The Gadgeteer

Chapter 14

HICKS WAS NOWHERE to be found, and no one had seen him for hours. She should have gone to the restaurant, she supposed. She'd start again in the morning.

For tonight, she'd shift her focus. An idea had hit her as she rode around. She needed a hand building something new - a device capable of detecting frequencies beyond regulated radio transmission ranges. It was only a matter of time before the person broadcasting the Crazy signal worked out how to get around the interference. Arabeth needed to get on this now.

She chuckled to herself at the irony. The only person with enough experience and knowledge for this currently blamed her for everything important that had gone wrong in his life.

Melanie was still sleeping, so Arabeth left some food at her bedside and came back to feed Marble and herself. Most of her anger had burned off, but not her focus. As she stood at the kitchen counter looking out the window, eating a late supper of fried egg and toast, she pondered how best to get Graham on board with her new idea.

Graham may hate her, but she needed him to build a frequency jammer that worked outside radio frequencies safely. He was older than her by about ten years, and a little too set in his ways for a Tinker. She wasn't even sure such a thing had been invented yet, but someone had to be the first.

She looked over at Marble; as usual, the fox sat off to one side, politely, as though watching to see if it was time for her second dinner. Arabeth held out some egg white for her and Marble took it gently, immediately looking for more.

Sam was easy to blame right now, and she wanted to scratch at his wound to see what was causing him to act the way he was. Or maybe have the locks changed until she got the truth from him. That would be the wisest course. He was supposed to be the stable person in her life.

A thought crept to the fore of her mind: Why had Bernie warned her about Larry? Everyone knew Larry was not Arabeth's biggest supporter, but had he turned against her entirely?

Maybe she needed to reset a few of the home alarms and defenses. She'd disabled them when she came back as a married woman. Now she lived alone and single, surrounded by what were debatably some of the most valuable inventions in town, and those she had long known as allies were starting to change into something else.

She thought that now, maybe, she could understand why her grandfather had been just the slightest bit paranoid. Alright, seriously paranoid, but only about his work. Apparently, she hadn't broken the habit of trusting the wrong people with some fairly big secrets.

Against her will, the memory of the hospital returned. She couldn't accept what she'd seen, although she was also certain it was true. How could it be real?

Shivering, she turned away from the counter and went to her workshop. Maybe there was something in there she could bribe Graham with, something that would gain his cooperation. She was sure the signal causing violence was connected to Dawson's murder, but who would use a large, bladed farming tool in the city? The unusual choice of weapon meant it was likely premeditated.

There was a place in town that sharpened those blades. But the specialist normally went to the farm to do the sharpening, so why not this time? Legwork wasn't her thing. She'd have to call a few more runners unless Bernie's team started showing up.

She bit her lip. Hopefully her questions hadn't landed any of them in danger. And as for Graham, tomorrow she would start Operation Reparation. It wasn't her fault he was dragged off to prison, but it was her who'd got him out. He owed her for that, even if he refused to admit it.

A rapid succession of soft knocks on the door made her jump. Walking over, she pushed the curtain to one side and looked out. Hicks stood there, looking grim.