Gentleman's Clockwork

Chapter 1

Kidnapping a detective proved to be a much simpler task than it sounded.

Reign boarded the train and took his seat. He wore a camel colored coat with long sleeves that covered his arms, round spectacles, and a bowler hat sat atop his brown hair. He also wore a pair of elegant gloves, any self respecting gentleman needed a good pair of gloves. His had little slots over the knuckles, and a lattice of gears and strings that worked its way up his arm.

He un-cranked the compartment above his head and gently stuffed in his briefcase. It was just an act of course, as he had everything he needed on him.

A few days back his group received a letter from a wife who claimed her husband, a detective by occupation, had cheated on her. She requested he be captured before he manages to leave town, and brought to a location where she could discreetly beat the gears out of him.

A bit of an odd and even petty request, but the number of screws at the bottom of the letter was enough to ensure their time would not be wasted.

Reign did not know the exact details of the task, for he had been too distracted during the briefing trying to think of a poem involving the words 'screws' 'screwer' and 'screwed', but he got the main idea.

He spotted his target boarding the train a few isles down- The man was slender, and looked like he hadn't slept in a few days. He neither fit the description of a detective nor casanova.
He wore glasses comprised of many spectacles that could be flipped atop each other to enlarge what he was looking at.

The train departed, and Reign watched him for a while.

He would shift his many spectacles forwards and back in perfect intervals of 12 and a half seconds, like sort of a nervous tick.

He seemed distracted by something,
and jumped a little when a clockworker approached to offer him a drink from its tray.

Reign checked his wristwatch. He had been a little too focused and lost track of time.

As he made his way to the detective, Reign adjusted the gears on his glove. A small, pale-white glass pill loaded into the slot over his knuckles.

The detective accepted a drink and Reign arrived just as he began to hand the machine a few screws.

Reign cleared his throat, and put his fist in front of the man's face.

"There once was a man, unfaithful, a loose screw. Oh how ironic that screws- wait, no, that's not right."

The man's eyes Widened.

"Well. I could have sworn I had it memorized a minute ago."

Before the man could let out a yell Reign pulled the string on his glove which released a round of morphine directly into the man's face. His eyes rolled back as he passed out.

"I'll just have whatever he was gonna get." Reign said as he handed the robot the screws, took his drink, grabbed the unconscious man, kicked the entry door open, and hopped off the train.

Reign landed on the back of Frank's car, which swerved under the weight.

Frank was a tall, well built man in his late 40's. all that was left on his head were thinning wisps of hair, but his impressive mutton chops more than made up for it.

He wore a black vest over his white shirt that folded at the elbows, and a pink necktie with silly little characters on it that looked like a child would pick out of a store.

''Not good,'' Frank yelled over the sound of the churning train, "I thought you'd be quicker and hung around the train for too long, I think we were noticed!"