Nathan Yocum - Automatic Woman

“Pardon?”

“I see everything. I told you a moment ago that there is no such thing as luck. It would be more accurate to say there is no such thing as chaos. Ours is an orderly universe. Every event, every action and reaction is predictable. If you strike a ball with your hand the exact same way with the exact same strength over and over again it will always fly in the same direction. If this train strikes another train, the damage will be based solely on the speed of both vehicles and the point of impact. We accurately predict the days and seasons based on movement of our planet around the sun. We predict rain based on cloud formations and the better our view the more accurate our prediction. There is no such thing as chaos, Mr. Fellows. There is simply what we can observe and what we cannot observe.”

“That’s not true. I’ve been to war. Some men were lucky and survived. Some men had no luck. They were consumed by illness or torn by blades or bullets. We all went the same way but some of us came home and some of us didn’t.”

“Mr. Fellows, it is predictable that men will die in war. They always have. It is predictable that there will be survivors. There always have been. And if you were to put in front of me a regiment of men, I could unfailingly tell you which ones would come home and which ones wouldn’t. I could see which ones were faster, which ones were smarter, which ones were too brave or of weak constitution- all elements for accurate prediction. This is my gift. This is why I can look at trees and animals and tell you their accurate ancestry; this is why I knew that you would flee London and seek Mr. Alder Clemens of Budapest. I have access to your Central Bureaucracy file, I know your service record, and I’ve observed you personally. You cannot take an action that I cannot accurately predict.”

I pulled my pistol from my holster and pointed it Darwin. Bollocks to order over chaos! Darwin did not look alarmed.

“You won’t shoot me because you care about Mary. This is not a difficult thing to predict either. You have taken risks for her before, held her own safety above your own. That includes coming to this very cart instead of fleeing the train or attacking my secretary.”

I put my gun away. Darwin was right. Any action I did now was tempered by my desire to keep Mary safe. That was my main priority.

“I had a good idea where you were going. The rest was just confirming your location through contacts and setting up this meeting.”

“What do you want with me?”

“Our little game is not done. You are not done. We have much to do. Lord Barnes has been hurt. Taking the Bow Street Firm from him is the most damage I’ve ever done. He is on the ropes, but he is not finished. Lord Barnes is a worthy opponent. He has gone to ground. He has found a hiding place that I have yet to uncover, so I must draw him out. Or rather, you must draw him out.”

“I thought you could see everything. Why can’t you see him?”

“Lord Barnes has similar skills as myself, though not as well practiced. He has hidden himself in a place I cannot reach, and yet I know he will surface to come for you.”

“Why me?”

“Jacques Nouveau is dead. He was slain by an assassin’s bullet in his workshop the morning after Bow Street burned. With Nouveau gone, you are his next target, then Bram, then Stevens. These are the players of this game and when he has finished with them, when he has eliminated everyone who has any knowledge of Saxon’s automatons, he will have held me to a tie. He will hunt for you. He will find you. He will send men against you.”

“I’m your bait?”

“Yes.”

“And what if I don’t want to be your bait?”

The Arab guard made a subtle movement, a shifting in the way he stood, in where his hands were positioned.

“I’m going to present three scenarios, Jolly. Three possibilities that are within your capacities. Scenario one:; you come with me. We leave Mr. Stoker in the capable hands of Mr. Samir,” Darwin nodded at the Arab, “and return to Oxford. I put you and your mistress in a well-provisioned cabin. Lord Barnes sends men against you, and we capture them using my immaculate planning. The soldiers lead to Barnes, and this ends. Scenario two: you refuse me and make a last stand in this car. You and Samir will fight to the death. You will eventually overwhelm him with your strength, but his brother outside will stab you in the back. A fatal wound I’m afraid. Also, Mr. Stevens will strangle Mary and throw her from the train. Scenario three: you agree with me in the car but decide to turn rogue outside. You shoot Mr. Stevens, claim your lady friend and leap from train into Lake Balaton, which we’ll be running parallel to in five minutes. You meet your friend in Budapest, gain employment, but are picked up by Budapest authorities within two weeks. There’ll be an international bounty on you for the murder of Dr. Saxon and you’ll have additional charges brought by your flight from justice. You will be extradited to London, convicted by a judge who sits firmly in the pocket of Lord Barnes, and hung from the neck. Your mistress will either be executed for aiding in your escape, or will be ignored by Lord Barnes and undoubtedly return to a life of prostitution. To say her pimp is upset is an understatement. Murderous would be more accurate.”

Darwin took another sip of brandy and rolled it around in his mouth before swallowing.

“So you see, Mr. Fellows, if you review the most likely scenarios, you will find that only one works in your favor.”

“What if Barnes kills me?”

“I trust in your survivability more than his. It’s a gamble I’m willing to make.”

“What happened between you two? Why all of this? I get the feeling that this really isn’t about automatic women.”

“You don’t need to know.”

“If I’m going to dangle from your fishhook, I have a right to know why.”

“Fine, it is about Saxon’s experiment, in part. His technology is new and vital and whoever claims it can absorb our former colleague’s greatness. Though to be honest I have no idea how Saxon got his Swan Princess to act on her own. She’s reassembled, you know. We have her in a cage, pacing and snapping her teeth at any who approach. With Saxon and Nouveau dead, I can’t imagine we’ll ever truly know unless I find an engineer equal to their abilities. We’ve made replicas, but none bear her life, her aggression. They are machines of war but no more useful than a sword or a gun. They only operate under specific instructions and the break-down rate is phenomenal. Not to mention the expense. Without knowing Saxon’s secret, the automaton experiment will come to an end.”

Stoker cleared his throat.

“Don’t you step in with your tale of magic Shiran runes, Bram. I’m not going imprint Babylonian mumbo-jumbo on precision machinery. If that is the secret then I refuse to accept it. Our world is a world without magic and unexplainable rubbish.”

“What about God?” asked Bram.

“God is the proxy in between science and the unknown. All things we do not know about we can attribute to God. The things we do find out about we can attribute to him also, but he is more useful as a catch-all for the unknown. How were the planets and stars formed? God did it. What energy powers the sun? God’s energy. The list goes on and on.”

Darwin turned back to me.

“Barnes and I both wanted what Saxon had. Now neither of us have it. Years ago Lord Barnes had my theories declared religious heresy. I was excommunicated from the Anglican Church. Even worse I’ve had to answer to every fool theologian since. I responded to Barnes’ attacks with petty revenges, discrediting, media attacks, anonymous accusations of sexual perversion, of mysticism. Lord Barnes defeated me over and over again. Not because he was the better man, but because I refused to go hard enough against him. He provoked my ire, and the destruction of his agency was the natural conclusion of my wrath. As I was saying, cause and effect. He will now react. He will react against you. I think we are engaged in the last act of a play that started with Lord Barnes’ words and will end with destruction of everything he holds dear, including his own petty, overestimated life.”