The Ghost Rebellion (15 page)

Vania leaned forward and pointed to the markings in his robes. “Markings of the Mughal Empire?”

“
Is that what we were facing?” came a voice from behind them all.

Lieutenant O’Neil removed his pith helmet and lightly dragged his palm across his smooth, bald head. Behind him was a group of ten men. All of them looked relieved that the battle was done, but also confused, trying to fathom exactly what had just been unleashed on their base.

“
I was rather impressed with Agent Braun’s efficiency behind the Enforcer.” He gave her a polite salute. “You are a natural.”

“
It really was a bit like driving my uncle’s tractor.” Her lips pursed for a moment, then she added, “Well, provided that tractor was armed with a flame thrower and Gatling gun.”

“
And a self-destruct mechanism,” O’Neil added, wagging a finger at her, “lest we forget.” His smile faded on seeing the dying rebel before them. “My God. That’s Phani Talwar.”

“
You know this man?” Eliza asked.

“
I...killed him...” O’Neil spluttered. “Six months ago. A firefight on the docks.”

“
But that was an engagement with Free India,” Vania said.

“
I know it was, but that was where I last saw Talwar. My men and I had him pinned down. No one from FI walked away from that firefight.”

Wellington glanced at both Vania and Eliza before asking, “Did you see the body?”

“
It was pandemonium, Agent Books. Quite a few bodies—both FI and British Empire—fell into the bay. Not all the bodies were recovered, but I did see him take a bullet.”

“
Did you see a body, Lieutenant?” Wellington pressed. He knew there were many things beyond what a simple solider might have experience with. Things that the Ministry dealt with almost daily.

“
Missing,” O’Neil stated, “presumed dead.”

“
False presumption, I’m afraid,” he said, turning back to the man on the ground.

“
So it would seem,” Eliza said, removing her taiaha from its holster.

“
Any ideas how someone like Talwar and his lot managed to get their hands on æthergate technology?” O’Neil asked, his hand tightening on his pith helmet.

Wellington peered over his spectacles. “Pardon me, but how do you know about æthergates?”

“
The War Department spares no expense for us. We tend to serve as a proving ground for various inventions, and the idea of an æthergate was presented to us. Featherstone showed us schematics, looked promising, but Featherstone’s offer was suddenly rescinded. Never really given a reason why. “

“
The side effects,” Eliza said, holding up her collapsed taiaha. The collected British soldiers started back as the metal baton passed through Talwar, leaving a strange trail in its wake. Talwar’s face twitched, but he appeared in no more than slight discomfort. “A bit nasty, don’t you think?”

“
Dear God,” whispered Wellington. He dared to touch what he believed was a solid body, but Talwar was composed of nothing more than a dense mist. He held his hand in front of him, running his thumb back and forth along the inside of his fingers.

“
What is it, Wellington?” she asked. “Something on your skin?”

“
No, they are tingling.” He waved his hand back and forth. The sensation crawling against his skin was not painful. It was unsettling. “It’s not stopping.”

“
It will in a few moments. I think your fingers have been ionized,” Vania said as she lowered her head closer to the ground. “What does this to a man?”

“
An overabundance of æthergate travel,” Wellington began, mirroring Vania, who was looking at Talwar at a low angle. Indeed, she was right. Talwar’s outline appeared solid from above, but at this lower angle he appeared to shimmer. The edge of his robes, even his face, danced and undulated before him. “This is why the Ministry uses æthergates only in the direst of situations. Prolonged exposure to its radiation makes one’s existence…unstable.”

“
That’s why he looks so terrified,” Eliza said, looking up at O’Neil. “He is caught—now how did Axelrod explain it to me—between two points of reality. He can see past, present, and future, passing in flashes, but in our time, Talwar is caught at the moment his body hit the ground.”

Vania looked back and forth to each of them. “I thought the Ministry had locked down æthergate technology.”

“
We had. Initially.” Wellington looked over to Eliza. “Weren’t you on that mission when the Ministry tangled with the House of Usher?”

“
No, but Harry was. He told me about it,” Eliza said. “The Ministry had secured the Atlantean generators...”

“
Atlantean?” O’Neil asked, as if he thought he’d misheard. “As in Atlantis?”

“
Now you understand, Lieutenant, why we are not called The Ministry of Everyday Occurrences,” Eliza quipped. “The House managed to steal the original parchments. There was one problem, though—Poseidon’s Key. The Atlantean Rosetta Stone. They didn’t have it. We did.”

Wellington looked to Vania. “This didn’t leave Usher so easily discouraged in cracking the mystery of æthergates.”

“
London, 1871?” Eliza asked.

“
Splendid,” he said with a smile. “Case Number 18710520UKMG. Mercury’s Gate. The scientist’s name was Sir Carroll Ludovic, and he had somehow managed to unlock the basics of æthergate travel. The problem with Mercury’s Gate compared to the true Atlantean æthergates, according to our experts at R&D, was the radiation output and its effect on the structural integrity of organic matter. Sir Carroll’s design was less than efficient.”

Vania look at where the gate had been. “So, what we saw...?”

“
A very respectable facsimile,” Wellington said, returning to his feet, “but not the genuine article.”

Eliza pressed the switch extending her taiaha, and placed the weapon inside Talwar again. This time, his body trembled, looking as if he were being poked or prodded with something which, in a manner of speaking, was true. “And this is what happens when that radiation is not managed properly.” Her thumb hovered over the blue button in the weapon. “I’m sorry,” she whispered to him.

Sparks dimly illuminated the inside of Talwar, his mouth suddenly locking in a silent scream. His eyes saw Wellington for just an instant, and then he disappeared in a wild flash of blue light.

“
That was what we saw in their retreat,” Vania said.

Wellington looked back to the barracks. “Where’s Southerby? We need to talk to him straight away. With Featherstone so closely connected with Jekyll and this Ghost Rebellion as you call…”

His voice trailed off as O’Neil cast his eyes over to his regiment, all of which, one by one, removed their helmets and caps. Many cast down their eyes, and Wellington let out a sigh as he realised.

“
Soditall,” Eliza whispered.

“
Determined as he was,” O’Neil said sombrely, “Southerby chose to face the danger just as his soldiers would. He refused to surrender the fort to this lot. To the last.”

“
Very noble, save for one thing,” Wellington said, “his intent. If he had lived to claim the day, he would have been hailed as a hero of the empire. With his death, he now gives Parliament the justification to bring all of its military might to bear on India.” He looked around him, noting the tired soldiers carrying wounded mates to what he assumed was an emergency infirmary. “Remember Southerby and Fort St Paul. Quite the rallying cry, don’t you think?”

“
Either way,” Vania said, “Southerby gets his wish: the subjugation of India.”

“
Dear Lord,” O’Neil said, staring at the devastation. “I never considered that.”

Wellington turned to the young officer, addressing him just as he had once done to soldiers during his days in Africa. “Lieutenant, considering the circumstances, the Ministry is assuming command of this fort.”

The young man blinked. “Agent Books?”

“
He is well within protocols, Lieutenant,” Vania said, taking a spot at his back. “The Ministry has jurisdiction over all unusual occurrences like this. It’s in the name, and even if Lockhart fights it, the Queen will remind him personally if need be.”

“
Do you have a photographer of any kind on the base?” Wellington asked.

O’Neil cleared his throat, and then stood a little straighter. “Yes, Mr Books.”

“
I want your men to check any and all of the enemy dead here, solid or otherwise, and I want them photographed.”

“
Yes, Agent Books,” O’Neil said, giving him a salute before ordering his men to pass along his words through the ranks.

“
Sorry, darling,” Wellington said, giving Eliza a weak smile. “I should have let you take command as you are the senior agent.”

“
Old habits.” Eliza patted him on his shoulder before turning to Vania. “Inauthentic æthergate technology, a man presumed dead taking up arms against the empire, and all the elements in play to throw India into chaos. What do you think, Agent Pujari?”

“
Usher,” she replied.

“
We’re going to need to see those photographs as soon as they are ready. Alert Director Smith, and send word to the home office. Inform them of the situation.”

“
Yes, ma’am,” Vania said before heading back to the barracks.  

“
Well then,” Wellington began, “the House of Usher is apparently supplying rebels with inferior, supernatural technology, India is on the brink of war with Mother England, all while a madman possessing the ability to turn ordinary people into ten feet monsters is on the loose.”

Eliza bobbed her head, her lips bent in a smirk. “Just another day at the Ministry.”

“
Shall I go put the kettle on?”

“
Please.”

Chapter Six

Wherein Our Colonial Pepperpot and Our Dashing Archivist Face a Decision

“
So now we find ourselves in command of a military base,” Eliza said, behind Southerby’s grand desk. “That’s certainly a turn up for the books.”

She turned and grinned at Wellington, hoping her attempt at levity struck home somewhere, but instead she found he was not looking at her at all. Rather he was staring out the bullet-riddled window as a small group of soldiers carried Southerby to the infirmary. Not that he was able to be helped at this stage. It was the only place to put him. Her partner had a look on his face of such pensiveness that she just knew he was imagining the worst case for this scenario to play out.

“
Wellington?” she pressed, until he jerked around and stared at her.

“
What...oh, I am sorry Eliza, or should I say, Commander Braun?”

The sentiment made Eliza take stock of this grand office, seeming more appropriate for an Adventurer’s Club than a high-ranking outpost of Her Majesty’s military. Lieutenant General Southerby may have considered himself “one of the boys,” but with the stuffed lion and tiger at opposite ends of the office, the banners of past battles, and the lovely paintings all flanking the larger-than-life sized portrait of himself, Southerby made it clear: Whomever occupied this office occupied a place of power. Eliza had never been one for pomp and ceremony, but she did not necessarily feel out of place. With the general’s office showing signs of the firefight, some of that pomp was dampened.

Still, the idea that as ranking field agent Eliza was now in control of Fort St Paul was ludicrous. Luckily, the solution was at hand. Lieutenant General Southerby had the best of everything installed at his base, and that included an æthermessage system, which she and Vania had made use of in summoning Director Smith.

Lieutenant O’Neil stood at the door, waiting at attention. Having an attractive man at her beck and call was something of a fantasy for Eliza, but O’Neil was so
serious
. He was making her nervous.

“
O’Neil, could you please form a detail that will meet Director Smith of the Ministry? I want to make sure once he arrives, he is escorted promptly to my office.” She leaned on the desk, feigning the authority she hardly felt comfortable in wielding.

“
Certainly, Agent Braun.” O’Neil spun on his heel and left her and Wellington alone.

Eliza would have never thought she would feel such relief at a handsome officer leaving her sight. Once he was gone, she let out a sigh and sagged into the chair still warm from the Indian afternoon.

“
Starting to feel the weight of leadership across your shoulders?” Wellington perched himself on the edge of the desk. “Would you like me to rub them for you, darling?”

She wasn’t positive if he was joking or not, so she tapped him on the knee. “Watch your step, Books, or I will have you thrown into the brig.”

He shook his head. “The brig is for the Navy. In the Army, we call it the stockade.”

“
You’re not helping.” She rubbed at the bridge of her nose, attempting to push back a headache she could feel lurking in her skull. “I should just leave. Let O’Neil handle this.”

“
Tosh, you wouldn’t be able to leave the fort, not with it in this state,” Wellington said. “You’re handling this fine, and you must until Maulik arrives. It’s difficult being responsible for all these souls, believe me I know.”

She sat up suddenly. “Where did Vania go?”

The two of them looked around, but the young agent was nowhere in sight.

“
She was right behind us,” Eliza whispered, running over to the window. If another Pujari sister died she would never forgive herself. Ihita’s death was not on her watch, but Eliza carried it with her. She loved Ihita. She was a dear friend. Perhaps, if she had still been active in the field, she could have done something.