Clockwork Dream

vii Chatting with a Madman

Leo's morning started with a bang, literally. By the time his heart stopped palpitating he had located the source of his alarm. A smoking box had left a dent in the wall near his head. He wasn't happy to note that there were several such dents.

After the box came a slew of colorful, if not somewhat unusual curses. "Feckless, inutile, bloody damned contraption!"

Leo looked to see Lazarus Reiner shaking his fist dramatically at the box, still crouched in the corner where he had been the night before. Had he moved at all; had he slept? At the very least he looked decidedly more animated than he had the night before.

Carefully Leo reached over to pick up the strange object. It was made of some sort of reflective metal with panels and circuits built into its surface, but was still surprisingly light. Perhaps it was hollow. The moment that his fingers brushed its surface the inventor seemed to realize that he was still in the room.

"You there," he scowled, bushy eyebrows pinching together like an odd caricature. "What are you doing with that?"

"What is it?" Leo asked cautiously.

"What is it? I'll tell you what it is, nothing! A piece of scrap metal worth no more than it's weight in aluminum!"

"Ah, what was it supposed to be then?"

"Haven't you been listening to a word I've been saying boy! I told you last night."

"The Gyroscopic Telecommunicator?"

If Reiner heard the uncertainty in the boys voice he didn't show it, slicking his unkempt hair back like a preening cat. "Exactly, exactly my boy, that's what it would have been if those imbeciles hadn't skimped and acquired that common steel with two percent carbon when I specifically told them I needed three percent, they thought I wouldn't notice but of course I noticed because now the whole thing's gone and fallen apart!"

"If you know what's wrong with it, can't you just go back and fix it?" Leo doubted he would have appreciated it if I had told him that I didn't know what that was.

"Well of course I can fix it! But do you know how much of my time that would take, time better spent on so many other things? Honestly, sometimes I think I would have been better off staying with the Germans. Better resources, better work space, not so noisy all the time!" he remembered his original theory that there were German bombers coming to attack London. It seemed that he wasn't completely wrong after all.

"Why did you leave then?"

"Why, because they couldn't see. To be fair, these fools can't see either, but at least they don't try to stop me from seeing."

"Seeing what?"

Reiner gave him a sort of queer look. "Everything."

The almost turned back to his papers when Leo called out to him, not wanting to miss the opportunity- who knew when he would talk that much again. "Sir, I wanted to ask you about another of your inventions, the defenses around the German military base."

"Those again! Brilliant I say, brilliantly dull anyway. I've told you a thousand times but no one listens. Really, you waste so much of my time with bad iron and now you want to waste more of it with idle chatter..." The rant continued but softened until he could no longer make out the words.

"Sir," He called again.

There was no response, not even a twitch so Leo sat back down pondering his next move. He didn't have long to brood though because a tall figure that he was starting to loathe appeared silhouetted in the doorway.

"Oh good, I see you're already dressed. Sleep well?" Matthew grinned, his smile entirely too bright and cheerful against the drab, poorly lit interior of the ship. It was impossible to tell if it was still night or if morning had come calling. Normally that wouldn't have bothered him, the darkness that is. He had spent many hours locked away in his workroom but he'd always had the bells to comfort him, to sing him to sleep and wake him when the sun peaked the horizon even if it was hidden by clouds.