The League of Seven (15 page)

Archie's heart skipped a beat. “What was that?”

“It's just the rats,” Liv told them.

“That's some rat then!” Onatah said.

“It's just the rats,”
Liv said again, in a tone that said she didn't want to hear any more about it. “Hector, get that donkey moving. Where in Hades are we?”

“You said take a roundabout way out!”

“I didn't say get us lost.”

“I know where we are. I been following the tubes. See?”

“Screeeeeeee!”
The sound was closer now. The donkey brayed and fought to get out of its bridle, and the cart jerked under Archie's hands.

“I don't like the sound of that,” Fergus said.

Archie heard the
schnik
of Hachi's dagger, and he knew she didn't much like the sound either. He still had his blindfold on and was listening as hard as he could, turning this way and that.

“Hector, give me that pistol,” Liv said. “I think there's something—”

Slosh. Crunch
.

Liv screamed. Archie let go of the cart and staggered back in fright. The ground shook and the donkey thrashed. Archie ducked down low and ripped off his blindfold. Hachi, Fergus, and Luis crouched with him.

“Liv! Liv!” Hector yelled. The red beam from his aether pistol lit up the dark corridor and sizzled in the damp air.
Zaaaaak. Zaaaaak.
“What in the name of Hiawatha
is
it? Liv!”

The thing screeched again, and Archie peeked over the top of the cart. The creature at the far end of the tunnel was enormous. It filled the passageway completely, its giant mole-like head hitting the ceiling and walls. Tentacles wriggled from its mouth, and patchy bald spots on its hairy face oozed orange pus. Its eyes were so pale and glassy Archie thought it must be blind, but it had found Liv well enough. It swallowed the second half of her with a gulp.

“Liv!” Hector cried again. As Archie's eyes went to him, so too did the mole monster's.
Zaaaaak. Zaaaaak. Zaaaaak.
Hector fired into the thing's tentacles, severing some of them with explosions of orange pus. It squealed again and lurched forward, snatching Hector up and stuffing him in its mouth.

Archie dropped back behind the cart with Hachi, Fergus, and Luis.

“What—what is it?” Luis asked.

“Is it a Mangleborn?” Hachi asked.

“No,” Archie said. “It's too small for that. A Manglespawn maybe. A child of a Mangleborn.”

“Too small?”
Fergus said. “Crivens. Do we run for it?”

“Where would we go?” Hachi asked. “I had Freckles watch all the turns, but that'll only take us back where we came from.” The little giraffe's head stuck out of one of the bandolier pouches.

Luis stared at Freckles as the creature snuffled and sloshed behind them. “Who
are
you children? How do you know what's going on?”

“Do you know any other way out?” Fergus asked.

Luis shook his head, his eyes bulging.

“Wait. Where's Onatah?” Archie asked. He popped back up for another look. He scanned left and right, the creature's head turning with him. There—Onatah was crouching in the darkness at the edge of the tunnel, frozen with fear. The creature turned its head to Onatah just as Archie's eyes found him, and its tentacles snaked out for him.

“Onatah! Onatah, move!” Archie cried.

The hacker was too scared. The tentacles wrapped around him and dragged him, screaming, into the thing's sucking mouth. Archie looked away, and the monster's head moved with him.

No,
Archie thought.
No. It can't be.
He glanced right, and the thing looked right. He glanced left, and the thing looked left. He looked up at the ceiling, and the thing's tentacles groped there, searching.

Archie dropped back behind the cart, thinking hard.

“Do we attack or run?” Hachi asked him.

Archie blinked. Hachi was actually asking
him
to make a decision?

“You know more about these things, White,” she said. “Do we attack, or run?”

“I—I think we need to put the blindfolds back on.”

“What?”
Fergus and Luis said together. Everyone looked at him like he was crazy.

“If we do that, we'll be helpless!” Luis said. He turned and looked underneath the cart, through the snorting donkey's legs.

“No, don't look at it!” Archie told him, but it was too late. Tentacles wriggled out and snatched up the donkey, dragging it and the cart toward his mouth.

“It's blind!” Archie yelled, scrambling to put his blindfold back on. “The monster's blind, but it can see through our eyes. It sees what we see. Trust me. Put your blindfolds on and it can't see us! Hurry!”

Hachi immediately did as she was told, but Fergus still wanted to argue.

“Fergus, look at the tubes,” Archie told him. “Don't look at any of us. Just the tubes. Watch what it does.”

Archie had his blindfold on now and reached out to find Hachi.

“Twisted pistons!” Fergus said. “It's—it's moving wherever I look!”

“Blindfolds, everybody!” Archie said again, feeling more confident now. He was doing it. He was saving them. He was in charge.

“I don't have a blindfold!” Luis said.

“Just close your eyes, then,” Archie told him. “Close your eyes and don't open them, no matter what you hear!”

The donkey brayed in panic, and then—
crunch
—it was quiet. They listened as the tentacles tore apart the cart and the packages in the back crashed to the ground.

“Freckles, I need you,” Hachi whispered, and Archie heard the mad fluttering of metal wings.

“What is it? What is that?” Luis asked in a panic.

Archie shushed him.

“Freckles, I need you to be my eyes. Tell me what you see.”

More fluttering, then more of the music box chittering sounds the little lion and gorilla had made at her back in the glade.

“Can you actually understand that?” Fergus asked.

“In a way,” Hachi said. “Now hush.” She paused. “It's getting closer, Archie. Coming this way. What do we do?”

Archie's heart raced. Hachi was the warrior. She was the one who always knew what to do. But for once Archie knew more than she did. Only he didn't
really
know anything about the thing behind them. What could they do to get away?

The thing snuffled near them, and Freckles chittered again.

“Archie,”
Hachi whispered.
“It's almost on top of us.”

Shung-shung. Shung-shung. Shung-shung
. Another capsule rumbled its way toward them in the big tube overhead, and Archie had a sudden inspiration. His heart in his throat, he yanked off his blindfold.

The thing was right next to him.

Tentacles snatched him up and lifted him out of the muck, raising Archie toward the monster's slurping mouth. Hard as it was, as scared as he was, Archie tore his eyes from the mole-creature and stared as hard as he could at the big pneumatic tube overhead.

“Come on, you ugly monster!” Archie cried. “Get it. Get it!”

“Archie?” Hachi asked. “Freckles says it's got you!”

The creature's tentacles followed Archie's eyes to the ceiling and yanked the pneumatic tube loose.
Shung-shung. Shung-shung. Shung—ptoom!
A huge capsule fired out of the broken tube and slammed into the thing's face.
Krang!
It staggered back, stunned, dropping Archie in the muck as it collapsed.

“What the—?” Fergus cried, ducking even though he couldn't see anything.

“It's all right,” Archie said, panting. “You can take your blindfolds off now.”

Hachi pulled hers off and quickly moved to help Archie up. When he was on his feet, she surveyed the downed monster, the crumpled capsule, and the broken tube. A hint of a smile curled at the end of her thin lips as she put it all together.

“Better,” she told him.

“Is it—is it dead?” Luis asked.

“I don't know,” Archie told them, “but I don't think we should hang around to find out.”

Nobody argued with him. Hachi picked up one of the fallen lanterns and led them around the side of the thing. They had to squeeze flat against the wall to move past it, once even having to climb over one of its misshapen paws. The awful wet-rat smell of the thing was so powerful they could barely speak.

“That was no insect creature,” Hachi said once they were clear. “Do you think it's under the control of that thing back in Florida?”

“No,” Archie said. “No, I think it's something else entirely. The spawn of some other Mangleborn. Something imprisoned here, below Mannahatta.”

“A creature imprisoned beneath Mannahatta?” Luis asked. “What are these Mangleborn? How big are they? What do they look like?”

“I think we better worry about getting out of here,” Archie said, trying to avoid the questions. “Does anything look familiar?”

A few yards on, Luis thought he recognized some graffiti, and they followed him through another few passageways until they found a ladder leading up to an alleyway behind a Texian restaurant. Night had fallen, and fatigue set in when Archie realized they'd been going nonstop all day.

“I think I can find our way back to the ship from here,” Archie told them.

Luis took each of their hands in his own in turn, shaking them fervently.

“You have saved my life, my friends. You have saved my life! And these Mangleborn of which you speak, you have inspired me to write about them!”

Archie shared a concerned look with Hachi and Fergus.

“Look, don't say too much about them. People aren't supposed to know,” Archie said.

“Oh, I will not tell anyone what I saw in the tunnels tonight. Who would believe me?” Luis said. “No—I shall write stories about them. Novels. About the Mangleborn, and the heroes who fight them! They will be bigger than Professor Torque ever was.”

“Um, I don't know…” Archie said.

“Here. Please.” Luis pulled a Nigerian prince letter from his satchel and pushed it into Archie's hands. “Please, if there is anything I can ever do for you. The address on here. Just send a p-mail to this address. My name is Luis Philip Senarens. Here.” He scribbled his name on the paper.

“Okay. Sure,” Archie said. It felt strange to have a grown man thanking him like this. “We'll let you know. Thank you.”

Luis thanked them again profusely, and finally they were able to make their escape.

“What good is a writer going to be?” Fergus said once Luis was gone, but he stuffed the note in his pouch all the same.

Mr. Rivets was waiting for them in the
Hesperus
. He was much relieved to see they had escaped the meka-ninja, but was not at all happy to hear about their run-in with the mole monster in the tunnels.

“I concur with Master Archie: a Manglespawn, not a Mangleborn.”

“And what's a Manglespawn again then?” Fergus asked.

“The monstrous offspring of a Mangleborn and some other creature. Sometimes with a human, sometimes with an animal.”

“Well, in this case it was with an elephant-sized mole,” Fergus said.

Mr. Rivets' worry subroutine knitted his brass eyebrows. “If Manglespawn such as these are becoming more active, we may have more than just the Swarm Queen to worry about soon. We may indeed be seeing other Mangleborn growing stronger and rising anew.”

“And where exactly is this Septemberist Society of yours?” Hachi asked.

“I don't know,”
Archie said. “Mr. Rivets, did we hear back from your contact?”

“We did indeed, sir.” Mr. Rivets produced a piece of paper and handed it to Archie. Hachi read it over his shoulder.

“It's nonsense,” she said. “‘No one here. Gas main explosion. Big fire. Outbreak of whooping cough—very contagious. Possibly also bears. Stay away.'”

“We're too late then,” Fergus said. “That bug thing has already got him.”

“Quite the contrary, sir,” said Mr. Rivets. “Unless I am very much mistaken, this missive proves the man in charge of Atlantis Station is still very much himself.”

“Did you say … Atlantis?” Fergus asked.

“Yes, sir. The sole occupant of Atlantis has always had … how shall I put it? A leaky gasket.”

“Atlantis,” Fergus said again skeptically.

“You've met him, Mr. Rivets?” Archie asked. “The contact?”

“I have indeed, sir, as have you, though you may have been too young to remember it. His name is Nikola Tesla.”

 

15

As they drew nearer to Atlantis Station, Archie had the vaguest memories of having been there before. He remembered water—lots and lots of water.

What he had forgotten was that Atlantis was a tourist attraction.