History Keepers 1: The Storm Begins (28 page)

‘I believe you have already seen my printing press,’ Zeldt said, pointing into the space below. ‘Quite the stupidest and most dangerous device ever invented,’ he muttered. ‘Once only a handful of
chosen
people were endowed with knowledge. The printing press wishes to give know ledge to
all
… Enlightenment even to the slaves who wipe the stench from our gutters?’

His eyes darkened. ‘Enlightenment for everyone? Most repulsive of notions. What next? The beasts are enlightened too? The spiders and worms learn philosophy?’

‘If it’s so stupid and dangerous,’ asked Jake, ‘why do you have one?’

Zeldt smiled malevolently before answering. ‘Oh, I intend to give the people what they want for a little longer.’ His voice dropped. ‘Just long enough for them to … die. Come and see my laboratory.’

The prince led them across the bridge and into a large room filled with gleaming scientific apparatus: measures, test tubes, calibrators and square clocks with complicated dials. Technicians were at work here. In the centre of the chamber there was a room-within-a-room: a cube of thick glass where two further technicians, both dressed in protective armour, were engaged in some careful operation.

Zeldt led the others over to a table and picked up a large tome. ‘This is a copy of the book we are
printing
downstairs.
The Book of Life
, I’ve called it – which amuses me no end.’ He flicked through the crisp pages of newly printed gothic type and intricate illustrations. ‘It contains all the branches of new learning: science, astronomy, mineralogy and that most invisible of evils, mathematics. The book is a complete compendium of modern learning.’ His voice fell to a whisper. ‘But it also has a sting in its tail.’

An icy smile played across Mina’s face as he said this.

‘When the book is unlocked,’ Zeldt continued, ‘a surprise is revealed.’

The front of the tome was surmounted by an ornate golden lock with a key. With his fingertips Zeldt extracted a tiny glass vial from within the mechanism. He held it up to the light. His prisoners saw that it contained a viscous black liquid.

‘When the key is turned,’ the prince explained, ‘the glass vial will be snapped and its contents released.’

‘What
are
its contents?’ asked Charlie.

‘The fruits of many years’ hard work,’ replied Zeldt proudly.

He led them over to the plate-glass cube where the armoured technicians were working. Inside, a cabinet, also of plate glass, stood on an iron table. Here, using layers of pigs’ intestines as protective gloves, the two workers were distilling a quantity of that same black substance.

‘What is it?’ asked Topaz, almost afraid to know the answer.

‘You are witnessing a unique operation. The substance on the left,’ said Zeldt, indicating the contents of a small container, ‘is a paste of infected flea guts. It took a billion fleas harvested from a million rats to produce even that small amount of usable material.’

‘Rats …’ Charlie glanced at Jake.

‘The matter with which it is being combined’ – Zeldt pointed to the contents of another container – ‘is an ingenious agent that increases the efficacy of the other by at least a hundred times.’

Jake immediately recognized this as the substance in the
second
bottle that Talisman Kant had sold to Mina Schlitz: the honeycomb-like material.

‘Infected fleas?’ asked Charlie. ‘Infected with what?’

Zeldt couldn’t suppress a
mischievous
chuckle. ‘Oh, really. You must have guessed by now.’ Then the smile vanished from his face. ‘The plague.’

For a second all three of the agents stopped breathing.

Zeldt’s eyes glittered with the fervour of a true fanatic. ‘
Yersinia pestis
is the deadliest killer in history. In its first wave, medieval Europe was decimated: seventy million deaths. First fever, then vomiting, then agonizing, stinking boils, and finally blackened skin as death takes its grip. That was
then
. Thanks to the efforts of Talisman Kant,
this
edition – if you will pardon the pun – will be ten times more lethal. You shouldn’t stand too close. Those insatiable germs would love to get their teeth into you—’ He stopped mid-sentence. ‘But I was for-getting. You two meddlers’ – he nodded to Jake and Topaz – ‘are already protected with my antidote, my … What’s that vulgar word you use for it in the modern age? My
vaccine
. But please don’t worry.’ The prince addressed his last phrase solely to Jake. ‘I will find an equally revolting way for you to die.’

The three agents stared in horror as the technicians filled a number of minute glass vials with the deadly black matter. These were sealed with a red-hot torch and transported to another workstation.
Here
they were inserted into the lock mechanism of the books, which were then packed into crates and, at the far end of the room, loaded into the back of an armoured carriage forged in blood-red iron.

‘In twenty minutes that carriage will leave here with five hundred of these books and head south. Over the next forty-eight hours every town and city in southern Europe will receive its free publication. Innsbruck will be the first port of call’ – Zeldt indicated it on a map that hung on the wall beside him – ‘then Milan, Verona, Genoa, Florence, and so on. The people will receive their gift in awe, they will wonder at its magic,
ignorant
of the fact that they have welcomed death itself into the heart of their communities.’ The prince’s eyes were now blazing. ‘
Ignorant
that anarchy will already be descending, decay already setting in.
Ignorant
that their meaningless lives will already be over.’

Mina Schlitz smiled gleefully at the thought of such delicious destruction.

‘So my books will eventually ensure the annihilation of Italy and all the arrogant countries of the Mediterranean – the worst criminals in the great fiasco of the Renaissance,’ Zeldt continued, ‘but the master stroke of my design, the
prologue
to my
apocalypse
, will begin, with a bang, this afternoon in northern Europe.’

He nodded at Mina, who produced a wooden box. She unfastened the latch, and from its padded lining lifted out a heavy golden contraption, placing it carefully on the table. It was a clock-like instrument comprised of tiny gleaming dials, levers and pulleys. On top of it was etched the same emblem of the snake and shield.

‘Such beautiful craftsmanship,’ Zeldt sighed. ‘It seems a pity that no one will be alive to appreciate it. Please – take a closer look,’ he instructed his prisoners, repeating with menace, ‘Take a closer look
inside
.’

Their attention had already been drawn to the curious inner workings of the device. Although it pained them to follow Zeldt’s orders, they leaned down and examined it more carefully. Encased in the heart of the machine lay a king-size vial of the same viscous black liquid. On either side of this, two miniature golden fists, each also engraved with the Zeldt symbol, were poised to strike and smash the bottle in two.

‘This literally world-shattering device,’ the prince continued, ‘will shortly be deposited on
the
un finished spire of Cologne’s new cathedral, a vulgar and ostentatious edifice if ever there was one. At precisely three minutes past two this afternoon, when the eclipse is total, those golden hands will do their work and release the contents of the glass vial. What glorious poetic licence: as the dark starts to engulf Europe, my
super
plague is released. Within days, half the continent will be extinct. The survivors will fight over the putrid bones of Europe, until they too succumb to the might of King Death.’

Zeldt stared at them, and his voice rose as he proclaimed: ‘The Renaissance will be destroyed before it has even begun.’

‘So that’s your grand plan?’ Charlie tried for his most cutting tone. ‘Advancement? Progress? The sciences? The arts? They’re no use to you?’

Suddenly the blood rose in Zeldt’s face. ‘I’m cleaning up the stinking mess of history!’ he roared. ‘You’re not so stupid that you do not know what becomes of it! Giving knowledge to the masses brings nothing but catastrophe and despair! Human beings are animals, and that is how they should be treated.’

‘Except for the select few …’ offered Topaz with a sneer. ‘You and your millionaire investors.’

Zeldt glared back at her before speaking. ‘Someone will have to be in charge: slaves do not drive themselves.’

‘But if you plan to kill everyone,’ Charlie enquired, ‘who exactly is going to man your prison camps?’

‘Those slaves, as I said,’ Zeldt answered with a shrug. ‘Selected and imported from every corner of the Earth. I will have the world at my disposal because I will
own
the world. And I will rebuild it,
stronger
than it has ever been before – a marvellous, awe-inspiring creation such as history has never seen!’

Mina Schlitz silently packed Zeldt’s time bomb back into its wooden box and fastened the catch.

The prince took a deep breath and settled down again. ‘Now, if there are no more questions …’

‘I have a question,’ Jake persisted. ‘Where are my parents?’

‘Tiresome individual,’ Zeldt sighed. He turned to Mina. ‘Take them back to the library. I shall join you presently.’

As the prince went to speak to one of his scientists, Jake, Topaz and Charlie were escorted back across the laboratory and over the bridge.

‘Your friends are already waiting,’ Mina announced. ‘We thought it would be charitable to dispose of you all together.’

As they entered Zeldt’s library, they immediately recognized the two sorry-looking figures who awaited them there.

‘Nathan!’ Topaz exclaimed.

‘Don’t say you’ve missed me!’ said Nathan with a twinkle in his eye as he limped towards her. Behind him, cowering helplessly, was Paolo Cozzo. All five agents were herded together.

‘Charlie, Jake – good to see you both alive,’ Nathan said, nodding to the others. He stopped and did a double-take at the sight of Jake. ‘Don’t tell me you put that outfit together yourself?’ He squinted to get the full effect. ‘Great silhouette! And nice work on the hair. A style rethink during a world catastrophe takes a special kind of courage.’

Paolo shook his head in bewilderment. ‘How can he talk like that – as if nothing’s happened?’

Zeldt came back into the room, carrying his time bomb. He closed the bookcase behind him. ‘I have a ship to catch,’ he said, rounding on the agents, ‘so I’m sorry to report that the time has come to say our goodbyes.’

He nodded at Mina, who went over to the metal door through which the unfortunate Friedrich Von Bliecke had been sent to his death two days earlier, and turned its distinctive bronze handle of curling snakes, then rotated the wheel.

‘On the other side of that chamber is a door. In one hour exactly it will open and take you into a labyrinth. In the labyrinth there is a single exit that will take you out of the castle.’

‘An exit?’ exclaimed Paolo. ‘You’re really going to let us go?’

‘Idiotic simpleton,’ Zeldt said with a curl of his lip. ‘I am telling you this not because you will ever reach it – it is impossible – but to prolong your exquisite agony a little longer.’

‘How thoughtful you are,’ Nathan drawled. ‘It’s a mystery that you’ve remained unmarried all these years.’

Zeldt turned to Topaz. He stared at her long and hard. ‘I think this lost little soul should come with us,’ he whispered with a nasty glint in his eye.

Topaz’s eyes widened in trepidation.

‘You take your hands off her!’ roared Jake, momentarily freeing himself from the guards and taking her arm. She looked back at him as if trying
to
tell him something. Whatever it was she wished to impart, he failed to understand it.

Nathan whispered urgently into Jake’s ear, ‘Let her go – at least
she
has a chance.’

Zeldt nodded, and the guards herded Jake, Nathan, Charlie and Paolo across the room towards the open metal door.

‘One last thing.’ Zeldt held up a hand to stop them. He touched Jake’s sleeve. ‘You were asking where your parents were …’

Jake held his breath and gazed at Zeldt in terror.

‘Once you get into the labyrinth,’ the prince continued, ‘you’ll find out soon enough. You’d better prepare yourself.’

Jake yanked himself free and flew at his captor. As his hands closed around the prince’s neck, the guards delivered an agonizing punch to his kidneys.

‘Take them!’ Zeldt hissed as he straightened his collar, and Jake and the others were dragged into the chamber.

‘Human beings are stronger than you think!’ Jake shouted defiantly. His last sight was of Zeldt reaching out a gloved hand and taking Topaz’s face in it; then the metal door slammed shut behind them.

Nathan couldn’t resist a final taunt: ‘And Miss
Schlitz
,’ he shouted through the door, ‘you really should take my advice about red – it totally drains your skin tone.’

Zeldt descended the great sweeping staircase towards the main doors, Mina at his side, the bubonic bomb clutched firmly in her hand. A pale-faced Topaz was dragged along behind them. As the prince reached the foot of the stairs, he stopped, and a number of footmen snapped into action. They fitted a brilliant silver breastplate to his chest and armoured gloves over his thin, pale fingers; a helmet with a plume of black feathers was placed on his head, and a magnificent fur cloak, with a tiger’s head roaring silently from each shoulder, was carefully fastened around his neck.

The principal footman made the final checks. He removed a tiny piece of stray lint from the fur cloak before all the servants bowed their heads and withdrew.

As Zeldt swept out onto the steps of the main entrance, a courteous round of applause echoed around the courtyard. His accomplices had come to bid their respectful farewells. Their young sons and daughters, dressed in fur against the chill morning,
gazed
wide-eyed at the resplendent figure of their commander-in-chief.

Also assembled there were Zeldt’s guards. They stood to attention, backs rigid, swords drawn and held aloft.