Deryn Sharp sighed and shuffled the stack of paperwork on her desk. She folded up her completed letter to Dr. Highmore, stuck it neatly in an envelope, and sealed it. She placed it in the outgoing mail tray on the corner of her desk. A Society messenger beastie would come pick it up soon enough.

Deryn sighed again. She didn't want a desk of her own. She wanted to go out in the field, to hang from a Huxley airbeast, to feel the wind in her hair like she had when she was aboard the Leviathan. She hadn't joined the Zoological Society for paperwork. And having to deliver letters via fabricated birds or rodents seemed to be a waste of time when a message lizard could deliver a message in your voice. But the insistence on written messages was just another custom when dealing with high-ranking members of the Zoological Society.

A year ago, everything had seemed so bright, so hopeful. The attack on Goliath had been stopped. The United States had joined the war against the Clankers, and so had the Ottoman Empire. Alek had even given up his right to the emperor's throne to stay with her at the Zoological Society.

But she barely saw him anymore. He was always out in the field, discovering new species to be made into fabricated beasties. While she was stuck behind a desk in this buggered office! And all because she was a girl! She had thought that the Zoological Society would be a place where her gender wouldn't get in the way of her work. It certainly didn't for Dr. Barlow.

But the Zoological Society boffins had decided that field work was unfit for a lady. Even a lady who had successfully disguised herself as a boy for so long. If only she hadn't dropped her Dylan alias, she could be with Alek, out on his wonderful expeditions. But in the excitement of her new job, she had made the mistake of dropping her Dylan disguise to finally be Deryn. After all, since the Germans had the United States and Ottomans to deal with, along with the threat of Goliath, they surely wouldn't bother making her into a propaganda case like Dr. Barlow had said they would. But admitting her identity had cost her a promising life of adventure.

As for the war, it was still dragging on. For a while, it looked like the Darwinist's new allies could finally help put a sop to the conflict. But the after a haphazard retreat from the French and Russian war fronts, the Clankers had dug in at the borders of Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. They refused to surrender, staving off attack after attack. The loss of lives on both sides continued to increase. Each side had desperately come up with deadly new weapons. And as for Goliath, after several months with no massively destructive strike, the Germans had realized Goliath was an empty threat. The war had dragged on, with barely any more ground gained by the Allies for months.

The only reason she stayed here in London was Alek's monthly visits. He was supposed to arrive back in London today, as a matter of fact. He would only be able to stay for a few days however, before he left again for Africa or some other exciting place.

Deryn sighed a third time. Africa! What she would give to be able to see the world again, as she had when she was still Midshipman Dylan Sharp aboard the Leviathan. Now she couldn't even go back to Leviathan. Rejoining the Air Service would be impossible as a girl. Her skill and experience wouldn't even be taken into account. And even if she got in, none of the other middies would be able to look at her the same.

Yes, there was no point thinking about the air. But how she missed it! The wind in her hair, the feeling of the airbeast under her feet. Her time in the Air Service had been fraught with danger and death, but she couldn't stop remembering it. Whenever she had a moment to herself, Deryn's mind would flash back to her life on the Leviathan. Everything had been so much more exciting, the future so bright….

Deryn shook off her thoughts of the past. What was done was done. And besides, she had Alek to look forward to as soon as she finished her paperwork for Dr. Barlow. It was all mundane, boring stuff, such as requisitioning supplies and funding for the Society's new experiments and expeditions. Instead of being Dr. Barlow's traveling assistant, she ended up doing her paperwork! The thought drove her mad! This whole bloody barking job drove her mad!

Calm down, Deryn told herself. You don't want to be in a bad mood when Alek comes. You only see him a few days each month.

Deryn, focused back on the task at hand, began the tedious process of filling out the requisition forms. But no sooner had she turned her full attention to her work, she was distracted by a draft from the open window, accompanied by a very curious noise.

It was unlike any other noise she had ever heard. It didn't sound as if it could come from a fabricated beastie. It rose and fell, with a strange, unearthly quality. It sounded like maybe it came from a Clanker electrical device. Driven by curiosity, Deryn went to look out of the window.

She looked out at the London alleyway. Opposite her window was another building belonging to the Zoological Society, a laboratory of some sort she believed. She had never been in, it was restricted to only the boffins and fabricators.

She looked down at the alley. Right away, she saw something different. A large blue box stood in the alley, where there hadn't been anything this morning. It didn't have the flowing, natural contours of fabricated wood, it looked had the sharp right angles of something built with wood planks. She squinted at the sign on the front.

"Police public call box?" She said out loud. What was that? Constables were usually out patrolling the streets on tigeresques, but Deryn had never seen one carrying a telephone. The sign was lit from behind, not with the gentle radiance of glowworms, but with unnatural electric lights. The whole 'police box' seemed strange, not the kind of thing to be standing around in Darwinist London. It looked like the kind of ramshackle thing a Monkey Luddite might build, someone who was afraid of fabricated technology.

The door to the box creaked open. A man stepped out into the sunlight. He was wearing a tweed jacket and bow tie. Deryn snorted. Who thought of wearing a tweed jacket with a bow tie? Then she stopped herself. She was starting to act like the upper-class boffins who infuriated her so much. She turned her attention back to the man.

He was studying his surroundings, and appeared to be muttering to himself. He took a metal cylinder out of his pocket. Making sure no one observed him, the strange man began waving the cylinder around as if it was a conductor's baton. The end glowed green and an irritating buzzing sound reached Deryn's ears. The strange man appeared to study the cylinder, still talking to himself.

Deryn frowned. All this seemed more and more suspicious. She didn't know who this man was, but his suspicious behavior and lack of Darwinist technology made her think that he could be a Clanker agent. Perhaps he was a German spy or saboteur. Then a thought occurred to her. If this man was a Clanker agent, and she was the one who exposed him, then the Zoological Society would be unable to keep overlooking her and keeping her in an office. She could sail the skies again!

As these thoughts occurred to her, she kept watching the suspicious man. But as she kept watching, he seemed to realize she was there. He spun around and locked eyes with Deryn. She gave a start and pulled her head back inside her office.

She shook her head. Those piercing green eyes had seemed to look right into her. Now the man knew that someone was onto him. She smiled a bit. That sneaky Clanker would soon get what was coming to him.

But Deryn knew she shouldn't go after him alone. Alek was going to meet her in about an hour right outside the Zoological Society building. He would be so put out if she went off to do something exciting without him, never mind how he was off on expeditions most of the time. And besides, if the man really turned out to be a Clanker spy, she would be better off facing him with Alek at her side.

Deryn hurried back to her desk and put away the stack of papers. She took her coat down from its hook on the wall and put it on, buttoning it up as she cleared her office. She grinned. It looked like those boring requisition papers would just have to wait until another time. Midshipman Deryn Sharp was going on a mission.