by L. C. Mawson
Thankfully, Ivy didn’t take too long in finding a machine that she could work with, whispering instructions to the spider before setting it off.
Ruth took that as her cue, heading for the stairs just as there was an almighty clash followed by a hissing noise. The guards near the stairs, along with all of the others, headed to the sabotaged machine. By the time they found her spider, she, Ivy and Michel would be hopefully long gone.
Ruth bounded up the stairs, taking them two at a time. She couldn’t waste time when someone might be dissecting her friend.
She frowned. Was it still dissecting when they were mechanical?
She pushed away the morbid thought as she reached the office, thankfully finding it unlocked. She entered to see Michel alone, and shackled to the far wall.
“Michel!” she cried, hurrying over to him.
“Ruth, no!” he said as the door clicked closed behind her, quickly followed by a faint hissing noise. “It’s a trap. Run!”
“I’m not leaving you,” she said, her voice firm despite her thundering heart, but found herself choking back a cough as the room flooded with a white mist. “What is thiiiiiiissss...”
She was unconscious before she hit the floor.
13
Ruth awoke in a dark room that smelled faintly damp. She could feel that she was strapped to a chair with some rather thick rope, and the air around her had a deathly chill. Her hair and clothes felt slightly damp, though she couldn’t figure out why. Her best guess was that whatever had knocked her out had caused her to sweat profusely as it passed through her system. It occurred to her that, if she was left alone for too long, she would probably dehydrate.
Though, she supposed that would happen anyway. It just might have taken longer before.
She wasn’t sure how long she had spent trying to wriggle her way out of the ropes and hop on the chair so that it would break before a door opened at the other end of the room, finally allowing light through. All Ruth knew was that her wrists were raw and bleeding from her efforts, making her hands slick with blood.
The man from the day before entered the room, carrying a lamp in one hand, and a pistol in the other.
“So,” he said as he put the lamp down on the floor next to him, just out of Ruth’s reach, “you’re The Owl. I can’t say that I’m impressed.”
“And you’re the thief who stole my plans,” Ruth replied, impressed by her own ability to keep her voice from wavering. “I was expecting someone... Well, not you.”
His right eyebrow quirked up slightly. “Oh, I wasn’t the one who stole from you. No, such messy work was someone else’s job. I am simply the man who saw an opportunity that you were foolish enough to squander.”
“Selling slaves? Even Americans don’t do that anymore.”
“They’re not people,” he countered. “It’s not the same.”
Ruth rolled her eyes. “Of course you would say that. Morality is easily bent by men like you when it becomes inconvenient.”
“Men like me?”
Ruth just glared. “Men who are incapable of thinking of the consequences of their actions. Or, perhaps, you’re incapable of caring.”
“Says the woman fuelling the British Empire.”
“I don’t build weapons.”
“Which, of course, absolves you of any wrongdoing the rest of your inventions may be put to. And what of your inevitable demise? What is to stop Queen Victoria from using your mechanical men in her army then? All I’m doing is preemptively evening the playing field.”
“All for a tidy profit, I assume.”
The man just grinned. “Well, that doesn’t hurt. And I suppose you build your machines for free?”
Ruth couldn’t come up with an answer to that fast enough.
The man in front of her lifted his pistol, bringing it right between her eyes.
Ruth couldn’t help but shudder at that, though she did manage to withhold a whimper.
“I have a simple proposition for you,” the man said. “Work for me instead, here in Paris. You can have all of the comfort of home, and all of the tools you could possibly need.”
“And be considered a traitor to the Crown? You might as well pull that trigger now. I would be a dead woman.”
“I have the means to keep you safe.”
“Ah yes, your mechanical men? Well, unfortunately, I have managed to fashion a weapon to use against them, and the men who brought me here are aware of it. It won’t take them long to build their own.”
“Then you can improve the mechs so that this weapon no longer poses a problem.”
“You are overestimating my abilities.”
“Oh, I’m pretty sure that I’m not. So, what do you say? Work with me and live, or die here?”
Ruth sighed, not really seeing another way out.
“Fine. I suppose working with you can’t be worse than death,” she relented.
The man’s grin widened as he put the pistol into a holster on his side and taking a knife out to replace it. He cut away the rope, and Ruth did her best not to flinch at his proximity.
“You’ve managed to create quite a mess of yourself,” he said as he examined the damage to her wrists. “Not to worry, I have a doctor on staff. She can take a look once you’re securely in the workshop.”
Ruth nodded as he led her out of the dark room and to a dimly lit corridor. There were no windows or other doors, just a flight of stairs leading up. She assumed this meant that they were underground.
“In front of me,” the man said, bringing his gun back out and holding it to the small of her back. “Any attempt to escape before we reach the workshop will result in your swift demise.”
“Not if you shoot me there it won’t,” she muttered. She would still die if he didn’t get her medical attention, but it wouldn’t be swift.
He ignored her, instead pushing her up towards the light at the top of the stairs.
14
As Ruth reached the top of the stairs, she found that she was back on the factory floor. She must have been underneath the factory the whole time, she figured, as the man pushed her along the wall.
Ruth kept her eyes on the machinery, looking for a familiar glint of her own creation. She, of course, had no idea how long she had been unconscious. Perhaps Ivy had already left. Perhaps they only had moments before Captain Hall brought his men.
“You know that the people who brought me here know about this factory, right?” Ruth asked, her eyes still scanning.
“Of course. We are in the process of moving to another factory, but it will take time.”
“They may not give you time. Especially if I don’t report in.”
“They won’t risk hurting you.”
“If that was true, they wouldn’t have let me come here in the first place.”
“Perhaps they had no choice. Perhaps you were the best bet for getting past the machines. Perhaps you didn’t want to share your new weapon, for fear of it being used against your own mech.”
Ruth just shrugged as she finally spotted the familiar glint of spider-like legs on top of one of the factory machines. She moved her hand so that three fingers were clearly visible against her leg, hoping that the predesignated parameters would kick in. She hadn’t tested the visual input systems as thoroughly as the audio.
The spider scuttled away, and she hoped that was good for her.
The man brought her back upstairs to the office, but it no longer looked much like an office. Michel was still there, shackled to the wall, but the desk had been replaced with a workbench and everything else had been stripped out to provide more tools. She wondered just how quickly they had managed to change the room, and couldn’t help but think that it was indicative of her being unconscious for longer than was preferable.
She wished that she had a window so that she could tell how close to sunset they were.
“Unshackle him,” Ruth said to the man, indicating to Michel.
“Why?”
“Because he
can help me and because it’s inhumane.”
He looked uncertain and Ruth sighed.
“Look, either you unshackle him, or I waste both of our time by doing it myself with the tools in here. Your choice.”
The man took a moment to regard her carefully before reaching into his pocket to retrieve a key. He walked over to Michel and unshackled him before heading back to the door.
“Start working on a defence for your weapon,” the man said as he paused at the door. “I’m going to start evacuating everyone with the vital equipment. I’ll be back for you before sunset.”
“With more knock-out gas?”
“We’ll see.”
He locked the door behind him.
Ruth sighed, turning back to Michel. “Oh, thank goodness you’re alive,” she said as she threw her arms around him. “Or, well, operational. I thought they might have tried to dismantle you.”
“That was their plan, but then they decided to wait and see if you came for me. They didn’t want to break me if they could get you to help them instead.”
Ruth folded her arms. “Well, they have me now.”
“I thought you wouldn’t work with them. I was sure that they would end up killing you.”
“I wasn’t going to force their hand. Not when I still have a plan.”
“Captain Hall’s men storming the factory?”
“No. That’s the final plan.”
They heard a loud clash of metal below them and the floor shook.
“That’s the current plan.”
“What was that?” Michel asked.
“Ivy, I think. Can you help me get this door open?”
“If I could, he wouldn’t have unshackled me.”
“Hmm, you have a point there,” Ruth agreed as she reached into her jumpsuit, extracting a smaller version of her disrupter from beneath her corset. “I’m very glad he didn’t think to search me that thoroughly...”
“You built another disrupter?”
“Well, I couldn’t easily conceal the bigger one. Not without rearranging my organs. This one was painful enough as it was...”
“And you used the same smaller aether core as for your spiders?”
“Exactly.”
“Will it be able to disrupt the larger cores?”
“That is the question of the day, I’m afraid. Hopefully, it will at least give them pause, if nothing else.”
“Well now, I’m just brimming with confidence.”
Ruth smirked proudly at the appropriate use of sarcasm. “Well, the plan is not to need it at all.” She moved over to the work bench, seeing the plans. “Is there any hope that these are the originals?”
Michel shook his head. “The man from before keeps them on him.”
“Then we need to find him,” Ruth said before rolling up the copies and placing them on the workbench, using the blowlamp to burn them to ash.
The door clicked open before they had the chance to figure out just how to do that. Ruth raised her disrupter, ready to stop any mechs that might try to move her, only to see her little spider move around the door from the lock.
“Aw, did Ivy send you back up to find us?” Ruth asked as she held her hand out, allowing the spider to step onto it.
It gave a little nod along with an affirmative click.
“Thank you. Do you think you can find the man in charge and attach yourself to him?”
It gave another nod before scuttling off.
“What good will that do?” Michel asked.
“Hopefully, Ivy’s goggles will help us to track him down. We just need to find her.”
“Her goggles?”
“Long story,” Ruth said, heading out of the office door and down the stairs, running right into Ivy.
“Oh good,” Ivy said with a relieved smile. “I was worried your spider might not have gotten you out.”
“How long have we got until the machines break down?”
Ivy bit her lip before answering. “Weeeellll, I wouldn’t exactly call it breaking down.”
“What would you call it?”
“An explosive dismantling.”
Ruth sighed. “We have to run, don’t we?”
“That would be best.”
Ruth followed close behind Ivy as they headed to the door, Michel keeping close behind her in turn. They bolted towards the closed door, all three of them staying as tight as they could in an effort not to lose each other in the chaos surrounding them. Once they made it, Ruth and Ivy moved to either side, allowing Michel to step up to the door. He brought his solid metal leg to the door and gave it a deafening kick, blowing it from its hinges.
They spilled out into the street, making it to the other side just as they heard a series of crashing noises that had Ruth clutch at her trouser leg so hard that the fabric began to rip apart at the seam down her thigh.
Ruth turned back to see that there was smoke billowing out through the door they had just escaped through, dissipating about halfway down to them.
“Did everyone else get out?” Ruth asked.
Ivy shrugged. “I think so. I didn’t see anyone during our escape.”
“What about the surrounding buildings? Will the fire spread?”
“The smoke isn’t from an open flame, just the inside of the equipment. The machines will be beyond repair, but there shouldn’t be any other damage.”
Ruth gave a grateful nod at that before Michel spoke up.
“What about the man in charge?” he asked. “He is getting away with your plans.”
Ruth turned back to Ivy. “My spider should be on him. Can you use your goggles to track it?”
She shrugged, bringing them back down over her eyes. She gave a frustrated hum, pulling them off to clean the smoke residue from them before putting them back on.
“I can’t see it,” she said as she looked around. “It’s probably too small.”
“Now what?” Michel asked.
Ruth bit her lip as her stomach churned. While destroying the factory was a move in the right direction, they still couldn’t leave until they had the plans, and now that he knew that they were after him, the man would probably try to flee the city.
“Can’t you use Michel to track them?” Ivy asked. “I mean, it worked with the other mechs.”
“Yes, but that only worked because they were using the same aether cores. The spider has the smaller one.” She waved her small disrupter in illustration.
“Can’t you use your disrupter to track it?”
“I have no way of interpreting the resonance,” Ruth said, before being struck by inspiration. “Actually, that might not be true. Come on, I need somewhere to work.”
ABIGAIL WASN’T EXACTLY happy with the three scruffy and dishevelled people taking up a table at her cafe, especially with one of them looking so obviously inhuman, but Ivy took the time to smooth things over as Ruth got to work.
“What did you say to calm her down?” Ruth asked as Ivy brought her a cup of coffee.
“I told her Thomas would more than pay for our visit here.”
Ruth smirked. “I suppose that’s one way to handle a social situation, but you can explain that to Thomas.”
“Oh, I think that once we’re no longer actually causing problems for Captain Hall, he will be more than distracted.”
“And if not?”
“Then I will make sure to nudge the two of them together. It would be a shame if they let this whole thing get in the way of their happiness.”
“You mean it would be a shame if an officer of the Crown let the fact that the man he is interested in is a possible traitor get in the way of their potential relationship?”
“Well, exactly.”
Ruth shook her head as she continued to rearrange the metal parts around the disrupter. After a few moments, she finished with that section of her work, sitting back with a sigh as she started on her coffee.
“Is there anything I can help with?” Ivy asked.
Ruth was about to say no, as
it was really a one-person job, but then she remembered that she was supposed to be teaching Ivy. Not that the girl had much left to learn, but Ruth felt bad that she probably hadn’t been that attentive to her student. Ruth tended to leave the younger woman to her own projects, only giving her a helping hand when asked. It was an arrangement that suited Ruth quite well, but it hadn’t occurred to her that Ivy might have expected more from her tutelage under the great Owl.
“I was going to hook this up as a secondary core for Michel,” Ruth said, showing Ivy the small disruptor's rearrangement. It no longer had a handle or a trigger, just the barest of casing around the core. “It shouldn’t take much reworking in his chest to attach it, and then he can use it to track down the spider.”
“Okay,” Ivy said, waiting expectantly.
Ruth realised she hadn’t made her intent clear. “You should do it,” she said. “Rather than just watching me, I mean.”
“I...” She turned to Michel. “What if I break you?”
Michel gave one of his little half smiles. “I do not believe that you will. I trust you, Ivy.”
Ruth got the distinct impression, by the way the younger woman quickly nodded silently, that Ivy would be blushing if her skin was lighter.
“I’ll do my best,” she promised, before turning back to Ruth.
Ruth nodded to show that she was still there and keeping an eye out, though she was sitting back in her chair and languidly sipping her coffee. She didn’t want Ivy to think that she was perching like a hawk, just waiting for the smallest slip. Much like Michel, she trusted Ivy. The girl might have only just to get the hang of working on her own projects, but that was a far step up from simple maintenance and upgrading. Especially when she was already so familiar with Michel’s make-up.
By the time Ruth was finished with her coffee, Ivy was pulling away from Michel’s chest and lifting up her goggles.
“That should do it,” she said, looking awkwardly between the other two.
“Well, time to see if it works,” Ruth said as she sat up straight.
“It will,” Michel said, and Ruth realised that she might have sounded as if she didn’t believe in Ivy’s abilities, which wasn’t the case at all.
