After passing a few more sentries without incident, Ikey began to breathe easier. Finally, he stepped up to the door to the porter’s office. He tried the knob and found the door locked as expected. He crouched, and as he did so, the mechanical ass’s hand fell away. Ikey laid his towel on the floor, picked a screwdriver out of the roll, then went to work and removed the plate around the doorknob.
When the doorknob fell away, Ikey pushed the door open a crack. Darkness peered back out. He replaced his tools, then set aside a stub of candle. After he tucked the tool roll under his mechanical arm, he lit the candle and stood. The mechanical ass immediately grabbed his shoulder again.
Ikey pushed the door open wide, then stepped in while the mechanical ass matched him step-for-step. Once they were inside, Ikey crouched, then crab-walked out from under the ass's reach.
After he closed the door, Ikey went to work on the telegraph on the porter's desk. A grin tugged at the corners of his lips. He loathed Wendy for the hard time he gave Ikey on the Kittiwake, but everything Wendy had taught him about electricity and magnetism would allow him to build a device that would stop the mechanical asses, if it turned out that Ikey and the others had to make a run for it. Once he got back to Whitby, he’d have to find old Wendy, buy him a beer, and tell him about this. Oh, how the man would crow.
Within minutes, Ikey placed the telegraph's magnetic coils on the towel, along with as much copper wire as he could pull from the telegraph line. He then wrapped it back up, tucked it under his arm, and stepped back before the mechanical ass. The automaton dropped its stubby hand onto Ikey’s shoulder. He grinned at the unexpected ease of the operation.
On the way back, as he and the mechanical ass turned a corner, Ikey was startled by the sight of a man walking through the hall unescorted. His coat and sharp trousers, however, gave him away as someone other than an inmate. Ikey dashed his gaze to the floor and attempted a solemn look of resignation.
“Wait,” the man said as he approached Ikey. “Who goes there? Where are you off to?”
“Ordered to the infirmary,” Ikey said as he glanced up at the man. He gestured at the towel clamped to his side, but he dared not stop moving.
“But where did you come from?” the man continued. “The bunk hall is back that way.” He hitched his thumb over his shoulder, in the direction Ikey was heading.
Ikey shook his head. “I think this thing is malfunctioning. It’s been pushing me all over this blasted place. But someone fixed it for me. We’re on our way now.”
As Ikey passed the man, he turned back and kept pace with Ikey and the ass. “What’s wrong with you, pray tell? Why do you need to go to the infirmary? Surely it’s closed at this hour.”
“I have to take this,” Ikey said and pointed to the towel again. “The hall master told me to take it down. I don’t know what it is.”
The man held out his hand. “Let me see it, then. There’s something not right about this, I tell you.” He reached for the bundle under Ikey’s arm.
Ikey twisted around, swinging the towel out of the man’s reach. The motion brought the mechanical ass around until its back was nearly against the wall.
Ikey halted.
The man stopped and tilted his head up at the mule-faced automaton. His jaw dropped open under his graying mustache. “I say, there is something very wrong here. You will give me—” the man lunged for the bundle.
Without thinking, Ikey swung his right fist around and caught the man upside the head. He staggered back. His hand grasped the side of his face. His mouth dropped open even wider in surprise. “Why, you little devil!” He lifted his left hand in a flourish that caught Ikey’s eye.
As Ikey watched to see what he would do with his left hand, the man’s right fist came around and caught Ikey in the gut. He doubled over in time to get a blow across the cheek from the man’s left fist. Ikey stumbled into the mechanical ass, then lumbered forward. There was a tug on the towel as the man grappled for the bundle. Ikey grabbed the towel with his right hand and surged forward. He slipped out of the automaton’s grip, hurried forward several steps, and turned as he heard the man cry out.
His legs had tangled with the mechanical ass’s until he pitched forward and hit the floor. A second later, the mechanical ass planted its foot on the man’s back directly at his shoulder blade. He let out a horrific sound, like a bellows emptied with a great thrust, a great weight dropped upon it. And then there was the crackling and gurgling sound and Ikey turned away, but not before he saw the horror and shock on the man’s face, his eyes locked in pleading.
The mechanical ass placed its hand on Ikey’s shoulder.
Ikey tried to sweep the the hand away, but it wouldn’t budge. He glanced up and down the hall and saw no one else. He looked back to the man, his face now slack and still and surprisingly red, as if his death was an occasion of deep embarrassment for him.
“I’m sorry,” Ikey said. “I didn’t mean…” He looked back at the mechanical ass. “You bloody—” Tool. It was a tool that he had wielded. Carelessly. One more death that he was responsible for, and this one was the most bloody senseless thing. It would have been laughable had it not been so ghastly, the bones cracking like they had in Philip, the body nothing more than a tin to crumple up and toss aside.
Ikey glanced at his mechanical arm.
“Let’s go,” Ikey mumbled at the mechanical ass. He stepped around the fallen man, then led the beast back to the infirmary.
Chapter Twenty-Five
The next morning, Rolfe walked into the infirmary and pointed at Ikey. “I’d like to see you back in my office, now.”
Ikey glanced at David and Gavril. David looked pale, pained, and worried. Gavril's face was as stoic as ever, not concerned in the least. Ikey took a little encouragement from that. He swallowed hard and followed Rolfe into his office.
As soon as Ikey shut the door, Rolfe produced his drawstring pouch. “Out for a stroll last night, were you?” His face was harder than it usually was. It had more color. Although his hair was pomaded into a helmet of a coif, his complexion managed to make him appear ruffled.
Ikey’s back stiffened. He stared at Rolfe’s hairline. “A problem came up. I needed some parts to fix it.”
Rolfe set the pouch aside. He planted his palms on the desk and leaned forward. “What kind of problem?”
“There was a failure in the automaton. I discovered that a flaw was grinding away at one of the gears. It was why it broke in the first place. I had to fix it right away, before it broke something else that I wouldn’t be able to fix before your deadline.”
Rolfe regarded Ikey a moment more. “You’re responsible for the missing telegraph as well, correct?”
“Missing?” Ikey asked. He stared Rolfe in the eye.
Rolfe stood and waved a hand through the air. “Parts are missing. Someone broke into the porter’s office and took apart his telegraph. It was you, wasn’t it?”
“I needed the parts. If I waited until morning, it might have been too late. The damage was building.”
“What exactly happened?" Rolfe asked.
Ikey looked back up at Rolfe's hairline. "It was an accident."
Rolfe shook his head. "Tell me about it."
Ikey recounted how he took apart the telegraph, wrapped the parts in a towel, and then ran into the other man. After a short pause, he explained how the man had died.
Rolfe hung his head, then reached for his drawstring pouch. “I dare say you’ve made a great mess of things.”
Ikey glance at the photograph of Rolfe’s family. “I didn’t know what else to do.”
“Well, needless to say, the workhouse is being torn apart in an effort to locate the missing components. I was summoned from my home at an early hour to examine the corpse. Though I would have misled everyone regarding the manner of the man’s death, the assistant superintendent recognized what had happened to him and managed to introduce the idea to several people before I could dissuade the fool from the notion.
Since no one can account for a mechanical ass in that hall at that time of night, the superintendent has ordered an accounting of every mechanical ass. Quite a stir will result once it is discovered that an ass is missing from storage.”
Ikey looked back to Rolfe. His stomach felt as hollow and empty as most of him. The blood pinging off the vessels in it should have rang his stomach like a bell. “What now?” Ikey asked.
Rolfe struck a match across his blotter. If flared and crackled to life. He brought it up to the bowl of his pipe and puffed several times.
“Bring that accursed machine in here,” Rolfe said around the stem of his pipe. His eyes squinted against the smoke. “We’ll stand it in the corner for the time being. I must go consult with an associate. You are to stay in the infirmary. If you or your friends leave, I will make sure that Cross pays the price before I see each of you dead myself.”
Ikey leaned forward and planted his hands on the desk. “Kill me, and I won’t be able to give the mechanical ass its final instructions.”
Rolfe snorted. “My dear man, it may very well be too late for that. An unescorted automaton will not get very far in this place.”
Ikey’s stomach fell away. Bloody Nora. He had screwed things up pretty bad.
“Unescorted, you say?” Ikey asked. “Then I’ll accompany it. It’s how I got down to the porter’s office to begin with.”
Rolfe’s eyes squinted again. “And I see how successful you were with that.”
Ikey hung his head. Damn. He had been so close. “What of Cross?” Ikey asked the blotter.
“We’ll see. All may not yet be lost. But I have to consult with my associate. Will you give me your word that you will remain inside the infirmary until you are asked to leave?”
Ikey nodded.
“I’ll take your word as honorable, then. I must admit that I am impressed with you. You didn’t even attempt to lie to me.”
Ikey stood up straight. “What would be the point?”
Rolfe nodded. “Indeed. While I am gone, please reconsider my offer. Though events have taken a most unfortunate turn, I would still be quite honored to call you a comrade in arms.”
“Shall I bring the mechanical ass in now?”
Rolfe clenched the stem of his pipe between his yellowed teeth, then nodded.
Chapter Twenty-Six
The infirmary door creaked open. Ikey lifted his head, then pushed back the blindfold with his thumb. Rolfe approached his bed, a lantern held before him. David and Gavril each stirred and looked up from the bed they shared.
“There’s been a change in plans,” Rolfe said. “I need the automaton to complete its task tonight.”
Ikey took a deep breath. A hot oil flowed through his veins. He pulled the instruction cartridge from underneath his mattress, then gave David and Gavril a nod as he followed Rolfe down the hall and into his office. The mechanical ass stood in the corner, deathly still, not anticipating in the least the instructions Ikey held in his sweating hand.
“What about the patrols?” Ikey asked as he lifted the latch on the machine’s front panel.
Rolfe sighed. His breath whooshed through his nose. It sounded like the exasperated breath of a man resigned to an unpleasant task. “I will escort it myself.”
Ikey placed the edge of the box against the lip of the slot. His hand trembled the tiniest bit. There was something in Rolfe’s voice. His response.
“You will be back in the morning?” Ikey asked. “To let us out?”
“I will. I will have you and your friends escorted to a porter’s wagon. But this wagon will be driven by a compatriot of mine. He will see you to a rendezvous point where you will be reunited with Cross.”
Ikey took a deep breath. Something wasn’t right. The smart thing to do would be to lie low, let things settle down before attempting this. Rolfe was risking discovery by walking through the halls with the missing mechanical ass. Why would he risk it for a flooded boiler room?
“Is everything all right?” Rolfe asked.
Piss on it. It wasn’t his problem. Ikey snapped the cartridge into place. “All yours. Ready for action.”
The mechanical ass started for the door.
“Whoa!” Rolfe cried. “Hold up.”
“I didn’t know you’d be escorting it,” Ikey said. “I didn’t give it instructions to wait for you.”
“No matter,” Rolfe said as he hurried out the door behind the automaton, his lantern clutched before him. “Remember to stay here until I come for you in the morning.”
Ikey’s shoulders slumped as darkness fell around him. Once the iron footfalls left the room and grew too quiet to hear, he turned around, faced the darkest corner of the office, and listened for the presence of Rose. He wished to ask her to watch over David and Gavril once he saw them out of the tunnel and on their way. Or to at least not berate him as he turned back around, dodged back inside Marlhewn once again to make Rolfe’s promised rendezvous with Cross.
David’s footfalls approached. Light seeped into the room from the stub of candle he clutched. “Gavril took his tonic. Are you ready?” David asked.
Ikey inhaled a deep breath. The scent of tobacco smoke passed through his nostrils. As he began to turn around, his eyes caught on something. Or rather, the absence of something. He peered at the bookshelf a moment longer.
The photograph was gone. The frame remained, but the picture itself had been removed.
“Hold on a second,” Ikey said. He approached the bookshelf and stood before the empty frame. “Rolfe took his photograph.” He rubbed at his scraggly chin.
David stepped up beside Ikey. “His photograph?”
Ikey nodded and pointed at the empty frame. “He had a photograph of himself, his wife, and his daughter. It’s gone. Why…”
David stood in silence a second. “What does it matter? Let’s get out of here. We can puzzle this riddle later.”
Ikey shook his head. “Something’s not right. Things don’t add up. Why would Rolfe risk his cover over a broken water main? What’s around the boiler room? What else is fed by that main?”
“I’m sure I don’t know,” David said. “But I do know that once he carries his plan through, it will become difficult for us to sneak down to solitary unnoticed.”
Ikey scanned the spines of the ledgers for the one he had rifled through the other day. He slipped it out, slapped it on the desk, and bade David to bring the candle over. He paged to the back, to the diagram Rolfe had given him. He turned the page. It was empty. Blank.
Ikey flipped back through the book. Near the front, he found a more complete diagram. It detailed the pipes and conduits that ran through the room. According to this diagram, the line in question was not a water main, but a gas line that fed the lights around the facility.
Ikey gripped the edge of the desk.
“What’s the matter?” David asked. He tilted his head at the diagram.
“That cowardly bastard,” Ikey said as he let go of the desk and stood tall. His breath was hardly above a whisper. “That bloody devil tricked me.” He turned to David. His insides quivered, and with each syllable that passed his lips, he thought of the admiral on fire, dancing to a terrible tune.
Ikey licked his lips. “I instructed the ass to turn off the gas, break the line, and then turn the gas back on. In the main boiler room.”
The color dropped from David’s face as his eyes grew wide. “Dear Lord.”
“We have to stop him,” Ikey said. “Quick. He’ll blow up the whole damned workhouse.”
David nodded. “At it, then.” He turned and hurried from room.
“Hold on,” Ikey called after David. He stopped in the supply room, and from a large tin, he produced the contraption he had constructed with the pieces taken from the telegraph. A flat plate the size of his head was separated from a hand crank by two magnetic cylinders wrapped in copper wire.
“This will help us get past the guards,” Ikey said.
David cocked an eyebrow. “It hardl
y looks menacing.”
Ikey shoved the contraption into David’s hands. “Put the disk against the mechanical ass’s back, then turn the crank as fast as you can. It will generate enough magnetism to lock up the ass’s iron parts and immobilize it until I can shut it off. But this will also magnetize your hands. You won’t be able to pull them away while you’re turning the crank.”
David nodded.
“I hold it,” Gavril said from the mouth of the hallway. “You crank.” He pointed to David.
David shook his head. He explained what was going on, and that they weren’t going to solitary just yet, but to stop Rolfe. “I’d rather you wait here until we get back.”
Gavril thrust his shoulders back. If the man hadn’t been eroded away by consumption, he’d be a bear of a man. Some of that still showed through.
“I took the tonic. I be silent,” Gavril said.
David shook his head. He uttered something in Russian.
Gavril nodded and shot back.
“We don’t have time for this,” Ikey pleaded.
“Right,” David said. “At it, then.”
As Gavril watched, Ikey and David approached the door. After a silent count of three, Ikey pulled the door back and slipped past the mechanical ass waiting outside. As it lumbered forward in pursuit, David ran up behind it and planted the iron plate on the thing’s back. As it began to turn around, David cranked the handle. The automaton’s movement slowed as the tightly-packed mechanisms inside met magnetic resistance, but the automaton mustered enough movement to throw David off balance, to keep him stepping and changing posture to remain behind the beast. The slow, awkward dance prevented him from cranking hard. Ikey ran up to the mechanical ass and flipped open the latch on the front of it. The automaton turned its full attention to Ikey and reached for him.
Tin Fingers: Book 2 in the Arachnodactyl Series Page 26