Briar bit her tongue so she would not say, “Not for you, I don’t imagine—since you’re the man who sent them. ”
Lucy mumbled, “We were leaving Maynard’s and Hank got sick. His mask wasn’t on him good, and he turned, and we ran into trouble. I had to bust my way to the Vaults with Miss Briar here. ”
Within his mask he made a clucking noise that sounded like a parent’s gentle admonishment. “Lucy, Lucy. What about your crossbow? How many times do I have to remind you: This is a delicate piece of machinery, not a truncheon. ”
“The crossbow… I didn’t have… there wasn’t really time. In the chaos of it all, you know. Things get lost. ”
“You lost it?”
“Well, I’m sure it’s still down there somewhere. But when I got up topside, it wasn’t there anymore. I’ll find it later. I’m sure it’s still in one piece. ” She cringed when he opened the top panel of her arm and began to poke through its interior with a long, thin screwdriver.
“You’ve let someone else work on this joint,” he said, and Briar could hear the frown she couldn’t see.
Lucy looked as if she’d like to go crawling away from him, but she held still and almost simpered, “It was an emergency. It wasn’t working at all, except to spasm and kick, and I didn’t want to hurt anyone so I let Huey take a crack at it. ”
“Huey,” he repeated the name. “You mean Huojin. I’ve heard about him. He’s developing quite the reputation in your quarters, or so I hear. ”
“He’s… talented. ”
Without looking up from his work, he said, “I’m always interested in talent. You should bring him here. I think I’d like to meet him. But, oh dear—just look what he’s done. What is this tube made from, Lucy?”
“I… I don’t know. ” Lucy clammed up, but Minnericht wasn’t finished with the subject.
He said, “Oh, I see what he was trying to do. Of course, he couldn’t have known what kind of heat the friction inside can generate, so he wouldn’t have known that this couldn’t work. Even so, I do want to meet him. I think that’d be a fair means of repayment, don’t you, Lucy?”
“I don’t know. ” She sounded like she might be choking. “I don’t know if his grandfather will let him—”
“Then bring his grandfather too. The more the merrier, as they say. ” But it didn’t sound merry at all to Briar, who wished that the compartment were bigger—if only so she could farther remove herself from the man’s presence.
“Miss Briar,” he said, suddenly directing his attention her way. “Could I impose upon you for a very small favor?”
She said, “Sure, ask. ” Her throat was too dry to carry the message with any coolness.
He used his screwdriver to indicate a place. “Behind you, over there. If you turn around, you’ll see a box. Could you bring it to me, please? ”
The box was heavier than it looked, and she would’ve preferred to hit him over the head with it than hand it to him; but she lifted it off the table and carried it to his side. Beside him, there was a cleared space on the bench. She placed it there and backed away again.
He still did not look at her. He said, “You know, Miss Briar, I can’t bite you through this mask. ”
“I shouldn’t think so,” she said.
“I’m forced to wonder what dear Lucy here has told you of me, to send you so far out of my reach. Won’t you have a seat?”
“Won’t you tell me if you’ve seen my son?”
His hand froze and the screwdriver hung midair, suspended in his grip. He dipped it again, gave it a twist, and reached for a fresh tube from the box. “I’m sorry. Were we talking about your son?”
“I believe he was mentioned. ”
“Did I mention that I’d seen him?”
“No,” Briar admitted. “But you didn’t say you hadn’t. So pardon me if I get a little more direct. ”
Minnericht closed the panel that exposed the insides of Lucy’s arm; she tested it, and her face registered the deepest sort of relief as it worked in all the ways she required. She singled out her fingers and pointed them as if she were counting, then bent her wrist forward, backward, and left to right.
The doctor slid sideways, pivoting on his hip to face Briar while remaining seated. “Did you ask the airmen? Captain Cly—he’s the fellow on the Naamah Darling, isn’t that right?—he sees and hears more than most men. Perhaps it’s that unnatural height of his. ”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Briar said, and she hated herself for being childishly rude. It wouldn’t serve her purposes, and it wouldn’t move him to help her, but there was an old pattern in play and she couldn’t find a different track. She was angry, and frightened on top of that, and in those conditions she regressed into someone she didn’t like. “I asked him, and I asked every other airman who’d give me five minutes of his time. No one’s seen hide nor hair of him, which isn’t so crazy given that he came in from the water runoff, not from the sky. ”