The World Of Steam

3

Stepping out of the laboratory, I looked around the dull, grey and brown smoke filled street, trying to figure out how to move forward in my path. A tiny little thing such as a missing scientist was going to be no large task. I would easily track him down and then I could go back to helping people who had much bigger problems. But with my simple task, came some questions that I had to make sense of. Kidnapping a scientist that held no answers seemed pretty pointless. There was nothing to gain from it. Not even the tiniest advantage. Maybe my main suspect was simply a madman, driven insane by the gas? Delusions and hysteria could make ordinary people do some stupidly drastic things. Kidnap, torture, murder. Maybe they had kidnapped him to use him as ransom? I had to work quickly, I did not want the guilty conscience of a dead scientist on my mind. They were the only people with some sense in this city of smoke. They were the only people that were actually trying to help us in this dark age. The doctors and the scientists were at the top of the list of people that had to survive the gas epidemic. Everyone else was irrelevant and only stood in the way. It was then that I spotted a pub within my sights. The owners and patrons were always hearing a lot of things, themselves refusing to keep their noses out of other peoples' businesses. They may have looked like any other ordinary person, but they heard and saw more than their ears and eyes allowed. Their brains were full of dirty secrets and information that could blackmail anyone. Slackers, drunkards, secret lovers. Most of their income came not from selling pints, but from selling information or accepting bribes to keep their mouths shut. It could work to my advantage. It was as good a place to start as any. Walking over to the pub, I pushed open the door and walked over to the owner, letting the door shut itself behind me. The pub was dark, only some small fractions of light emerging from the outside. Dust wafted about in the air clearly. The patrons all stared at me, abruptly stopping their conversations, as I made my way through the pub. The floorboards groaned and creaked beneath my every step, sounding abnormally loud. The patrons all began to whisper to each other, not seeming to enjoy my arrival. The owner noticed me as I walked over to him and put down the glass tanker onto the table, leaving the cloth inside it. He put his palms down onto the bar and stared at me as I came up to him. He was a big man and had his shirt sleeves rolled up, revealing his thick and hairy arms. I stopped at the bar.

"What will it be?" He asked me as everyone quietly returned to their drinks and resumed their conversations, much quieter than before. "Beer? Ale? A ridiculously strong beer that is almost likening to a spirit?"

"Nothing of the sort, thank you." I replied.

"So why are you here then?"

"I am looking for any information regarding a missing scientist. You see a lot of people, you hear a lot of things."

His eyebrows jumped up and down once as he nodded to me. "That is true."

"Have you heard anything about the missing scientist?"

"Not much. Although I did hear one of the patrons say that he was planning to move out of his own lab. I guess that he wanted to retire early."

"Did they say anything about where he was going?"

The owner shook his head. "Sorry, I can't help you there I'm afraid."

"Is the patron around?"

The owner pointed a fat finger behind me and I turned around, saw a frizzy-haired man sitting at a table, alone, staring at me. He held a half-finished beer in his hand. We were lucky that the hops had adapted to the polluted air. It was an agricultural miracle. I looked back towards the owner and nodded to him.

"Thanks."

He nodded back to me and I walked over to the patron, stopped behind the empty chair that was in front of him. I gestured to it.

"May I?"

The patron waved his hand to the seat lazily and I took the chair, pulled it back and sat down onto it. "What do you want from me?" The patron immediately asked me, not giving me a chance to greet him.

"What makes you think that I want something from you?"

"You walk in, you speak to the owner and then you sit down with me without ordering a beer."

"Some people like to come here to relax."

"There was an empty table four feet from the bar. You may be the only private detective in this godforsaken city, but it doesn't take a genius to figure out your intentions. You're not someone that engages in small talk. You need something from me." He sighed, not seeming to enjoy the situation that he was in. "Let's get this over and done with."

"What do you know about the missing scientist?"

He suddenly frowned, my question catching him off guard. "Missing?"

"Yes. I found his laboratory trashed with no sign of him. Anything will help. Even the tiniest piece of information. So I will ask you again, what do you know about him?"

The patron shrugged, going back to his relaxed expression. "Nothing much. The guy's a loner. He's got no assistants, he barely steps out of his lab, only for lunch I think, or to buy groceries. He's a complete hermit. All he does is conduct research and experiment with whatever he can find. He works like his life depends on it."

"Do you know anything about his disappearance that might be able to help me?"

The patron suddenly grinned, changing his mood in an instant. He chuckled at me, almost unpleasantly. His eyebrows jumped up and down once. "Depends on what you're willing to give me for the information."

I stared at him through my tinted gas mask goggles, not moving an inch. Pondering silently for five seconds, I reached into my coat and took out a chunk of green, polished glass, slid it over to him. He took it and examined it, frowned, not seeming the slightest bit pleased with the offer.

"What is this piece of junk? I want cash, not some piece of green glass."

"That piece of glass right there is natural aventurine. It is worth over fifty million pounds."

The patron's eyes widened with disbelief. His mouth twisted ever so slightly into a seemingly tiny glimpse of joy, but I knew that he was over the moon with the offer. It was not everyday someone became a random millionaire. "You're joking."

I shrugged. "If you do not want it, give it back."

The patron thought about it for half a second and then put the piece of rock glass into his shirt pocket, doing up the button. "Well, I do know one thing about the scientist's disappearance."

"And that is?"

"He's still alive."

"How are you so certain?"

"He may be a recluse, but he's smart. If someone did try to invade his lab, he would be out there in a flash. Back doors and everything. He's probably got some sort of outpost that he's hiding in."

"Does he have any enemies?"

"None as far as I'm aware of. I doubt that he even has any friends. He spends most of his days and nights working away at research."

"Anything else? There has to be more. The pub owner said that the scientist wanted to move out. An early retirement, he called it."

"Well, he was experimenting on something. I do not know what that something was. Green and red smoke doesn't just pour out of external gas vents naturally."

"Green and red smoke?"

"That's what I saw. I guess he found something and maybe moved to a place where he could work with no distractions." He shrugged at me. "Maybe he found a solution to the gas, who knows? But that's all I have for you."

I stared at the patron for a small moment and then nodded to him. "Good luck trying to sell that." I stood up from the table and made my way out of the pub, back into the city of poison.