by H. L. Burke
They left the house through a back entrance and got into the waiting steam car.
The elderly driver smiled at them. “It’ll be a quick drive this time of day. Not much traffic.”
He was right. As they took main roads on their trip towards the police station, they didn’t encounter many other vehicles, though there was steady foot traffic along the raised wooden sidewalks. The car rattled beneath them, the steam from the engine intermittently releasing a hissing whistle.
O’Hara sat stiffly beside Ellis, dabbing at her forehead with her sleeve from time to time. The pale woman always seemed to be red-faced and out of breath.
After a bit, Ellis pulled out his pocket watch. They’d only been on the road for fifteen minutes, but it felt twice that. I wish the old man would drive a little faster.
As if in response the driver slowed, then sped up, then took a right onto a side street, glancing over his shoulder as he did.
Ellis frowned. “Is something wrong?”
“I’m not sure.” The old man straightened his cap. “It’s just with so few vehicles on the road, it seems unlikely that the one behind us would be taking every turn we do.”
Ellis turned around. A shiny black steam car chugged along behind them. The sun glancing off the weirdly dark windows made it impossible to identify the driver, and it didn’t have registration plates.
O’Hara narrowed her eyes. “Who would be following us?
As they turned back onto a wider road lined with shops, the black car sped up. Soon it rode nearly bumper to bumper with them.
Ellis leaned towards their driver. “You think you can lose them?”
The old man hardened his expression. “I can try.”
Momentum pushed Ellis against his seat as the car accelerated.
O’Hara clutched the cushions. “Who do you think it is? No one knows you’re here, right?”
“I didn’t think they did.” Ellis thought over his steps since arriving in New Taured. He could’ve sworn he’d stayed hidden. Everything had been done under assumed names, and he’d gone straight from the zeppelin to Clarence’s. No one should’ve seen him.
With a roar, the pursuing car pulled alongside them, but rather than passing, it immediately slowed to match their pace. Ellis hazarded a look. The windows were obsidian glass, opaque. Expensive, too. Got to be Rivera.
The black car veered away from them, still side by side, but with more space between now, going well into the other lane. With a whir, its wheel spokes detached from the rubber tires, spinning like a motorized fan. They extended towards Ellis’s vehicle.
“Get over!” Ellis shouted at the driver.
“Huh? To where?”
The thwap of shredding rubber grated against Ellis’s ears. Their car swerved to the side of the road. O’Hara shrieked and gripped his arm. The driver yelped. The line of stores rushed towards them. Brakes squealed, triggering a memory.
Rain-slick roads. Dad losing control. Mom’s cry. The crunch of metal and bone. A harsh scent of blood mixed with motor oil.
Ellis screamed.
The car tilted as the tires hit the sidewalk. Ellis toppled forward but landed soft on top of the quivering O’Hara. Then everything jerked to a halt.
Drawing a deep breath, Ellis pulled himself back onto the seat. The driver slumped over the wheel and steam rose from the hood beyond the cracked windshield. He reached into the front to check the driver’s pulse, but the old man moaned and straightened.
The driver put his hand to his forehead. “What the Sam Hill was that halfwit trying to do?”
“Kill us, I think. You okay, O’Hara?”
“They … they tried to kill me …” She sat up, her face bone pale and her whole body shaking.
“Somehow I doubt you were the target.” Ellis grimaced.
“Yes, but I was in the car and they still …” She stopped and swallowed.
Pedestrians gathered around the crumpled front of the steam car. The other vehicle was nowhere to be seen.
It’s a miracle we didn’t hit anyone.
“You sure you’re both okay?” the driver asked.
“Yes, but that was terrifying,” O’Hara said.
Ellis nodded, wishing he hadn’t screamed like a little girl. “Could’ve been worse.”
This time I’m … not walking away, but I know from experience that it could’ve been worse. Thank you, God.
The driver climbed out and opened the door for them.
“What’ll we do now?” he asked. “Call a cab and continue to the station? Head home?”
Ellis examined the street. One of the buildings had a sign that read, “The Clock Tower Hotel.”
“Neither. I’m going to regroup and replan. I’m not sure how, but we’ve lost the element of surprise.” He put his hand to his pocket where the handheld communicator still rested. I’m also now within five miles of Dalhart Manor. It’s a long shot, but it’s worth a try.
Chapter Thirteen
Nyssa studied the house plans Hart displayed on his monitor. “So, if we go down through the floor here …?” She tapped the laboratory on the plans.
“You’ll most likely end up in the middle of one of the empty spare bedrooms, depending on where exactly in the lab you start tearing things apart,” Hart answered. “You might avoid detection there, but you’d still have to get out of the house.”
“And I wouldn’t be able to take you with me that way.” She bit her bottom lip.
“You can come back for me later. Let’s concentrate on getting you out of here safe, all right? We’ll worry about me once that’s accomplished.”
Nyssa strode over to the table where she’d lined up her tools. They were fine work tools, not meant for construction and demolition. Still, burrowing through the floors like a termite was the best escape plan she’d been able to come up with so far. Several hours of messing with the handheld that morning had brought her nothing but static. Ellis had designed it specifically as a private communication system for the two of them, so getting it to send or receive signals to and from other sources would take a lot of manipulation and parts she didn’t have.
She fiddled with her ring. It slipped back and forth along her finger, catching on her knuckle.
A whine of metal on metal made her pause. “That’s coming from the door to the workshop.”
Hart flipped his view to the workshop cameras. Aito knelt beside the door with a large-bit-drill. Rivera stood over his shoulder, wearing a pair of goggles much like Nyssa’s.
“I thought you said they couldn’t break through the door without shorting out your circuits?” Nyssa whispered.
“I did. However, if those goggles have an x-ray setting, it would be easy enough to find a place where they could drill a small hole without damaging anything. The question is, what do they hope to accomplish by doing so?”
Nyssa left the laboratory for the office and watched as sparks flew from the door. A hole formed, letting in a beam of light.
“Miss Glass, can you hear me?” Rivera called.
She cleared her throat. “Yes. What do you want?”
“To give you and the computer one last chance to cooperate. How long do you think you can stay in there?”
Nyssa snorted. “I’m quite comfortable, thank you.”
“For now. You think you have me against the ropes, but I assure you, you’re quite wrong. For one thing, you, Miss Glass, are not essential to my plans. I don’t need you. I just need the files on that computer.”
“I’m aware of that. It doesn’t change anything.”
“Oh yes, it does.” She could almost hear the man’s self-satisfied smile. “The computer doesn’t need air. You do. I tried giving you a deadline once before, and you found a way to stall. This time, I doubt you will be so lucky. You have three hours to get the computer to give me what I want, or I pump that lab full of gas and let you stifle like a trapped rat.”
A chill swept through Nyssa. “If you do that, I’ll be dead, but you won’
t be any closer to getting what you want.”
“But as you said, you’ll be dead—unless you open the door and convince the computer to give me what I want. It’s the same deadline as before, only now instead of having Aito take you apart piece by piece, I’ll be stealing the air from your lungs while the computer watches your face turn blue.”
She gritted her teeth. “And if I’d rather die than cooperate with you?”
“Then I’ll figure another way to the computer. I have all the time in the world. You, however, have three hours.” He chuckled. “Make that two hours and fifty-six minutes.”
“I’ll give it some thought.” She hurried back to Hart.
Angry flashes of light darted across the computer’s monitor. “I wish I were a human so I could punch that man in the face.”
“Do you think he can do it?” Nyssa asked.
“It’s feasible. Obviously, he has a hole to pipe gas through now, and the wall between the office and the workshop is pretty much airtight … the one between the office and the lab is just a flimsy divider. Shutting the door between might buy us a little bit of time, but not much.”
Nyssa nodded then dove for her tools. She took up a hammer and examined the floorboards for weak spots. “Well, I guess I better work fast then.”
“Nyss, there’s always the option of me giving him what he wants.”
She glanced at him. “That’s no guarantee. A man like Rivera doesn’t leave witnesses.”
“Yes … but … look, the fact that what is programmed into me is just programming doesn’t make it feel any less real. If you die, I don’t know how I will process it.”
“Well, then we’ll figure out a way to keep me alive.” She placed her hand on his monitor. The points of light on his screen swarmed to her touch until her fingers glowed. The diamond in her ring sparkled like a thousand stars. “This doesn’t change our plan. It just means we have to work faster. Bring up the house plans again, please.”
She studied the plans then paced off to where she thought was the best place to begin her “excavation.” Finding the edge of a floorboard, she sank the claw of the hammer into the crack. “Wish I had a crowbar.”
“There might be one in the closet near the wash sink,” Hart said. “The professor kept a stash of miscellaneous tools, and he sometimes used heavier ones working on his robots.”
Nyssa opened the indicated door, and her nose wrinkled. Cobwebs covered a jumble of broom handles, metal plates, and a rusty upright toolbox nearly as tall as she was. She pulled open the first drawer to find it full of mismatched bolts and screws. The second, however, had a crowbar. Grinning, she returned to her task.
The nails screeched as she pried the board up from the floor. Beneath lay a tangle of wires and pipes, too thick to squeeze through.
“Shock me, this is going to be harder than I thought. Are these wires part of your system?”
“No, they aren’t on my plans. Perhaps something Rivera did during renovations. I was inactive for much of that.”
“Don’t want to risk cutting into anything live.” She slipped her goggles over her face and turned them to their electromagnetic-field-detection setting. Some of the wires glowed. “Going to have to be careful going through here. Don’t want to fry myself.”
Something buzzed next to her heart, and she jumped. Her hand flew into her breast pocket and withdrew the handheld. It vibrated again, light slipping from beneath the lid. Every cell in her body trembling, she flipped it open. The screen blurred with static for a heartbeat then steadied into a clear but black and white image … She fumbled, nearly dropping it, then clutched it closer, bringing the video-screen right before her eyes. “Ellis?”
The face on the screen gaped for a moment then smiled, his eyes staring at her as if she wasn’t quite real.
“Nyss? Are you all right?” His voice had a wobbly, underwater quality, but it was still his voice, his beloved voice.
She sank to her knees. “I’m … I’m fine. Oh, Ellis, I worried I’d never see you again. I tried to call out last night, but I couldn’t …” A sob choked her.
“I just now got into range. Oh, Nyss, you don’t know how good it is to see you. Where are you? Are you safe?”
“Yes and no … for the moment, I’m all right. I’m in Dalhart Manor, in the lab. Rivera’s the one who brought me here. It’s a long story, but I managed to get myself locked in, and for now he can’t get to me.”
Ellis beamed. “That’s my Nyss.”
“You’re in New Taured, then?”
“Yes, and I’m coming for you. Just hold on.”
“You have to hurry. Rivera’s run out of patience, and he says he’ll pump gas into this room to force me out in a few hours.”
Ellis’s eyes widened, then his mouth wrinkled into a scowl. “All right … I’ll be there before then. I’m working on a plan.”
Worry shot through her.Shock me, Ellis is smart, but Rivera is ruthless. Do I really want Ellis going up against him? On his own?
“Please be careful. I don’t know how, but he knows about you. I didn’t say anything, but he found out you’re alive, and I’m worried what he’ll do to you.”
“That’s not really a surprise, unfortunately. When did he find out? In San Azula?”
“No, it was after he brought me here. Just this morning, in fact. He stormed in wanting to know what you knew and how you were still alive. I’m not sure how he found out.”
Ellis pushed his hair back from his forehead, his thinking tic. “Yeah, that timing confirms something I’ve been dancing around. Hold on, all right. I wish I could keep you on the line, but there are things I have to do. If you need me, though, call. I’ll get you out of this, Nyss. One way or another. I love you.”
“I love you too, Ellis.”
The screen flickered out, and the strength drained from Nyssa’s limbs. She collapsed, hugging herself and sobbing.
“Nyss, are you okay?” Hart asked.
She wiped her eyes, drew several deep breaths, and forced herself to her feet. “Yes … I mean, I will be. I’ve got a floor to cut through first, though.”
I’m going to get back to you, Ellis. Nothing in this world is going to stop me.
***
Ellis stared at the now blank screen. Turning off the handheld had felt like letting go of a rope and allowing himself to fall.
At least I know she’s still alive. I can save her, but if she’s right about when Rivera found out about me, I have another, more immediate problem.
“Well, what now?” O’Hara sat across the tiny hotel room on the twin bed. The clerk had given them a look when Ellis had checked in, but Ellis was in too much of a hurry to worry about appearances. The detective stood and straightened her hair.
“We know where she is, so I go get her.” Ellis angled away from her, slipping his hand into the space between the arm of his chair and the seat. His heart pounded. His fingers found what they were looking for, and he whipped it out, aiming straight at O’Hara.
At the sight of the revolver, O’Hara stumbled backwards, falling onto the mattress.
“Hands where I can see them!” Ellis snapped.
She gaped. “Ellis, what … why?”
“Because when I got to New Taured, Rivera had no idea that I was even alive. He does now. The fact that he tried to have me killed already had me sure of that, but I was uncertain when and how he found out. If he discovered it just this morning, then there are only two people he could’ve learned it from, you or Clarence. Of the two, guess who I suspect?”
Her mouth opened and closed like a beached fish. “Yes, but he tried to kill me, too. I was in the car with you. Remember?”
“And you were just as surprised by it as I was.” Ellis allowed himself a sardonic smile. “Didn’t realize you were disposable to your employer ’til just then, I imagine.”
Her expression hardened. “You don’t understand.”
“Oh, I think I do. Rivera has deep pockets. It’s easier to believe
he funded your little one-woman-man-hunt than that you paid for zeppelin tickets and lodging on a junior detective’s salary. So much for justice, huh?” He snorted. “Hope whatever he paid was worth it.”
“It’s not like that, exactly.” Her cheeks flared red. “Do you know how hard it is to get ahead with everything working against you in life? Of course not. You’re a spoiled rich kid who’s probably never had to lift a finger to get what he wants.”
“Yeah, that’s me. No idea what it’s like to face hardship. In fact, I’m in this chair because I prefer having my servants wheeling me around to actually walking.” Ellis snorted.
Her flush deepened. “All my life, I’ve only wanted to be a police officer, like my dad. And what do I get for struggling through the catcalls during training and taking the entry exam three times because my instructor thought my scores were ‘too high for a woman so I must be cheating?’ An unsolvable case for my first assignment and no help from my fellow officers.”
“You’re breaking my heart.” Ellis tightened his grip on the weapon. He rolled backwards until his chair blocked the doorway.What do I do with her now? Am I really willing to shoot her?
“I wasn’t going to throw up my hands and cry.” Her face contorted into a fierce grimace, and in spite of her claim to the contrary, something glimmered at the corner of her eye. “Finally, I got a lead from a vagrant who’d sighted her breaking into an abandoned mansion the day of the murder.”
“Dalhart Manor?” Ellis eased his finger off the trigger but still held the revolver at ready.
“Yeah. Checking into who owned the mansion led me to the Dalhart disappearances.” She dabbed at her face with her sleeve. “It bewildered me how no one was looking into it.”
Ellis nodded. He needed to get moving, but to do what? Without O’Hara’s help getting the police to cooperate, he had no plan. “What then? How did Rivera get to you?”
“Rivera approached me with what he called an opportunity. Drop the Dalhart disappearances and help him flush Nyssa out of her hiding place.” She cleared her throat. “He promised me a closed case and a guaranteed promotion if I could. Reporting to him wasn’t explicitly stated, but it was strongly implied. He’s desperate for whatever your father left in that house.”
