Mechanical Hearts (Skeleton Key) (3 page)

My heart kicked back into gear and what little fog remained in my brain cleared as the shuddering stopped a few seconds later.

Were they messing around with something up there with me down in this hole? They were going to kill me.

No. I am going to kill them
, I decided as I crested the top of the ladder.

The main deck was a flurry of activity. Men in similar odd-looking uniforms hurried back and forth to huge engines spewing steam. There were too many for me to make my way, or try to make my way to the captain’s room unseen, so I climbed the rest of the way out of the ladder and started down the first hall I came to like I had every right in the world to be there.

It didn’t seem to matter who or what I was or what I was doing there because more men ran by me without so much as looking in my direction.

I had no idea where I was going, so I chose twists and turns at random as I went in the opposite direction from what I began to call the engine room. Sweat still clung to my skin from the heat of the furnaces and steam dripped from the walls in the hallways closest to it. The room I was in must have been directly below it because it was extremely hot. My fingers twitched remembering the burning hot wall. The farther away from the room I got, the more the air cooled, and the easier it was to breathe.

The walls and piping above were all the burnished gold of the exterior, but it wasn’t bright, it was a deep color, just a few shades lighter than a deep-honey-brown.

If I weren’t so worried about Phoebe and getting back home, I would have given in to my natural curiosity. There were rooms on either side of the main hallway I seemed to be on. They looked like bunkrooms, offices, a kitchen with attached mess hall, and more, though I didn’t give myself much time to look at them.

When I heard the low baritone of the captain, I pushed through the door in front of me to the only room on the vessel I actually recognized, except the view outside the window was completely different.

At my gasp, the captain and the robot both turned to me, but I was too distracted by the sight out the front window to care about their attention.

We were deeper in the ocean than I ever could have imagined. So deep, that what little light made it down to those depths was an eerie green. If it weren’t so terrifying, it would have been beautiful.

Blood rushed in my ears, and I gripped the door frame to steady myself. “You’re going to tell me exactly where we are,” I said, my earlier nervousness forgotten and replaced by a fight or flight response. My vision narrowed to the man leaning casually against the back of his chair.

Apparently, I’d already decided on fight.

I wasn’t awestruck by him that time; I was thinking somewhat clearly and wanted answers.

Metal scraped against metal, and Tink crossed the room to a weird machine that hissed in the corner. It turned out to be a little coffee machine, and after a few seconds, he brought me a little metal mug full of the steaming liquid.

I didn’t know if I was supposed to address him, but I said, “Thank you,” anyway out of habit. He—or it—seemed to be grateful as he acknowledged me with a nod.

As I sipped the spicy, sweet coffee, I studied the captain over the rim of the cup.

His mechanical arm whirred as he threaded his fingers through his hair. “I’ll be the one asking the questions,” he said. “What were you doing topside?”

“Got caught in a storm,” I answered. “Where are you taking me? Who are you?”

“I’m Captain Ezra Castle. And we’re going to Port Arliss.”

“Is that in Florida?” I asked, though I had the sinking feeling that it wasn’t based on the look Ezra shared with the robot.

His prosthetic eyes studied me intently. “Where are you from, exactly?” he said after a few moments of intense scrutiny that I ignored by taking another deep gulp of coffee.

“Florida.” When he only stared blankly, I added, “The United States? North America.”

Tink, who I’d forgotten was also in the room, said, “From the Otherworld, Sir.”

The captain glanced at me with renewed interest, or, at least, that’s what I thought it was. There was no telling with those eyes. Maybe that’s what had me so unsettled the first time I saw him.

“How did you get here?” he asked, and I didn’t know if it was my imagination or the lack of sleep, but he seemed to stand straighter at the mention of whatever the Otherworld was.

Clearly, the knock to the head or the oxygen deprivation had done more damage than I thought.

“I told you, I got stuck in a storm then pulled out to sea. Look,” I said after finishing the cup of coffee, “I just want to get back home to my family.”

“I’m afraid that’s going to be a problem,” he said as he turned to face the window.

My grip tightened on the mug in frustration. “What the hell do you mean that’s going to be a problem? Just take me home!”

He gestured with his mechanical arm.

I followed his motion and looked out the window that encompassed most of the room. It was situated on top of the nose of the submarine. I could see the honey-gold color of it guiding the way through the darkness.

In front of the ship, the underwater shadows parted and revealed a wide-open space on the sea floor.

“Where are we? What is this?” I asked as an underwater city came into view. My tired and throbbing brain couldn’t comprehend the information it was receiving from the sight before me.

Massive capsules at least a couple miles high, though I couldn’t be sure, were connected by tunnels and laid out in a spoke and wheel pattern. Life teemed inside the glass—whole cities, I realized. Even from a distance away, I could spot vehicles on cobbled roads, people on sidewalks in front of medieval-looking shops, and even more capsules in the distance. So many, I couldn’t count them.

There was an entire civilization underneath the ocean. The sight of it, the undeniable reality, settled like a weight in the pit of my stomach.

I really wasn’t in Florida anymore.

As if to echo my thoughts, Ezra moved closer and hovered over my shoulder, his gaze on the capsules in front of us.

“Welcome to Port Arliss,” he said.

A
furious collage
of my options careened through my mind. Each one more hopeless than the one before it.

I could try to take over controls of the submarine, but I dismissed that idea almost as soon as it formed. There were too many of them and only one of me. Besides, I didn’t want to see his arm in action. I had a feeling it could crush me with one flex of his fingers. There was the smallest part of me, the one that drove me to finish my undergrad in three years and apply for medical school, that wanted to rip off his shirt and really get a good look at how that arm melded mechanical with biological, but I shut those thoughts down before curiosity had a chance to take over.

Whenever we got to port, I could make a run for it, but where would I go? I didn’t even know where
it
was. My only option was to enlist Ezra’s help, but he didn’t seem like the kind of guy to be overly solicitous. I had to try; I had no other choice. There were certainly criminal elements in Arliss, and I didn’t want to get myself into even more trouble than I already was.

“When we reach port—” I started to say, but Ezra interrupted me.

“Whenever we reach port, you’re no longer my responsibility. You will get off of my ship, and I want nothing more than to never see your face again.”

His words stole the breath straight from my lungs. When I regained the ability to speak, I tried for calm. “You can’t just leave me there. I-I have no idea where I am. I have no idea where to go.”

He dismissed me with a cold turn of his shoulder. “That’s not my concern.”

I wasn’t going to beg him, but I wasn’t going to let him get away with it, either. If he wasn’t going to voluntarily help me, then I was going to do whatever I had to do to get home to Phoebe. What
ever
I had to do.

As we grew closer to Port Arliss, details of the settlement came into view. There was a whole other world down there, full of bustling enterprise and families. How did they survive down there?
Why
did they survive down there? And just where in the world
was
“there”?

Other submarines in better repair than Ezra’s flocked to various docking stations on every side of the capsules. Some were more compact than others, and those aimed for smaller capsules that I imagined were houses or little neighborhoods. The side of the submarine would line up with the coordinating door on the capsule and like an air-locked ship in outer space, the cabin’s pressure would equalize and those on board would depart into the capsule.

The capsules themselves were constructed of some sort of impenetrable glass I’d never seen before. The seams were fastened together by a metal similar to the one Ezra’s ship was made out from. In the distance, I spotted a large capsule that was filled to the brim with green. Their gardens, I assumed, and wondered how they managed to grow food this far from the surface.

By the time I could tear my eyes away from the study of the strange new world, Ezra was maneuvering the boat to an airlock near the center of the sprawling city. Hundreds of people teemed in the center capsule, and even through the blurry obstruction of seawater and glass I could make out a market of sorts. Behind it was the biggest structure of all: a four-story house that took up a huge capsule of its own.

Maybe it was a secret military operation of some kind. Maybe NASA had been designing these cities in secret as some sort of survivalist effort and it had never been publicized.

I wanted so desperately to believe that. The possibility that I was in another place, that the skeleton key had somehow given me access to another world through that horrible storm seemed impossible.

But as I studied the city through the glass, I knew in my gut that I was far, far away from home.

I stayed out of Ezra’s way as he and Tink maneuvered the ship to the airlock. Ezra barked orders, his strange eyes darting furiously. The sound of Tink’s metal legs against the floor—
tink
,
tink
,
tink
—nearly made me smile as I realized that must be where he got his name. He refilled my cup in-between doing Ezra’s bidding and reminded me to take a seat while we were sidling up to the airlock.

The submarine shuddered as Ezra guided it to a stop and attached the outer door to the capsule. A loud, hot rush of steam burst from the seams of the doors and walls as the submarine finally slowed.

Ezra didn’t spare me a glance as he strode from the room, and the thought of being left behind spurred me to action. I followed the sound of Tink’s footsteps down the labyrinth of hallways until we came to a long line of the crew waiting to depart.

Not wanting to cut in line and incur the wrath of any of the mean-looking men, I hung back. Ezra stood by the exit with Tink at his side, nodding at each of them as they departed.

When it was just us left, Ezra motioned me forward, and despite my many mental reassurances, nerves fluttered uneasily in my stomach.

As I neared the exit, his arm shot out, and cold metal fingers wrapped around my wrist. From the corner of my eye, I watched as Tink followed the other man through the airlock leaving Ezra and me alone on the deserted submarine.

“Who are you?” he growled as his fingers left a cool trail from my wrist to my throat.

I swallowed and felt my throat bob against the unrelenting pressure of his powerful hand. “I’m no one,” I said.

“Spy?” he demanded. “Assassin?”

I started to shake my head, then stopped when I met resistance. “N-No. I’m no one. I just want to go home.”

“You’ve already cost me more than you can fathom. If I find that you’ve been hired to follow me, getting home will be the least of your worries.”

My brows knit together, and my lips flattened into a line. “If you aren’t interested in helping me, then I have absolutely no interest in being here for another second. Since you’ve made it clear you aren’t, let me go, and I’ll find another way home.”

His fathomless eyes stared into mine for a moment that stretched on for an eternity. One moment was more than enough. More than enough time for me to notice that not all of him was as cold as his arm and eyes. The rest of him rivaled the heat from the engine room in the places where his tight form pressed against me.

Places that sparked to life from the mere contact in spite of the exhaustion and defeat that plagued me.

Footsteps broke the moment, and for that, I was grateful. Any longer pressed against him and steam would have come out of my ears from the heat passing between us.

Ezra gave me one last lingering look before turning his attention to the man who appeared in the doorway. One look at him and I was grateful for Ezra’s presence between us, even if he was a grade-a jerk.

The man wasn’t physically imposing, he couldn’t have been taller than me, but he carried himself with an air of importance. It would have made me take a step back if Ezra hadn’t taken hold of my arm again and if there wasn’t a wall to my back.

“Fletcher,” Ezra said with a nod.

“Castle,” he replied, though he didn’t nod, and his eyes were on me.

Ezra took another step forward, turning his back completely to me and blocking my view. “What can I do for you?” he asked.

If there were room for me to flee, I would have. I’d rather have taken my chances in the unknown world than be pinned between the warring tensions between the two men.

“You’re late,” Fletcher said.

I didn’t need a second look at him to know he wasn’t the kind of man who you wanted to disappoint. He was older, with salt and pepper hair that had once been blonde. His beard was the same color, scruffy, and desperately needed a trim. His face was strong, dominated by a straight nose and heavy brows. Deep grooves defined his cheeks and lined his forehead. His blue eyes would have been kind if it weren’t for their stark emptiness.

“Ran into some complications,” Ezra replied, jerking his head toward me.

“Yes,” Fletcher said, angling his body so he could see around Ezra’s broad shoulders. “And who is this complication, exactly?”

“No one important,” Ezra said. “Did you need something else, Sir? We’ll be going out on another hunt tomorrow.”

Fletcher studied me for a few more long seconds, then returned his attention to Ezra. “Yes, actually, I do.”

“Another supplies run?” Ezra asked.

“Not quite,” Fletcher responded.

“Bigger?” I hadn’t known him long, but with his body right in front of mine only a few inches away, I could see his shoulders tense and his normal fist clench into a ball.

“Significantly.” Fletcher paused. “If you’re up for it.”

“Anything you need,” Ezra said.

“And what would you want in return?”

I wasn’t entirely sure what I was witnessing, but I knew it was momentous. I wished he’d let me go so I didn’t have to stay there, so I could start trying to find a way to get home, but he didn’t, and I couldn’t, so I decided I might as well make the best of it.

“You know what I want,” Ezra replied.

I could hear the smile when Fletcher said, “
The Avenger
. You’re too easy, boy, and you should know that’s a fool trade.”

“It’s mine to make,” Ezra said coolly. “Are you going to tell me what it is you need, or are we going to wait here all day?”

“A mechanical heart,” Fletcher answered. “But I don’t want it extracted,” he added. “I want it fresh.”

I knew when all of Ezra’s muscles went slack that it was a big deal. He let out a long, slow breath, then said, “You’ve got a deal.”

“Just got this off a trader coming from Port Lynel. It’s a sextant, and in addition to navigation, the attachments will supposedly track synthetics. The larger the indicator, the larger the level of synthetic.”

“Thank you, Sir,” Ezra said as he took the device in his free hand. “We’ll leave first thing tomorrow once we restock and refuel.”

“Spare no expense,” Fletcher said. “This is of the utmost importance. Don’t let me down, Castle.”

“You have my word, Sir,” Ezra said as he released his hold on me and held up a hand to shake.

“And you have mine as well.”

The men shook hands and Fletcher departed through the air lock. As soon as the doors closed behind him, Ezra was following without so much as a word to me.

It took me a few moments to kick my legs into gear because they were shaking due to the intensity that had filled the room between the two of them.

“Hey!” I shouted. “Hold up.”

Without turning, he said, “What are you still doing here?”

I frowned and tried to keep up with his long strides down the plank that led from the airlock onto the cobbled roads. “You’re the one that wouldn’t let me go,” I said to his back.

“Well, you’re free to go now, and yet, you’re still following me.”

The cobbled streets were filled with people hurrying from little shop to shop. The streets weren’t comprised of stone. They were made with more of the slick burnished metal and somehow caught the light from the glass capsule, making the roads shine a pretty gold.

“What else do you expect me to do?” I shouted after him, causing curious heads to turn our way.

“Figure it out yourself,” he said, and then disappeared around a corner leaving me standing in the middle of a growing crowd in a strange place with no way home.

I didn’t give myself time to think about that or freak out any more than I already was. If I did, I’d freeze, and I couldn’t let that happen.

There had to be someone around who knew something. Remembering the market I’d seen in the center capsule, I followed the line of people down the road and hoped they’d lead me to the city center where someone could help me.

I couldn’t help but ogle at everyone surrounding me. If I thought Ezra’s metal arm was odd, I was wrong. Out of all the people on the road, I was the odd one. Everyone had at least one mechanical prosthetic, even the children.

Next to me, a girl of five or so had a smooth mask of gilded metal on the left side of her skull. An old woman in front of me had an uneven gait due to a prosthetic leg. They ranged from the minute to the extensive. There wasn’t a single person who didn’t have some sort of metal appendage.

I thought of Fletcher and amended that conclusion. He hadn’t had a prosthetic, and I wondered why. I didn’t have much time to consider the reasons, as the crowd dumped into a circular courtyard dotted with multicolored awnings and a multitude of makeshift shopkeepers peddling their wares.

I stopped by the nearest shop and got the attention of the keeper who was arranging a variety of heavenly-smelling breads on a display. “Excuse me,” I said, “would you be able to point me to somewhere I can book lodging on a boat?”

The woman didn’t glance up for her arrangement. She just pointed across the courtyard to a shadowed corner.

“Thank you,” I told her, and she grunted in response.

My feet protested as I walked across the courtyard, reminding me that I didn’t have any shoes. I also didn’t have any money or any friends, so I was going to have to deal with the pain.

His was the only shop without patrons. It must have been the busiest time of day because the courtyard was packed hip to hip with people. It didn’t inspire confidence, but I also didn’t have many options.

The man behind the table had a dented and dull foot that bounced along with the music belting from a little radio on the table. “Hello, precious,” he said when he saw me standing in front of his table. “What canna do for ye?”

I gave him a wobbly smile as I rested my blistered feet in the shade. “I need some help,” I admitted.

“A damsel in distress,” he said, sounding delighted. “What ails you?”

“This is going to sound crazy,” I warned, but his enthusiasm was catching, and I found myself smiling in spite of all that had transpired.

“An adventure,” he said. “I like a good story.”