Chapter 03 Session 02 Wrap Up
What Happened — Narrative Recap
The party split for the evening. Adrien, Thomas, Emma, and Colonel Moreau went to the Burgtheater with Lady Ashworth for Don Giovanni. Charlotte, Georgiana, and Varrio stayed behind to hunt for Herzfeld’s expelled assistant — for Georgiana, whose phobia of theatres had followed her from Drury Lane, staying away from the opera was no hardship at all.
At the Opera:
Lady Ashworth provided carriages and proved outrageously flirtatious with Thomas, charmed by Emma. Freddy turned out to have a drinks cabinet in his coach: Tokaji, schnapps, snuff, and mysterious purple vials. The Hartley family was in attendance. Mr Hartley fawned over Adrien’s title. Lydia made eyes at Adrien, who treated her kindly but firmly as a little sister. Caroline sat quietly mortified by her mother’s manoeuvring.
Lady Ashworth identified the key faces in the house: Count Nesselrode (Tsar’s man), Countess Orlova (flirtatious blonde), Prince Razumovsky (music patron), the Esterházys, and Baron von Kaunitz, whom she described as handsome but cold and untrustworthy. Emma caught Kaunitz’s gaze across the theatre. He nodded.
At the intermission, Kaunitz approached Lady Ashworth’s box seeking an introduction to Emma. Lady Ashworth complied with icy courtesy. Kaunitz largely ignored Thomas, offered to serve as Emma’s guide to Vienna’s musical and cultural life, and spoke of Mozart and desire “consuming us, ignoring all warnings.” Thomas attempted to interject and was dismissed: “In Vienna, we are more continental.” Emma told Kaunitz they were staying at Palais Kinsky. He departed with a French farewell and a promise to call soon. Lady Ashworth’s warning: “Men like Kaunitz do not pay compliments without expecting payment in return.”
Meanwhile at the opera bar, Adrien escorted Lydia and met Moreau and Freddy. A champagne incident drew the attention of an Austrian officer who recognised Adrien as French and mentioned his brother’s death at Aspern. Adrien defused it brilliantly, raising a toast to the dead officer’s brother as a hero. The other Austrians joined. Freddy tried to flirt with Russian ladies and came away with a calling card.
In Leopoldstadt:
Charlotte, Georgiana, and Varrio disguised the women as men (Charlotte’s disguise less convincing) using clothes borrowed from the maid Liesl’s brothers. They spotted a brown-coat watcher in Am Hof Square, a different operative from the previous coffee-room spy, confirming surveillance from multiple sources. They hired cabman Herr Dietrich for twenty gulden to take them to Leopoldstadt.
At Der Schiefe Schornstein (The Crooked Chimney), Varrio ordered the manliest drink the tavern sold and knocked back a blue-flamed spirit that Charlotte could not bring to her lips. The barkeep revealed that Brenner came most nights but had left an hour earlier for Widow Katz’s boarding house, the yellow door two streets over. He also warned that two men with “killing eyes” in brown coats, high collars covering their throats, had asked about Brenner the day before.
Widow Katz, a sharp-eyed Jewish landlady, blocked the door until Georgiana removed her hat and revealed herself as a woman. The old woman softened and led them upstairs. Brenner was in the attic: wild-eyed, trembling, a wretched room of empty bottles and a single candle. He calmed when they mentioned Savarin and Danvers. And then he told them everything.
A thirty-foot biomechanical instrument in the medical wing basement. An organ made of organs. It had started as science — Brenner himself, a surgeon, had assisted the early anatomical research into how the human voice is made — a desire to separate the voice from the body. Then the living tissue. Volunteers first, then prisoners, then the desperate. A paralytic that kept victims conscious but unable to move. Voices cut from living throats and integrated into the machine. They still sang. Fifteen to twenty people involved. Herzfeld leading, Adler recruiting, Trauttmansdorff funding, Kaunitz watching. Margaret Falkner selected as a component, may not be alive. Anna Lindqvist the next target. Security heavier during the day, fewer at night during construction. He gave directions to the old anatomical theatre. He begged them: if they find Margaret and any part of her is still aware, end her suffering.
The sanity costs were immediate. Emma lost a point. Moreau lost a point. Varrio lost three and fainted. And then, after Charlotte and Georgiana left the room, Varrio made a cold calculation. Brenner was a loose end. He tried suffocation with a pillow. Brenner squirmed free. Varrio yanked the covers. Brenner slid off the bed, hit the bedframe, and his neck broke. Varrio staged it as an accident, placing a brandy bottle under Brenner’s arm. He lost another point of sanity. He walked out with wild eyes and told Charlotte and Georgiana “we’re good, let’s go.” Another point of sanity gone.
The groups reconvened at Palais Kinsky for a late supper. All findings were shared. Everyone now knew about the Engine. They discussed protecting Lindqvist.
On the morning of August 5th, Emma, Thomas, and Moreau visited Madame Delacroix at her pension in the Josefstadt district. She was nervous about approaching Countess von Thun (fear of humiliation) but the party persuaded her. She agreed to send her card and letter. She also provided intelligence on the French delegation: Talleyrand (legendary diplomat), Count de La Tour-du-Pin (military attaché, may know Moreau), Dorothea de Courlande (Talleyrand’s niece, controls social access). A positive response from von Thun was expected, with the salon that evening.