A Murder Most Dapper | A Werewolves in Space novella

An Epic Conclusion

Oliver stuck his head out the window as they were somehow able to draw near to the errant balloon.

"You'll never get away with this, Deckerton!" Oliver cried. "We have you now!"

"Oh no you don't!" Deckerton shouted back, pulling something from his waistcoat.

A shiny pistol appeared from within the balloon basket, and Juliet gasped as Deckerton took aim and shot it at the train!"

With a ping, the bullet bounced harmlessly off the smokestack.

"Drat!" Deckerton cried. "Hold on, I'll reload it."

"It only shoots one round?" Oliver asked. "That's very inconvenient. No wonder you're a failed inventor."

"Quiet you!" Deckerton raised the pistol above his head. "So help me, I will get the recognition I deserve! If this damned city wasn't so stuck on steam power, everyone would see my genius!"

The engineer and Oliver gasped, Juliet looked at if she would actually faint as she began fanning herself.

"Stop, in the name of the law!" One of the police officers shouted as they began boarding the moving train.

The engineer turned in surprise to see them trying to come into the already crowded car.

"Stop," Juliet said. "We're not all going to fit!"

But the officers still pushed forward like lemmings.

"Get back!" The engineer tried to guard the levers and buttons of the train. "You're going to hit something and I can't see!"

But it was too late. The bodies shoving into the car and yelling at Deckerton were too much, and someone knocked Oliver into a lever.

A large clank sounded from in front of the train, and Juliet poked her head out the window.

"The tracks changed!" she gasped.

Sure enough, the tracks ahead that would have taken them down the winding slope to the bottom of the city were suddenly blocked, and the tracks lead to a dead end that would end in disaster if the train didn't stop soon!

"We need to stop the train!" Juliet cried.

"I can't reach the lever for that!" the engineer cried.

Ping.

Juliet pulled her head inside the train, just as Deckerton's bullet hit the train near the window.

"Take that!" Deckerton said.

Juliet and now Oliver looked out the train again.

"Why did you do it, Deckerton?" Oliver asked. "Surely this is a sufficient chase for a monologue?"

Mortimer Deckerton thought about it for a moment as he began reloading his pistol. "Yes, I suppose it is. Alright then, one moment."

He tucked his gun back in his waistcoat and pulled out a paper to read from.

"Revenge!" Deckerton cried. "Revenge on my old colleague Quimby! He knew I was perfecting an air purification system for the betterment of Brasslantis, and he insisted he could make a better one! Just because his had all those flash steam valves, everyone used his design! No matter that mine actually worked better."

"That's true," the engineer said from somewhere in the police officer stuffed train car. "Stirlingwell's design actually makes it worse with the train smoke."

Several officers nodded their agreement.

"And why Phoebe?" Juliet cried. "Why did you have to use her?"