“It’s hidden.” said the demon Romney from inside the amulet. “It’s giving me a bloody headache too, I can tell you if I try and have a gander.”
“Okay.” she said. “Leave it then. None of our business really. We just need to get the box. Whatever is in it is the business of the steelworker’s society and nobody else’s.”
“Okay.” said the demon as Victoria reached into her belt and pulled out a small round object, and with a swing threw it deftly towards the window. It hit the frosted glass and smashed it easily, dropping into the room below. There was a brief sound of commotion from within the tower and then silence.
Victoria flicked her glove again and the grapnel hook shot from her glove and hit the roof, and she allowed it to pull her from the tiles and towards the window, where she stuck her legs out before her, arrow-like, and upon hitting the glass the window smashed completely and she somersaulted into the room, landing deftly on the floor inside besides the plinth on which stood a small carefully engraved box.
Around the room were five soldiers, all on the floor unmoving, their faces contorted in agony. There was a slight smell of ammonia about the room but Victoria did not pay it any heed. She was looking at the box on the plinth, examining it carefully, but not touching it.
“It’s blood locked.” said Romney.
“Shit!” hissed Victoria. “Who to?”
“I think you will find that it is me.” said a voice from the door, and Victoria turned to see Rupert smiling at her, a small pistol pointed at her head in his hand.
Victoria smiled but did not move as Rupert moved inside the room, his eyes never leaving her.
“Which society are you working for?” he asked, the gun never wavering, his eyes set on her, watching her every move. “Artisans? Demonologists?”
“As if I would tell you.” said Victoria, her eyes locking with his. “Professionally that would be suicide.”
“Well that will be irrelevant shortly anyway.” He pressed a brick on the wall of the tower and somewhere far below a bell began to ring urgently, barely audible from where they stood, but ringing none the less. “This room will be flooded with guards very shortly.”
“I see.” said Victoria, and Rupert watched as her cheek twitched and as she did so a small pocket on her belt opened and there was a small puff of smoke.
Rupert fell to the ground, the gun clattering to the floor as he did so, a small round hole now visible in the centre of his forehead, from which a small curl of smoke was rising up into the air.
“Good shot.” said Romney, chuckling dryly to himself.
“Indeed.” said Victoria, “Now tell me if I am wrong but blood locked means that only the hand of the one it is locked to can remove this chest.”
“Correct.” said the demon from the amulet, chuckling to himself, “And unfortunately you just seem to have killed him.”
“Nobody says he has to be alive.” she said, removing a small knife from the belt that expanded as she pulled it from the pocket holding it. She hunched over the figure and began to saw at the corpse. The knife was very sharp and it did not take long before he stood up holding Rupert’s hand in her own.
“Call the skimmer!” shouted Victoria as she approached the small wooden and brass box on the plinth.
“On it’s way.” said Romney. “Arriving up top in two minutes.”
From somewhere down below came the sound of shouting that was quickly getting nearer.
“I knew I should have anchored it nearer.” hissed Victoria, “Still. Should make things interesting.”
She held Rupert’s hand over the box on the plinth and slowly lowered it onto the box, sweat trickling down her back as she did so.
“Third circle guarding it?” she said nervously.
“Almost certainly.” said the demon.”
“Just move it off the top of the plinth?”
“Yes.”
“Okay.” said Victoria, steeling herself as with Rupert's hand she pushed the box slowly to the edge of the plinth and then with a last budge pushed it off it altogether, trying to catch it with her other hand, but it landed awkwardly and the chest fell to the floor, the lid opening as it hit the ground, a small brass coloured object falling out from it. Victoria kneeled down and picked it up,
“What is it?” asked Romney and Victoria shook her head.
It was a small brass device, consisting of several small thin strips of circular metal running around each other in concentric circles. In the centre of the small metal cage spun a small red circle, crimson coloured yet about the size of a ball bearing. It twinkled slightly, almost like an eye that was watching her closely. Victoria counted four circles of the brass like metal but then on an impulse placed it carefully back into the chest and closed it shut.
“I don’t think we were meant to see that.” said Victoria and she heard Romney grunt in affirmation. “What was it? A gyroscope of some sort?”
“No idea.” said the demon. “Didn’t like the look of it much though, I can tell you that for nothing.”
From her belt she produced a small net and wrapped it around the chest and then slung it over her shoulder and onto her back, where it seemed almost to adjust itself and lock into place, holding the small box securely there.
“Let’s go!” she shouted, jumping up to the window she had entered by with a great leap and then crawling out through the broken glass and up onto the round tiled turret of the tower.
The wind blew strongly now across the rooftops, and through the moonlight she saw a small zeppelin moving rapidly towards her, its turbo props spinning rapidly, a rope trailing from the device.
“Thank the seven for automated drones.” she smiled as the voices from below grew louder and louder, and as they burst into the room and noticed the smashed window Victoria leapt from the roof, catching the rope dangling from the zeppelin easily, drifting away from the manor and into the night.
“Operate the mist, Romney.” she said, slowly climbing the rope to the small empty cabin hanging below the drone.
“Certainly mistress.” said the demon as a head poked out from the smashed window in the tower, and then another, the zeppelin faded into nothing and disappeared into the dark London night.
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“Though the stories are short with all of them together it is like a long book.
The characters are a blast…Put together it was a very fun read.”
Into the Light- Lost in Translation Page 26