“So.”
Castor smiled. Laughter echoed from the alley behind the tavern.
Something was wrong. It felt strange, the air too thick, too sharp. It hurt. He sat at the base of the wall and held his head. The earth was spinning.
“It’s gone off. It’s all off.”
“We have to do something.”
“There’s nothing—!”
“Look,” whispered Castor.
The boy held out a timepiece. The hands spun faster and faster, the sky dark and light and dark again, the hands reversing, where’s the ticking?, I think I’ve said this before, time stopped.
It Stopped.
Colton woke with a small cry, gripping at the bed as if he’d be thrown from it otherwise. The room around him was very, very still. He lay there in silence, wide eyes staring at a whorl in the ceiling as a cold sensation traveled along his body. Judging by the thin, gray light coming through the window, it was dawn.
“A dream?” he murmured to the ceiling. But the ceiling couldn’t answer.
He sat up groggily and reached for the small clock on Danny’s desk, staring hard at its face. Time was flowing at its normal pace. The air around him was calm. London was safe.
Then what had that feeling been?
He sat back and studied his central cog, which was propped against the desk. Had he imagined it?
There was a knock at the door. Colton rose to answer it.
Christopher stood there, his expression shifting to a frown at the sight of him. “Is something the matter?”
“No, everything’s fine. What do you need?”
“I was wondering if I could take your small cogs for measurements. I like the idea of including them in the holder.”
Colton handed over the three small cogs he’d taken from his tower. Christopher thanked him, then eyed him warily. “Are you sure you’re all right?”
“Yes, I’m fine.”
As soon as Christopher and Leila were gone for the day, Colton slunk downstairs and spread out on the couch. He stared at his picture of Danny and wished he could tell him what he’d just experienced. And then he wished that Danny could tell him if he was safe.
He heard a small click at the window. Curious, he crossed the room, twitched back the drapes, and looked out.
There was nothing there. Then he heard it again: a click and a faint whirring sound. Movement caught the corner of his eye, and he turned his head to find a fat spider perched outside on the windowsill.
Colton made a face and let the drapes fall. He had greater matters to worry about than overlarge insects.
Christopher came bounding into the kitchen a few days later while Leila was attempting to teach Colton how to cook. Colton couldn’t taste anything, of course, but that didn’t stop him from being fascinated by the whole process. That, and Leila had noticed he was bored.
“Christopher, slow down!” Leila scolded when her husband nearly ran into the table.
“I think we’ve got it! Colton, try it on. The other cogs are already inside.”
Colton eagerly grabbed his central cog from the table as Christopher unveiled the latest model. It was sleek and round, the bronze metalwork spiderwebbing over the front to support thin metal pockets containing the smaller cogs.
When Colton slipped the central cog into the holder, he could already feel it working. A warm and familiar power seeped into his body, as if he carried sunlight for bones. The straps settled over his shoulders, and his four cogs nestled snugly against his back, humming faintly.
Leila gasped. “I can see you! I mean, better than I could before.”
He looked at his hands. They seemed flesh and blood, just as they’d appeared in his tower. Even the pain in his side had lessened.
“Your suggestion to use the smaller cogs was just the thing we needed,” Christopher said with pride. “Do you feel better?”
“Much better, thank you.”
“He looks better, too,” Leila added. “Not as tired.”
In fact, Colton felt energized and restless. Christopher must have noticed, for he said that Colton could try it out tomorrow.
“I can go outside?” he asked, hopeful.
“Yes, but with me, of course. Let’s take a trip to the office tomorrow morning. There’s a leather cover here, too, so people don’t get suspicious.”
Colton was too excited to drift out of consciousness that night. And it was just as well, because he didn’t want any more of those strange visions. Time buzzed around his body, feeding off of London’s like a plant absorbing water.
But his excitement withered the next morning when Christopher got off the telephone and said they couldn’t go out today.
“I just got a call from a friend across town. His auto’s died on him and he needs a lift. It’ll take me a few hours. I’m sorry.”
Colton tried to mask his disappointment. “That’s all right.”
“I’ve told the Lead about our success, though. He’s ecstatic. Still frustrated there’s no information about the airship, but at least we’ve bought ourselves more time.”
Colton watched him slip on a jacket and head out the door. The auto started up, and the rumble of the engine dwindled away until all that was left was familiar silence.
An empty house had a particular sound, Colton had come to realize: a sigh made without lungs, the silent crawl of time passing with no one to measure it in beats of words and breaths. No one to speak to or listen to or watch. A loneliness that was cutting.
He couldn’t stay here.
He dressed in Danny’s clothes, put the leather cover over the cog holder, and crammed a cap onto his head. The Harts had given him an extra key, just in case, and he used it to lock the door behind himself. Putting on the holder, he made for Big Ben.
He wasn’t afraid of getting lost. He remembered the route he and Christopher had taken to get to the Mechanics Affairs building, but more than that, he felt Big Ben drawing him closer, pointing him in the right direction. That presence was hard to ignore, especially now that he had the holder to magnify his own power.
The clock tower stood tall and beautiful, sheathed in gold. Colton had only seen it at nighttime, so the burnished glow it gave off during the day was a marvel to behold.
Colton walked toward it, crossing the street with a small crowd. People looked at him and away, unconcerned. They saw only another human, and the notion made him grin from ear to ear. He loved blending in, becoming one of them.
It wasn’t until he approached the tower that he realized he didn’t know how to get inside. Last time, Danny had shown his mechanic’s badge and the guards had let them through. Colton walked around to the front of the tower, where a few people had gathered before a tall black iron fence. Above them hung a sign that read TOUR STARTS ON THE HOUR, EVERY HOUR.
Colton moved forward with the group and was stopped by a guard.
“You here for the tour?”
Colton pushed down his sudden panic. “Yes?”
“One and five, please.”
The panic promptly returned. What did that mean? Had Danny ever used that phrase before?