Agatha H. and the Airship City Read Online Free PDF

clutching the piece of Agatha’s device that had shot out the window. Agatha groaned mentally. Dr. Merlot hardly needed this additional excuse to cause her trouble.
    Dr. Glassvitch smiled. He was one of the few friends the cranky scientist had, and often interceded on Agatha’s behalf. “Good Morning, Dr.—”
    Merlot interrupted him. “I don’t know why you encourage her, Glassvitch, we have enough problems today.”
    “Problems?”
    “Baron Wulfenbach is here.”
    The smile drained from Glassvitch’s face. “WHAT? He’s early! Weeks early! We’re not ready!”
    “He’s with the Master, if you’d care to complain.”
    “No! I meant… What do we do?”
    “We’ve got to remove all traces of the Master’s project from the secondary labs. Miss Clay, get this lab cleaned up. You’ve got half an hour.”
    Agatha started and looked wildly around the lab. It was a rat’s nest of equipment and papers strewn about the room. The Master always demanded that it remain untouched during an ongoing project. “Cleaned up? By myself? In half an hour? This room is a disaster area!”
    Merlot narrowed his eyes. “Don’t be impertinent with me, Miss Clay. The Master may derive some twisted amusement from your pathetic antics, but if this lab is anything less than spotless, you’ll see how patient Baron Wulfenbach is with incompetents. Now move!”
    As the two scientists hurried to the secondary lab, Glassvitch frowned. “Silas… there’s no need to frighten the girl—”
    Merlot cut him off. “Listen. The Master’s little pet may actually prove useful for once. With her crashing around, perhaps the Baron will not look too closely at the rest of us, understand?” Glassvitch frowned, but after a moment, reluctantly nodded.
    Meanwhile a stunned Agatha surveyed the mountains of equipment. “Half an hour?” she whispered to herself. “How can I possibly—” Her eye was caught by a storage closet. Her jaw firmed, she nodded to herself and rolled up her sleeves.
    Twenty-nine minutes later, Merlot and Glassvitch were striding back to the lab, muttering to each other.
    “Have we forgotten anything?”
    “Ssh. Hugo, we have done the best we can. This whole project was a mistake just waiting to destroy everything we’ve—”
    They turned the final corner and stopped dead in their tracks. Before them was the main lab. Every surface was cleared. Every shelf was tidy. The floor was swept and the instruments had been neatly laid out in geometrically perfect rows. In the exact center of the room, a deeply breathing Agatha stood with her hands clasped behind her back.
    Dr. Merlot blinked, opened his mouth once or twice and in a dazed voice said, “Well…” It almost choked him to say it. “Well done, Miss Clay.” And, because he was an honest man, “I’m… impressed.”
    Dr. Glassvitch nonchalantly slid his hands into his pockets and rocked back on his heels with an enormous grin lighting up his face. “Not quite so incompetent after all, hm?”
    Agatha smiled demurely, “Thank you, doctors.”
    Suddenly the main door slammed open and a harsh voice commanded, “No von move! Dis is you only varning!”
    The hairy face of a Jägermonster quickly surveyed them and as quickly dismissed them, although his weapon never left them. He made a quick motion with his free hand and, with a crash and a hiss, two large Wulfenbach trooper clanks lumbered into the room. The tops of their shakos barely cleared the doorway and their gigantic machine cannons never stopped moving. Agatha saw at once that everything she’d heard about them was correct.
    Unlike the Clockwork Army, these clanks moved as smoothly as animals. You knew these machines were dangerous.
    Behind them came a group of four people. At the center was Baron Klaus Wulfenbach, the man who currently controlled a significant part of Europe. He loomed above the rest of the group, and his movements were those of a jungle cat kept in check. No one knew how old he truly