The Time Mechanic

by Victoria Bastedo

  He shook his head and forced himself to finish it.

  “I came up out of the water and started to dress. I was reaching for my shirt when I noticed her.”

  “She was there at the creek with the other man?”

  “No!” he roared, and then, remembering the two girls in Mars’ room, quieted his voice. “She came up and took hold of my arm,” he said in a whisper. “She told me she’d made me some iced tea because it was so hot. She said I must drink it all down to please her. She’d put something in it, you see. When I woke up she said…”

  The rage boiled up until Jeremy wanted to burst. He shut the image in his mind away of what happened next. He shut it down and locked the door on it.

  “You may as well finish telling me,” Mars said after several moments had passed.

  “No, I won’t! There’re some secrets I’ll never tell till the day I die!”

  “Are you saying your aunt came after you?”

  “Suffice it to say that when she realized how shocked I was at her interest, and then when she saw how completely uninterested in her I was in return, she became unhinged. I don’t remember the exact moment she hit me or what she hit me with. I just remember that look on her face when she came at me; as if my dying just once wasn’t enough to please her.”

  “And so you refused to tell anyone.”

  “She left my Uncle Tov for good that day. She packed while I lay there unconscious at the creek and wrote him a letter implying that she’d actually left him the night before! He never connected her leaving with my attack at all when he found me that evening. And, since she was gone without a trace and could do him no more harm; I decided it was best to hold back the dreadful news about her. He had enough sorrow in his life. I decided it was best if I was the only one who ever knew!”

  Jeremy turned around and glared into Mars’ eyes. If there weren’t two girls just settling down on the other side of that wall he thought he might attack the man again. He walked up to Mars’ chair and kicked the foot of it.

  “So now you know everything,” he said. “Happy?”

  “You think that’s enough to make me follow you, Jeremy? A half-pack of truths grudgingly given to earn my complete loyalty?”

  Jeremy leaned down and met his eyes.

  “I trusted you with that information, Mars. Don’t ever tell Uncle Tov.”

  “Fine.”

  “And listen to this now. If you choose to follow me I’ve got to let you. But after tonight I don’t care what you do, you got that? You were done with me before and now I’m done with you. Done apologizing, that’s for sure!”

  Mars got up and pushed away from him.

  “Good,” he said. “It’s about blasted time!”

  Chapter Twenty-One (In Which Jeremy Proves he can be Trusted)

  That night Mars couldn’t sleep. The conversation he’d just had with Jeremy swam around in his mind while he tossed and turned on the bed he’d made fresh for himself in his guest room. He remembered what his grandmother used to say to him when he was growing up.

  ‘Bad man comes; hold him away;

  Never trust a word he says;

  But if a friend asks for mercy one day;

  You’re the bad man if you say nay.’

  The secret, she’d taught him, was in being able to tell a friend from an enemy. Jeremy had failed him a year and a half ago, it was true. But the truth was that he was a good man and had been, for many years, the best of friends. He’d made a big mistake with Fiasca, but the woman had twisted and confused him. Now Jeremy had realized his failings and had even spelled out his mistake in more than one apology. The truth stared Mars in the eyes. It wasn’t Jeremy at fault for the flaw in their friendship now. In refusing to forgive it was he that had gone the wrong way.

  And that other secret that Jeremy had admitted to him— no, been forced to tell him? Mars threw his blankets off and sat on the edge of the bed in frustration.

  Again, Jeremy had a rationale not to describe to him what had gone on. Mars could understand why he’d chosen to hold back the truth then, especially from his Uncle Tov. There was no point in a revelation that could only harm his relative with no respite. Jeremy was always right, except for the one time he’d made an actual mistake a year and a half ago.

  “Blast it, I should’ve appreciated the man had at last revealed a fault instead of being so in the right all the time,” Mars grumbled.

  He got up and rubbed his face in annoyance. Correct-thinking or not, he was angry, still. Perhaps his rage wasn’t directed only at Jeremy anymore. He was mad at Fiasca, at the wretched woman from long ago who’d tried to murder his friend, and he was furious with Jeremy for insisting on shoving this Time Mechanic nonsense down all their throats. There was only one conclusion that could give him any rest.

  Jeremy was angry at him now. He’d said he was through with him. And that was what, down deep, bothered him most in the end. Sitting in that chair last night, watching Jeremy’s shoulders hunch as he told him that secret from long ago had caused whatever offence Mars had against him to fade away as if it had never been. Of course Jeremy would turn away from him the second he didn’t want him to anymore! The man was just plain irritating from beginning to end!

  Well, fine, if that’s the way the fellow wanted it! Mars could pull away too; both from this complicated emotional mess and from his own mistakes. The best thing to do was to just ignore the tension, see the two girls to a place of safety, and then go on with his life as best as he could. After all, he’d been doing just fine without Jeremy two weeks ago.

  He let out a sigh and shut the emotions and the angry thoughts away. At last he fell asleep, just an hour or so before dawn.

  When he got up a short time later, of course, Jeremy wasn’t there. Mars was groggy from getting so little sleep and Kannikey had to repeat herself. The two girls were bustling around his house. He blinked at the sight, for his floors were swept clean, his kitchen was tidy and the broken furniture was removed.

  “We got Jeremy to help us with that,” Kannikey said. “He went out and chopped your broken bench into kindling.”

  “Yes, he did,” added Ffip, “He dragged it over to your wood pile like he was angry and ripped off his shirt when he picked up the axe; and he looked very…”

  She stopped talking and bit her lip. Kannikey gave her a playful shove and both girls laughed. He scratched his head and tried to process.

  “Uh… thank you for clearing up. But, Jeremy— you let him go off someplace alone?”

  “Well, it was your shop assistant that came to the door,” Ffip said.

  “Mine?”

  “Yes. A man named Joram? He said that Nemeth— Jeremy’s old boss had sent a message asking Jeremy to come for a talk this morning before the shops opened. He said it was important, so Jeremy took care of his horse and then went right after Joram left.”

  Mars nodded. Joram was his assistant.

  “When was this, I mean, when did Jeremy leave?”

  “Just a moment ago. I guess he shut the door and it woke you up.”

  Mars groaned in frustration. For some, extremely annoying, compulsive reason, he felt the strong need all of a sudden, to plant himself by Jeremy’s side. He ran for his boots.

  “Stay here in case he comes back!” he bellowed at the girls. “Tell him to wait for someone next time!”

  The laughter died from their faces as they watched him yank on his boots and hurry out the door. He wished he was remaining at the house with them as he left. Somehow he knew that something was about to go very wrong. He started trotting and then running to catch up.

  As he left his neighborhood and drew close to the market he began to feel concern. He couldn’t see Jeremy up ahead anywhere. He knew a shortcut down an alley that would cut off a few street corners, deciding to hurry and get to Nemeth’s shop sooner. He came out of the alley and looked up and down the street; still no Jeremy. He couldn’t have gotten to Nemeth’s shop that fast unless he’d been running too! Un
likely in that coat he liked to wear. Mars cut back into the alley, and frowned to see that Nemeth’s shop was just one street away.

  All of a sudden, from a gap between two shop backdoors, an arm reached out and grabbed him.

  “Whoa!” he gasped, as he was wrenched to the side.

  “Be quiet, it’s just me,” muttered Jeremy, in his ear.

  “What’d you snatch me for?” he whispered in return.

  “So you didn’t blunder into an ambush!”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “I thought it seemed suspicious that your assistant would send for me instead of one of Nemeth’s, so I checked the area of his shop out beforehand. It’s allowed me time to get prepared for all eventualities. There’s a group of fellows hiding down that spot beside Nemeth’s building- you know where I was taken before?”

  “How do these villains know you were at my house?” Mars hissed, and then he grew alarmed. “And the girls are there now, left alone!” he added as the thought occurred to him.

  “I doubt the villains know where you live,” Jeremy said. “That white-haired thug heard Nemeth claim me as a previous employee. No doubt, since they wanted to find me, someone visited Nemeth and asked if he knew where I could be. I’m assuming that he didn’t want to give away any information so he went to your shop and left a message to have me come in and your assistant brought it to your house. Nemeth must’ve told the thugs that he’d try to get a hold of me this morning so they’re hiding at that spot.”

  “They might’ve followed Joram to my house nevertheless, if they’re thorough!”

  “Don’t you think they would’ve attacked me by now, if that were the case?”

  Mars frowned at the look on his face.

  “Blast it, Jeremy! Don’t be clever again!”

  “I’ll try to act stupid, just for you.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean, you…”

  “Shhh, I think they’re moving.”

  Mars leaned out a bit but it took a few seconds to see what Jeremy was talking about. There were four or five shadows at the edge of Nemeth’s building. He saw them only because they were, in fact, moving around like Jeremy said.

  “What are they doing?” he muttered.

  “I don’t know. You must’ve alerted them with your noise. It seems like they’re signaling someone… but wait! That means that we’ve…”

  Jeremy never got the chance to finish his sentence. The flash of movement was all Mars saw as something came down, with a smack of pain and stars behind his eyes, and struck him on the head. He was vaguely aware of exclamations and the feeling of someone pushing him and making him walk and hauling him upwards when he sank down.

  When Mars came to full realization he found that he was tied up next to Jeremy inside a gray room. His hands were behind his back and his feet were attached to the feet of the chair he was in. He opened bleary eyes and saw they were both in the same position. He looked around.

  “Blast it, this is the same room you were taken to before!” he exclaimed.

  “Mars, hush!” Jeremy hissed, but it was too late. At the sound of their voices the door of the room opened, and a few men came in. Mars squinted upwards. He recognized the white-haired fellow that had tried to kill Jeremy before, but that was it. The fellow stepped back against the wall, along with two other men, who joined him in his post. A smaller man who dressed like a professional man of business came in last. This last man shut the door and then sat fastidiously on a little stool, which he was sure to wipe off with his handkerchief first.

  “Well it took long enough to get a hold of you again; Jeremy— that is your name, correct?” the man said.

  Mars felt Jeremy stiffen, but he didn’t say anything.

  “And because you resisted us, now you’ve dragged your friend into your problems with you,” the man went on. “I must say he made it easy to capture you today. According to what I’ve heard you have some fighting abilities— it was to our advantage that seeing your friend get hurt made you stumble in the alley. Showing us your weakness will make it impossible for you to refuse us.”

  “I don’t see why you’ve captured him at all,” Jeremy said. Mars glanced over at the cold tone to his voice, one which he’d never heard Jeremy use before. “He tries to help me when he thinks I’m in trouble but he doesn’t know anything. If you let him go now before we begin talking he can’t hurt you any. Trying to use him to affect me will only make me more stubborn in the end. If you intend to hurt or kill him anyway, I may as well refuse to speak to spite you.”

  The business man laughed.

  “Perhaps he doesn’t know anything, but you certainly do,” he said. “You know all about our fields. You saw what we were growing.”

  “So what if I did? What difference do a few fields of berries make?”

  “You tell me. Tell me what you know, and who else you’ve given the information too.”

  “I know nothing and have told no one.”

  “Lying, I can tell. Come now, let’s not be tedious. Let me explain something to you. There’s a great deal of money to be made; so much profit to be gained that governments will change and power will be shifted. That’s how important our plans are, and that’s how strong my determination is. So you see it’s very clear. You’re a witness to something you shouldn’t have seen. Your telling others about what you saw could cause our plans to be complicated. I intend to irradiate your intrusion like weeds in a garden plot. You’ll tell us, now, what you know and who you’ve told.”

  “You intend to kill me, you mean. So I can never tell anyone what I witnessed.”

  “I do. The manner of your death is what you want to discuss with me now.”

  “And my friend? Perhaps when you let him go I’ll speak.”

  “Or perhaps I’ll just use this,” the man said.

  He nodded and the white-haired thug stepped out into the hallway for a moment and then entered the room opposite. He came back in a second later with a contraption on a little wheeled wagon. It was lit with heat from an internal oven, and a few wisps of boiling steam escaped from some vents. Mars swallowed and tried to be brave. His head was aching and he’d been sort of half-awake before but now he began to struggle against his bonds. The fearsomeness of what was happening came home to him. These men actually intended to kill them both and there was nothing they could do about it. The interviewer stood up and began to fiddle with the contraption.

  “Let me tell you about that crop you saw out there, in case you don’t know,” he said, picking up a tube and unwinding it from the side of the steam box. He plugged it into a knob and then removed a tiny bottle from his suit. “A poison can be made from it. Mixed with steam it can be directed and absorbed. One puff breathed in, or even soaked into the skin of a person’s face will cause sickness, agony, and then an eventual death after two or three days.”

  Mars could feel Jeremy struggling beside him. He seemed to be trying to free his wrists. He joined him in the attempt. The man in the business suit ignored them as he poured a bit of liquid from the bottle into a little chamber, closed the top and then put the bottle back in his pocket. He attached the small chamber to the end of the tube and then turned back to Jeremy.

  “You don’t like to see your friend suffer,” the man said, pointing the tube at Mars’ face. “Tell me what I want to know, or you’ll witness his slow and painful death.” he repeated.

  Jeremy vaulted up, chair and all, and tried to bump the steam tube from the man’s hand. The thugs had an easy time pressing on his shoulders till he sat still.

  “All right!” he gasped. “Make these villains let me go!”

  Business suit nodded and the thugs stepped away from Jeremy. Mars glanced over and saw Jeremy’s eyes burning with anger and felt Jeremy jerking at his bonds again.

  “What do you know, and who have you told?” the business man demanded again.

  “I know people like you are always stopped in the end,” Jeremy growled. “You’ll go down ev
entually!”

  “Wrong answer,” the suit said. He lifted the steam tube and squeezed out a puff of poisoned mist.

  But Jeremy shocked everyone in the room. While Mars had been struggling with his bonds it seemed that Jeremy had freed himself. Apparently he’d hidden a knife somewhere in his clothing. With a screech he erupted forward, in front of Mars face, absorbing the puff of poison mist into his own cheeks and nose. At the same time his blade slashed the suited man right across his midsection. Jeremy leapt to his feet even though his ankles were attached to his chair. He shoved the suited man over with all his might and the smaller fellow flew into the steam contraption. Its heat escaped with the sound of a hiss and the suited man’s scream. The man was burned and hot embers sparked with flaming coals into the corner of the room near the thugs when the contraption split open.

  Jeremy wasted no time. Mars was impressed. He’d never seen his old friend move like this; efficient and confident and dangerous to their enemies. In less than a moment both of Jeremy’s ankles were slashed free from his chair. He crashed it with another roar so hard into the wall that it shattered. Jeremy took its broken pieces and swung them at the three thugs. They came back at him but he was everywhere, blocking punches, punching back, and throwing them down. He kicked coals, slashed and struck at them with such ferocity that they couldn’t get near him.

  “Get me out of here!” the business suited man yelled. “Lock them in!”

  The thugs picked up the injured business man, who was literally wailing in his distress.

  “No!” Jeremy screamed, just managing to stick his foot in the door as they slammed it shut.

  “I’ll get you back for this!” the man cried, with blood on his hands and spittle from his mouth. “You’ll come to me, because I’m the only one with an antidote! Tell no one what you’ve seen, or you’re doomed to die a terrible death!”