The Gadgeteer

Chapter 33

THE MAZE TO the gadgeteer's area was purely functional, designed to suppress sound - specifically explosions. As they came up on the centre, Melanie stayed back and waved Arabeth in. Arabeth was accustomed to other people treating her this way, but not Melanie. She stopped and frowned at her friend.

Melanie shrugged and waved her forward. "I'm not well-liked in there. I accidentally tossed out something that didn't look like a contraption in the making. Several parts were irreplaceable, and irretrievable."

Standing in the entrance, Arabeth cleared her throat.

Turning, Graham frowned, then approached her to quickly clasp her hand in greeting. "Arabeth, my friend, what brings you into this dismal place?" He caught sight of Melanie and frowned. "Come in. Meet the others."

"Thank you, Graham," she smiled, walking in.

He must have noted her confusion. He leaned close. "Are you here to get us out, or has Stein trapped you, too?"

"I came to see if you'd loan out your Calibrator for a day or three," Arabeth tried to keep her tone light.

"Ah, well, you should take it and go. I'm not going to be here much longer, anyway."

"What does that mean?"

He moved close enough to whisper. "I'm going to blow this place up in about..." he looked at his watch, "eighteen minutes. You need to leave, now."

"What's going on here?" she whispered back.

"They're planning an invasion, but they don't want to rule Blastborn. They want to destroy it." He let that sink in before continuing. "I have charges placed that will close this cavern forever."

A flurry of footfalls proceeded someone running into the area, skidding to a stop, and looking around. Graham and Arabeth took a step apart, looking to see who the new arrival was.

"Samuel Hicks?" Graham sputtered. "Are you lost?"

Sam spotted Arabeth and hurried over, taking hold of her arm. "You shouldn't be here."

"Vic Dane sent me to get him," she explained, remembering her cover story.

"Alas, I'm not sure I can break away right now...." He looked at a desk with scattered graph paper covering half of it, and metal bits on the other. "My current work is... critical."

"It's just for a half day. He needs your expertise in light and luminosity to solve his current dilemma. As well as the calibrator," she said, making a face.

"Technically, it's a spanner, but that makes your point, I suppose." He glanced at Melanie. "You may as well come in. We see you there."

Melanie inched forward but stopped.

The four stood in a tight circle, talking low.

"We need to leave—all of us," Graham said. "This place is going to fall apart slowly enough for the intelligent to get out in time, but irreversibly. I will explain later, and no, you can't change my mind."

"What do you mean?" Melanie asked, eyes wide.

A set of strong, steady footsteps thudded across the dirt floor, getting dramatically louder as they wove past the sound buffering panels.

"Another unscheduled visitor," Graham grumbled as he stood tall and turned to face the entrance. Sam pulled Arabeth behind him and did the same.

"Well, how are my favourite Makers doing tonight? Any new widgets, doomahickeys, or thingamabobs today?" An unreasonably tall, thin, well-tanned man in a four piece suit stepped into the light. Immediately behind him were three others, also in suits, though much less expensive, and much less tall and tan.

This would be Tanner Stein, she realized, and he wasn't tanned. That was his natural skin tone. His diction was flawless. His posture stood him taller than he actually was. Arabeth caught herself standing up taller, well-centred over her heels, as she'd been taught. She could match him in education, manners, and bearing, but she doubted that would be useful right now.

She peered around Sam to see Graham and Melanie, both of whom had changed their posture to be somewhat on guard.

"I said, what is new here? Surely the new girl has something to offer. A mannered guest knows to bring something on the first visit." He seemed to stare right through Sam to her.

Suddenly Graham reached over, took her hand and pulled her out of from behind Sam.

"I'm sorry, Sir. This is my fiancé. She snuck in. It won't happen again."

Sam said nothing, matching the posture and bearing of the other man.

Arabeth pulled her hand free, rubbing her arm. This shuttling around was embarrassing. What was he thinking?

"This is why we don't hire the married ones," he growled. "Why didn't you tell me you were engaged?"

"It happened all of a sudden, at a dinner last week," he said, blushing. "Her father hasn't given his blessing yet."

"So, it's not confirmed. Good. Miss Barnes, I hope you'll consider rebuffing his advances and staying on here, after your colleagues have briefed you. I need every gadgeteer I can get, and to have the two preeminent practitioners of the area under the same roof, metaphorically, is ideal. Working, not playing, Mister Halister. We can talk about the matter of your romantic entanglement later."

"I understand, Sir."

Melanie looked surprised, but no more than the rest of the people gathered.

"Miss Barnes, right now we need to talk about the manner of your work engagement. Follow me," Tanner Stein said.

He turned to talk to the people he'd arrived with and fired off his commands concisely and clearly. His military bearing was undeniable as he pivoted back to her on his heel. Not willing to admit she was intimidated in the least, Arabeth smirked and stepped forward to give a slight bow. Nothing subservient, just polite. Graham's revelation would no doubt bear out, but she was curious. There was no doubt he was an enemy, but there was no cause for enmity at this phase of their acquaintance. Besides, she still had one of her listening devices stashed away.

"Engaged?" Melanie mouthed the question as Arabeth walked over.

"And you're fired, Miss Trelane. We are a serious company, working on serious projects. I don't have time for games, whether she's your best friend or not."

"Wait, Sir. What?" she sputtered.

Graham nodded, looking amused, but Arabeth wasn't sure what to think.

"Amund, take Miss Trelane and Mr. Hicks to the exit. Miss Trelane," he held a hand out. "Your coin, please."