Rip raced away from the others, sporadically using [Vampiric Speed] for extra bursts.

Blair kept pace behind him as best she could, followed by the colonels. But the two infiltrators paused to grab the silver discs shot off the robots. They also decided to loot all the dead sewer troopers lying around.

They did not find much, only a few coins. On occasion, one might have a pocket watch or another item of interest. These all went into their interspatial wallets.

Twig looked down the hatch where the big trooper had fallen along with his gas blunderbuss.

“Oi! Fancy going down there, Bobby? That gun the big lad had might fetch a pretty penny. Maybe Dame Anderson would want to see it. How much do you think she’d give us for it?”

Chance walked into the garden plot with the brass hatch and stared down into the opening next to Twig. Rungs from a metal ladder quickly disappeared in inky darkness.

“I’m not going down there.”

“What? You scared? We have the sergeant’s gas masks. If some is still leaking out we should be fine, mate.”

“It’s not the gas, Richie. I haven’t seen that Dar Caul bloke’s body. Have you?”

Twig stopped, his eyebrows slowly rising.

“No. I haven’t, either.”

“Right. I thought the sergeant shot him, but he’s not among the dead. Logic dictates he must have crawled away. And going back down this hatch, where he came out of, if you’ll recall, would seem the most likely route of escape.”

“You’re right. Best to leave the gas gun behind, then. Dame Anderson likely has something similar already.”

“If not we can tell her about it and she can make one, maybe.”

Twig looked around and suddenly noticed they were alone. The only sounds came from patches of mud slowly reforming Kipouros. They squished along the floor to join a man-shaped mound of muck.

“When he wakes up, mate, his knickers will be all twisted.”

“Right. We don’t want the golem to take it out on us. Let’s catch up with the others.”

They turned and ran.

-+-

Rip came to the first disabled robot, grateful somebody had shot the silver off it. It stood still, hands by its side and head smoking.

He ran on, blurring briefly with [Vampiric Speed] until he came to another one. This time, he also noticed they were near the tunnel entrance to the atrium.

He sped past the second dead robot, counting them off in his mind. That left five active ones. They were all in the tunnel now, leading back in the direction the group came in.

A few steps inside the tunnel he came across a third disabled bot. This time, he also found Liza sitting on the floor, leaning up against the wall.

“Are you alright?”

“I will be, Ripley. Do not worry. I’ve just gone for so long . . . I’m tired. I will catch up.”

“Hang in there. There’s not many left that you’ll need to mist into.”

She gave him a wan smile, like an old woman humoring a child, he thought.

He left her, blurring ahead with [Vampiric Speed].

A short way down the tunnel he found a fourth disabled bot. This time, Hilda stood to the side, holding her knees and breathing hard.

She tried to straighten up when Rip approached, but fell down and sat on the floor instead.

“You overextended yourself too, I take it.”

She tried to say something, but ended up just nodding.

“You both have done very well. There’s only three left.”

She nodded mutely again. He left her there, speeding down the corridor once more.

Soon he passed a passage curving off to his left, and realized that led to the train depot where they came in.

He stopped and listened, but the sound of robotic footsteps continued ahead. He kept running down the main passage.

This, he recalled from the colonel’s conversation, led to something called “Mendicants’ Gate,” which apparently was the main public entrance to the steam vault. Perhaps the robots are headed out the front door, he thought.

But further down the hall, he came across another branch. This one curved off to the right with another round vault door that was open. He stopped and listened. The sounds of metal feet echoed from beyond the door.

He turned and looked back, but no one from his group had come this far yet. Blair should be close, he thought.

Reaching into his wallet, he pulled out a piece of chalk and scrawled, “Rip” on the wall, with an arrow underneath pointing down the corridor to the right. Then he hurried after the bots.

Past the door, the side passage quickly grew larger, opening out into another gigantic room.

A lone worker in overalls stood at the entrance with a clipboard. He looked up as Rip ran by him.

“There were supposed to be more . . . Halt! You’re not a Dar!”

Rip ignored him and ran into the room, an enormous underground airship hanger. The ceiling opened up on either side, pulling back slowly from the middle like a giant accordion.

The sun evidently had set, or had almost set, because little outside light filtered in. Four black airships were tethered to the floor of the hangar, doors to their cabins open.

The one in the middle was the largest, easily a size and a half bigger than any of the others Rip had seen. Its cabin looked bigger, too. A giant sliding cargo door stood open. As Rip ran further into the hangar, he watched as the last three robots climbed onboard.

Sewer troopers scrambled to untether the airship while others filed in after the bots and closed the cabin’s sliding door.

The engines started with a throaty rumble and the airship slowly ascended as the last line was cast off below it.

Rip ran deeper into the hangar with another burst of [Vampiric Speed], but already the airship’s cabin had climbed thirty feet into the air.

He stopped underneath it and pulled out his wallet, grabbing a harpoon gun. He aimed it up at the rear ailerons and fired. The grappling hook flew up and twirled around a flap, gaining purchase.

Rip’s feet left the ground as the large airship lifted up and out of the underground hangar.