EMBER
“We need to make a decision here. Do we take the person out or hide from them?” I whisper.
“I say we take him out,” Stein decides, the smile returning to her face. It’s as if hitting something will make her feel better.
“We can’t risk being seen by Flynn or Catherine,” I remind her gently. “Or alerting Tesla to our presence here.”
“Yes, Mom,” she agrees, looking only too eager to kick the living crap out of whoever it is.
“We’ll take out whoever it is as quickly and quietly as possible. Then we’ll stuff them in that broom closet.”
We wait behind the large steel vat at the base of the stairs. I’m pretty content to let Stein have her way with the poor guy. Better his face than mine.
Sure enough, a single, unsuspecting grunt lumbers down the stairs. I can tell immediately that it isn’t Tesla, Flynn, or Catherine. He’s too thick, too tall, and too heavy. Stein steps out calmly.
“Hey, over here.”
When he turns, she roundhouse kicks him in the face, knocking him on his back. Not letting up, she kicks out again, catching him in the side and sending him rolling across the wood floor. I leap out, roll him over, and jump onto his back, hog-tying him with a coil of wire I found behind the tank. Stein moves in for the final blow.
“Wait, don’t knock him all the way out,” I say, a slight tremble in my voice from adrenaline. “Maybe he knows where the Dox is.”
We roll the frightened lab assistant onto his back. Stein slaps him in the face until his eyes fly open. He struggles, but the wires hold him tightly. He is easily six foot six, broad-shouldered with dark, straight hair pulled back into a ponytail at the base of his neck and dark brown mutton chops adorning his cheeks, despite the fact he’s probably only in his twenties. He’s in a brown vest, dark pants, and a dirty lab coat. He could be Nobel’s long-lost twin—or a janitor. Whichever.
He stops struggling and sits there with his head down—like a kid who has just been caught with his hand in a cookie jar.
“Hey! Do you know where the Dox is?” Stein demands, slapping him again. I pull her hand away.
“We aren’t going to hurt you.” I say. “Well, we aren’t going to hurt you anymore. We just need the Dox. Then we will leave.”
Stein throws her hands in the air. “This is nuts. We should just toss him in the vat of electric snakes and find it ourselves.”
When she moves, I see his eyes flicker with recognition. Surprise spreads across his face like a light going on. I look at her, then back to him, sure I’ve never seen this person in my entire life.
Catching her eye, I mouth, “Do you know him?” and nod in his direction.
She shakes her head.
“I think I know where the Dox is,” he says finally. “I can show you.”
I hesitate, debating Stein’s suggestion about dropping him in the eel tank. Part of me thinks she’s right, that it might be the smart thing to do, but I can’t bring myself to do it. Besides, we need the Dox. Time is running out, and whatever damage we’ve caused being caught by this guy, well, that’s a problem for another day.
“All right, then. Show us,” I say. I unwind the coils of wire, but I watch him carefully. He doesn’t take his eyes off Stein, which is more than a little unsettling. My muscles are tense. Every nerve in my body is on high alert just waiting for him to try something.
He leads us over to a set of tall electrodes at the far left side of the lab. Without hesitating, he walks between them. A storm of lightning sparks through the room, but he doesn’t stop. I cringe. I’m positive I hear Stein gasp, but nothing happens to him. He kneels down on the ground and twists a latch hidden in the floor. With all his might, he heaves a large floor panel open. Holding up the hinged trap door with his knee, he waves us in.
We carefully walk through the veil of lightning bolts emitting from the Tesla coils. They make the hair on my arms and head stand out but never directly strike us. It kind of feels like swimming in a pool of toothless piranhas.
The stranger is the first one to climb down into the pit while I hold the trap door. When we reach the bottom, he helps me off the ladder by holding out his hand. Stein just glares at him. She doesn’t trust him. He doesn’t say much. He doesn’t have to say much. With a sweep of his arm, he gestures around the room as if to show off his prized possessions. The shelves are wooden and completely makeshift. They hold many items that look intriguing, but I figure since I have no idea how to use the one item we came for, I should probably leave the other tech untouched.
I scan the room. Stein is standing at the bottom of the stairs, her arms folded across her chest, just waiting for the stranger to make a wrong move. Displayed among Tesla’s other crazy inventions is the last remaining Dox. Only it isn’t the last. There are two. One completely assembled, and one still in pieces. Sitting next to them is a leather-bound lab notebook. Rushing to it like a kid on Christmas morning, I quickly flip through its pages. The directions for using the device are scrawled in Tesla’s handwriting. Tearing an empty page from another book, I swiftly scribble the instructions on a scrap of paper, then stuff the book back on the shelf next to the unassembled Dox. I’m about to turn when something else catches my eye. There is a shelf with six rings. Each ring has a small stone affixed to it with copper wire inserted into the stone. I grab one and slip it into my pocket. I’m turning into a Hollow. Stein catches me, grinning.
“What?” I shrug.
Stein slides an identical ring out of her back pocket. “You’re not quite the seasoned time thief I am. Found this one upstairs.”
I can’t hold back the chuckle.
She returns it to her pocket. “I think I’m a bad influence on you.”
I smile. “It’s a Babel Stone ring. A piece of Tesla tech we use.”
“What does it do?”
“It lets the person wearing it speak any language. But mostly, it just reminds me of home.” I frown and tap my pocket.
“Well, I just wanted it because it could cause some wicked damage to someone’s face in a fight.”
“I’m sorry,” the strange man says, “I couldn’t help but overhear. Are you a Rifter?” He takes a step forward, looking at me for probably the first time.
Stein and I exchange a glance. What am I supposed to say?
“Um, yeah. Something like that,” I say, turning away from him so I can shoot Stein a look without him seeing.
“It’s all right,” he says. “I’m a Rifter myself, you see.”
“Great, one of Tesla’s devoted minions,” Stein grumbles.
I turn back to them just in time to see him staring at her like she’d committed the worst kind of blasphemy.
She shifts her weight and squints at him. “What? Do I owe you money or something?”
He reaches out to grab her, but I’m already moving for them. She’s faster, though, and slaps his hand away an instant before nailing him in the face with a right hook that buckles his knees.
“Try to touch me again,” she threatens, “and I’ll rip your arm off and beat you with your own stump.”
“I’m so sorry,” he says, surprisingly calm. “It’s only, you remind me of someone.”
I stare him down, trying to decide if I should knock him out cold before we leave. My hand twitches. The idea has its merits.
He holds up his hands, looking completely apologetic. “Please. I won’t tell anyone I saw you. If anyone asks, I’ll tell them I broke the Dox while I was cleaning and threw the pieces away.”
Stein narrows her eyes. “Why would you cover for us?”
He looks from her to me, as if the answer was obvious. His brown eyes are sincere when he says, “Because we are Rifters. We are family, are we not?”
I realize he’s talking about something more than our common genetic ancestors. It’s like being at the Institute or being a Hollow. We’ve become family. A big, insane, dysfunctional family.
I
pass the Dox to Stein and hold my hand out to the stranger, helping him to his feet. “Yeah. I suppose we are. Thanks for your help, whoever you are.”
He shakes my hand fervently and says, “My name is Leonard Claymore, and you are very welcome.”
Behind me, Stein gasps.
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