Deryn caught the scent of rain and felt lightning in the air. “What should we do, Mr. Rigby?”

“We finish this job, lad, unless we get new orders.”

“Begging your pardon, sir, but there’s no way they’d send a message lizard up. Even a hydrogen sniffer would be blown off at this speed!”

“The captain can always send up a team of riggers, if he wants.” The bosun pointed at the second spool of wire, still full. “In any case we can’t stop now, or we’ll hit that storm with loose wire flying about!”

Deryn swallowed. “Aye, of course, sir.”

Hoffman finished off the splice, and the four of them headed toward the tail again. Crawling along the spine was even trickier now. The wind was shifting unpredictably, the currents of the storm mixing with the airflow of the ship’s great speed.

Deryn felt the membrane moving beneath her, rolling to one side. She glanced over her shoulder at the bow.

“We’re turning, sir,” she said. “Angling to starboard.”

Mr. Rigby swore, waving them on.

“That’s good, isn’t it?” Alek asked her. “They’re aiming to avoid the center of the storm.”

Deryn shook her head. “Hurricanes always spin anticlockwise, so we’re headed into a massive tailwind. We’re not missing the storm—we’re using it to move faster. A brilliant idea from Mr. Tesla, no doubt.”

“Is that dangerous?”

“The ship should be fine. It’s us I’m worried about.” Deryn snapped her safety clip down with a vengeance. “If they’d just slow down a bit, we could get this barking job done!”

“Settle yourself, Mr. Sharp,” came the bosun’s grumble. “We have our orders, and the captain has his.”

“Aye, sir,” Deryn said, then set herself to crawling as fast as she could.

Having a boffin in charge was getting to be annoying.

They were still out in the open when the airship hit the storm. The rain didn’t build gradually but arrived in a silvery wall hurtling down the Leviathan’s length at sixty miles an hour.

“Take hold!” Deryn cried as the chattering tumult surrounded them. The membrane rippled beneath her, stirred by the wave of cold air that came with the rain, no doubt pulled down from the northern Pacific by the great spinning engine of the storm. Suddenly the driving wind seemed full of ice and nails, the freezing drops hitting her goggles like tiny stones.

“Don’t anyone move!” Mr. Rigby shouted. “The captain should slow down for us now!”

Deryn clung to the ratlines with both hands, gritting her teeth, and it was only moments later that the roar of the Clanker engines went silent.

“Aye, I didn’t think the officers had gone mad,” the bosun muttered. He rose slowly, holding his side where he’d been shot two months before. A wave of fresh annoyance swept through Deryn. It was all very well for Tesla to send men up topside at full-ahead, when he was safe and sipping brandy in his cabin!

With the engines off, the airship quickly matched the speed of the wind, and a strange calm settled around the four of them. They headed for the steering house at a jog, the membrane slick with rain beneath their feet. Deryn kept one eye on Mr. Rigby, ready to grab him if he slipped. But the old man was as surefooted as always, and soon they were crowding into the dorsal steering house, the aft-most shelter on the ship.

“Get that wire secure,” Mr. Rigby ordered.

Alek translated for Hoffman, who set to work. The bosun plunked down heavily on a box of spare engine parts, and Deryn pulled off her gloves and rubbed her hands together, then whistled for glowworm light.

The dorsal steering house wasn’t luxurious. It was full of parts for tending the ship’s rear engines, and had its own master wheel if the bridge somehow lost rudder control. Thankfully it was connected by passageways to the airbeast’s gut, so a squick of warmth rose from an open hatchway in the floor.

Once the wire was tied fast, Hoffman said a few words to Alek, then descended into the airship, unspooling still more wire behind him.

“Where’s he off to?” Deryn asked Alek.

“Mr. Tesla wants the antenna to run down through the ship, all the way to his laboratory.”

“Aye, anything to keep him dry,” Deryn muttered. She wondered exactly what the Clanker boffin was up to. Back in Tokyo he’d proven he could send radio waves around the world. What more could he do from up here in the sky?

The bosun still wore a pained expression, so the three waited a few minutes before moving on. Every gust of wind made the steering house shudder, the rain-spattered windows rattling in their frames. Deryn felt the floor shifting beneath her. The airbeast was flexing its body, turning its face away from the force of the storm. This close to the tail, it was easy to feel the giant body shift, like being at the end of a vast, slow whip.

The ratlines creaked around them, and an unfamiliar metal groan came through the sounds of wind and rain. The wire leading out into the storm went taut beside Deryn, then shuddered and fell slack.

“Blast it,” the bosun sighed. “That wire must have been too short.”

“But Mr. Tesla’s measurements were quite precise!” Alek said.

“Aye, of course they were.” Deryn shook her head. “Too precise. He was thinking of the Leviathan as a zeppelin, a dead thing, rigid from bow to stern. But an airbeast bends, and more than usual in this barking storm.”

Alek stood up, looking out. “Perhaps someone might have mentioned that to him!”

“Your Mr. Tesla never bothered to ask,” the bosun said flatly. “But repairs will have to wait. They’ll be starting the engines up again soon.”

Alek looked as though he were going to argue, but Deryn put a hand on his shoulder.

“They’re idle for now, Mr. Rigby.” She stepped to the windows, shielding her eyes with her hands. “And the break might be close by.”

The bosun snorted. “All right. Pop out and take a look.”

Deryn opened the door a bit and squeezed out onto the blustery expanse of the topside. A moment later something caught her eye. At least five hundred feet away, near the base of the hump, a glimmer of silver danced in the rain.

“One end of the wire’s got loose, sir,” she called over her shoulder. “Maybe twenty yards of it. And it’s flailing about in the wind!”

Mr. Rigby got to his feet and joined her at the door, then swore.

“When the engines come back, that’ll get a bit lively! Could even cut into the membrane!” He crossed to the gut hatchway. “I’m afraid you’ve got to go back out, lad, and secure both loose ends. I’ll find a message lizard and tell the bridge to hold the engines still for a bit longer.”

“Aye, sir.” Deryn pulled her gloves back on.

The bosun paused halfway down into the hatch. “Wait a few minutes to make sure they’ve got the message, then get it done fast. Whatever happens, I don’t want you out there at full-ahead!”

The bosun dropped away, and Deryn began to search the parts drawers. All she needed was some pliers and a short length of wire.

“I’m going with you,” Alek said.

She started to say no. The bosun hadn’t given orders one way or the other, and she could handle the job herself. But if Mr. Rigby’s message arrived too late and the ship went to top speed again, anyone alone out there could be swept away into the sea.

Besides, who knew what Alek would get up to if she left him here alone?

“I’m not afraid,” he added.

“You should be,” Deryn said. “But you’re right, it’s better if we stick together. Hand me that rope.”