35
Underground Near Foothills, 24 December 1871
Henry found himself in hand-to-hand combat with one of the automatons. The others had leaped off the stage toward the threat at the back of the room. Farrell and Meriwether simply watched and laughed as the mice and machines went after Henry’s team, who, truth be told, held their own with the aid of the automatons they’d reconfigured and reprogrammed, but barely. Finally, Henry managed to shove the automaton hard enough back on to the stage that Vinni, who had just defeated her own, was able to take off its head. Without the optical input, the machine thrashed around and then lay still.
Johann and Fiona had changed their notes, and the mice stood still, listening and confused. Henry and Vinni rushed to the aether device and found themselve
