Obsidian Eyes (12 page)

Saturday, 30
^th
July.

llie emerged from the library and Jared descended upon her.

“I’m heading down to Zeb’s lab now, if you care to join me.” He took her by the arm and swung her in the right direction. “In fact we won’t be asking him any questions without your assistance.”

Allie arched an eyebrow with curiosity. “All right, care to elaborate?” She fell into step next to him, matching his long stride.

“Zeb has locked himself in.” He looked a bit sheepish under his fringe. “I need you to unlock the door so we can corner him.”

“Does breaking and entering violate our agreement?” she asked with a grin.

Jared laughed and shot her a smile, visibly relaxing next to her. She decided to use the opportunity presented by his good mood to elicit more information.

“Why is Zeb here?” Allie asked as they took a corner to a lesser frequented hallway. “He’s obviously some kind of genius, shouldn’t he be finished with school by now?”

“He did, long ago.” Jared glanced at her as they walked. “His father wanted to lock him in a lab at eleven. His mother wanted him to experience social interaction with his peers.”

Allie snorted at Zeb’s idea of being social as Jared continued.

“His mother won the debate, so he came here. He finished his university degree last year and has nearly finished his masters. He goes to St Andrews to see the professors when necessary, otherwise he just uses the school as a study base.”

“And he has to take dance class every Friday.” Allie smiled at Eloise’s persistence and wondered if it was the social interaction Zeb’s mother intended. “So why does he still attend classes?”

“It’s his idea of a joke. He likes to come up with formulas and problems the Masters can’t solve, or catch them making mistakes.”

Jared revealed an unexpected playful side to Zeb, although Allie couldn’t imagine the humour in fiendish quadratic equations.

The stairs to Zeb’s laboratory descended deep into the ground and under the school. The steps terminated at a small passageway with only one doorway. An imposing metal door stood guard, completely solid with no window or peek hole. Allie gave it an experimental tap; it sounded thick. Really thick. She briefly wondered how many explosions the door kept contained.

She ran an appraising eye over the riveted metal and frame, before kneeling down in front of the handle and lock.

Jared leaned on the wall next to the door, watching her work. “Can you unlock it?”

“Oh, yes,” she said. She unclipped a long narrow cylinder hanging from her chatelaine. Popping the lid, she withdrew two thin sharp metal implements. “It’s just a simple barrel lock.” She rocked back on her heels, the picks in her hand as she stared at the lock mechanism and the door surround.
Something’s not right.

“What’s the problem?” Jared noticed her puzzled expression.

“It’s just a simple barrel lock,” she repeated. “Given this is Zeb’s laboratory I would expect something a little more… creative.” She placed the picks in Jared’s palm and then reached out and ran her fingers back up the hinge side of the wall. She brushed against Jared as she moved up the side of the door. A shiver shot through her body at the contact and he inhaled a sharp breath.

Focusing on the door, she gave a small cry of satisfaction as her fingers found what they sought. The sensitive pads found a seam, invisible to the naked eye. She closed her eyes as she let her hands relay the information about size and shape of the panel to her brain, as she tried to figure out how it opened.

Jared’s gaze was fixated on what she was doing. “Did you make a good living doing this?”

“No, but if I stole enough for the street enforcer to buy alcohol, he didn’t hit me. And I occasionally had food in my stomach,” she answered in a matter of fact way.

Jared was silent for a moment. “I’m sorry.”

Allie opened her eyes and glanced up at him. “It happened and can’t be changed. It’s easy to condemn someone as a thief when you have a warm bed to sleep in and three meals a day.”

“Your grandfather obviously cares for you, how did you end up on the streets?”

“At the time, I thought it was the better option.” She let the cryptic comment hang. Feeling she had the right spot, she dug her nails under the small panel at a point closest to the door and flexed her fingers. It yielded with a soft pop as the top flicked down. Allie stared at the wires running through the wall to the door.

“Now
that
is interesting,” she whispered.

Jared pushed off the wall and leaned in over her shoulder. His warmth pressing behind her and his breath brushed her ear. “What is it?”

“I have no idea,” Allie admitted, trying to resist the urge to lean back against him. The butterflies in her stomach started to go on a rampage at the prolonged close contact, flinging their tiny bodies against the inside of her gut, trying to make her topple into Jared.

“I believe it’s electrical in nature. That makes me rather cautious about sticking anything metal in it.” She studied the flow of wires. “Some of the copper is exposed. He probably didn’t plan on anyone finding the panel. I think we just need to short circuit it by squashing them all together.” She looked down at Jared’s riding boots. “What have you got on your soles?”

With both of them in place, Allie gave a nod to Jared before she aligned the barrels and unlocked the door. At the same instant, Jared smashed his boot heel into the wires, slamming them together. There was a flash of yellow light as the device short-circuited and a loud
click
before the huge door swung open.

Allie got up off her knees and they entered Zeb’s laboratory, an Aladdin’s Cave dominated by ores instead of precious gems. A soft whirr and hum emitted from numerous devices hanging from the ceiling and littering the floor. Small metal bodies twitched on worktables in various stages of evisceration, the life force still circulating within them despite their mutilation. The air smelt of oil and something vaguely reminiscent of burnt eyebrows.

On hearing the latch give, Zeb looked up from the far workbench. He paused with a small part in his hands, brows knitted behind his magnifying goggles. “How did you get in?”

Allie shook her head as they picked their way through the mechanical minefield. “You must be the only student who doesn’t listen to school gossip.”

Zeb swung his head to Jared.

“She picked the lock,” he said navigating his course and avoiding swaying shards of metal. “And found the electrical panel at the side.”

Zeb’s frown deepened as he pushed the goggles up onto his head revealing his smaller glasses underneath. “Oh well done, very clever of you. Now get out.”

“That’s hardly polite when we’re worried about you,” Allie said.

She stopped in her tracks, her gaze fixated on the enormous creation lurking in the corner. A dull sheen covered its hide, absorbing light, cloaking it in shadow. The head appeared tucked into its neck, its massive shoulders pressed against the ceiling. The body larger than a horse with a thick tail curled underneath, pressing alongside its stomach. Powerful hind legs with hip joints the size of barrels each ended in a reptilian foot, sporting long, sharp claws. She wanted to move closer and investigate, but dragged her attention back to the conversation.

“I’m fine and I’m busy.” Zeb turned back to his workbench, dismissing his friends.

“And we’re not leaving until you tell us what is going on,” Jared said. Having made his way to the workbench, he picked up a set of schematics and began studying them.

“And I’m up to the challenge if you want to waste your time designing better door locks. I suspect Jared will have me busting him in every day until you answer.” She turned in a circle, unsure about having her back to the monster in the corner and suspicious of what hid in the dark, wondering if Weasel had evil litter mates.
If anything darts out and bites my ankle I’m going to scream like a girl.

Zeb gave a long sigh and took the diagrams out of Jared’s hands, laying them back down on the bench top. “It’s highly classified you know.”

“You’re working in the school basement,” Allie said.

Jared leaned on the bench, crossed his arms and stared at his friend. Classes were over for the day, and they didn’t have to be anywhere else.

“I only work on a small portion here. Parts and components mainly, and I run the calculations. My father is building the actual prototype at the KRAC base in Edinburgh.” His hands continued to fuss with the small part he held. Allie and Jared exchanged looks but remained silent. They waited for Zeb to fill the vacuum.

“It’s a new type of propulsion system,” he blurted out. “It will substantially increase the maximum speeds of the airships.”

“Doesn’t sound particularly exciting.” Allie directed her remark at Jared. She felt like she was missing something obvious and needed his military mind to fill in the blanks.

“What’s its other
military
application?” Jared asked Zeb.

Zeb shifted from foot to foot, his eyes darting around his lab. “It’s only theoretical, we haven’t tested anything yet,” he mumbled.

“Then give us the theoretical application,” Jared pursued the issue.

Allie watched the exchange. Given Zeb’s sudden caginess, she assumed they were on the right path.

Zeb put the part down, so he could gesture instead. “Well, if you gave it directionality, and an explosive payload, and fired it from an airship… you do appreciate this is just conjecture?”

“Conjecture away so long as you get to the point,” Allie said, trying not to get distracted by the numerous shiny things that whirred and buzzed and kept calling her name. She spotted an automaton’s arm on a workbench. Bones made of steel, while brass tendons and nerves ran from fingertips to elbow. It looked so real and yet so surreal, she found it unnerving to gaze upon. She kept expecting it to crook a finger and beckon her closer.

Zeb gave another sigh. “You could blow up a target fifty, possibly one hundred miles away. We’re still doing the final calculations on how far it could travel independently of an airship.” He crossed his arms and then uncrossed them as his hands crept back to the workbench for something to hold.

Jared let out a low whistle. “You could annihilate your enemy and never see their faces. What’s the accuracy?”

“We don’t know for sure yet. But my calculations show the resulting explosion would be… devastating.” Zeb chewed his bottom lip.

“And imagine the civilian casualties of something that indiscriminate,” Jared said, brushing a black lock out of his eyes and back behind his ears. Allie and Jared exchanged looks. Allie could see other implications for Zeb’s invention and it involved dancing dollar signs.

“Is this the problem that keeps exploding?” Allie glanced around, hoping none of the cylinders littering the worktops were building up internal pressure.

“Yes, now will you excuse me so I can get back to solving that issue?” Zeb asked, gesturing at the array of parts littering his workbench.

“All right.” Jared picked his way back through the lab and put a hand on the small of Allie’s back, ushering her out in front of him.

“One more question.” She halted by the door. “I have to know what that is.” She pointed to the black nightmare lurking in the corner.

Zeb’s gaze followed her outstretched arm. “Thumper.”

Allie arched an eyebrow. “Is Thumper anything like Weasel?”

Zeb scratched his head. “I don’t know, technically it shouldn’t be but I haven’t activated it yet.”

“Why not?” As hard as she stared, she still couldn’t discern what creature Thumper was modelled after.

He stared at his feet and mumbled something.

“Pardon?”

“I said I can’t get it out the door.”

Allie glanced at the giant wind-up toy. In size it was bigger than a horse but smaller than an elephant and it definitely would not fit out the door and up the narrow hallway. She bit her lip to supress the laughter. Genius didn’t always go hand in hand with common sense. “Can you pull it apart and reassemble it?”

“Oh yes, but I don’t have another laboratory.”

“It’s summer, why don’t you move it in pieces to one of the stalls in the stable? It will give you plenty of undercover space to work and the barn is designed for larger animals to come and go.”

A broad smile broke over his face. “By gods, that’s a brilliant idea.” He abandoned the piece of machinery in his hands and picked up a screwdriver. With a gleam in his eyes, he advanced on his largest creation.

“And Jared broke your lock,” Allie called out as they left, which earned her a scowl from Jared, Zeb too intent on Thumper to notice.

“Well now we know why KRAC is twitchy,” Allie said after the door closed and they started up the stairs. “Imagine if this got loose.”

Jared put his hand on Allie’s arm, spinning her to face him in the confined space. “You have to tell me what you’re thinking. Is this why you’re here, to steal the plans for the propulsion unit?”

Looking up at him, she guessed why he wanted her input. She just didn’t want to provide an answer. She tried to throw him off from further questions. “What on earth makes you think I know anything? This is way out of my league—I spent time with the Runners, not the Reapers.”