Steven Harper - The Doomsday Vault

Click turned his head but didn’t look at her.

“ And the steel wool.”

Click stalked to the bottom of the slide, sniffed at the bottom, then sank all eighteen brass claws into the wood and clattered his way upward like a careful feline spider. In moments, he had climbed out of view.

“That’s very clever,” Alice called after him, “but it doesn’t get me up there. Do you see a lever or a button or a-”

Clank. With another clatter, the slide re-formed itself back into steps. Alice clutched at her handbag. “Is it safe to come up, then?”

She heard a mechanical meow from the darkness above.

“Was that a yes or a no?”

She heard another meow.

With a sigh, Alice climbed the steps, taking her time and testing each one. It was exhausting work, but she refused to take chances. About halfway up, she found Click on a landing near a lever. It was pushed upward and pointed toward a sign that read OFF. Other choices included ON, EXPEL, and DEATH. Alice wondered what the original setting had been.

“You’re a very clever cat,” she said.

They continued to the top of the stairs and the door Alice had seen earlier. She knocked politely. “Mr. Ennock?”

He knocked back. “I’m still here.” His voice was muffled. “Can you open the door from that side?”

She threw the bar, but the door itself was still locked, and no convenient key hung from any nearby hook. A quick examination of the lock showed it to be another poisoned time lock, but this door looked distressingly solid.

“I’m afraid it won’t budge,” Alice said. “Just a moment. Click, give me your left forepaw, please.”

Click held up the appendage indicated, and it clattered to the floor. Alice took it up, depressed a hidden switch, and all six claws extended with a little shwing noise. She inserted a claw into the lock.

“Are you trying to pick it?” Gavin asked from the other side.

“No.” Alice heard a sproing and a clink. She withdrew the paw to peer into the lock, where she found to her satisfaction that both needles had deployed against the hard brass of Click’s claw and paw, harmlessly discharging the poison and bending the needles into ruin to boot. “Much better.” She handed the paw back to Click, who reattached it, and checked with the lock again.

“Light, if you please, Click.”

With another pop , Click illuminated the door. Alice unrolled her tools again and this time set to work for real. Her own automatons came with little locks meant to hold them shut, and Alice had assembled dozens of locking mechanisms over the years.

“ You are trespassing on my property ,” boomed a woman’s voice. “You have one minute to vacate my tower, or face the consequences.”

Alice was so startled, she dropped the lockpicks. It was Aunt Edwina’s voice, though Alice only vaguely remembered it from her childhood. She glanced around for the source but saw nothing.

“What was that?” Gavin asked through the door.

“A minor problem,” Alice replied. “I suggest you gather any possessions you want to bring, Mr. Ennock. Our exit is likely to be hasty.”

She set back to work on the lock. A always led to B always led to C. She could do this.

“You are trespassing on my property. You have thirty seconds to vacate my tower, or face the consequences.”

Sweat trickled down Alice’s neck and into her corset, but she ignored it and selected another tool. Click held the light steady, though she had to force her fingers not to shake.

“ You are trespassing on my property ,” boomed Aunt Edwina. “You have fifteen seconds to vacate my tower, or face the consequences.”

The lock gave. Alice stuffed her tools into her handbag and shoved the door open. Gavin was waiting on the other side, hands empty and violin case strapped to his back. He had striking white-blond hair-no hat-eyes the color of a summer sky, and a startlingly handsome face. He also looked slightly younger than Alice had originally thought-seventeen or eighteen.

“I’m ready,” he said. “And you’re amazing.”

“Oh!” Alice said. “Thank-”

“ You are trespassing on my property ,” boomed Aunt Edwina. “You have five seconds to vacate my tower, or face the consequences.”

“Run!” Alice grabbed Gavin’s hand and fled down the stairs. Click followed.

“What do you think will happen?” Gavin asked as they made the first turn.

A crash vibrated the steps and made them both glance over their shoulders. A vat that was painted to look like part of the wall at the top of the stairs tipped over, spilling an evil-looking liquid that gushed down the steps toward them at a dreadful speed. Even as Alice watched, it began to dissolve the wood it passed over. The low rim that ran around the edge of the stairs kept the liquid-acid? — from dripping over.

“I had to ask,” Gavin shouted.

“Hurry!” Alice shrieked. She flung her handbag over the side, grabbed her skirts in both hands, and bolted as fast as she dared. Gavin and Click kept pace with her, though the acid was gaining on them like a hungry sea creature.

“We’ll never make it!” Gavin yelled.

“Just run!” Alice yelled back.

They made the second turn, and the third. The acid gushed around the curves, losing a little speed, but it was plain it would sweep over them long before they reached the bottom. It filled the entire stairwell behind them in an area too large to consider jumping over, and there was no space on the stairs to let it go by. The smell was sickening. Alice’s lungs burned and her shins ached. Gavin’s face became grim.

“I’m sorry I brought you into this!” he shouted as they made the fourth turn, the one with the lever on it. “If I had known-”

Alice shoved the lever to EXPEL. Instantly, the stairs flattened into the giant slide. “Go!” Alice ordered.

Gavin didn’t hesitate. He flung himself headfirst onto the smooth wood like a boy on a sled hill. Alice snatched up Click and followed just as acid flooded the landing. They rushed around the turns, much faster now and gaining speed. Alice’s stomach lurched, she lost her hat, and her hair came loose. Gavin reached the bottom and slid across the stone floor. He regained his feet with incredible dexterity, and the moment Alice reached the bottom herself, he swept her up and moved her aside. The acid river gushed past them and swept through the door Alice had broken down. Panting, Gavin carefully set Alice on her feet.

“That was… was…” He swallowed. “Do all your first meetings with strange men go like that?”

Hoping nothing was broken, Alice retrieved her handbag from the spot where it had hit the ground, then looked about in vain for her hat. “No, thank heavens. I think our next step should be to-”

A terrible shuddering noise and creaking of wood made Alice look up. Her face blanched. The damaged staircase-slide-was coming away from the tower walls. Even as she watched, a beam snapped and plunged toward them.

“Move!”

She wasn’t entirely sure who had spoken-she herself or Gavin. Both of them leapt for the broken doorway. They touched down briefly in the thin film of acid left on the stones just outside the tower, then flung themselves sideways to safer ground, where they landed in an ignominious heap. They lay there a moment, trying to catch their breaths. Click strolled over and nosed at Alice, who began to realize she was huddled against Gavin in an extremely inappropriate manner. She rolled away, tangling her skirts, and scrambled to her feet. When she managed to get her breath, she found Gavin opening his violin case, a worried look on his face.