Sorcerer's Secret by Scott Mebus

Author:Scott Mebus
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2011-07-24T16:00:00+00:00

15

THE BEST-LAID PLANS

The dirigible floated above the city, a long, pill-shaped balloon the length of two city blocks with giant fins at the end. As it passed over the city, the spirits of Mannahatta gazed upward in awe. Some felt fear as the shadow of the dirigible passed over them. Others knew wonder, feeling a stirring inside to explore the heights of Mannahatta. And one boy in particular felt hope wash over him.

“Why didn’t I think of him before?” Nicholas Stuyvesant wondered aloud, breaking into a run.

Nicholas reached the Empire State Building just as the dirigible approached the needle at the top. Lincoln, Alexa, and Simon were already there, waiting.

“Did you know he was coming back?” Alexa asked him. Nicholas shook his head.

“I thought he was gone for good, actually,” he replied. “We’d become too boring for him.”

“I’m so excited!” Lincoln was practically hopping up and down. “The man is a genius at war!”

“He’s a genius at getting people killed,” Simon snorted. “Not really the same thing.”

“I think he might be the one I’m looking for,” Nicholas said.

“Really?” Alexa asked, dubious. “Isn’t he a little . . . flighty?” Nicholas wasn’t even listening, staring up at the giant balloon.

“Come on, my father’s probably already up there to greet him when he gets off the dirigible,” he said, leading them into the Empire State Building, where a special elevator waited to shoot them to the top. He sighed, a thought occurring to him. “Man, my dad is not going to be happy. He is not a fan.”

They reached the top of the Empire State Building quickly, stepping off the elevator into a waiting room. When the building was built, the very top floors had been designed to be a port for the newfangled air vehicle called the dirigible. Filled with lighter-than-air hydrogen, the dirigibles floated through the skies like giant blimps, driven by huge propellers. The architects of the building had believed that their new building would be the perfect place for this new mode of transportation to dock. The dirigible would float up to the building, anchor to the tall needle at the peak, and the passengers would disembark directly into the waiting room on the top floor, grabbing their luggage and riding the elevator down into the very middle of Manhattan. It had been a noble dream. There was only one problem: wind.

It was so windy around the Empire State Building that the one time they actually tried to dock a dirigible, it almost impaled itself on the needle. Judging this far too dangerous, the city shut down the dirigible port. But here in Mannahatta, that first dirigible sometimes returned to dock at the very top of the tallest building in New York.

The huge vessel was being anchored as the Rattle Watch ran out into the waiting room. Peter Stuyvesant was already there, looking annoyed, and the rest of the council was arrayed around him. None of them looked too excited to be there.

“Just what we need,” Peter muttered to his fellow councilmen.

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