Heart of Steel - Meljean Brook [67]
Finally, he nodded. “Clockwork army or not, if the structure was newly built before the zombie infection came through the city, then it’s worth looking for—and hopefully it was built solid enough that it’s more than a pile of rubble.”
Ollivier beamed. Encouraged, he selected more maps. “If we find nothing there, our next location is Brenner’s Pass.”
Brenner’s Pass? Yasmeen shook her head. She easily found the pass on Ollivier’s map. She placed her finger directly beside it. “There is a Horde outpost right here.”
“And that only supports my theory. This has long been recorded as an important pass. If the Horde broke through the wall, they would have needed to come through the pass to the Italian peninsula. And we know from the letters of generals and merchants that there were supplies being sent up to the pass, along with engineers and laborers. They were building something there.”
“Da Vinci’s machines,” Archimedes said.
“Those, too. But even if we do not find the clockwork soldiers, this location isn’t picked over. We’ll find something in the fortress they constructed there. And in the deep snow, the zombies won’t be such a threat.”
Archimedes gave him a long, unreadable look before glancing at Yasmeen. She grinned, showing him the tip of her tongue caught between her teeth. His shoulders shook in a silent laugh, and the exaggerated lift of his brows said he was astonished that she’d managed to remain silent.
Ollivier might know his way around a map, but he clearly hadn’t spent any time on the ground. Although severe cold could freeze a zombie, it didn’t kill them, and they were mobile again as soon as they thawed. A very cold zombie was sluggish; because of that, many people thought that if one of the creatures was surrounded by snow, it posed less of a threat. But the worst danger came from deep snow, with zombies under it, and not quite cold enough to slow them down.
“What of the outpost?” Yasmeen said. “If Ceres is spotted, the Horde will come and look.”
“We could hike in to the fortress or drop in on gliders at night, and arrange for pickup after a few days,” Archimedes said. “As long as Ceres doesn’t hover during the day, it won’t draw attention to us.”
Ollivier nodded, and seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. “From there we move around the Adriatic Sea,” he said. “I’ve picked out a few locations to search, all based on their tactical position.”
Archimedes frowned. “Tactical position for what?”
“You recall the fragment of the correspondence between da Vinci and Luca Pacioli? They were discussing Hannibal marching on Rome.”
Shaking his head, Archimedes said, “Rome has been picked through like Vienna. The Church has been sending salvagers for hundreds of years.”
“Oh, no—I was thinking not of Rome itself, but the strategy. The Hapsburg Wall had already been constructed. If da Vinci and the generals wanted to send an army east, they’d have to get over their own wall first. But if they go about it as Hannibal did, and come from an unexpected direction . . .” He pointed to the boot of the Italian peninsula. “Launching from here, perhaps, and attacking the Horde from the south. And they’d have kept it quiet, so that the Horde wouldn’t know they were coming.”
Again, Archimedes didn’t appear convinced, but he nodded. “All right. It’s worth a look. May I study your notes?”
Obviously pleased by the request, Ollivier nodded and began gathering his papers. “Yes, of course. Let me put them in order, and I will have them brought to you.”
Arms full, he left the stateroom. Archimedes looked to Hassan. “He knows what he’s about.