The Inventor's Son

Chapter 3: In Which a Plot Most Foul Comes to Light

"What does this do?" Liam asked, gazing at an item which appeared rather like a hybrid battle ax. It had a bulbous chamber filled with hot blue swirling gas.

"Do be careful, Inspector Huntington! If you reach for that item, you might be in for a nasty surprise..." Ethan warned.

"Such as?" Liam asked.

"Well, I cannot be held responsible for the condition of your fingers should you be so inclined to take that thing," Ethan told him with a hint of mischief.

"Duly noted. If there is one thing I wouldn't wish to do, it would be tangling with one of Marcus Stanwood's gadgets!" Liam exclaimed. "Just looking at that gas in there makes it look quite harmful! How did he make that?"

"There's a lot of chemistry involved in that. Suffice to say that it is made from isolating one of the many elements in the air we all breathe and then exposing it to another. To make yellow, we'd use helium, and to make blue like it is in the axe, we'd use mercury. It's something that may have use someday, but right now, I haven't seen anything like it anywhere else..."

"Sweet Jesus. Separating elements out of the air...How do you people have the time to do these things?"

Ethan shook his head. "There were plenty of times we'd go without lunch, good sir," he said with a pout. After a few moments of silence, Ethan finally said, "Please forgive me for prying, but I absolutely must know. How does my father know you?"

Liam looked pointedly at Ethan and answered, "I owe your father my very life. It's as simple as that. I promised him that if he ever needed my help, I would be there for him. As it turns out, what he needs me to do is protect you. So, that's what I'm going to do."

"But, Inspector Huntington, I need to leave London! How are you supposed to drop everything merely to protect me?" Ethan protested.

"Well, I suppose if I had used that handy dandy black mirror you used, I would have known I didn't need to pay the landlady this month, wouldn't I?"

Ethan wanted to say something, but he had no words to describe the feeling that was starting to swell up in his chest. He kept silent as he pulled out a case as large as a steamer trunk. He flipped the latches open, then started fitting the pieces inside the case.

Liam broke the silence by saying, "Even if you say that da Vinci really invented this thing, your father is the one who's the genius. Who'd have thought that one would be able to fold it up and put it in a case? But, how would your uncle be able to drop bombs from it? The darn thing looked a lot like a skeleton with propellers, didn't it?"

"Well, that's the thing, Inspector Huntington. This prototype is scaled smaller than anything that could possibly fit a human inside it, but I have no doubt Uncle Malcolm was hoping to improve the design with his inventor friend. He could reinforce one thing here, make a more powerful motor, or make it larger. I'm certain that such things could be done. Like I had said before, even I know it needs a bigger engine. But, without the original, neither Uncle Malcolm nor his inventor minion can do anything like that." Ethan shut the case after draping the fabric over the other pieces. "There. Now we can get this into a carriage."

Liam and Ethan both picked up the case, but it actually was much lighter than it appeared. They headed back to the house, where Sophia waited. "I have to go to The Old House, Grandmother," Ethan announced.

"Take the gig. How much will you need to get from there?" she asked.

"The movement is there, and so are Father's old journals. I don't want Uncle Malcolm taking them for his mad inventor friend," Ethan pointed out. "Inspector Huntington, would you come with me?"

"Of course, lad."

"Ethan dear, I shall have Mr. Timmons accompany you so you can get packed more quickly," Sophia muttered.

"Though we might be needing to leave London in a great rush, would it not be a good idea to figure out where we are supposed to go?" Ethan asked.

"We're going to need to hire some carriages, Cora. And do find Mr. Timmons," Sophia ordered with a snap of her fingers, and it seemed as though she had completely ignored Ethan's previous statement. Ethan sighed. He got a lot of that.

"Yes, ma'am," Cora, a tiny maid with platinum hair and even paler cheeks, said with a curtsy.

"We'd better get moving, lad! Can you pack yourself up quickly once we get there?" Liam asked him.

"Yes, sir! Oh, wait, we need Sam as well. Sam!" Ethan called.

Sam scurried over and clung to Ethan's leg. Liam bent down to get a closer look at the android. "Quite the contraption, this Sam-thing," he mused.

"Inspector Huntington, please ignore the...um... steampoweredcarriage when we pass it," Ethan requested as he led Liam where the gig was prepared beside the house.

"I shall walk past whatever you just said with nary a glance," Liam assured him with amusement. "As if Marcus Stanwood would not have such a contraption in his possession!"

"Thank you, sir. I've heard they are illegal," Ethan winced.

"The steam powered carriage is not illegal, it is use of them on the public roads that is illegal," Liam pointed out.

"Either way, I promise we haven't taken that old thing out in a long while."

"Not since last weekend anyway, right?" Liam joked.

Ethan blushed. "I-Inspector Huntington!"

"It was a joke! Perhaps a poor one. I was merely curious to see if you had a sense of humor at all like your dear papa's," Liam assured him.

Ethan felt some of the tension lift from his shoulders. He would not ask again just how his father had saved Liam's life, but it was pretty obvious to him that Liam knew Marcus quite well.

* * * * * *