The Time Mechanic

by Victoria Bastedo

  “Where do you suppose the distilled poison is, Jeremy?” asked Ffip.

  “I’m guessing in the back room of that other warehouse across the street- the one where the steam eagle is kept. I just don’t know why they wouldn’t have that side more guarded like this one.”

  “Once the constables come, we can locate everything, I hope,” she said. Everyone else agreed with her. Silence fell in the room, except Halbernon found a crate and used it as a place to sit down. Jeremy was too busy pacing as time passed by. He hoped they wouldn’t have to wait all night. It would be best to try and catch QuRellon and Serrin before they left town.

  Unfortunately it wasn’t very long before their peace was disturbed. Jeremy jumped and Ffip said ‘eek!’ when suddenly the large inner door of the Surebelow side of the warehouse was shoved open. They froze. There was no place to try and hide in here. A voice from the open door floated over to them and Jeremy recognized Serrin’s whiny tone right away.

  “You’re certain it was Stedland who brought in the group of intruders you were telling me about?” he was demanding to one of the door guards. “The man needs to be told a thing or two,” Serrin fussed. “This warehouse isn’t a tour to be open to the public!”

  Serrin marched in to the middle of the floor and stopped in shock. Jeremy stood ready with three people behind him. He had on his flashy coat and he had one other thing. The knife he’d kept from the inner pocket of the coat was now in his hand. He stood poised.

  “You!” Serrin cried. “You’re supposed to be dead! And look, you’ve got the inventor, Fillipi with you!”

  “I also remember both of you, all too well!” shouted Jeremy. For Serrin actually had four men with him; the three warehouse guards, and the white-haired man that’d captured Jeremy twice before.

  “You cause nothing but trouble!” Serrin shouted. “You burned me and cut me! I’ve never been so viciously treated, and yet, here you are again! It makes me look bad to my boss!”

  Jeremy chuckled at the list of wrongs he’d committed.

  “You should’ve killed me when you had the chance,” he said.

  “I’ll kill you now!” the little man’s lidless eyes bulged as he screeched.

  The fight began instantly, because Serrin lost his head and charged for Jeremy’s throat. The little man was easy to cast aside, except he got tangled in Jeremy’s coat on his way down. He fell to the floor and landed on his back.

  “Get them, get them!” he screeched, but the guards had already leapt forward.

  Jeremy’s new fighting skills felt like they’d become a part of him now. Nevertheless, these guards and the white-haired man had some training. Jeremy swiped with his knife at the first guard but while he was so busy the second guard grabbed him from behind.

  “Stop that!” he heard Halbernon yell, and throwing a quick glance to the side Jeremy saw that Serrin, evidently wanting to attack somebody less intimidating had gotten up and run right at Ffip. She was kicking at him, scratching, and when he got at her waist, stomping down on his instep with all her might. Jeremy got distracted when Serrin slapped her hard.

  “Ahh!” he grunted. The white-haired man took advantage of his lack of concentration. He grabbed Jeremy’s knife arm and rammed it down across his knee so that Jeremy felt the bone throb in a cold grip that weakened his other limbs. The knife clattered to the floor.

  “I’ll get you now!” the white-haired man grunted.

  Mars was fighting two men off to the side. Halbernon and Ffip were still dancing about with Serrin. Jeremy saw that the third door guard had bent to scoop his own knife up from the floor.

  “No!” Jeremy roared, using all his abilities. He wrenched his arm free from White Hair. He twisted enough to spin out a forceful backhand that sent a spray of blood from the rising door guard’s nose. Once more he heard his knife clatter to the floor. The door guard fell down and held his bloodied face. Jeremy swung back and shoved White Hair away, giving him some space. Jeremy raised his fists.

  White Hair approached. Bam! Jeremy battered his nose too. White Hair gurgled in rage and flung himself forward. Jeremy unleashed a backhand fist and then followed up with the same fist dug deep into White Hair’s belly.

  It was satisfying that White Hair couldn’t stand upright. But Jeremy had no time to enjoy the sight.

  Mar’s second attacker had decided to switch targets. He ran over and grabbed the broken-nosed guard up from the floor.

  “Come on,” the guard hissed.

  The two guards were sloppy as they roared and attacked. If they’d had a plan, Jeremy could’ve seen it and known how to counteract, but their clumsy enraged blows falling all over him with the weight of their bodies took a moment to decipher.

  One guard got kneed in the groin. The other got stuck in a stranglehold. Jeremy used the guard he was strangling as ballast, pushing off and kicking away the bent over one with both feet. His twisting toss knocked the first guard off balance and the second guard fell down too. Jeremy turned away free and was ready to run to Mars’ defense, except for one thing. White Hair had now gone for the knife.

  “Ah!” Jeremy gasped in shock. The blade slashed his side before he danced back out of contact. Jeremy acted fast while the first few seconds brought no pain. He burst back in anger, pounding the palms of his two hands right into White Hair’s chest. The man stumbled backwards and tripped over Halbernon’s crate.

  “Get him again!” the other two guards cried, limping, but returning to the fight. One of the guards got Jeremy’s arms held down from behind. The other moved into place and punched him, right at the spot that he’d been slashed.

  It was hard to think how to fight when a blow like that was delivered, he thought. Jeremy had nothing left but fury with which to respond. He clamped onto the man’s arms that held him and knocked him right in the teeth with back of his head. The man howled and let go. Jeremy fell down in a heap with the fellow. Looking up he wondered if all of his fighting efforts had been wasted. He felt a rush of fear to realize he might have to die right here, and before he’d accomplished his mission. He lifted his arm, for White Hair was back with the knife and a triumphant grin.

  Too bad he forgot about Mars, thought Jeremy.

  Jeremy compared the two and saw that Mars was larger than his opponent, and he’d always been good at fighting too. Now Mars was angry, warmed-up and ready to pound. White Hair turned in shock when Mars’ shadow rose up like a shroud behind him. Mars roared and grabbed him. Soon the knife was forced from the thug’s hand. Mars’ first punch whipped his face to the side. Mars’ second punch sent him flying back several feet. White-hair landed on the hard warehouse floor and lie still.

  Mars yanked Jeremy to his feet and they stood breathing hard side by side. They turned to fight anyone that was left. They saw that Serrin had met his match in Ffip and Halbernon. He was lying on his back flinging ineffectual blows and she was sitting on him. Three shaky guards crept forward, looking as if they’d rather go home and find a new job than try to face Mars and Jeremy, who were waiting for them.

  At last it was all over. The side door at the back of the warehouse flew open. A voice cried; ‘What’s going on here!’ A healthy group of constables, wearing Tonturin’s colors of green and dark blue, came in with Nemeth, Stedland, and Kannikey. Jeremy fell to one knee in relief.

  A half hour later they were still dealing with the fact that Serrin didn’t appreciate being arrested. First he tried the ‘I’m-a-respected-accountant’ speech. When that didn’t work he claimed to know nothing about any of it. The constables heard from Mars— who acted as witness to the fact that the man had poisoned Jeremy. Then Halbernon showed them his credentials as a botanist and assured them that the baskets of poison berries in the warehouse, which was run and operated by Serrin, was indeed deadly. He said that he’d tested Surebelow and discovered that its main use was that of an antidote to the poison. The scheme was clearly laid out for the constables.

  When Serrin realized that he had no case, h
e started shrieking. He called every person in the room a variety of names. He blamed White Hair for his incompetence— even though the man was moaning on a stretcher about to be escorted by constable to the doctor. He blamed the door guards for their utter failure to protect against intruders. He blamed the constables for their stupidity, for obviously he was nothing but a ‘respected accountant’! At last he turned and glared at Jeremy.

  “I’m going to make you pay,” he growled like a feral dog. Two of the constables agreed to take him back to the jail so the rest could concentrate on the investigation. Serrin yelled as he was taken out.

  “Liars!” he cried, “Hypocrites! You’d do the same as me and you know it! If you’d been offered the profit I was offered you would! Well don’t worry!” his voice echoed as the constables dragged him out the side door. “I’ll be set free tomorrow!”

  Jeremy looked up from his place on the crate and wiped a few beads of sweat from his upper lip with a shaky hand. One of the constables carried medical supplies and he was stitching the deep cut in Jeremy’s side.

  Suddenly Jeremy was troubled. “Serrin meant something by that,” he muttered to himself.

  Since Jeremy had told Stedland to not mention that he was the Time Mechanic the constables had been told very little about his involvement from Stedland. They just thought he worked for Stedland and they’d paid him scant attention, other than to ask him a few questions and to congratulate him on guarding the warehouse with Mars. The constable stitching him, a man about Jeremy’s own age named Tearrant, looked up at his words.

  “What did you say?” he asked. But Jeremy shook his head and looked up.

  “Stedland,” he said, raising his voice.

  The man, who’d taken over the civilian part of the investigation of the warehouse with the constables, noticed right away that Jeremy had called for him. He hurried over.

  “What do you want?” Stedland asked.

  “The other warehouse,” Jeremy replied. “We need to look inside it.”

  “Yes, we were going to get to that soon!”

  Jeremy stood up, nodding a thank you to the constable, but taking the man’s little scissors from his pack and snipping the stitching thread away from his side himself.

  “I haven’t applied the final disinfectant,” the constable protested.

  “Later,” said Jeremy, pulling down his blooded shirt and folding his coat closed over it.

  Mars came over and glared at him. “What now?” he demanded.

  “We need to see the other warehouse,” Jeremy repeated; “Right away.”

  “If you insist,” said Stedland.

  “I’m sure one of those guards has the keys,” Jeremy went on.

  “Here,” said the lead constable. “I’ve already taken every item from the prisoners’ pockets. Here are a ring of keys.”

  Jeremy nodded and started walking. Glancing backwards he saw that everyone was following him, except for two lesser-ranked constables who stayed back to guard the three prisoners.

  When they opened the second warehouse’s main doors Jeremy saw right away why QuRellon and Serrin hadn’t bothered to keep the building guarded. The Steam Eagle was missing.

  “No,” groaned Jeremy— “It’s gone.”

  “What’s the matter?” demanded the lead constable. “What were you expecting to see here?”

  Jeremy turned his face to the man. He’d learned the fellow’s name was Olpher. He’d overheard one of the other constables say that the man was a new father. The thought made him shake his head. His stomach was sick and not because of the pain from being stitched.

  “Serrin’s last comment,” he replied. “Don’t you see what it means?”

  He asked it of everybody, of his three teammates and Halbernon, Nemeth and Stedland, and also of the constables staring at him. The group of them all gave him a blank look. He sighed in weariness and explained.

  “Serrin said he’d be released tomorrow,” he filled in. “He believes that because the Steam Eagle is not here. They’ve already distilled all the poison they need. They’ve filled the container on the Steam Eagle with the poison and taken it to the location from which it will begin its flight.” Jeremy’s voice grew more frustrated as he went on. “We haven’t stopped anything, not yet! Serrin believes all of Tonturin will be poisoned tomorrow as planned! When that happens and the ownership and power structure of the city is passed into new hands, then the man thinks he’ll be released. You constables will be too busy dealing with new leadership and the course of destruction to bother dealing with him. Do you understand now?” he demanded.

  Chapter Thirty-Seven (In Which Jeremy Spends Some Quality Time With Mars)

  “So what you’re saying is,” Olpher said, “that we need to burn down these warehouses? Both of them?”

  “We need to burn the poison,” agreed Halbernon. “Burn every trace of the berries and the bulk of plant and leaf structure they were attached to.”

  “So we need to burn down these warehouses,” Olpher repeated in a stubborn tone.

  Jeremy spoke up again with a sigh. It’d only been a few minutes since they found that the Steam Eagle was missing but nevertheless he wanted to get going and locate it. However he roused to answer the man now. “You can’t burn down the warehouses,” he stressed. “Not yet.”

  “Why not?” asked Olpher.

  “You might need the Surebelow,” he said and then added with a whisper, “in case we fail.”

  “Why not just compel all the citizens to be dosed with the antidote right now?” Ffip interjected. She’d been listening to the whole proceedings quietly off to the side, but her eyes were avid with clarity and intelligence. Jeremy smiled at her.

  “Good idea, thank you,” he said.

  “It is a good idea,” said Halbernon. “But this poison is fast-acting but temporary in its effect. What I mean is that, even when the poison mist is released, the poison’s efficacy will mainly dissipate within a few moments. It flares fierce and then fades away. Good news for Tonturin, for the city streets and surfaces will be safe to come into contact with quickly and the air soon safe to breathe. But that also means that the antidote is best taken immediately afterwards as well, to combat the full magnitude of the poison’s assault on the body.”

  “Then with the antidote immediately taken to help, people should be all right,” she said.

  “Yes, my dear, it would help,” the older man agreed. “But not for everyone. In a city this large some people will die, even with the antidote. You saw how virulent it was when used on Jeremy. He’d only been dosed a few hours when we gave him the antidote and yet it was difficult to save him- and he’s young and strong.”

  Disquiet fell on the room at Halbernon’s words. Jeremy grew angry as he thought of what the man had said. He thought of how QuRellon had meant to dose Tonturin’s populace at the Loop Festival; and of the people giving their all to try and stop the pain after being poisoned. Lines of suffering parents standing for long hours— signing away their property— and then rushing home to dose their children. How horrible if they were too late to save them. He blamed Serrin for putting profit above human lives, but the accountant probably thought the antidote would work.

  This was something else again. QuRellon was the real enemy here; he’d developed the idea and the poison.

  “He knew many people would die,” Jeremy whispered, and instantly a vision seemed to strike him from the side. He sank down when it took him over.

  In the vision he saw a series of scenes from many years ago. He saw an angry young man tending a weedy back garden, then the same man carrying a basket of blue-purple berries into an old half-bent shed, casting a furtive glance from side to side. Next he saw the young man walking down the streets of Tetoross with a big box in his hands. The box said; ‘Steam Diffuser’ on its side. Last he saw him wearing gloves wheeling around a wagon with the Steam Diffuser inside. He was releasing puffs of steam every time he scurried past a little crowd of people. He held the mister-nozzl
e behind him and was gone before the mist drifted away downstream.

  The vision ended showing Jeremy again what he’d seen before, the picture of the weeping sisters and the coffins being carried out of a house. The younger QuRellon was disgusted at his parents for dying. The look on his face suggested that he found their deaths unplanned and very inconvenient. When Jeremy was released he found that he was shaking all over. Mars was clenching his coat and the constables were leaning over him. Jeremy opened his eyes wide.

  “Mars, let me up!” he gasped.

  “Tie you down, more like,” the man grunted. “To that little hospital bed at the doctor’s office.”

  “No, listen!” he yelled. “It’s all QuRellon, don’t you see? The man wants to poison people! He’s not in it just for the profit or for the power! Those are secondary rewards to him!”

  “And how do you know that?” Mars demanded; his fists still clenched tight.

  “I just DO!”

  “Fine.”

  “If we don’t stop him now he’ll get away and do this again!”

  “I heard you.”

  “Let me go!”

  “You should see yourself, Jeremy. You look half-crazed. If I let you go you’ll get yourself killed.”

  Jeremy couldn’t get much of a swing from on the ground but he made a fist anyway. He punched Mars in the eye. He surged up from the ground when Mars reacted. Reaching his feet he backed away from contact. He straightened his coat and faced the small crowd.

  “Now listen,” he said to everyone. “I’m the Time Mechanic! Do you hear that? It doesn’t matter if you believe me or not. This mantle has fallen on me because this threat isn’t just against Tonturin. QuRellon has more cities to threaten and more plans of destruction. He’s been working on this for many years! It’s my mission to stop him!”

  “Time Mechanic?” stuttered Olpher.

  “All of you have a job, too!” Jeremy went on. “Get Surebelow distributed and empty that warehouse of product so no one can make a profit from it. Destroy the berries and every trace of poison! Prepare the people as best you can! Once our enemies see Tonturin protecting itself perhaps they won’t bother trying to attack. They might just try to get away!”