“Minnie, come back here.” Eleanor stood up and ran after Minnie. “These aren't ordinary tax collectors. They're Blodger's guys, and they're well-armed, and they're kidnappers.”

“Great,” said Minnie. “My kind of people.” She kept walking east.

“But... Do you have a plan?”

“Love, technically, we are also Blodger's people, sent here by Scurvy Zeek. And the plan is to find out what's going on, and I won't find that out if I'm cowering behind one of those buzzing buildings, or hiding in a Pit, or doing whatever that idiotic soldier is trying to suggest.”

Eleanor glanced back at the Sergeant, who was tossing Minnie's empty bottles into the wide hole in the ground. Eleanor asked, “So are we just going to walk up and introduce ourselves, or what?”

Minnie stopped. “Actually, I think you should stay here with the tent, until I return. That would be the safest place for you.”

“Hiding.”

“Guarding my camp from thieves.” Minnie pulled out her boot knife. “Take this, sit around looking relaxed and arrogant, and act tough but not so tough that anybody wants to fight with you. And keep that man away from my luggage.”

Eleanor took the knife, but said, “I'd rather come with you.”

The Sergeant walked over to them, and asked, “Do you have a weapon for me?”

Minnie glared at him. “I am not a walking arsenal. And I thought you were going to go hide.”

“But ma'am-”

Minnie interrupted. “Captain.”

The Sergeant looked at Eleanor.

She said, “Minnie is a captain, but she's retired.”

“A military captain?”

Minnie shook her head. “A pirate captain. Who has technically been pardoned for my crimes, so don't whine about it. But I've probably seen more action than you have, so don't give me any trouble.”

The Sergeant studied Minnie, but then raised his empty hands. “I'm not your enemy, Captain. I was trying to help your wife survive comfortably here, and I'll try to keep you both alive, at least until I get my own wife and my dog back. But I don't want any trouble from you either.”

“So don't call me ignorant, and don't order me around. If you have information, share it. How many people did you see, and how are they armed?”

“I just saw lights in the distance. Maybe five people, or seven. On foot. Heading this way.” He pointed, but a distant factory compound blocked the lights.

“Ha,” said Minnie. “Five or seven don't bother me. I've got six bullets right here.” She patted the gun holstered at her hip. “And I don't miss.” She looked at Eleanor and grinned. “Oh, relax. I won't shoot anybody if I don't have to.”

The Sergeant said, “You should hide that gun in your bag. If they see it, they'll call it an advance on your taxes, and take it.”

“I wouldn't give it to them. My father gave me this gun, and it's never failed me yet.” She unbuckled her holster, and slipped the gun into her pocket and the holster into her bag. “But I will keep it hidden.”

Eleanor noticed movement in the distance. The sheepdog was racing back toward them. “Look.”

The Sergeant muttered, “They better not have hurt him.”

Minnie said, “Sssh. Airship.”

Eleanor held still and listened, and heard the distant chugging of a steam engine.

In the gloom to the east, a small airship fought against the wind, heading toward them, up near the ceiling.

Eleanor asked the Sergeant, “Is that normal, down here?”

“No. I've never seen a working airship here. Maybe Jeanne and the other inventors have escaped.”

At ground level, lights came around the distant factory, and four people were visible in the twilight. They seemed to be directing the airship forward with their lights.

Minnie said, “Five to seven, indeed.”

The sheepdog reached them, and barked at the Sergeant. He said, “I see it. Good dog.” He rubbed the dog's ears. “He's trained to tell us when airships arrive.”

Minnie said, “I'm going to go talk to those people, about that airship. You two can wait here, or come with me. Your choice.”

The Sergeant said, “I'll come.”

Eleanor considered waiting alone by the tent, but she didn't want to lose Minnie again. “I'll come too.”

Minnie said, “Then we'd better take down the tent and put all the luggage on the spider. I doubt we'll be coming back this way anytime soon.”

*

A few minutes later, Eleanor was sitting on the spider's back with a small wagon full of luggage tied behind her. Levers on the spider's head controlled the speed and the steering, and a foot treadle at the spider's shoulders powered the vehicle. There were several gaits possible, and she experimented with scuttling and hopping and prowling as she followed Minnie and the Sergeant and the dog.

The airship slowed in its approach, and the people with torches moved away from each other ahead of them, making a giant square in the empty field.

Minnie headed for a black-haired woman in a fancy dress with a grimy hem. This woman held a clipboard in one hand and a torch in the other.

She waved the clipboard and shouted at them. “Get out of here, you fools. The sky is going to fall.”

Eleanor glanced up at the airship, which had risen slightly, closer to the ceiling. It was almost directly overhead.

Minnie yelled, “Scurvy Zeek sent us. We have gear for Blodger.”

The woman yelled, “That's not my problem. Go over there. Hurry.” She waved the clipboard toward their left.

The Sergeant said, “Be ready to run, but let's do what she says.” He headed to the left.

Minnie and the dog followed him, and Eleanor tried to turn the spider. It creaked, and jumped forward once, and finally turned.

The spider had only taken a dozen steps when light flashed overhead. A moment later a thunderclap nearly deafened Eleanor. She looked up and saw dirt and metal chunks hurtling toward the ground.

Minnie swore and dashed away from the raining dirt, followed by the dog and the Sergeant.

The woman with the clipboard dropped her torch and ran toward Eleanor, shouting, “Help me, or I'll be crushed.”

Eleanor thought, 'I might die,' and 'It's the right thing to do,' as she shoved the spider's levers. She jolted forward and met the woman before anything landed.

The woman scrambled aboard and perched on the luggage, shouting, “Go, go, go.”

Eleanor turned the spider sharply. Metal screeched in the left forelegs. She pulled the lever for jumping, and the spider leaped forward.

The woman grabbed Eleanor's shoulders and shrieked.

The spider landed and leaped again as chunks of dirt reached the ground, puffing into dust nearby.

A large metal chunk hit the ground and disappeared, leaving a bright hole to Eleanor's right.

The ground was shaking as the spider landed and jumped again. Dust filled the air, and the woman stopped shrieking and started to cough in Eleanor's ear.

The spider landed unevenly and pitched forward. Eleanor pulled her legs up to her chest, thinking the spider was going to roll and crush her. It jerked to a stop, head against the dirt, and the rescued woman fell heavily onto Eleanor.

Clouds of dust rolled around them, and Eleanor held still, listening to thuds and clangs behind them. After a short time, everything stopped falling, and only the airship's distant chugging could be heard.

Then Minnie yelled, “Elle? Where are you?”

Eleanor coughed, wriggled out from under the heavy woman, and called, “Over here.” Her throat felt raw from the dust.

The woman climbed off the luggage and the crashed spider, and whispered, “Thank you. I'll commend you to the King.”

Eleanor stood up, feeling shaky but unhurt, still unable to see far through all the dust. “Thank you. I'm Mrs. Menacky.” She smiled, remembering a pirate boy who was learning to read, who had read 'Menace' as 'Men a key?' She and Minnie had both used Mrs. Menacky as their alias ever since.

The woman said, “I'm Miss Locke. Did you build this spider?”

“No. A woman named Jeanne built it.”

“Oh. Oh, I see. You're one of those people.” Her voice held strong disapproval.

The dust swirled and the Sergeant stepped toward them. “What's this, about Jeanne?”

Miss Locke said, “She is in prison, an enemy of the state. If she's still alive at all.”

Eleanor acted shocked. “What did she do?”

“She refused to work on this project, and convinced some of the others to refuse also.”

The Sergeant said, “This project that nearly killed you?”

Miss Locke glanced at the clipboard which she still clutched. “A slight miscalculation with the robots. We'll figure it out.”

Eleanor looked up through the thinning dust and saw a giant pockmark on the ceiling overhead. The airship was hovering to one side of it, and bits of dirt were still crumbling away from the edges, and dropping. “Let's get further away from the hole up there. Sergeant, can you fix your spider?”

“No. Only Jeanne understands how it works. We'll have to leave it here.” He helped Eleanor untie Minnie's luggage wagon. They pulled it away from the spider, and eventually out of the dust cloud, followed by Miss Locke.

They joined Minnie and the dog and the other three people with torches, who were arguing loudly.

An old man with a shaggy white beard said, “The angle of attack was wrong. I told you it wouldn't pierce the ground like that.”

A younger man with one arm in a sling said, “I think the burrowing robots are still underpowered. They'll have to be redesigned.”

Miss Locke said, “That fool just missed the target and nearly killed me. Next time, I'm flying.”

A guard with a dented metal breastplate and a spiked club said, “I don't care whose mistake this was. I should arrest all of you, and haul you all before the King.”

The other two men closed their mouths, and Miss Locke hid her clipboard behind her skirt. She looked at the ground, quietly.

Minnie said, “I don't want to interrupt your experiment here, but I'm trying to find the King myself. Do I just continue east?”

The guard with the club and the torch laughed. “People here don't try to find the King. He finds them, and they regret it.”

A large chunk of dirt landed near them and broke open, showing a small spidery robot, kicking its legs.

The younger man said softly, “They were supposed to stop by now.”

Miss Locke and the older man looked up, nervous.

The guard said, “I thought you were all kind of stupid at first. But if you're failing on purpose, you all belong in prison. I'm taking everybody to speak to the King.”

Miss Locke and the two men looked scared, and the Sergeant crouched down and hugged the sheepdog. Eleanor glanced up at the hovering airship, watching dust drift around it.

Minnie said, “I think seeing the King sounds like a wonderful idea. Take us to His Majesty.”

The guard smirked. “Oh, yes, milady. Right away.” He laughed, and waved his torch eastward.

The airship above them drifted in a slow half-circle through the falling dust, and stopped when it faced east.