Steven Harper - The Havoc Machine

“You don’t look scared.”

“Many of my pistons are moving faster, even though I don’t want them to. That makes me hot and pulls my skin covering tight. It’s also hard to keep still. I am scared.”

“Perhaps you should reassure him,” Sofiya said.

“How?” Thad said. “He’s an automaton. He’s only following a preset program.”

“Does a child of biology do anything more? You frightened him, and he saved both of us. Therefore it is your job to set things right again, whether he is a machine or not.”

Thad ran his tongue around the inside of his cheek. “All right. Listen, Nikolai, I didn’t intend to frighten you or speed up your pistons or tighten your skin.”

“You don’t mean those words.” Nikolai kept his eyes on the book. “Your voice is…is…”

“I believe you want the word sarcastic ,” Sofiya supplied.

“Sarcastic. That’s wicked. Isn’t it?”

Sofiya nodded, a small smile on her lips. “And so soon after you saved him. I wouldn’t have thought it.”

“Why do you care?” Thad demanded. “What does any of this matter to you?”

“Should it not matter?” Sofiya returned.

“Look, I don’t want-all right.” Thad changed his tone. “I’m sorry, Nikolai. I didn’t want to scare you. Here.” And he patted Nikolai on the shoulder. “And…thank you. For saving me. Us. You did…good work.”

“I think that’s better.” Nikolai gave a little sigh. “I feel…slower. That is the proper way for a papa to behave.”

Thad wanted to be angry again, but he was just too tired. “Certainly, Niko, certainly.”

This seemed to satisfy the little automaton even further, and went back to paging through his book. “‘The victim of the cuckoo’s brood parasitism will feed and tend the baby cuckoo, even when the baby pushes the natural-born offspring out and begins to outgrow the nest,’” he read aloud. “‘On the rare instances that the parasitized parents abandon the baby cuckoo to build a new nest elsewhere, the mother cuckoo who laid the parasite egg will follow the parasitized parents and destroy their new nest, thus encouraging them to continue raising her offspring.’”

Sofiya leaned forward again and tapped Thad on the knee.

“You still have not explained to me what you were thinking,” she said. “Or what you were doing. Or what you found.”

Thad automatically glanced round, but saw no sign of spiders. “We must find a way to kill Mr. Griffin, and for that I need information. To tell the truth, I don’t think he’s on this train.” And he explained his reasoning.

“No,” Sofiya said when he finished. “He is in that boxcar.”

“How do you know that?”

“He told me he would be there.”

“And he would never lie?”

“Mr. Griffin is very careful about his safety. Ocean liners sink. Airships crash. Trains are not perfect, but they are the best choice. Being in a boxcar would not bother him in the slightest.”

“How long have you worked for him?”

“Not quite six months.”

“Sofiya, you need to tell me everything you know about him. You have to understand that his only concern is his plan or his research. People mean nothing. The moment we become less than useful, he’ll have no compunctions about destroying us.”

She nodded slowly. “I have come to see that over time. But I cannot escape him. I tried once, and it ended…badly.” She lifted her chin, and the scar became more visible in the glow of the train’s lanterns. “He does pay well.”

“How much money is worth your sister’s life?” Thad countered. “Look, you know what I do for a living. And I can see you’re extremely intelligent and capable. Between the two of us, we can find a way out from under his thumb.”

“He is far more intelligent than both of us put together,” she said doubtfully. “But…he does have weaknesses. I have seen them.”

“Like what?” Thad tried not to pounce.

“He never comes out in public, and I have never met him in person,” Sofiya said. “Like you, I have only spoken to him through the speaker box. He worries overmuch about his personal safety. This is both strength and weakness. He wants-wanted-Havoc’s machine very, very badly, though I do not know why he wanted it or what the machine did. I am surprised he did not lose his temper when you failed to bring it to him.”

“I don’t like the word failed ,” Thad growled.

Sofiya waved this away. “His spiders do quite a lot for him, but they cannot do everything, which is why he hired me. And you. And the circus. Sometimes he makes me hire other men for him. I have already telegraphed Saint Petersburg for men to haul his boxcars away when we arrive.”

“I wonder.” Thad drummed his fingers on the seat. “Perhaps the speaker box gives him some sort of…barrier or filter that lets him handle people effectively.”

“Perhaps,” Sofiya agreed. “You took a terrible and foolish risk out there. If he had seen you, he would have assumed your horse taught you nothing and killed someone in this circus.”

“He didn’t see me.”

“He would have, if I hadn’t come. I just hope he doesn’t notice that a spider went missing.”

Thad changed the subject. “Where did you get that pistol?”

“I bought it.” She touched her skirt. “It will take a great deal of cranking to recharge the battery now.”

“I can help,” Nikolai put in. “But I will need strong brandy first.”

“Thank you, little one,” Sofiya said absently. “Perhaps later. What did you learn of him, Thad? Since you risked so much, I hope you brought something back.”

“He travels with a lot of equipment,” Thad replied, “but I don’t think it’s all research or laboratory equipment. It’s for something else. A lot of copper and glassware. Delicate. That may be one of the reasons he needs to travel by train.”

“Glassware. Hm. What did-”

Two children tumbled into their seating area with giggles and gasps. They had dark hair and eyes and were clearly brother and sister. “Buon giorno!” the girl said.

Thad’s Italian was poor-he was better with Eastern languages. But he could get along. “Buon giorno, Bianca e Claudio,” he said. Nikolai looked up sharply.

“Chi e questo?” Claudio Tortelli asked, pointing at Nikolai. Claudio was eight, and hadn’t started flying with the family act yet, though he expected to soon. Bianca, a year older, was already flying with her mother Francesca.

Thad hesitated again. This was awkward, and one of the reasons he had wanted to put Nikolai in one of the baggage cars or in the wagon car with Sofiya’s mechanical horse.

“Il suo nome e Nikolai,” he said at last. “Lui e un…automa.”

“Automa?” Bianca leaned forward, crowding into the seating area. “Non appare come un automa. Fammi vedere.”

“She doesn’t think you’re an automaton,” Thad said to Nikolai. “She wants to see.”

Nikolai, who had been watching this exchange with quizzical interest, set his book aside and pulled down the scarf that hid his face. Bianca and Claudio drew back at the metallic jaw and flat nose. Then Claudio leaned back in.

“Mi piace,” he said. “Chi ti ha costruito?”

“He likes it and wants to know who built you,” Thad translated.

“Puh!” Bianca said. “Schifoso!” And she fled. Nikolai wordlessly rewrapped his face. Thad wanted to slap the girl. Sofiya sighed.

Claudio gave another burst of Italian.

“He wants you to play with him,” Thad said. “He says he has toys and things up where his parents are sitting, if you want to come.”