The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Read Free

scrambled out
of the land ironclad and into the vault. Others, brandishing their futuristic
snub-nosed weapons, held the intimidated bank soldiers and constables at
bay.
    When the invaders marched brazenly into the ruins of the Bank of England
vault, one of the British guards broke free. "Here now, you can't be—"
    With a flourish, the Fantom pulled out a snub-nosed gun and callously shot
the outspoken British guard between the eyes. As the guard crumpled, the masked
leader tossed his gun to Lieutenant Dante. "Leave one of them alive to tell the
tale. Only one. What you do with the rest… I leave to your vivid
imagination."
    Striding through the debris, his cape flowing behind him as if no dust would
dare cling to his black clothes, the Fantom entered the vault, leaving Dante and
the others to their given tasks.
    As the ruthless executions began, Constable Dunning squeezed his eyes shut
and thought of his children.

    As the crack of gunfire and pleading screams resounded from outside the
vault, the Fantom's Germans used crowbars and the butts of their weapons to
break open security boxes of all sizes. The men spilled the contents onto the
floor—bank notes, gold, jewelry, bonds—but they were searching for something in
particular.
    An eager henchman picked up a gold brick and could not help admiring it.
"Such treasures."
    "Treasure, yes," the Fantom agreed, hardly sparing a glance for the chunk of
precious metal. "Some worth more than others."
    With a gloved hand, the masked man snapped the latch of a mahogany plan-chest
and reverently drew open the long drawer to reveal a sheaf of fragile parchment.
He lifted one sheet, then another. Behind the metal mask his eyes darted back
and forth.
    The pages of age-yellowed paper bore hand-drawn architectural plans of a city
on water, its deep foundations crumbling and cavernous. In spite of the faded
ink, the detail was incredible, drawn by a genius centuries ago.
    "Ah, here is the key to our labyrinth." The horribly scarred lips, barely
visible beneath the silver mask, smiled. The Fantom snatched up the pages and
swept out of the vault, ignoring the rest of the gold and treasure. "Time to go.
We have what we need."
    Outside, Constable Dunning huddled in horror and misery, his face spattered
with blood. As relieved as he was to be alive, he felt a piercing guilt at being
the only survivor among dozens of slaughtered policemen and soldier guards. The
German henchmen ignored him as they climbed back aboard the land ironclad.
    The Fantom also vanished inside the vehicle, while his lieutenant spared a
final glance for the surviving constable, who seemed oblivious to the departing
soldiers. Dante said to him, "Count your blessings."
    Then he swung the hatch shut, and the land ironclad roared back off the way
it had come.

TWO
Voalkyrie Zeppelin Works
Hamburg ,
Germany
    Like gigantic inflatable whales, six zeppelins floated inside a construction
hangar that was large enough to swallow a small town. Spotlights shone on the
graceful curved sides of the hydrogen-swollen dirigibles.
    Atop the hangar, red wind socks extended parallel to snapping giant flags
that displayed the colors of the German Empire. In the cool breezes that swept
across the grassy lowlands off the Elbe River, the zeppelins strained against
their tethers, as if restless.
    Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin had designed these huge airships, supported
internally by a light skeletal framework and guided by rudders and propellers.
Zeppelin himself had envisioned the military uses of these giant and silent
craft after ascending in observation balloons with Union forces during the
American Civil War. After retiring from military service, Zeppelin had spent
most of his life's savings on independent aeronautics research—until finally the
Kaiser himself had become interested enough in the work to provide much-needed
financial backing.
    In the past several years, Kaiser Wilhelm II had invested