Clockwork Memories: Book Three in the Memory Thief Series Page 17

  I still didn’t know what my plan was yet, but I knew it would involve Eli.

  I waited hours before I peeked into the engine room again. Eli wasn’t at his station with his metal parts. I opened the door wider and poked my head out. A shifting shadow caught my eye. I reached into my attush for the metal tool and readied it in my hand should I have need of it. There was a gap between the red privacy curtain and the wall where I spied him. Eli washed himself and changed. He wore a yellowing bandage around his chest and back, wrapped around him so many times he was covered from armpit to just above his belly.

  Even with his injury, his body was beautiful and graceful, as lithe and lean as the body of a tatsu.

  “Can I come out?” I whispered.

  He stood bolt upright and turned. “Blimey, I thought I was alone.” He hurriedly pulled his shirt over his head. “Hasn’t your ma ever told you it’s rude to spy on a gent as he undresses? Or a lady for that matter.”

  “My mother is dead. She was killed by the gaijin machines.”

  “Oh. Sorry. I didn’t know.” He moved back from the opening in the curtain and finished dressing. “We’re safe as far as I can tell. Wait ’til you get a look at the bloody device they planted.”

  I crawled out of the vent. He rushed from behind the curtains and pranced over to a workbench of tools where he fetched a contraption as large as Faith’s purse. It reminded me of a tangle of eels in mating season, only this thing looked more dangerous. And less palatable.

  Eli threw it up into the air and caught it in the other hand. “I set it to loop a repeated visual display so you’d be safe to come back.” He shoved it into the pile of metal parts.

  I ventured closer to the array of pieces. The spying machine’s sinewy arms ended in pincers. I nodded to Eli’s chest. “Did it attack you?”

  Eli laughed. “Hardly. These kind of bootlicker devices are passive.”

  “You wear bandages. You are hurt, ne?” I asked.

  “This?” He pointed to his chest. “It’s nothing. I mean, it is something.” He sighed. “Only, don’t tell no one, will you?”

  “Who would I tell?” I asked.

  It was a curious reaction. I could assume one of two things: either he had an injury he had to keep secret for some reason—those gaijin were always so curious in their ways—or he didn’t actually have an injury under there and “he” was hiding something else. I’d suspected as much before about Eli.

  I wet my lips, careful in what I said, uncertain even as I said it what I wanted to say. “You don’t smell like the rest of them.”

  “Oh?”

  “You smell better.” I kept my gaze directed at the bench of supplies so that I wouldn’t appear disrespectful.

  “Those soap dodgers? I should say so. None of them Frenchies bathe.”

  I laughed. “Some of them don’t, and they cover themselves with chemicals they claim to be the smell of flowers.”

  “Oh, that? Perfume and cologne and such. No, I don’t go for that so much. What use have I for cologne when the engine is my mistress, and she likes the smell of me the way I am? You’ll find us Brits a trifle less gamey anyway if you asks me.”

  I hesitated, wondering if I was going too far. I placed my hand on his. “You smell more like a woman.”

  Eli jumped back. He choked out a laugh. “You watch that mouth of yours, I would. Those are fighting words, princess or not. If any other bloke onboard hears you say such a thing, he’d box your ears for certain. Not that I’m one to raise my hand to a woman. My ma taught me better than that, I’ll have you know.” He spoke faster than ever, his nerves set on edge by my words. I suspected he was a woman, but one that dressed as a man, acted as a man and by all standards, claimed to be one.

  Faith had never told me gaijin did such things. Then again, she didn’t know much about her own people. Maybe they didn’t usually do as he did and that was why his bandages were such a secret.

  I bowed my head and apologized. “Sumimasen. I don’t know your customs. I’m sorry if I misspoke.”

  Eli cleared his throat. He fiddled with a tube that resembled a hollow leg. “No worries. I’m not one to be mad at people for long. Oi! Is that my adjustable wrench in your dress?” he pointed at the bit of metal peeking above the “V” in my collar.

  “Is that what you call it? It makes a good weapon.”

  He held out his hand. “I’ll give you a different one, if you please. That one I’ve been looking for.”

  I shrugged. They were all the same to me. I wiggled it out of my attush, compromising the neckline. He looked away as I adjusted the fabric into a more modest covering.

  “Over here, then, if you like.” Eli directed me toward a toolbox.

  I selected a different tool with some heft to it.

  “No, not that one! I need that for the newest contraption he has me building.”

  “That machine, ne?” I pointed to the strange-looking chair near the robotic servant entrance.

  “Don’t you know it.”

  “What is it?” I didn’t want to say it looked like a heap of garbage, but that was what it looked like more than an automaton or engine or any other metal machine I’d laid eyes on.

  “I don’t know. He didn’t tell me, just gave me the blueprints. Near as I can tell it’s a mindreading device, like secret agents have in Gothic novels. Once it’s finished, I’ll sit in the chair and see if I can read the commander’s mind.” He winked when he said it. I smiled along with him.

  “Likely I’ll have a better understanding once I finish it. I’m good with machines like that, I am. That’s how I figured out the engine.” He jerked a thumb at the thrumming engine in the center of the room. “I knew what it was supposed to do and could see the pieces that were there. I just had to figure out the missing parts.”

  “How does it work?” I asked.

  A smile stretched across his cheeks, revealing his perfect white teeth. “You want to see some magic?” He clapped his hands together in excitement.

  I nodded.

  Eli opened a metal panel and showed me the interworkings of the engine. Gears circled each other in a dance. Loops raced faster than any beast. It chugged so loudly Eli had to shout. “This here is a modified valve I designed to fit to the vacuum chamber of the pre-existing engine. That, over yon, is the alien artifact I had to connect to this engine. And when I say alien artifact, I’m referring to something from the likes of your people. Notice how shiny the metal is, even after a couple thousand years. There’s no oxidization. The commander picked it up on some planet somewhere. Probably stole it from native colonists on your planet or such. He didn’t say that, but knowing him, it’s the most likely story. The prototype, as he calls it, stumped him for years. He could make it work, but didn’t understand how. That is, he couldn’t until I came along and pointed out there were surely parts we couldn’t see inside, and if we knew what it did and we filled in the blanks, we could make one of our own. You follow?”

  I nodded, though I doubted I did. “What does it do?”

  “Why, it makes us go fast. Instant travel and whatnot. Not just from jump points neither. From anywhere, the hyperjump coming from inside the ship. There was only one prototype prior to this one. The commander could use it, but it took years to understand why it didn’t work so good. Part of the problem was they weren’t using the right power source. But also, British and French engines use diamonds as pivot points in their clockwork engines. Commonly Americans use sapphires and rubies. It weren’t no surprise to me to hear the diamonds shattered with every hyperjump.”

  I could follow some of this. “Why didn’t it surprise you?”

  “Hard and brittle, that’s what they were. You need a jewel hard enough to stand the friction of constant grinding, but subtle enough to withstand the heat and pressure. No such diamond exists. At least not naturally, those high-nosed toe-raggers said.”

  A shiver ran up my spine. “That’s why Lord Klar
k wants the red diamonds from my planet? For his engines?”

  “Well, he don’t got no engines at the moment. The commander does. But Lord Klark has buckets of red diamonds from his last adventure. And you bet your bonnet he’s got them stowed away because he knows what they’re plenty good for. When the commander meets up with Lord Klark, he’s going to give him a working copy of the hyperdrive technology. Only, I can’t figure out what Lord Klark has that he would want. Maybe diamonds. Maybe information.”

  My brain felt as though it moved as fast as the gears of the machine. “That means if these engines become common, everyone will have need of our red diamonds. They will never stop invading my planet. Everyone will keep on taking.” Faith claimed her government would listen to me as a representative of the Jomon race, but I wasn’t so sure. There would be others out there like Lord Klark and Jacques Bleu who would stop at nothing to exploit the resources of my world.

  I swallowed the cold lump rising in my throat. “Can you change the course of the ship without those in charge noticing?”

  “Change direction? At this speed in hyperdrive? That would be folly. We’d likely be torn apart. They’d certainly notice that!”

  “What about sending a message to the Americans? Meriwether made something for me to send with our location. There’s a message in the—what is it called?—the line? No, that isn’t right. Kee?”

  “In a queue?”

  “Yes, that’s the word.”

  “Golly, I wouldn’t dare. First, any message he created is likely to be obsolete by now. We’ve traveled too far. Plus, Commander Bleu will hang me higher than Gilderoy’s kite if I interfere in his plans! He’s not one you want to cross.”

  “No, he’s not.” I mulled that over. “You don’t like him, do you?”

  He snorted. “Ha! It’s hard to like someone who’s been blackmailing you for four years.”

  “Blackmail?”

  “He’s got dirt on me, he has. And more than just dirt. He promised me I’d be free to take my leave of him and his bloody privateering as soon as I completed his engine. Of course, I finished two years back and now he’s given me other jobs, more modifications and such. Meanwhile, my baby girl is growing up without me. I’m lucky my ma is taking care of her back on New Campton Manor Station, but I can’t go back home to see her until Commander Bleu releases me from his service, the bootlicker.”

  I tapped my finger against my chin. “You are obligated to do as Jacques-san bids, ne? You cannot defy Jacques-san’s wishes while he lives.”

  “You’ve got the right of it.”

  “But you would be able to escape and help me and my friends escape to the Americas if Jacques-san was dead, ne?”

  Eli shook his head. “You’re walking into a viper’s nest if you think that will work, love.”

  I didn’t know what a viper was, but I doubted it could be any bigger than a chiramantep. I smiled. Soon, Eli was going to be the brain of this ship. I would be the brawn.

  I bowed. “Sumimasen. Excuse me. I must leave. I have thinking to do.”

  And by thinking, I mostly meant kill French pirates.

  If I was going to make the ship safe for us to flee, I had to maximize our chances by reducing the number of my opponents. The safest way to do so was to start stealing weapons. I appropriated laser pistols from the quarters of sleeping men and practiced shooting furniture in the empty parlor. Like most skills I had learned in my life, practice corrected imperfections.

  Of course, it would have been easier to practice had the pink and white settee not caught on fire. Rain sprinkled down from the ceiling like when Meriwether got shot, drenching me and putting out the flames.

  Starting a fire must have caught the attention of someone. A man in a blue uniform and a scowl on his face marched through the doors. The flat line of his lips puckered into an “o” as he caught sight of me. I shot him and he fell over dead.

  Not bad for my first moving target.

  If I didn’t hide the body, they would discover I was alive and bent on killing them. On the other hand, delaying my attack meant they might catch onto my plan and I would lose the advantage of surprise. I dragged the corpse to the next room and stuffed him into the water closet.

  I managed to hunt down and kill five men and confiscate their weapons. Still, if my estimates were correct, I had at least a dozen more to go. My people would have said there was no honor in sneaking up on a man as he slept or attacking one unarmed in the water closet. Yet, this was why my people died and the gaijin survived to drop fire on us from the sky. This was why Captain Ford was dead. I couldn’t afford to give my enemies a fair advantage when they never gave us one. I would have to face my dishonor another day.

  The worst of the deaths was the young man who walked in on me in his room, looking for food. He looked no older than my niece, his large blue eyes so much like Michi’s. He stared at me in open-mouthed horror. I hesitated, my heart clenching as I gazed into his youthful face. He cried out and reached for his gun. Mine was already drawn. The line of light from the laser pistol cleaved his head right off. I prayed to the kamuy of the gun and ship and all the metal around me that they granted him a painless death.

  I slumped against the wall and rested for longer that I should have, staring into the vacant blue eyes of his detached head. This death was for Michi, I told myself. I had to stop these men so they wouldn’t cause more suffering for my people. There would be time enough to feel regret later. Right now I had a mission.

  I picked myself up. A dozen more bootlickers to go.

  I had seen much death and hardship during the harsh winters on Aynu-Mosir.

  “Tell me one of your gaiyojin stories,” I used to beg Faith when I was a teenager. She was always eager to share her culture and I suspected distract herself from her own sorrows. Sometimes when she was especially friendly, she allowed me to rest my head on her knee as she painted a picture with her words.

  She had often told me I was her best friend, sometimes she said her only friend, though I didn’t think that was actually true. Taishi, at least, was a friend to her.

  I thought of this as I listened at the vent outside her room. I wanted her to know I hadn’t abandoned her, that I was still there, only in the shadows. If only I could have given her some kind of signal only she would know, but I couldn’t without giving myself away. There were two men in her chamber now. I knew from listening to them breathe. Probably they wished to draw me out and capture me, but I wouldn’t risk firing at them with Faith sleeping so near.

  It was torture to be so close and not be able to see her, but then I’d always had an uncanny skill for torturing myself. After all, I had loved a woman who had never given me any inclination that she loved me. In all the years we’d been together, her affection hadn’t extended beyond friendship, whereas my passion had become all-consuming, yet went on unrequited. My love was a vine growing between the stones, reaching for a sliver of sunlight, but never gifted with enough to do more than survive.

  My heart was a jumble of so many things when I thought of Faith, and in even more of a tangle when I thought of Eli. She—he—looked at me the way I had always wanted to be looked at. He was smart with machines and gave them souls. My chest felt giddy with giggles when I thought about his funny words. My face flushed with warmth when I thought about his smiles. Men were not my preference, but I suspected I wouldn’t mind his embrace.

  It was curiosity that made me return to Eli. I whispered his name at the robotic maid’s door.

  He dropped his wrench from where he worked on his chair. “Oi! You startled me!” From the way he shouted, I knew him to be alone. I crawled out from my hiding place.

  He took off his gloves and tucked them into the pocket of his apron. “Got you some dinner I stashed over yon.” He jerked a thumb toward his private curtain.

  At the mention of food my stomach cramped and snarled.

  “You shouldn’t have gone to such trouble for me,”
I said and bowed formally. My belly nudged me in the direction of the food. I sat on the floor next to his curtain, taking in my feast. I lifted the long bone with meat attached to it and attacked that first, then drank a mouthful of soup and finally the mushy vegetables.

  I had stolen some soft red fruits from the botanical garden earlier, although a robotic maid had squashed one as I’d been eating them in the vent. It was hard to scavenge in the mess hall with so many soldiers loitering there. Nor did I dare eat their scraps for fear of any French diseases they might give me. I’d only been vaccinated for British sicknesses and didn’t know if they were the same.

  Eli plopped down beside me. “I notice you don’t touch the bread much.”

  I shook my head. “Only if I’m starving.”

  He watched me eat and picked at the bread. I set down the meat leg and pushed the plate toward him. “I’m eating your meal, aren’t I? I’m sorry. I should have asked.” I apologized with a bow and a formal Jomon apology of, “Sumimasen.”

  “I already ate, honestly I did. I just can’t help thinking how much you eat like a man.” He smiled. “I never saw such an appetite from a slip of a thing like yourself. Blimey! Usually girls eat like birds.”

  I didn’t think he had ever seen a nose bird eat, otherwise he might not have said that, but maybe birds didn’t drink as much nectar where he came from. I wiped my mouth on my sleeve. “As long as you don’t say I eat like a Frenchman.”

  He laughed. “If you like, I won’t say it.”

  I laughed and covered my mouth to keep food from flying out. “I suppose that means I’m not using manners. I will let you teach me when I’m less hungry.”

  “But not now?” He chuckled and slapped his thigh.

  It felt nice to laugh.

  “You’re different from most ladies I meet,” he said.