The Dark Discovery of Jack Dandy Read Online Free PDF

joined it—along the walls in the shadows, on the ceiling. Not many—maybe three—but enough to kill both him and Toby with ease.
    “Yeah. That okay with you?”
    Its smooth metal head nodded. “Take it and go. More are coming.”
    The words echoed with Jack’s intuition. Something was coming. Something worse than the things in this room.
    “Go,” Jack commanded, giving Toby a shove. “Go now!”
    They burst through the door of the building with their prize, Toby pushing and Jack steering. As they raced toward the carriage, Jack saw Philippe raising an Aether pistol. “Hurry, mes frères , we have company!”
    Jack didn’t glance behind, or to either side. He could feel them closing in, every nerve screaming with it. He ran faster, and so did Toby.
    They reached the carriage. The cargo brace had already been lowered. They dumped their cargo onto it and pulled the lever. Automatically adjusting clamps closed and tightened around the box as it lifted and drew back toward the carriage.
    “Get in,” Jack commanded, finally glancing over his shoulder. Good God. “Philippe, get us out of here.”
    “ Oui! ” The fabric covering his horses was sucked back into their backs, and the Frenchman turned a key in a panel near his leg. “ Allons-y! ”
    Jack jumped into the carriage just as it started moving. They tore away from the warehouse as if the hounds of hell were at their heels.
    He glanced out the back window. There had to be at least a dozen automatons chasing them, and several humans on velocycles.
    “Faster, Philippe!” He shouted just before the first shot rang out.
    Apparently they weren’t the only ones who wanted the crate, but their pursuers were willing to kill for it.

Chapter 3
    “Philippe!” Jack yelled. Had his friend been shot?
    “ Oui! ” came the reply, followed by a grinding sound that meant he was raising the armored backdrops behind himself and the rear of the carriage that would protect them from further shots.
    “What the devil’s in that crate?” Toby asked, loading a strange-looking rifle with even stranger-looking ammunition.
    “Not a bloody clue,” Jack replied. “Toby, are those marbles?”
    “Specially designed Aetheric spheres.” The rifle snapped shut. “They’ll put a hole in a man and stop anything with an engine dead in its tracks.”
    “Good to know. Avoid killing anyone. We’re going to attract enough attention as is.”
    “Aye, Jackey-boy.” With that, he pulled down the window, leaned out of the carriage and fired.
    Jack took the other side, carefully aiming his Aether pistol at the automaton that looked like a rubbish bin with limbs about to jump onto the back of the carriage. Thankfully his aim was true—it was difficult to maintain a steady hand in a vehicle picking up speed on a rough stretch of dock.
    Bloody hell. This was going to cause a bit of a ruckus. So much for discretion.
    “Get us out of here, Philippe!” Jack yelled, firing at another rapidly moving piece of metal—this one a strange dog/human hybrid with glowing red eyes. It was the sort of thing nightmares were made of. His first shot sheared off its right front leg at the joint, but it continued to run on three. He fired again, and it fell to the street, sparks flying.
    Toby had taken out several, as well. They continued shooting, until all that was left were their human pursuers. They were in a carriage, as well, and quickly gaining on them. One of them hung out the passenger side, a rifle raised to his shoulder.
    Jack fired and missed as his carriage hit a rut. The man fired back, the shot imbedding itself in the carriage exterior just above Jack’s head. These bounders were playing a deadly game, shooting to kill. Jack pulled the trigger—his gun failed.
    He should have asked for three thousand. If he lived through this, he was going back to Abernathy’s house and stealing the silver again. All of it.
    Another shot hit just in front of him, sending splinters flying into his face.