She bit her lip as she regarded the two pistols aimed directly at her.
“You’ll need to put those away if you wish to waltz,” she said in a cautious tone.
“There will be no waltzing,” Daniel said.
“No can-can,” Alice added.
“No dancing,”they both emphasized. And holstering their guns, they took a professional step away from each other.
“The discussion is over,” Daniel said. “We will simply intensify our search efforts, defy the odds, find the weapon, escape the pirate hordes, and depart this insane asylum before the band even begins to play.”
“Very well,” Veronica relented with a sigh. “It does not sound particularly romantic, however.”
“This is a mission, V-2,” Daniel chided. “Romance plays no part here.”
“None whatsoever,” Alice agreed.
They glanced at each other, and if Veronica was temporarily blinded by the heat passing between them, she finally retained enough good sense to say nothing about it.
“I can organize more servants to help in the search,” she offered instead.
“Definitely not,” Daniel said. “There are too many double agents downstairs. And the walls have ears.” He paused, seeing Alice look around the room in startlement. “Idiom, Mrs. Blakeney. No, I trust no one at this point.”
“Except us!” Snodgrass piped up.
Daniel frowned in response. “Now, listen. Mrs. Blakeney and I will change our clothes for dinner—notfor dancing—and then continue the search. V-2, return to the kitchen, but remain alert for any news and—”
“Guard against exploding cakes,” she added.
A moment of silence followed, in honor of Daniel’s deceased patience.
“Good idea,” he said eventually. “You do that. And Dr. Snodgrass, stay safe in your room.”
The scientist sputtered. “But I have the perfect device, what, which when I—”
“Stay. In. Your. Room.”
Snodgrass’s mustache drooped. “I say.”
Daniel shifted his frown to each of them. “If we all remain in our circumscribed roles, we will have this mission done with no more complications. It’s as simple and easy as that.”
Alice nodded in approval.
Two hours later, they were running for their lives.
18
how not to open a door—a literary encounter— daniel’s patience goes up in flames—a bucket of cold water—not strictly ballroom—an immovable object
When life itself seems lunatic, who knows where madness lies?”
In the attic, that is where.
Or, rather, madness crouches on an old sofa in the attic, and when disturbed by A.U.N.T. agents searching for a mysterious secret weapon, it leaps forth with quixotic energy. There is no reasoning with it, no soothing it, and apparently no getting close enough to whack it round the head and subdue it.
“Simple, you said,” Alice complained to Daniel as they sped along a corridor. “Easy.”
“What is your point?” Daniel replied tetchily.
