- Alek comes to in the walker—which he's finally managed to wreck completely.
- Everyone is okay, but Dylan has been knocked unconscious and has a cut over his eye.
- Against everyone's advice—it's raining fléchettes and who knows what else out there—Alek climbs outside to see if there's anything he can do.
- This is a big moment, for Alek and for the book. Alek ends up standing right in front of the Hapsburg crest on the side of the walker, at once defying the attacking Germans and declaring his true identity.
- Bullets whip by him, missing him rather miraculously. But, hey, this is a book, so we'll give it to him.
- Then the bullets spray wildly as the German zeppelin goes up in flames.
- A bandaged Dylan climbs out of the walker as the second zeppelin makes a run for it.
- In the aftermath of the battle, Alek discovers that the walker is definitely totaled, but Klopp says it's cool: every good pilot has wrecked a walker or two.
- Meanwhile, the Leviathan's animals go to town on all that food from the castle.
- Count Volger approaches Alek and gives him a good tongue-lashing about all his heroics: now they have no way to escape, and the second zeppelin will let everyone know where they are.
- Also, the Germans destroyed the Leviathan's engines, so the ship can't fly.
- The Darwinists are going to fly without engines, anticipating that the wind will take them over France. Volger tells Alek he can surrender to the Darwinists, but Alek feels that will mark him as a traitor.
- Alek doesn't feel he has any good options, and Volger says he's done trying to help him out.