Free The League of Seven by Alan Gratz Page A

they’re in prisons.”
    â€œThen just Edison,” the girl said. “I need to finish what I started.”
    â€œWhy? What did Edison do to you?” Archie thought it might be the scar, but when would Edison have cut her? And why? But the girl didn’t say. She just sat there with her arms crossed, staring at him.
    â€œThis is a job for the Septemberists,” Archie told her. “There’s one person we know in New Rome who’s a member of the Society. We’ll let him know my parents are still alive, and what Edison’s been doing.”
    The girl gave Archie a tired look. Fergus coughed and looked away.
    â€œThey are alive,” Archie told them. “I’ve seen them. I know.”
    â€œIf we’re going back to New Rome, I want to go to Jersey first,” Fergus said. “I need to see Kano’s wife, Joanne. Tell her what happened.”
    â€œIf you’re not going back to Florida, I’ll go back alone,” the girl said.
    â€œWe don’t have time for that,” Archie told Fergus. “And there’s no sense going back alone when you’ll just get killed,” he told the girl.
    She stood suddenly. “There’s a wasp on the ceiling.”
    Archie and Fergus looked up. A solitary hornet crawled up near the gaslight chandelier.
    â€œSo what?” Archie said.
    The girl glared at them. “Didn’t you just say Edison was trying to raise something called ‘the Swarm Queen’?”
    â€œIt’s just one wasp,” Archie said, and then he froze. He had thought the front windshield was black because it was dark outside, but now he could see that wasn’t it at all.
    The Hesperus was covered with wasps.

 

    9
    The wasp on the ceiling was joined by another two, then another five. Soon the airship cabin was buzzing with them.
    â€œThe wasps are coming in through the air circulation system!” Archie cried.
    â€œActually, sir, they appear to be Vespa crabro, ” Mr. Rivets said, examining one that was trying to sting his brass hand. “Hornets, not wasps.”
    Fergus leaned back on the medical bay bed, swatting the hornets away from him. “I don’t care what they are. They’ve got stingers and I can’t run. Help!”
    â€œThere’s nowhere to run to,” the girl said. She batted hornets away as more came in through the air ducts. Soon they would be covered in the things. “Circus, showtime!” she said.
    From the pouches in her bandolier burst her five winged wind-up animals—a lion, gorilla, giraffe, elephant, and zebra. The girl pointed at Fergus. “Keep the wasps off him!”
    â€œHornets, miss,” Mr. Rivets corrected her.
    The flying animals swooped into action, biting, clawing, stomping, and kicking the insects around Fergus. He leaned back on his elbows and watched them work with the wide-eyed appreciation of a tinker, all thoughts of mortal peril suddenly gone.
    Archie wanted some help too. The hornets were all over him. He pulled a blanket from one of the sleeping hammocks and swung it at them, but there were too many.
    The girl pulled a fire extinguisher off the wall and aimed it at him. “Duck,” she said.
    Archie hit the deck just as the fire extinguisher’s chemical bath soaked the insects above him. They fell all around him, writhing and dying on the floor.
    The chemical bath was a good idea, but it couldn’t take care of all of them. Archie’s eyes searched the cabin. There had to be something else they could use to fight the swarm! The only time he’d ever killed wasps back home was in the late fall, when it got so cold they stopped flying and slowed down long enough so he could smack them with a shoe.…
    â€œCold air. Mr. Rivets! We need to go higher! Take the Hesperus higher!”
    â€œIf you would just insert my Airship Pilot card, Master Archie, I shall endeavor to do so.”
    Archie muttered a few words