Mortal Engines

Tom follows Valentine at a distance, torn about what to do. He doesn’t want to betray London, but he also doesn’t want to see the city destroyed. He finally decides to expose Valentine, but when he reaches him and yanks down the hood, he realizes that he lost Valentine in the crowd. Tom tries to warn the people, but none of them understand him. Instead, he gets directions to the inn where Fang is staying and tells her what he saw. Valentine is likely there to destroy their airships, and Fang thanks Tom for warning her in a gentle voice, “as if she understood the agonizing decision he had had to make” (289).

Despite Fang’s orders to stay put, Tom finds Hester and tells her about Valentine. As they approach the top of the high steps where the air fleet is stabled, plumes of fire blast from the hanger. Valentine blew up the entire fleet. Tom follows Hester into the flames but loses track of her in the maze of hallways. He finally emerges onto a platform where Fang and Valentine battle. Fang disarms Valentine, who smiles up at her with an expression that conveys he isn’t beaten. The 13th Floor Elevator appears overhead and fires, forcing Fang to dodge, and Valentine retrieves his sword to run her through. The last thing Fang says before she dies is “Hester Shaw will find you” (295).

Tom runs to Fang’s body as Valentine’s ship disappears into the sky. Anger bubbles up in him as he realizes that Valentine has been the enemy all along, and he can’t stand that Valentine will be celebrated for what he did to Batmunkh Gompa’s airships. He takes the key to the Jenny Haniver from Fang’s neck and meets Hester as she staggers onto the platform. Valentine can’t be allowed to get away with what he’s done, and they’re going back to London because “someone's got to make him pay” (298). As they board Fang’s ship and take off, Tom feels like he’s finally doing the right thing.

Valentine returns to a hero’s welcome in London. Katherine watches his arrival from her bedroom, feeling a mix of anger and grief. When he comes to see her, Katherine accuses him of killing Pandora Shaw and stealing MEDUSA, and Valentine explains that he did it to get into Crome’s good graces so that Katherine could be a high-society Londoner, not a scavenger like him. Katherine is appalled that Valentine retrieved MEDUSA, knowing what Crome would use it for. She runs from the house, “the whole of High London […] between her and Father” (309).