by Alex Archer
“The city was once known as Navarino.” Roux took a drink. “While the men were stuck there for two days, they dreamed things. One man dreamed of a wager he could make at a casino when he got back to shore. He made the wager and became rich. Another dreamed of a small fortune that had been hidden in ruins outside of Athens. He went there and found it. Another dreamed of his death after being shot by a jealous lover. He didn’t leave her. He was shot shortly after his return to Pylos.” He shrugged. “Stories like that, when you’re looking for such patterns, get your attention.”
“The Andrianou family lives in Athens. You could have hired a salvage crew in Pylos.”
“I didn’t want someone local. I wanted someone who would look at the waters with fresh eyes, as I did. Someone who—once the exploration was done—would sail away and never bother me again.” Roux scowled. “It didn’t work out as planned.”
“So you hired the Andrianou family to search for the ship and started looking?”
“Not at first,” Garin interjected before Roux could reply. “We hired another boat at Pylos and went looking.” He continued as he ate more of his omelet. “It was all terribly boring, but Roux became convinced he’d found the clockwork.”
Roux nodded. “When I was in those waters, I knew it was there.”
“How?” Annja asked.
“I just knew.”
Garin made air quotes. “His ‘Spidey senses’ tingled.”
Annja couldn’t help herself. She laughed, then caught the look on Roux’s face. She cleared her throat. “Sorry.”
“Anyway,” he said, “after I sensed...became convinced the clockwork was there, I hired Pavlos Andrianou and his ship. To my everlasting regret, it seems.”
“It’s not everlasting,” Garin said. “Either they will kill you or we’ll kill them.” He smiled. “I vote for killing them.”
“Really?” Annja protested. “Over breakfast? You couldn’t have saved that?”
Garin shrugged. “Thinking about killing someone only sharpens my appetite.” As if to prove that, he made a show of enjoying his meal.
Frowning at the thought—she did not condone the taking of life, even though on occasion she’d been forced to do exactly that—she reached down into her backpack for her tablet PC. She powered it up, brought up a map of Europe, then selected an area that covered the Aegean and Mediterranean seas. “That’s a lot of region to cover.”
“People traveled everywhere in the known world. Trade was flourishing. It’s not any different these days. People have always been desperate to find and develop new markets.”
“I was talking about the clockworks. They were scattered, it seems.”
“They are. I found one in Shanghai.”
Garin looked at Roux in surprise. “I don’t remember that.”
“You weren’t with me.”
“How long ago was that?” Annja asked.
Roux turned his attention to his plate and bit into one of the “heavy” biscuits. He seemed to have no problem eating it. “Before Garin’s time. Before Joan.”
The mystery of how old Roux was boggled the imagination. “But—”
Roux leveled his fork at her. “That particular clockwork has been dealt with. It is of no concern.”
“What happened to it?”
“It’s gone. As it should be. Let’s concentrate on what we’re looking for out here.”
“Did the Shanghai clockwork offer any clues?”
“If it did, would we be here today?”
Annja was prepared to ignore his biting sarcasm because that was Roux’s tone under normal circumstances, and the present circumstances were far from normal.
It was Roux who sighed. “I apologize. I didn’t mean to sound—”
“Like an ingrate?” Garin finished. “A thankless jerk, an ass?”
Roux and Annja looked at him.
“What? I’ve had time to think about this behavior.”
“Apology accepted,” she told Roux. “Was there anything significant about the clockwork in Shanghai?”
“Annja, these clockworks have been in existence for over two thousand years, that I know of. They’re all evil, all immensely destructive―imagine what might have happened if one had come into the hands of the Andrianou family. However, none of them before this butterfly have offered any real clue as to their origins.”
“You’re talking about the inscription.”
“Precisely. Do you have a translation for it yet?”
Annja had already checked her email and there hadn’t been a message from Papassavas. “Not yet.”
“We need one soon if we’re going to get anywhere.”
“Tell me about the ship you found the snail on.”
“It was an Ottoman vessel,” Roux said. “It was sent to the bottom of the sea in 1827 in the Greek War of Independence.”
“What was a Greek artifact doing on a Turkish ship?”
“I don’t know.”
“What was the name of the ship?”
Roux shook his head, then stopped himself. “Timur’s Blade.”
“Timur was supposed to have been the first man to forge an iron sword.”
“From a meteorite, as I recall,” Garin put in.
“The captain wasn’t modest, was he? Did you do any research on the ship?”
Roux shook his head. “It was obvious that someone aboard had picked up the snail as a keepsake. Since it went down in 1827, I knew they couldn’t have more knowledge of the clockworks than I did.”
Annja pushed her plate away. “Okay, I’m going to get to work.”
“You’re sure you won’t have anything else?” Roux asked.
“I’m sure.”
Garin cleared her plate and replenished her wine. Roux put the dishes into the sink and ran the water. Annja watched in amazement.
“Why is it the two of you aren’t married?”
Roux answered without looking up at her. “Who says we haven’t been?”
Garin smiled. “And why settle for one woman when you can have so many.”
“Ew. You’re a pig.” Annja turned her attention to her computer as she accessed the Wi-Fi aboard the ship.
26
Hi, Annja,
I don’t have any information about automatons. I wondered if I could get your autograph. I’m a big fan.
Becky
Annja filed the request under PR and kept moving through the feed on the alt sites.
Hi, Annja,
Just caught the episode with the ghost shark. You ask me, that thing looked fake. Worse than the shark in Jaws. Can’t believe you did that. Not up to your usual standards.
Gator Crider
Thanks, Gator. I agree, and the “ghost shark” was so not my idea.
Annja,
What happened with the witch story? Now that you’re out of jail, am waiting to hear how you plan to proceed.
Also, your attorney just called me. Said you missed your court date and there’s now a bench warrant out for you in the state of Massachusetts. I thought you were going to take care of this. The last thing we need is more legal troubles.
Doug
P.S. I got a lead on a story you’re gonna love! A haunted doll factory in Germany that burned down in 1853! Supposed to be the inspiration for Chucky! We can’t pass this one up. Call me.
Annja groaned. Germany sounded good. Archaeologically rich. And dolls could be interesting. The Russian nesting dolls, the matryoshka, were fascinating. The Indian tanjore dolls had a lot of history. The kachina dolls made by the Hopi Indians were wrapped in tradition and a hint of mysticism.
The subject was tantalizing, almost enough to warrant a call to Doug. But she knew she’d have a hard time getting off t
he phone with him.
Roux and Garin needed her full attention at the moment.
Hi, Annja,
The butterfly you found is pretty cool. Reminds me of the mechanism discovered in that ancient Greek ship off the coast of Antikythera Island in the Aegean Sea in 1900. Looks like it should be a Transformer, but it also looks like you can flip it around and make something else out of it. Tried that yet?
Shockyoudead
Trying to move the pieces of the clockwork butterfly around hadn’t occurred to Annja. She’d have to try that. Once she got her hands on it.
Hey, Shock,
I don’t know much about the Antikythera Mechanism. Would you be willing to talk about it?
Annja
She added her satphone number and logged the reply, then went on to the next entry. Her phone rang almost immediately but she didn’t recognize the number.
“Hello?”
“Is this Annja Creed?” The voice was male, quiet, and the guy sounded young.
“It is. Who is this?”
“You said you wanted to talk about the Antikythera Mechanism.” Gunshots and screams could be heard in the background, mixed in with what sounded like zombie growls.
“You’re Shockyoudead?”
“Yeah.”
“What kind of name is Shockyoudead?”
“That’s my gamer tag. My name is Chandler. Do you Skype?”
“I do.”
“Let’s Skype. Talking on the phone is difficult when you’re fighting zombies.”
He rolled off his Skype address and hung up.
Annja entered the Skype address and was answered almost immediately.
“Hey.” The kid on the other end of the video connection was blond haired and blue eyed. He wore a Batman T-shirt and shorts.
He sat in front of a television with an Xbox controller in his hands. His fingers and thumbs flew over the buttons and joysticks. On the television screen, a zombie horde came after a POV character wielding a shotgun.
“Maybe you could pause your game,” Annja suggested.
“No can do. I’m on a timer and there’s no save point here. You want to talk about the Antikythera Mechanism, right?”
“Yes. What do you know about it?” Annja settled back on the bar stool.
Garin walked around behind her and stared at the tablet PC. “You’re talking to a boy?”
Chandler looked at the screen and waved. “Hello.”
Garin waved back. Then he realized what he was doing and stopped. Chandler had gone back to fighting zombies.
“Yes,” Annja said. “He knows about the Antikythera Mechanism.”
“I don’t know what that is.” Garin folded his hands over his chest.
“It’s a clockwork,” Chandler said. “Kinda like an early version of a Transformer.”
Garin frowned. “A transformer? As in a device used for distributing electrical power?”
“No, as in a robot in disguise.”
Garin just stared at the screen.
“Why don’t you bring me the butterfly so I can have a look at it?” Annja said, turning to Garin.
“I really like the butterfly,” Chandler added. “The way it’s constructed is what made me think it was a Transformer.”
“Because it could be in disguise.... Tell me about the mechanism.”
“The guys who found it in 1900 didn’t know what it was and didn’t know what to do with it, so they filed it away in a warehouse and forgot about it. Kinda like Indiana Jones did with the Ark of the Covenant. Spyridon Stais, one of the archaeologists who tried to figure out what the mechanism was, thought maybe it was part of something bigger. Just a piece of a contraption.” Chandler smiled. “It would be neat if that was just one piece of a giant robot lost on the ocean floor, wouldn’t it?”
The boy’s wonder won over Annja’s heart. “Yeah, it would be neat.”
“Anyway, nobody knew what to make of the mechanism, but in 1951 a British physicist named Derek Price dug it out of the warehouse and took another look at it. You know, to see if he could figure out what it was. He thought the Greeks used it as an astronomical calculator.”
“I remember.”
“Yeah, so the Greeks could figure out where the stars and planets were. Want to know something equally rad as the giant robot under the sea?”
“What?”
“If the Antikythera Mechanism is part of some outer space communications array. You know, E.T. phone home.”
Annja grinned. “I don’t think it’s going to turn out to be that, either.”
“Me neither, but the Greeks were really into clockpunk.”
“Clockpunk?” Roux repeated at Annja’s shoulder.
Chandler looked over on the screen and waved. “Hello.”
Roux waved back. Then he grimaced and dropped his hand.
“Clockpunk is a type of science fiction where everything is powered by springs being wound up,” Annja explained. “Like steampunk, which is centered around steam power, clockpunk is about gears and springs.”
“Yeah,” Chandler said. “Maybe we can get away from the internal combustion engine and go to windup cars. Except, who’s going to have to do all the winding? That job would suck.”
“It would.”
“Inventing solar-powered robots first would be best. Then they could do the winding.” Chandler frowned. “Except then you’d have to worry about the Singularity.”
“What is the Singularity?” Roux asked.
“It’s when artificial intelligences come to life and start thinking for themselves. Maybe they’ll decide they don’t like humans so much. They’ll either eradicate us or assimilate us.” Chandler shivered. “Scary stuff.”
Roux looked at Annja. “What is wrong with this child?”
“Nothing’s wrong with me,” Chandler said. “I’ve got Asperger’s.” He studied Roux, who seemed puzzled. “You don’t know what that means, either?”
“No.”
“Seems like there’s a lot you don’t know. It means I stink at social situations, but it doesn’t mean I’m stupid. A lot of high-functioning Asperger’s kids are autodidacts.” Chandler thought for a moment. “That means we self-educate based on personal interest.”
Roux scowled. “I know what an autodidact is.”
Chandler turned his attention back to his game as the zombie swarm doubled in size again.
“And one of the things you self-educated yourself on was the Antikythera Mechanism,” Roux said.
“Exactly. Since there wasn’t too much on that, I went on to automatons, specifically the Greek ones. Because that’s where the Antikythera Mechanism came from.”
“What do you think of the butterfly?” Annja asked.
“Other than maybe it’s disguised? And that I wonder if it was a caterpillar before it was a butterfly?”
That hadn’t occurred to Annja.
Roux stroked his beard.
“The early Greeks built automata that were toys, religious idols and models that showcased scientific principles. One of the biggest early builders was Hero of Alexandria, a mathematician and engineer. In Egypt at the time, the Romans were bossing everybody, and this guy, he created the aeolipile, the Hero Engine, powered by steam. It was a precursor to jet engines, but I consider him to be the true father of steampunk.” Chandler smiled. “My friend Andrew insists steampunk was invented in Victorian England. It’s one of those ongoing arguments.”
Annja grinned.
“Hero also invented the windwheel,” Roux said.
“Yeah.” Chandler smiled in encouragement. “You do know some stuff.”
“I happen to know a lot.”
“Sure you do. That’s why I’m having to explain the Antikythera M
echanism.”
Roux started to say something but Annja touched his wrist. He kept his mouth shut with some effort.
“You can add siphon, fire engine and water organ to Hero’s list of accomplishments.” Chandler shifted in his seat to focus more intently on the game. “Originally, people thought the Antikythera Mechanism came from Rhodes. You know, where the Colossus was supposed to be? The Colossus of Rhodes?”
“We know about the Colossus,” Annja said.
“Kinda weird how something that big just disappeared, isn’t it?”
“Yes. Some people no longer think it was ever real.”
“Whatever. It’s too awesome not to have been real. Something happened to it.” Chandler shrugged. “Maybe it was a Transformer. Maybe it just jetted out of there one night. Anyway, those first archaeologists thought it was from Rhodes because they had a history of mechanical engineering there. But most of the recent archaeologists believe the Antikythera Mechanism was probably from Corinth in Greece.”
“Why?”
“They have better equipment now to look more closely at the mechanism. Archimedes—you know who that is, right?”
Roux answered quickly. “He was a mathematician, astronomer and inventor. Came up with the principle of the lever.”
“Sure, but he also invented siege engines. You know, battering rams to knock down city walls.” Chandler’s eyes seemed to glaze over as if he’d gone back in time to Archimedes. “They also said he designed machines to lift enemy ships out of the water, and he was supposed to be able to set ships on fire out at sea with a mirror weapon, but Mythbusters pretty much busted that one. Oh, I found a website—I’ll send you a link—that mentions this guy Michalis.”
Annja shook her head. She looked at Roux, who also shook his head.
“Yeah, not much is known about him. They think he lived in 350 or 400 BC. He had a reputation as a fantastic toymaker. Lots of clockworks. Supposedly made creations based on the myths, and stuff nobody had ever seen before.” Chandler sat up a little more. “Anyway, that’s what I’ve got. Hope it helps.”
