Steven Harper - The Impossible Cube

“Yes, well,” Harry said, “it didn’t stop there, of course. The Zalizniak clan took the left bank, or western half, of Kiev and Ukraine, while the Gonta clan took the right, or east. At first they got along very well, but things devolved very quickly, very quickly. Cossacks fight as a way of life, you see, and once they didn’t have the Russians and Poles to kick around anymore, they turned inward. The two clans bickered and sniped and fought all the time, all the time, their clockworkers ran rampant, and the people of Kiev were caught in the middle. They especially fought over the dam-and the power it generates.”

“But the house we saw had the two Cyrillic letters in the gate,” Gavin said. “A g and a z . They seem to be getting along fine now.”

“That’s the mystery,” Harry said. “Clockworkers don’t cooperate. Fifty or sixty years ago, the Gontas smashed the Zalizniaks flat, but instead of killing their rivals, they merged with them. How, no one knows, no one knows. Now, instead of having two collective families, they have just one, just one.”

“How do you get a family of clockworkers?” Alice said. “They don’t… they can’t…”

Gavin held his face impassive over the growing net of rings. He knew very well what Alice was trying not to say, that clockworkers, including him, died within three years of contracting the plague. Family relationships were cut unfortunately short. A sudden longing to see his own children filled him, made all the worse for the fact that he knew it could never come to pass, and he had to turn his face away for a moment to get himself under control. China. China would have the cure, if only they could get there.

“That’s the delicate part.” Harry coughed and reddened. “You see, the Gonta-Zalizniaks operate on a process of… assimilation.”

“I don’t understand,” Alice said.

“Nor should you, nor should you. The clans use a sort of forced adoption, you see. Any clockworker who appears in Ukraine is quickly snapped up by the Gonta-Zalizniaks and indoctrinated. I hear that by the time the process is over, they truly believe they are Gonta or Zalizniak.” He coughed around his cigar. “They also engage in experiments on… younger folk. There’s a belief that children are more likely to survive the plague and become clockworkers, so…”

Alice’s face paled and she staggered back against one of the tables. “You mean they deliberately infect children with the clockwork plague in an attempt to create more clockwork geniuses?”

Harry looked unhappy. “It’s only rumor, only rumor,” he said quickly. “People are always looking for explanations about why Kiev seems to have more clockworkers than a city its size should.”

“Numbers,” Gavin put in, though he was speaking through greasy nausea. “If you think about it for a moment, you’ll realize that somewhere has to have the highest percentage of clockworkers. Kiev is simply it.”

“Of course, of course.” Harry chewed his cigar. “It’s a difficult rumor to unseat, however, when it couples with the fact that the plague got its start here.”

“Is rumored to have gotten its start here,” Alice corrected. “No one knows where the plague started. Kiev just has the first recorded cases. The eighteenth century kept very poor records, unlike modern times.”

“This isn’t getting us any closer to Feng,” Gavin interrupted. He wound more wire around the dowel and snipped. “What is Ivana going to do with him?”

“Who knows?” Harry sighed. “He’s not a clockworker, so he won’t be indoctrinated. Clockworkers have free rein here with anyone they capture, and Ivana Gonta can do as she wishes with him. Kievites have been forced to become adept at avoiding clockworkers, so there’s a shortage of subjects these days. I hate to sound harsh, but she’s likely experimenting on him right now.”

A silence fell over the trio. In the distance, the calliope hooted a cheery song in B-flat, keeping time for one of the acts rehearsing in the Tilt. An idea stole over Gavin.

“How many clockworkers are in that house?” he asked. His fingers moved faster with wire and pliers, creating what looked like a framework of chain mail. He was adding to what already existed, which was currently the size of an evening cloak. On the floor nearby sat a framework and pack and machine parts that awaited assembly.

“No idea, no idea,” Harry said. “Could be two, could be two hundred. And all of them made to specialize in instruments of war. I’ve said it before-it’s a pity they don’t turn their efforts toward a cure for the plague. They might have found one by now. At any rate, the place is a fortress guarded by bloodthirsty lunatics. I don’t like to say it, but I think your friend is gone. Gone.”

“No,” Gavin said. “Maybe not.”

“What are you thinking, darling?” Alice asked. The note of hope in her voice pulled Gavin’s spirits up and gave him more confidence. He set down the growing net of links.

“I think we need to go see Dr. Clef.”

Dr. Clef was working in the little laboratory aboard the Lady with Click watching intently from a perch on a high shelf. He looked up in surprise when Gavin slid the door open. Alice and Harry stood in the hallway behind him.

“Yes?” said Dr. Clef slowly. He was sitting on a high stool.

“I don’t have time for nice,” Gavin said. “I need my paradox generator back.”

Dr. Clef blinked at him. “Generator? What generator, my boy?”

“I know you didn’t destroy it like I asked you to,” Gavin continued. “It was too beautiful for me to destroy, so how could you do it? If I hadn’t been distracted at the time, I would have realized it earlier. Give it back. Now.”

“I don’t have it.” Dr. Clef’s expression remained perfectly ingenuous. “Honestly, I don’t.”

“Like I said,” Gavin told him, “no time for nice. So.” He reached up and took Click down from the high shelf. The clockwork cat looked at him with curious phosphorescent eyes until Gavin flipped him over and lightly depressed a switch on the underside of Click’s throat. Click froze.

“Gavin, what on earth?” Alice demanded.

“No!” Dr. Clef said.

“Hand over the generator, Doctor,” Gavin said, “or I’ll press it all the way. All the power in his spring will release at once, and he’ll shut down.”

Dr. Clef looked horrified. “Not my clicky kitty. Please!”

“The generator, Doctor.”

A torn expression crossed Dr. Clef’s face. He looked at Click and at Gavin, then flicked his gaze to a low storage cupboard. Alice edged around him and from the cupboard pulled the generator, complete with its crank and speaking trumpet.

“I’ll need the ear protectors, too,” Gavin said, and Alice snagged them from their hook. Dr. Clef appeared crestfallen, so Gavin handed Click to him. The cat recovered quickly and shook his head. Dr. Clef smoothed the creature’s wiry whiskers.

“You wouldn’t have done it,” Dr. Clef said, sounding like a recalcitrant child.

“It wouldn’t have hurt him, Doctor,” Alice said. “Though it would have taken an hour or more to wind him back up. And I might remind you that Click is my cat.”

“That is not how he feels.” Dr. Clef tickled Click under the chin. “No, he does not , he does not. ”

“As you like.” Alice sighed. “We have to rescue Feng. Do you want to come?”

Dr. Clef looked genuinely puzzled. “Who is Feng?”

“Chinese man, little younger than me, so high,” Gavin said. “Likes the ladies. And the-”

“Gavin!” Alice interrupted.

“I do not remember him.” Dr. Clef cuddled Click. “Please leave me alone now.”