Steam City Pirates Read Free

inventor’s eyes were trying to take in all the different sensory stimuli and characters surrounding him, but they were so odd and so different that his mind had a difficult time comprehending them at all.  It was as if their leader could magnetize Monturiol’s brain just by speaking and riveting his attention away from all else.
    If he concentrated, with all his power, he could gradually move his head away from the leader until he saw the person standing to the right of him.  She was a woman dressed in conventional attire, and yet her pearl silk kimono had a black-and-white panda sewn upon it that looked enraged, biting into a bamboo stalk like a rabid mammal.  She also had a man’s black-silk top hat on her head, goggles on her eyes, and there was a copper clock built into the center of her bosom!
    “She is Madame Jane the Grabber.  She can travel into the future and provide us with inventors like yourself.  We collect inventors like some people must collect weapons or sorcery.  You are the most valuable commodity in the universe!  Welcome to the World Scientific Advancement Society for Progress.  My name is Inquisitor Abraham Toky Manette.  I represent the fusion of the future with the wisdom of the past.”
    Monturiol’s head turned to the left of Manette.  There was an even larger man standing there.  He wore a mask of bright green, and in it were spring coils of brass that fell down from his face.  They moved all around his body like restless snakes, and his red suit was sparkling with some kind of rhinestones or glittering metal substance.  Upon his trousers was a large codpiece that covered his privates.  He also wore a top hat, but in the center of this hat was the symbol of the taijitu or yinyang .  The Spaniard knew that to be the ancient Taoist emblem of divine opposites.
    “He is John Allen.  We have adapted him with new technology. Father Allen is my enforcer and mystic high priest of physical ecstasy.  Enough about us!  Why have you come?  Do you need to finance an invention?  If you do, then you have certainly arrived at an opportune time.”
    Even though he felt wary, the technical wizardry surrounding him gave Monturiol a sense of security.  What better way was there for him to get out of debt?  The world above had no use for his genius.  Therefore, he decided to turn to this underworld society to see if he could obtain the funds he needed to see his visions come alive at last.
    “I want to create undersea cities where humanity can forage and build a secure life.  Farming this new world would provide the planet with a limitless bounty of food and medicinal sources.  I can build a steam-powered submersible and, with the right assistance, I can develop an entire world beneath the ocean.”  Montuirol felt relived at having said it all.  These were his visions for the future, and they were what kept him young and optimistic.  He would, in fact, make a deal with the devil if he could make his dreams come true.  If the devil’s domain were here on Earth, then perhaps these creatures were his emissaries.  What the hell!  Perhaps all of science had been working for the underworld all these years.  Now he was joining them.
    The giant inquisitor laughed!  It was a vibrating, mechanical laugh that would haunt Monturiol’s dreams.  “Bring out the balloon!”
    From the far-end of the cavern a gigantic, floating craft came toward them.  It was high in the air above them, and walking beneath it was a short man with long white mustaches, and he wore a formal suit of no fashion the Spaniard had ever seen. His captain’s cap was snow-white, his coat and trousers were black, and his collar was turned up. He was pulling the aircraft along as a boy would lead his dog, by a long metal leash that led in an arcing loop up to the balloon.
    “This is Count Ferdinand Adolf August Heinrich Graf von Zeppelin.  He is also an inventor, and together, you will create the underwater paradise