Rob turned and waddled over to Estelle. He took her right hand in his and pulled gently. ‘Come on, Estelle. Let’s get out of here.’
But Estelle didn’t move. The only thing she could manage was to turn to Rob and give him a blank look. Rob huffed and folded his arms. He started to tap his foot. He looked at the barred window. ‘I could climb up there, I could climb up there and try to squeeze through.’
‘Rob,’ sighed Jack.
‘I could,’ said Rob.
Nobody said anything. Rob looked around him and finally sat down on the floor and hung his head. ‘I could,’ he said quietly. The silence went on for a moment, and then Rob, as if forgetting his momentary funk, said brightly: ‘How is Christopher your grandson?’
Cormier said nothing. He moved slightly, as if retreating away from what little light there was in the cell.
‘Leave him, Rob,’ said Jack. ‘There’s no point.’
‘It doesn’t make any sense,’ said Rob.
‘Nothing does any more,’ said Estelle.
Rob snapped his head in her direction. He shuffled over to her on his knees and reached out and took her hand again.
‘We’ll get out of here, Estelle. You’ll see,’ he said earnestly.
This time Estelle looked down at him and gave him a trembling smile. Rob returned it with a big grin, and for now that was enough.
In the morning, as a pallid grey light filtered through the cell window, Dunlop arrived to escort the group to the lab. Here they found Blake sitting in a chair, nonchalantly twirling a long spanner. Reeves was standing by the door, looking the very picture of smug obedience with his hands clasped in front of him.
‘Welcome, welcome one and all,’ said Blake, springing up from his chair.
Christopher was sitting in a dentist’s chair. For the first time since their imprisonment, Jack saw Cormier react. He took an instinctive step forward but was stopped by Dunlop’s firm hand on his chest.
‘Don’t worry, Philip, he’s quite all right,’ said a smarmy Blake.
Christopher didn’t look all right to Jack. There was pain in his eyes as he looked at his friends.
‘No, he doesn’t remember you, Philip,’ said Blake, shaking his head and sighing in mock sorrow.
‘Let him go,’ said Cormier.
Blake smiled and reached inside his jacket. He took out the Diviner and held it aloft.
‘When I heard your grandson had been found, I knew that if I took him I would have one small piece of the puzzle. I thought I could delve into his memories and extract the information I required. But this –’ Blake stroked the Diviner – ‘this is so much more. Thanks to this I now have the necessary mechanism for Refined Propulsion. All I need to know now is how to use it . . .’
‘I’ll be damned if I’m going to help you,’ Cormier spat.
Blake hoisted himself up on to a steel table, swinging his legs like a child. He looked around and took in the whole room.
‘I’ll tell you what, how about a little history lesson? Would everyone like that? Good good,’ he said, without waiting for an answer.
‘Let us consider this, shall we? We have Philip Cormier, a great man, a superlative engineer who has discovered a new and more efficient means of animating mechanicals: Refined Propulsion. Meanwhile, war rages across Europe. As a nation we are suffering heavy losses, so our government decides to call upon Cormier’s services, and those of his friend, Charles Blake.’
At the mention of his father’s name Blake looked at Cormier and they locked eyes. Blake smiled bitterly.
‘My father and Mr Cormier worked on a prototype for a war machine which would’ve ended the war and saved the lives of thousands. Unfortunately, due to errors on the part of Mr Cormier here, many people were killed at the first demonstration, including my father, and the scheme was abandoned.’ Blake’s nostrils flared, and the look he gave Cormier was one of pure icy hatred.
Cormier didn’t flinch. His tone was calm.
‘The errors that led to that tragedy were all of your father’s own making.’
Blake shook his head. His lips were thin and white with fury.
‘Your father was a great engineer,’ Cormier continued, ‘but he was ruthless and calculating, and he would have risked anything to lay claim to greatness. You of all people should know that.’
Blake sprang off the table and covered the distance between himself and Cormier in seconds. He had the spanner in his hand and he raised it up towards Cormier’s face.
‘My father was a good man,’ he said, trembling all over.
Jack exchanged a worried glance with Estelle.
Cormier looked coolly into Blake’s eyes.
‘If you hit me with that now, Richard, then you’re no better than he was.’
Blake drew the spanner back. Cormier gently closed his eyes and nodded. Jack was stunned to see tears brimming in the younger engineer’s eyes. The hand gripping the spanner shook violently.
Suddenly Blake threw the spanner across the room. He wiped his eyes and stood in the centre of the lab, one hand on his hip, his right foot tapping agitatedly on the floor. His eyes fell on Rob. He clicked his fingers and signalled for Rob to step forward.
Rob duly obliged and waddled forward, looking up guilelessly at Blake. Once again, Jack felt that awful premonition that something awful would happen. He tensed.
‘You, my fat friend, how do you go? Tell me,’ said Blake.
‘By Basic Propulsion,’ said a frowning Rob.
Blake looked down at him and gave him a warm smile. He even ruffled Rob’s hair. Rob continued to look up at him as Blake lifted Rob’s hair slightly and traced the glyphs on his skull.
‘What were you before this, my little friend?’
Rob looked perplexed for a moment, and then answered, ‘Nothing.’
‘Not entirely true,’ said Blake, wagging a finger. ‘First you were the basic raw material. Then that material was given the form of a rudimentary. Then through craft and the manipulation of magical glyphs and the bringing of light you were given life. You became a standard example of the animation of the basic system.’
Rob thought about this for a moment, then said, ‘Thank you.’
Blake gestured towards Christopher. ‘Then of course we have the animation of the refined system. An altogether more complex and difficult process which requires a special type of genius. Am I right, Philip?’
Cormier refused to look at him. He caught Christopher’s eye for a brief moment, with a look of guilt and shame, before looking away again.
Blake seemed pleased with himself. He rocked back and forth on his heels. ‘The refined system has so many special advantages.’
Blake clicked his fingers again, and this time he beckoned Reeves towards him, while keeping his eyes on his audience.
‘If you would be so kind, Mr Reeves.’
‘Certainly, sir,’ said Reeves, moving smartly towards his appointed position. Blake stood behind Reeves, grasped his shoulders and moved him into place. Reeves smiled, and Blake patted him on the shoulder and walked away. Reeves continued smiling, but there was a brief flicker of uncertainty in his eyes.
Without saying a word and without turning round, Blake tossed the stun gun towards Jack. Jack caught it without thinking, and looked at it in revulsion as he gripped it between his fingers.
Blake half turned towards Jack and raised an eyebrow. ‘Well, go on then.’
‘What?’ said Jack, confused.
‘He has been a cruel and callous man. His treatment of your good friend has gone beyond the bounds of what is acceptable. Stun him. Stun him and I shall let you and your friends go. You have my word on that. My solemn promise. You will all go free.’
Blake gave them all a magnanimous look.
Jack looked at Blake as if he’d lost his mind. He looked at Christopher, hunched over in the chair. He looked at Cormier, whose head was bowed, and he looked at Estelle, whose eyes were sparkling with an eager and angry light.
&nbs
p; ‘My word, my bond as an engineer.’ Blake nodded towards a very nervous-looking Reeves. ‘Hurt him. He deserves it. He deserves everything he gets.’
Jack gripped the stun gun. There was something horrid about holding it, as if he were holding something malignant and alive that was pulsing like an eel. He looked at Reeves, who eyed him with a strange half smile of disbelief. Jack stepped towards him and Reeves recoiled slightly.
Jack stood in front of Reeves, who licked his lips nervously. Jack looked at him in horror, not because he felt disgust for him, but because he felt a strange disgust for himself. He looked at the stun gun again, and it felt as if the whole room was throbbing around him, sending a dark vibration through his skull. He tried to move the arm that held the stun gun but found that he couldn’t. It was as if his arm had become leaden and dead. He turned to Blake, whose eyes glittered with a feral joy. Jack was aware that everyone else was looking at him now and his own voice sounded tinny and far away, even to himself.
‘I can’t,’ he said.
The clang he heard was the stun gun hitting the ground. It had slipped from his fingers without him even noticing. Blake was wheeling around and clapping his hands with delight.
‘You see? You see! The one great flaw in the machine. The defining weakness of the basic animated mechanical: the complete inability to do harm.’ Blake scanned all of their faces. He was grinning, and a sheen of sweat was forming on his forehead. ‘And the solution? Why, to make something more than machine.’
He turned towards Christopher. That was the moment Estelle lunged for the stun gun. She scooped it off the floor and hurtled towards Blake without breaking stride. Dunlop was too slow to react, and it was Reeves who threw himself between Blake and Estelle before she could reach his master.
Estelle roared in anger. She plunged the stun gun at Reeves, burying it in his midriff. Reeves doubled over, his whole body constricting as he readied himself for the inevitable explosion of sparks.
Nothing happened.
Estelle’s eyes widened and she thrust the stun gun forward again. Reeves flinched, but only slightly, and a sly grin started to form on his face. Dunlop rushed Estelle and disarmed her with ease. She struggled and kicked as he pinned her arms behind her. Blake bent down and picked up the stun gun.
‘Of all the things in British engineering history, surely the safety switch is the greatest invention of all,’ said Blake. He gestured towards Estelle. ‘Unlike a mechanical, violence is part of her nature, as it is with all humankind. And yet what is that essential element which separates us from the beings of metal? What is it that makes us capable of the most heinous acts, while they find themselves confined and constricted by petty notions of morality and civility?’ Blake flashed a full-toothed smile, but his eyes were dark and filled with malice. ‘It must be the one thing we possess that they do not. It must be our very souls.’
Blake turned ever so slowly and all eyes followed him as he looked at Christopher. Christopher raised his head up now, and he looked at Blake with unmistakable hatred. Blake made a grand sweeping gesture in his direction and turned to his audience.
‘Witness it, then. Witness the product of Refined Propulsion. The hate of one who has been ensouled.’
Christopher’s eyes widened in astonishment. ‘Who am I?’ he screamed.
‘You’re my grandson,’ said Cormier, glancing up with a look of agonized guilt.
‘I don’t remember . . .’ said Christopher. He couldn’t finish speaking as his body became wracked with sobs.
Blake twirled the stun gun in the air, caught it, and twirled it again. ‘Mr Reeves.’
‘Yes, sir?’ said Reeves, who was making a ‘yuk yuk’ sound of pleasure as all of this unfolded.
Blake pointed the stun gun at a spot on the floor just in front of him. ‘If you would be so kind.’
Reeves frowned but did as he was told and stepped in front of Blake. Blake smiled.
Then he swung the stun gun and smashed it into the side of Reeves’s face.
Everybody in the room except Cormier recoiled. Reeves fell instantly and went down on one knee, one hand clutching the side of his face, the other clawing blindly at the air. He didn’t have time to make a sound.
‘I thought I might continue the demonstration,’ said Blake airily to the room.
He swung the stun gun again. This time Reeves was flung on his side. There was an audible clang and Jack was the first person to see the flesh hanging from Reeves’ face, and the shining chrome beneath his cheek.
‘Oh no, Mr Reeves, it would seem that you contravene a specific legal article. How terrible. How is it phrased again?’ Blake tilted his head to one side and began to recite: ‘“It is forbidden to confer life and sentience upon any raw material which conforms to the standard agreed dimensions of an adult or ‘proper’ human being.”’
Reeves twisted on the floor, attempting to right himself while he tried to press the skin back on to his cheek with the trembling fingers of one hand.
‘But then again,’ said Blake, ‘I am one of the great engineers of the age, and it is the prerogative of genius to do as one pleases. Isn’t that right, Mr Reeves?’ Blake brought the stun gun down on Reeves’s head. Jack winced at the clang. ‘I said, isn’t that right, Mr Reeves? Why don’t you defend yourself?’
Blake hit him again. ‘What’s wrong with you? Why don’t you fight back?’
Blake brought the stun gun down and across the back of Reeves’s head. There was another smashing clanging noise, and this one was followed by the groan and judder of small gears as Reeves’s arms and legs spasmed in and out.
‘And there we have it. Not only is the standard basic system unable to initiate aggression, it is also powerless to defend against it.’ Blake threw the stun gun aside. He walked over to Christopher and laid a kindly hand on his shoulder. Christopher recoiled, but Blake didn’t seem to notice his reaction; instead, he searched Christopher’s eyes and smiled at him.
‘What do you want, Richard?’ asked Cormier.
Blake turned round.
‘I want to finish what my father started. I want to give him his rightful legacy. I want to take back what was once ours and to defend this nation against the barbaric hordes that would do it harm. Do you know how many men lost their lives in the last war? Do you know how many we could have saved if our government had the simple courage to permit the use of Refined engines?’
‘It won’t work,’ said Cormier, shaking his head in disgust.
Blake strode towards Cormier with purpose, his voice cracking with emotion.
‘War is coming, Philip, and we need to be ready. Don’t you see? While our Prime Minister twiddles his thumbs and spouts lies about maybe some day repealing Article Five, our enemies are gathering their forces.’
Cormier fixed Blake with a look of absolute fury. ‘It’s wrong, and it’s dangerous, Richard, and you know it. I won’t tell you how to use the Diviner.’
Blake took a step back and looked flabbergasted. He gestured back towards Christopher. ‘Look at him, Philip. Look at him. Was it wrong to rescue your own grandson’s soul from the void and place it inside this metal shell?’
Cormier tried to look at Christopher, but again the look of shame passed over his face.
‘That was different,’ he said, his voice almost a whisper.
Blake shook his head. ‘No, Philip, it was a miracle and this is the age of miracles. It’s time to embrace that fact.’ Blake stared at Cormier for a few moments. His voice was gentle when he spoke again. ‘I know why you helped my father. I know you lost your son in the Great War. Think of how many more could be saved if we act now and finish what you and my father started. You’re going to show me how the ensouling mechanism works.’
Blake looked dispassionately at Reeves, who had managed to get himself on to his knees by clutching the side of a table. ‘If you don’t co-operate, I’ll see to it that your grandson dies a second time.’
The look he gave Cormier was chilling. Jack c
ould see the grief and rage on Cormier’s face. He was trapped with nowhere to turn and he knew it.
Blake stuck his chest out. ‘I intend to march on London with my new army. Both our pathetic government and our weak monarch will bend the knee. Then and only then can we make this nation great again. No one will be able to withstand us, and you’re going to help me.’
Jack had thought he couldn’t have possibly felt any worse, but the episode in the lab had taught him otherwise. When they were all herded back into the cell, Cormier lay on one of the bunks in a foetal position and turned to the wall. Jack should have been angry, but instead he felt sick and lost. He could see Estelle’s eyes burning into Cormier’s back as she sat across from him.
‘Tell us,’ she said. ‘You have to tell us.’
‘I don’t have to tell you anything,’ came the muffled reply from Cormier.
Estelle leapt off her bunk, her fists clenched with fury. ‘You have to. He may be your grandson, but he’s our friend, and you owe it to us.’
Cormier turned slowly, and half propped himself up on his left elbow. He looked at Estelle for a moment and seemed to consider his options. Eventually he sighed, and began:
‘There was a fire. It happened a long time ago, after I lost my son in the war. His wife and my grandson . . .’
Cormier squeezed his eyes shut as if trying to block out the pain.
There was no pity in Estelle’s gaze, and she pressed Cormier even more. ‘How did you ensoul him?’
Cormier looked even more pained. ‘There was a rumour, a story that had been passed down through Runcible’s time, that it might be possible to ensoul a machine. I initially created the Diviner to see if I could improve mechanical systems – Charles Blake was part of that effort. He and his son, Richard, visited my workshop regularly, and we spent many months working through the possibilities before I discovered the solution. But after Christopher . . . after Christopher . . .’ Cormier was struggling now. He clenched his fists and closed his eyes. ‘I just wanted to see him again. He was everything to me, and I’d already lost so much.’ Cormier looked at them all now with tears welling in his eyes. ‘I was . . . I was . . .’
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