The Day of the Toymaker

by Clay Moore

  Minute by minute, the rest of the Secret Service trickled in by in ones and twos. Most of them were the same story, holes in their suit coats and empty magazines.

  Gladys came in with her group, and one of their numbers had his arm in a sling. Brian could see that the bandage was covering an actual wound in battle. Gladys’s usually perfectly coiffed hair was now a simple ponytail by the end of the day.

  Near the last was Rowena and Johnny. Her hands were bloody, and Johnny’s face looked like he had seen something evil. William had wanted to Shelter them from this fact, battle is not entertainment.

  Well, William did the only thing that he could do. He ran up to Rowena. She dropped his medical kit and accepted a fierce embrace. William broke the embrace and lifted up Johnny and included him in a three-person embrace.

  “Oh, William, I had no idea what a battle was like.”

  “The only thing I can say is that it will fade eventually.”

  “Does it? Does it really?”

  “The battles I fought during the Mexican war have started to dull in my memory. It has been five years ago. What has made them fade faster has been you, Rowena Candace, and you, Jonathan.”

  “Oh, Dad, you know I’m call Johnny.”

  “And how long has that been going on?”

  “Like always. Ever since I can remember I’ve been called Johnny-and-I-like-it.”

  “OK, Johnny and I like it.”

  “Oh, Dad.”

  Rowena and William laughed at Johnny’s discomfiture.

  “Let me make amends. I had the house kitchen Group prepare a sandwich and soup meal, and I think there are some sarsaparilla in a bottle for you.” William set down Johnny on the ground.” Dig in.”

  “Oh, boy.”

  William and Rowena watched Johnny run to the food. William turned to Rowena.

  “Aren’t you a little hungry?”

  “I am famished,” Rowena said. “I just did not want to look like a glutton.”

  “Get yourself a sandwich or a cup of soup and a beer.”

  “The Fulbrights never served beer to a woman.”

  “Yes, you are a woman, but first you are a person. In any marriage someone has to be the leader. A good leader does not do things by fiat. On any serious question he asks for opinion. And everybody involved expresses their opinion. He also expresses his own opinion. After a discussion on the points he comes up with a plan of action, and he sees if that meets with everybody’s approval.”

  “I love that, William. What if you were far away, who is the leader then. Sometimes I can’t wait until you send a letter back for approval of the solution.”

  “If I am not there, then it falls on your head.”

  She hugged William again. Then she surprised him by giving him a good firm kiss.

  “Let’s get ourselves a sandwich, some soup and a beer.”

  William picked up his medical bag and took it down to his gymnasium area. He dropped the medical kit, where he usually keeps it, and he went back upstairs. He made a sandwich He ate his lunch with a cold beer in his hand and Rowena standing beside him.

  The director wanted to talk over a plan to find Evangeline and eliminate her. The Director called for an all hands meeting in the Library for the next day. Rowena asked why, and the Director told her straight out that they still had to find and eliminate Evangeline.

  William had the misfortune to follow the the Director. Rowena was hot about the plan.

  “William, I absolutely forbid it. You’ve already stretched your neck out once for this thing to hack off your head. Once is enough. Has not our family done its share?”

  Williams stared at Rowena with a surprised look on his face. He did not expect this kind of friction. He had to see this through, and he had to make her know that he had to see it through.

  “Why do you and my brother feel like you have to deal with all of the whack-a-doodle problems.”

  “Because we are the only two available that have the knowledge and experience to deal with whack–a–doodle. I know that it is tough on you. I have thought that I should withdraw from our pending marriage plans, because I put my life on the line regularly. I don’t want to do that. I love you, and Johnny. My country needs the skills I have and also your brother’s skills.”

  They were sitting up in bed. By mutual agreement, William and Rowena slept with each other naked except for those times during the month for Rowena.

  “That is not what I want either,” Rowena said. “I love you. What I love about you is your love of country, and your love of me and Johnny. Johnny loves that little fort you built for him in the secret garden. I think he and his friends have more fun pretending to be Secret service agents. I can take the day to day operations of a secret service agent. I just can’t take it when you serve in the line of battle.”

  “Is that it? Because if it is, I can assure you that most of my cases will not involve fighting in the line of battle. This is that one unique case. The rest of our cases has to deal with figuring out what a machine was going to do when we raided a warehouse.”

  “I bet my brother was all over that machine.”

  “You would win that bet. For that matter I was all over that machine as well. Your brother is very good teacher.”

  “I was more interested in books and how to catalog them so that people could find material they needed easier. Yet, he tried to cram some of his weirder ideas into my head.”

  “Like what?”

  “I think you gave him an idea when you propose the change in the clockwork motorbikes. He doesn’t know everything about Electric motors, he just did not put them together with the more efficient clockwork winding mechanisms.”

  She ducked under his arm and put her hand on his chest.

  “He thinks that if you thought the whole thing through you could actually build a ship that can sink below the waves.”

  “Rowena, all ships can sink below the waves. It’s that getting them back up again that’s the problem.”

  She slapped his chest. “You know what I mean.”

  “I’ve been thinking, Rowena.”

  “About what?”

  “About our marriage. How fast can your mother and sister get here?”

  “If you could manage it, they could take the Rocket over here. That would be a single day on the train. I think my mother would love it. I think my mother is going to love you. My stepmother has always thought of herself as an adventuress. And you are nothing if not an adventurer.”

  “An adventure? I have an idea.”

  “I see that look in your eye,” Rowena said. “what do you have planned for my poor mother and sister.”

  “The Alexander is ready. They really need a long flight. Trip to Chicago and back would be just enough to shake down everything. This will be something that they could actually write in their journals. They could go back by the Rocket.”

  “What is the Alexander?”

  “It’s in airship. They essentially took a Navy ship retrofitted a gas envelope and a clockwork powered propeller. They estimated that they could make 600 miles a day. Two days up and two day’s down. Your mother has an adventure.”

  “I think I need to write her a letter rather than a telegram. My sister will do whatever my mom will do. Do you want them down here for what?”

  “I think I have a solution for you concerning your fear about losing me. Let’s get married at the end of this month.”

  Rowena looked at him with shock on her face. William took his forefinger and gently closed her mouth.

  “I take it that the idea meets with your approval.”

  “I don’t have a dress to wear.”

  “I think I can get a seamstress or two or three to help build your idea of a wedding dress. Do you mind them being freed slaves?”

  “No, I don’t mind it.”

  “Her name is Tilly, and she told me that she was a seamstress for her master. And she made quite a lot of ballgowns. I think she’s qualified to do your wedding dress
. She may need a couple of additional hands. I’ll send her over to you in a couple of days. I just need you to send that letter to your mother.”

  “What about your parents?”

  “I’ve already told them to stand ready, because I’m marrying you. I think I could send a telegram to them and they would be on the next train.”

  “Why does moving up the date for a marriage solve my problem?”

  “Because once I am married to you I am yours. You can never lose me, then.” He tapped the tip of her nose. She smiled and showed him how contented she was.

  Thomas had a different result with Gladys. She most emphatically did not like that he risked his neck, riding his clockwork motorbike into the middle of the clockwork soldiers. She told him he looked stupid, riding around with that strange hat with a slow smoking match in the brim.

  This was something that he just did not know how to handle. He was a college professor turned into a Secret Service Special Agent. He never for 1 million years ever thought that people would actually shoot at him. To have Gladys of all people upbraid him like he was some daredevil.

  “Where did all of this come from,” Thomas asked?

  “it all came out when I thought that I might lose you. I don’t want you trying to be like William. He’s had training in this.”

  “He’s training me in the things we do. He never asks me to do something unless he knows I can do it. He works with me. Fact I work out with him on his schedule. Maybe not with the same weights. I have flatten my stomach.”

  Gladys put her hand under his T-shirt; She rubbed his abdomen. It was indeed hard. There was no musculature visible, but the stomach was flat and hard. She felt her desire welling up, but she shut that down. She was angry at him, and she wanted him to know the full fury of her anger.

  “You wanted to be treated like any other special agent. William and I honored that. Why can you not honor my desire to do my job the way I want. When I first started out doing this I was nowhere near Williams physical capability. After our first mission here shamed me into doing exercises with him. I never understood what that was all about. About a month into it I suddenly realize that I could do things that I could not do before.”

  “I overheard William dictating a telegram to his parents. He was telling them that he was giving them a war warning. Little later on I found out that he called that a wedding warning. At the end of this month he is planning to get married. Do you want to do that with Rowena and William?”

  Thomas took a moment to think. If he married Gladys, then he was marrying someone who probably could die. If she wanted him, then he definitely wanted her.

  “Yes, if you would have me.”

  “I don’t know—of course I want you.”

  “Then let’s advance our wedding to their date if they will have us.”

  “I’ll talk with William. Rowena might be a bit tight on sharing her day.”

  “Sharing it with her brother? It would be special. Your stepmother and younger sister will be there.”

  “Yes, it is going to be special.”

  Today was the day for William and Thomas to work out together. William added boxing to Thomas’ workout. Thomas was on the speed bag. After the appropriate amount of time had passed, Thomas hit the speed bag hard and turned away. William cut the tape off of Thomas’ hand.

  “How do you think I’d fare in a fight with an enemy?”

  “I think you would win. Most common people think that all you have to do is start swinging to fight. You would bide your time and then hit with authority. I think your attitude has changed about developing the physical side as well as the mental side of the body.”

  “I was so one-dimensional before. Gladys has made me see the error of my ways.”

  “You love her, don’t you?”

  “I love her with every fiber of my being. If I lost her, I would be lost myself.”

  As if he were waiting to hear that from Thomas, William smiled and slapped him back.

  “I’m about to save you a whole lot of money. Rowena and I have decided to advance our wedding to the end of the month. I was wondering if you and Gladys might like to have your nuptials with ours.”

  Thomas thought that he would have to worm his way through a conversation to get to this point. Here William was bringing the subject up without any prompting from Thomas. The relief Thomas felt was beyond belief.

  “To tell you the truth this was something that Gladys and I discussed only when we found out that you were advancing your wedding date. We can’t wait either, so I’m telling you that we would be pleased to join our wedding with yours.”

  William administered another back slap to Thomas. He noticed that Thomas could take those better now. A lot had changed since the train ride from Springfield all those months ago. Thomas was still making the devices that William used. Yet, more than likely, Thomas would be following William into sticky situations.

  “Thomas, now that I have our wedding situations fixed, I want to talk about something else. I want to talk about Evangeline.”

  “Sounds like you think that she could actually think for herself.”

  “Is that possible?”

  “One of the things that I have learned is not to put a limit on the machine age. To produce that kind of mechanical intelligence is a product of pure tedium. You have to know about thought. Then you have to reduce it to series of mechanical code of some sort. You would need someone who had been training in the new field of psychology. Someone who actually has given a thought about thought. The toymaker just would not have the time to devote to that kind of thing and still produce toys for sale.”

  “He introduced her to us as his daughter. Why would he do that if he was not married?”

  “Somehow this couple could not have children. So like all of those children’s stories, he made his daughter. That mean that his wife would have been trained as a psychologist. Sometime after Evangeline came online the toymaker lost his wife.”

  “Evangeline claims to be able to learn, to get better. Every defeat she feels gives her a bit more understanding of the world. I believe that she retrofitted all of the automata with the wireless. She even had her own body changed to accommodate a wireless. Then they had to understand the dots and dashes of Morse code. I still think that the aluminum tape is in some form of Morse code that she invented.”

  Thomas scratched his chin. “Machine intelligence is not something that I have studied. I wonder if Rowena acquired some books on the subject?”

  “There’s only one way to find out.”

  “Do these showers that you had installed work?”

  “They sure do. The new hot water heater makes taking a shower fun now. You can have it any temperature you want.”

  Thomas smiled.; He put his gym clothes into a laundry bag. William had the staff collect it. Wash it; Dry it, and put it back in the gymnasium. The gymnasium ostensibly belonged to William, but it was used by all the other agents. Including other agents who were working at headquarters or elsewhere. They could come here and talk openly with the other agents.

  He took a shower and set it to the temperature that felt great. He almost did not want to get out of the shower. There was something for him to do, which made him get out of the shower, dry off, and get into his suit coat, slacks, and holster. Then he made his way up to the library.

  Rowena was behind her desk with some cards apparently for some new books that she had acquired for the library. He knew it would be no use asking Rowena if there were any books like what he wanted. She would just show him to the card catalog. He went to the card catalog chose the column that was about the subject. Amazingly there were three books on Machine language. The acquisition date that she put on those cards was a week ago.

  Thomas turned toward Rowena. She looked at him and smiled a knowing smile at him. In his notebook, he wrote down the book number. Before Thomas retrieved the book, he went to her desk.

  “I knew that you would be here for one of those books, ev
entually.”

  “How did you know? I did not even know that I needed it until today.”

  “Remember that discussion you had with William about the possibility of machine intelligence? You had it during breakfast.”

  “Yeah that was a couple weeks ago. We were just speculating.”

  “Whenever I hear special agents speculating about a topic, I check to see if there are books on that topic. Then I use my acquisition funds to get those books. That is what the library is for. I have noticed the Director down here in the library reading up on something.”

  “I noticed that you have built a rather specialized library, codes and code breaking along with counterfeiting Technologies. You do have a rather extensive general reference section. And I noticed that you have a special set of books behind the desk.”

  Rowena looked behind her and saw the two books of Audubon illustrated birds. “Anybody can look at them. But they are a large format book and they don’t fit in our shelves and I don’t want them out in the general area.”

  Rowena got up and pulled out one of the books. She opened the book to a random spot and turn it around for Thomas to see.

  “This is exquisite.”

  “Williams had the same sentiment if not the same word.”

  “Let me guess. He would say something along the lines of ‘these are great.’”

  “I think you know your partner pretty well. Did he talk to you about what’s going to happen at the end of the month?”

  “Yes, he did. Turns out that Gladys found out and she wanted me to ask him if we could tagalong on your ceremony.”

  “Oh, I wrote to Mama and she’s coming with Celeste. I think William has prepared an Adventure for her. Apparently your airship requires a shakedown cruise. Going to Chicago and coming back would be a good shakedown Cruise.”

  “Apparently an agent is required during the shakedown cruise. Since William had asked to send the airship to Chicago and back as a shakedown cruise, he will have to ride the ship in both directions.

  “You know it’s really great having a telegraph office inside of this house. I was able to telegraph Mama that an adventure would be coming to her house. She is over the moon wondering what it is.”