Gears and Steam

Sludge

Jules

Edmund was going to let me help! He was still glaring at me, so I wasn't too sure about Freddie's statement about me getting on his good side, but at least he was letting me do something. I was glad to finally be able to do something worthwhile. Learning how Edmund's car worked wasn't exactly important to my mission, but the more useful I was, the more they would trust me, right?

The mechanic stomped down the narrow staircase in front of me. His mood had worsened since he was informed that we would be racing Raven Key. I doubted that it was because Raven Key was just a good team. I didn't want to pry though. That's what Freddie had told me when I started: don't ask any questions about his past. I was curious, of course, but all I needed to do was not get fired for the next month.

We entered the shop, and Edmund slipped his goggles onto his eyes, walking over to the car without saying a word to me. He hooked up the car to his chain contraption to lift it off the ground. When it was about a half a meter off the ground, he laid down and slid underneath it. I watched him for a few minutes as he grabbed random tools and muttered under his breath. Despite him saying that I could help, I was starting to think that he wasn't going to let me do anything after all.

I wanted to ask him what I should be doing, but I didn't want to risk angering him more. I decided to look around the shop, something I should have done yesterday. Edmund shouldn't mind me having a look around, as long as I didn't touch anything. Most of the shop was just filled with random broken parts and scrap metal. Nothing really caught my interest until I found a piece of paper pinned to the wall near Edmund's workbench. I tripped over a pile of scrap trying to get a better look at it. It took me a minute to make out the text:

Floyd Thompson (1 Year)

Archie Wilson (5 Days)

Douglas Winston (1 Week)

Gilbert Finnigan (12 Days)

Hugo Smith (4 Days)

Otto Johnson (2 Weeks)

Elmer Preston (11 Days)

Harvey Williams ( 8 Days)

Henry Blake (1 Week)

Edgar Harris (2 Hours)

Jules Vincent

My name was the only one not scratched out, so I assumed that this was a list of Edmund's past assistants. The time must be how long they lasted. The first name, Floyd Thompson, was almost completely illegible, having been scratched out more than the others, but if I was reading it correctly, he was part of the team for a year. He was the first, maybe that's why he had lasted so long. Edmund had told me not to mention him. Judging by how his name had been scratched out, he was a sore spot in Edmund's past.

"Hey, Edmund," I said, raising my voice, so he could hear me across the room. "Are these your old assistants?"

"Yes," Edmund called back. "Don't ask about them."

"I just have one question, and it's about the guy that only lasted two hours."

"Edgar?"

"Yeah, what happened with him?"

Edmund stuck his head out from under the car. "I may or may not have yelled at him until he cried."

"Why?"

"I was in a bad mood."

"Aren't you always in a bad mood?" I chuckled, hoping he wouldn't get mad at me for the joke.