Stupefying Stories: March 2015
Page 15
The tiny mechanisms vanished, winking into the urban gloom, dispersing themselves like spores across the landscape of the city—but not before the Temple Guard managed to snatch one of them in his gloved fist.
Uncurling his fingers, he saw a small brass cylinder, joined via a tightly-wound clockwork motor to rotary blades. It was an exquisitely crafted miniature gyrocopter. He saw that the brass tube had a screw top. He removed his glove and unscrewed the top of the tube, fingering out the tiny scroll of paper that it held within: a tract of some sort and technical drawings, too small to read with the naked eye. He replaced the paper and re-tightened the screw lid, putting the whole deep into his jacket pocket. Then he kicked the body into the canal and headed back to his masters.
McFerris’s body rolled over in the dark water, face-upwards towards the unseeing universe. Further down the watercourse, in the dead of the night, his unseeing eyes reflected the winking light of a tiny gyrocopter, still whirring into the night.
Austin Hackney spent many years working in the theatre and television industries before experiencing a scientific epiphany involving a clever starling and a change in the evening light. Subsequently transformed into an ornithologist and science student, he continues to indulge in his semi-professional business of writing. He has sold several published stories and articles to a wide range of publications online and in print, including Aquila, Dark Tales, Criminal Class Review, Unsettling Wonder and Stupefying Stories. His recently completed novel is in search of an agent. You can follow Austin and get updates about his latest activities on Twitter. His Twitter handle is @AGHackney.
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