me to believe the minister conspired with Lieutenant-General Stokes to massacre his own men?”
“Julian knew about the fault in the quadruped design,” she went on. “He knew the quadrupeds would fail, knew they were faulty, and yet he did nothing to prevent their failure. Instead, he used the fault to orchestrate the massacre of those men, bombing the battlefield to cover up his conspiracy and burn away the evidence, killing anyone who knew the truth. All along, he planned to destroy the quadrupeds and lay the blame of their failure on me—accuse me of sabotage and treason and worse—but it wasn’t the fault that killed those soldiers. It wasn’t sabotage. It was the bombardment of mortar shells, dropped from British airships, that killed those men.”
A heavy silence followed her words.
“An absurd accusation,” said Julian, finally breaking the silence. “Those men died to protect their country. To suggest anything less—”
“Those men died because you wanted a war!”
The magistrate held up his hand before Julian could respond, staring intently at the lieutenant-general’s logbook. “It’s clear there are discrepancies between your two accounts of what happened at Amiens, but while these accusations are troubling, I am afraid I do not have the authority to further investigate such matters at this time.”
Petra frowned. “But—”
“I am here to uncover the details behind the quadrupeds’ failure, not investigate some deeper conspiracy that may be at work,” he said. “That is not my job. But this fault—the supposed sabotage that led to the quadrupeds’ failure—that I have the authority to discuss and thus determine a course of action, should the failure be the responsibility of anyone here.” He glanced up from lieutenant-general’s logbook. “Miss Wade, you are the designing engineer. Explain to me what you know of the quadrupeds’ malfunction. What caused the failure?”
She sucked in a deep breath. “There was an error in the design,” she explained, “a faulty axle plate that when engaged by the quadruped’s primary drive systems rendered the machine inoperable due to rotational disparity between the connecting gear trains, applying too much pressure to the tension springs and causing a fracture. Without the tension springs to regulate the erratic changes in power distribution during operation, the machine’s disparate systems fall out of synchronicity within a matter of minutes, causing widespread failure to the interconnected systems.”
“And how was this error introduced?”
Petra swallowed hard. “A miscalculation on my part, at the design level.”
“A miscalculation placed there with malicious purpose,” Julian spat. “Whatever fault existed in the quadruped was a result of intentional sabotage, not an error. She deliberately designed the machine to fail.”
“Minister . . .” the magistrate warned. “I will not ask you again. Be silent.”
“The fault wasn’t deliberate,” she said, the lie slipping easily through her lips. “The quadruped is a complex piece of machinery, involving several different interconnecting systems. Had I been given more time to complete the schematics, I might have caught the error, but being pressed for time, I was unable to regulate the quality of the design. With only a week—”
“A week?” The magistrate blinked at her. “You designed this machine—this quadruped—in a single week?”
She nodded. “That was the deadline I was given.”
“I see . . . So, rushed for time, you designed the machine within the week and turned the imperfect designs over to the Guild, who then began preparations for initial production.”
“That’s right.”
“Then the error slipped past the notice of your engineering team and remained in the final design that was approved for prototype construction. This is the fault that caused the quadrupeds to malfunction in France. Correct?”
“Yes, but—”
“But you repaired it—the prototype,” he said, reaching across the council bench for a sheaf of papers. He riffled through the pages. “You removed this faulty axle plate, the one causing the rotational disparity.”
“I did, yes,” she said with a frown. She glanced from the magistrate to Vice-Chancellor Lyndon and back. “When I discovered the error in the machine’s design, I repaired the fault immediately. But how did you—”
“I have the report here, as signed by one of your fellow engineers and approved by Vice-Chancellor Lyndon,” he said, waving a piece of paper in front of him. “But if you repaired the prototype, how then did this error manifest in the quadruped army that deployed in France?”
“Because the repair was a ruse,” said Julian, his voice edged. “I daresay that much is obvious. Or else the quadrupeds would not have failed. Her attempted ‘repair’ was nothing but an effort to conceal the truth of her sabotage.”
The magistrate turned toward Julian, regarding him with the full force of his cold, clinical stare. “So you were aware of her repair of the prototype?”
“I am aware of her claim,” Julian said calmly, unruffled by the magistrate’s words. “Though I would not call her sudden involvement in the prototype’s development a ‘repair.’ If she made any changes to the prototype in the days before its completion, that is only further proof of her sabotage. Inevitably, her interference caused the machines built from the final design to fail.”
“That could be,” said the magistrate, conceding the point with a nod.
“No, that’s not what
happened,” said Petra. “The quadrupeds failed because—”
“I have seen your quadruped prototype, Miss Wade,” said the magistrate, his sharp voice bullying hers into silence. “Vice-Chancellor Lyndon was kind enough to grant me access to the workshop where it was built. While I reviewed your designs and examined the machine—I am a mechanical engineer myself, you see, a University graduate—I found no fault in the prototype’s design, no issue of rotational disparity or mismatched gear systems; the defunct regulator had been removed, as outlined in your repair. By all accounts, the prototype works. No malfunction whatsoever.” He folded his hands across the table in front of him and leaned forward. “And yet the quadrupeds at France still failed. If the prototype was repaired and the report filed, why would the quadruped army still fail?”
Petra swallowed hard. “Because Julian commissioned the quadruped army before the prototype was finished. He used the initial prototype design, the one approved by the engineering team, the design containing the flaw.”
The magistrate shuffled through a few more pages of notes and conferred with one of the other men sitting nearby. “Vice-Chancellor Lyndon . . . you claim to have evidence to support this statement, do you not? Evidence to suggest that Minister Goss did indeed know of the repair to the quadruped, prior to the deployment of this early-commissioned army.”
“I do, sir,” said Lyndon, stepping forward. “I believe Minister Goss manufactured the quadruped army from an early draft of the quadruped design, and that he knew of the repair to the prototype prior to the deployment of that army. After he arrested Miss Wade for attempted sabotage, I shared with him the repair order she had filed, but he obviously chose to ignore the repair—or else the quadruped army would not have failed.”
“None of this can be proven,” said Julian. “I—”
“There are multiple testimonies to support this claim,” said the magistrate. “I have testimony from Yancy Lyndon confirming the repair of the prototype, and here, a testimony from Rupert Larson, the designing engineer of the new Royal Forces warship. According to his written statement, he discovered the quadruped army several days before the completion of the prototype.”
“Their testimonies prove nothing,” said Julian. “Larson is an intimate associate of Miss Wade’s and cannot be trusted to testify against her; I would not be surprised if he shared her anti-imperialist sentiments. As for the Lyndon boy, he was on the quadruped engineering team, often seen in deep conversation with the girl, as many of the other engineers will attest. For all we know, he might have helped her sabotage the machine, using his connections to his father to cover up their schemes.”
“And what evidence do you have of such claims?” asked the magistrate. “As yet, you have failed to produce anything substantial against Miss Wade, neither to support your claims that she is an anti-imperialist or that she willfully sabotaged the quadruped project.”
The magistrate leaned forward in his chair. “The facts are this, Minister: the quadruped army failed as a result of some measure of neglect—willful or not—and their failure resulted in the loss of British lives. I have reviewed enough evidence to suggest Miss Wade be absolved of any responsibility in regards to their failure. However, I cannot say the same for you.”
“Then allow me to bring forth my own witnesses,” said Julian. “They will testify to the truth, not these traitorous lies.”
The magistrate seemed to consider it. “I believe you are allowed witnesses as a part of your defense, once an official investigation has begun,” he said, sitting up in his chair. He folded his hands. “I may not have the legal authority to arrest you on these accusations of conspiracy, but I must consider what would motivate you to manufacture an entire army of war machines from an untested prototype—or why you would not repair those machines once learning of a fault in their design, a fault that would surely lead to their failure. There are too many questions still left unanswered, and more than enough evidence to implicate some deeper motive to your actions.”
He reached for the gavel next to the scattered paperwork littering the council bench. “Therefore, I declare this preliminary hearing ended. As a result of our initial findings, Julian Goss, Minister to the Vice-Chancellor, is hereby placed into Royal Society custody for suspicion of negligence, an investigation to be held forthwith.” The gavel rapped against the table like a thunderclap, and the magistrate gestured to a pair of Royal Forces soldiers to the side of the bench. “Take him somewhere secure while we conduct our preliminary investigations. We leave for London first thing tomorrow.”
Julian stalked toward the council bench, brushing the two soldiers away. “I will not be treated this way, like a common criminal,” he said, glaring at the magistrate. “I have given everything to the Guild, to the Empire. Everything I have done has been in the best interest of our future, for the good of science, for the good of the world. Only a fool would fail to see where my loyalties lie.”
“That may be,” said the magistrate. “But the evidence points to—”
“I should not be the one on trial here,” Julian said, pointing an accusing finger at Petra. “That girl is an anti-imperialist traitor, a known saboteur and French informer, planted here to sow discord within the Guild. Already, she has swayed the vice-chancellor and her peers to her cause, falsifying evidence to discredit me and all I have done to advance this institution forward. She is our enemy, and if she is not dealt with to the full extent of the law, she will destroy everything we have worked for, everything we have built. Already, she destroyed the automaton; she sabotaged an entire army of war machines and caused the deaths of hundreds of British lives. Is that not evidence enough?”
A heavy silence followed his words, and the magistrate leaned forward in his chair. “I have every intention of bringing the person responsible for the deaths of those soldiers to justice,” he said evenly. “But I follow evidence, Mr. Goss, not hearsay, and given the evidence as presented to me, I do not believe that Miss Wade is the one who is at fault for the quadrupeds’ failure.”
“Lies and deceit,” he hissed. “She has fooled you all.”
“No,” Petra said, finally stepping forward, her hands clenched into fists at her sides. “I have shown them the truth. You’ve lost, Julian. It’s over.”
He scowled at her, a muscle twitching in his jaw.
The magistrate gestured again to the two Royal Forces soldiers, and the two men swept in and seized Julian by the arms.
“You are making a mistake, Magistrate,” he said, standing tall and proud despite the soldiers’ firm grip. “While you waste your time investigating me, France will recover from their losses at Amiens and Calais, and they will come for us, stronger than ever. I hope you are prepared when they do.”
“Take him away.”
The soldiers dragged him out of the council chambers, the doors shutting soundly behind them. Only then did Petra dare breathe a sigh of relief.
It was done.
“Now,” said the magistrate, leaning back in his chair. “The Privy Council in London will soon expect a report of our findings, so I should like to review as much evidence as possible before we send word of our suspicions. While our official investigation pertains only to the technological failure of the quadrupeds, if we can convince the Privy Council that your suspicions of conspiracy have merit, that there is substantial enough evidence to support your claims, then we may be able to bring forward a full investigation into the matter. Should we find anything of consequence, Minister Goss will join us in London for our meeting with the Privy Council, where we will hold him until trial. If you could provide me with access to the minister’s office, the names of any potential co-conspirators, close associates, or subordinates who may have reported directly to the minister in the last several months, and any other applicable evidence that may aid our investigation, we can then begin to build an argument to suggest that Minist
er Goss conspired in the failure of the quadrupeds at Amiens and Calais, and that his knowledge of the fault in the design could have prevented the deaths that resulted from that failure.”
Vice-Chancellor Lyndon executed a deep bow. “The Guild is at your disposal, Magistrate.”
“Very good. I should also advise you to recall any engineers who may still be afield, anyone who may have ties with the minister, or who might have information relevant to the investigation. We will need to question anyone who might know more of his affairs.”
“Of course,” said the vice-chancellor. “I will do so at once.”
The magistrate rose from his chair behind the council bench. “Then we shall take our leave of you and begin our preliminary investigation of these matters. We have a lot to do before we return to London.”
Petra stepped forward. “What about the war?”
“I beg your pardon?”
“It’s just . . . If you can prove Julian was responsible for the deaths at Amiens and not the French, then surely the war cannot go on. It can be stopped, can’t it?”
The magistrate pressed his lips into a grim frown. “If Minister Goss is indeed responsible for the deaths of those soldiers, then we will find what evidence we can of his involvement and bring him to justice, but I’m afraid that there is little we can do to stem the tides of war. Blood has been spilled, and whether by his hand or not, men are dead—on both sides of this conflict. All we can do now is deliver our findings to the Privy Council and hope to mitigate the damage.”
“But surely the Privy Council can call for a ceasefire? They have the power to stop this war before it goes any further. They must do something.”
“It’s out of our hands, Petra,” said Lyndon, laying a hand on her shoulder.
“Then we’ve lost,” she said, her chest tight. She turned toward the vice-chancellor. “After everything, he still managed to start a war. We failed.”
“No, Petra . . .” he said gently. “Julian will pay for what he has done. Eventually, the truth will come out and he will be brought to justice.” He squeezed her shoulder. “We won today. You should be proud.”
The Guild Conspiracy Page 31