Copper Visions (6 page)

Whispers went through the crowd that almost everybody had was known to have made it out of the building, though they were still looking for the girl who had lived in the basement apartments. As the people in the crowd began to whisper that she was missing, there were more whispers that she may have been the cause of the fire since it seemed to have started in the basement.

“Do you have a cloak in your bag?” David asked her as they stood and watched the people on the street.

“It's not cold,” Sophie said.

“No, but what kind of description do you think is going to start going around about the girl who lives in the basement?”

Sophie nodded and they ducked into an alley to find a way to cover her most distinguishing feature. An old, threadbare cloak was stuffed into the bottom of her bag and put to good use, the two of them emerging into the dusk to the glow of the fire. The crowd had begun to go home, having determined that no more entertainment was to be had from the burning building. The neighboring homes were soaked and did not seem to be in danger of going up as the fire burned down.

They moved closer to the fire as the crowd cleared out. Mrs. Tunstall was standing across the street, yelling at the men working the water cart about the fact that her house was being left to burn rather than trying to save it. Her son was next to her watching the fire and talking to a man who looked familiar. One of the children she'd seen playing on the street earlier was standing near them, listening with open-mouthed fascination. Something about the whole situation made Sophie nervous and she decided to hide in an alley while David went to find out what was going on.

Mrs. Tunstall caught sight of David as he got closer and pointed at him. “There! That's the man who was visiting her down there earlier.”

“What happened here, Mrs. Tunstall?”

“As if you didn't know?” She shrieked at him. “You set my house on fire! You and that whore left some kind of bomb down there.”

“A bomb, ma'am?” The person directing the fire-brigade asked. “You said you didn't know what had caused it.”

“The scientists who came looking for the girl earlier said she'd left her ankle device down there. She told me it would blow up if she went too far from her apartment,” Mrs. Tunstall said. “I don't know exactly how it worked but she left and she left it there. It might have blown up! Or taking it off started a fire on her table.”

“I seriously doubt that it started a fire,” David said. “If it was going to explode, it would have done so when she took it off, not more than an hour later.”

“How would you know, young man?” The man asked. David looked at him and tipped his hat back so the man could get a good look at his face. He gasped and backed up a step.

The man talking to George Tunstall stepped toward them. “Are you Professor David Alexander?” He asked.

“I am,” David said. “I don't believe I know you, sir.”

“Forgive me,” the man said. “I am Doctor Blue and a great admirer of yours, sir. Your work on human anatomy as applied to gears and functioning engines is ground breaking, and a great help to my own work. Captain,” Doctor Blue said, turning to the man who had been talking to Mrs. Tunstall. “This man couldn't possibly be involved with this.”

“He was here with that metal harlot earlier,” Mrs. Tunstall said.

“I'm sure Professor Alexander's interest in Miss Fisher is the same as mine, Mrs. Tunstall,” the doctor said, smiling at her. “I'm sure if I'd heard of a woman with metal arms defying one of my greatest theories, I would be determined to talk to her as well.”

“Yes,” David said. “My interest in Miss Fisher is purely scientific. The engineering on her arms is astounding and I've been pressing her to let me observe more of their mechanical nature.”

“Professor, I'm sorry the young woman is not with you so I could walk you through a more scientific demonstration of my greatest work to date.”

“Indeed, Doctor, is Miss Fisher not here?” David asked. “I'm afraid I had a previous appointment when I left her earlier and had hoped to come back and find her willing to continue our conversation.”

“No, I had hoped to find her here, or perhaps returning from wherever she had gone. My colleagues and I were alerted to the fire at her place of residence and, as it was my day to administer the serum, I came in the hopes of finding her alive and well. That hope seems to be diminishing by the moment,” the doctor looked sorrowfully at the smoldering building behind them. “Isn't that right, captain?”

“Eh, that's right, Doctor,” the captain said. “If she was in there when it started, it looks like what's left of her will still be there. No one could have survived that.”

“What about metal, captain?” David asked. “If the young woman did perish in the fire, would her arms be able to be salvaged?”

“Depends on the type,” the captain said, looking very uncomfortable. “That was the hottest burn I've ever seen outside of a foundry. Could be her arms survived, could be they melted when her body turned to ash.”

“What a horrid thought,” the doctor said. “Well, here's hoping she wasn't in there and will show herself to be still intact, if a trifle irresponsible for being out this late on a day when she is due for an injection.”

“Injection?” The captain asked, looking between the doctor and the machine he was talking to.

“Yes,” Doctor Blue said, glancing quickly at the fire-brigade captain and Mrs. Tunstall. “Miss Fisher is a patient of mine.”

“Doctor Blue,” David said, interrupting the captain before he could say anything else. “I am sure the good captain does not need to hear the intimate details of your care for Miss Fisher. Though, I do admit to finding myself curious about what it involves. Perhaps you would care to repair to my laboratory so we may discuss such things without intruding on anymore of his time. I'm certain Mrs. Tunstall can tell the young woman where you went should she return tonight.”

“Unfortunately, Professor Alexander, I cannot, though I would like to invite you to call on me at the hospital. It's been a long day and I must go report in that I missed the young lady, and that I fear her lost. She should be back by now or starting to feel the effects of the serum wearing off. If we don't find her tomorrow, we'll have to start a search or wait to find her remains once the ash of her home has cooled enough to look through.”

“Very well,” David said. “I will call on you at the hospital, later. Have a good night, Doctor Blue.”

David turned and left, stepping into the shadows as quickly as he could and make it seem a natural step to take. His steps unhurried, he ducked down an alley and went to where he'd left Sophie as quickly as he could. He found her sitting, her hands in her lap, her back propped against a wall.

“What did you find out?” she asked, turning her head slowly to look at him.

“The fire was deliberate and there is speculation that you're dead. Are you all right? I wouldn't think you'd want to sit in a place like this.”

She smiled at him. “I got a little tired and my back was hurting. My arms feel a little heavy.”

“Don't they usually?”

“No. They're actually very light, normally,” her words began to slur and her head fell back against the wall.

“Can you walk?” he asked. She answered him with a light snore.

David shook Sophie lightly. “Sophie, you can't sleep here, we have to get moving.”

“I'm tired, David,” Sophie murmured.

“I know you are, Sophie,” David said. “But you have to get up. There are people looking for you who want to hurt you. We can't let them find you like this.”

“It doesn't matter,” she mumbled. “It's all shit anyway.”

“It does matter, because you're going to make it better, Sophie,” David said, pushing her away from the wall slightly and slipping a hand behind her.

“No I'm not. The world is shit and I'm too poor and stupid to do anything about it.” She grimaced and shifted her hips. “And I can't move my arms.”

“Help me with your legs and we'll get you standing.” David came around in front of her and crouched. “How far down your back does the metal go?”

“Half way down my ribs but only on my spine. The top three have metal supports.”

“Alright, I'm going to lift and you're going to push up, understand?” Sophie nodded and bunched her legs, dragging her heels back to get her skirts out of the way first. David moved in as close as he could, pushing her skirts past her knee then locking his arms around her. He held her tightly to his front and murmured a count down.

The gears in his legs complained as the went straight up and Sophie bit back a cry of pain. He held her steady as she got her feet under her.

“I'm up,” Sophie said. “But I don't know where we're going or how I'm going to get there. I'll collapse again if you let go of me.”

“I'm going to put an arm around you and carry your top half,” David said, sliding to her side. “And we're going to my home. You work on trying to walk and I'll guide us there.”

They took a few stumbling steps forward before they got into a rhythm together. After a block, Sophie chuckled. “We look like a pair of drunks. Drunk lovers, even. People are going to notice.”

“Let them because what we don't look like, especially this late at night, is a metal man and a half-metal woman accused of burning down her home.”

“Good point,” she said and concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other. Her brain felt fuzzy, as though the whole thing were wrapped in cotton. She knew that she should know why she was feeling this way, had felt this way before in fact, but she couldn't remember why. It was important, somehow, and she knew it. As they walked, her focus narrowed to forcing her feet forward, even when she couldn't lift them off the ground. At the stairs to David's townhouse, he picked her up and carried her inside.

Sophie regained consciousness to find a woman hovering over her. Middle-aged, bordering on old, the woman had lines around her eyes and fingers that felt like paper as they felt the skin of her cheek and opened her eyes wider to peer into them.

“Well, I can't see that she's ill, Professor, more like she's been hit on the head. And those ares of hers are too heavy to lift without help.” The woman straightened and wiped her hands on her apron. “If she's been carrying them all day, it's no wonder she's tired.”

“Thank you, Mrs. Hobbes,” David said. “She didn't seem tired yesterday while we were out. The doctor I talked to about her said something about some kind of serum she was needing. Could it have kept her from noticing? Kept her from feeling the effects of all that weight?”

“Well, there's things that will make you forget you're tired, the miners used them before the engines, but you pay for it eventually. She's not got the marks of somebody who uses, though, so whatever serum that doctor was talking about isn't something I know about.”

“It's green,” Sophie croaked out. “And he puts it in something in my back. Stems aren't allowed at the mines anymore.”

“I'm glad to hear it,” Mrs. Hobbes said. “Caused more accidents than the extra shifts were worth. What kind of serum is it they give you?”

“I don't know. Something to make the muscles work better? Do you know anything like that?”

Mrs. Hobbes pursed her lips. “No.”

“I'd like to look at your back, if I may Sophie? With Mrs. Hobbes here, of course.” David stepped into her view. It was then that Sophie realized she'd been sleeping in a wing back chair that had been tilted back and propped at an angle.

“Yes, alright,” Sophie said. “But who's Mrs. Hobbes and can I have some water?”

Mrs. Hobbes left, presumably to get her some water. “Mrs. Hobbes is my assistant and occasional housekeeper. She used to assist at the mines, handling the minor injuries so the doctors didn't have to be called out for anything that wasn't worth their time. With the engines, the number of accidents and resulting injuries went down so there was little for her to do there.”

“And what I saw working there,” Mrs. Hobbes said, coming into view with a glass in her hand. “You'd be surprised what the doctors didn't consider worth their time. Though, there's not much they can do with a young man who's coughing up dirt and blood except tell him to wear a cloth while he's down there and take fewer shifts. There's less of that now, my girls tell me, but the doctors have changed, too”