ou put your great-uncle Faisal in my mouse?!” seethed Ned.
The Tinker had explained in detail how what was left of his great-uncle was failing; how the only way to keep him alive was to transfer the code of his “soul” into another ticker, and that the perfect conduit was Whiskers, given that he had successfully undergone the procedure before.
“You knew, didn’t you? In Amsterdam, when you asked to take Whiskers with you?”
Poor Tinks looked very close to tears. “Well, I mean, you see … yes.”
“Gorrn?”
His familiar did not need to be asked. The truth was that he had become rather fond of Whiskers. As Ned’s sidekicks and companions, they had a certain bond. And now Whiskers was not only a robotic ticker in mouse form, and a dog, but also a geriatric minutian scientist, and the latter transformation had not taken place with anyone’s permission.
Gorrn rose up as a mountain of undulating menace and grabbed at the Tinker’s wrists.
“Unhand me, you gelatinous blob!”
“Pup, there’s no need for that!” protested Benissimo, till Ned quietened Gorrn with a raised hand.
“How dare you treat my grand-nephew like that!” said Great-uncle Faisal.
Ned leant in very close, till his nose was almost touching the mouse.
“If I were you, Faisal, I’d button it. Whiskers, are you still in there?”
The little mouse’s eyes blinked and his demeanour changed back to that of a tail-wagging dog-mouse. He nodded to Ned, then sat on his haunches.
“Are you all right, boy?”
The dog-mouse that Ned loved and knew shrugged.
“We’ll get him out of there, Whiskers, when this is all over, I promise.”
Whiskers wagged his tail contentedly and Ned turned on the Tinker.
“Tinks, how long till you and Faisal crack the code?”
“I don’t know. Could take weeks, maybe months.”
The walls of his lab seemed to close in around them as Benissimo roared back.
“We don’t have months! Tinks, get your staff, and get all of them on this. I want that code cracking, and I want to know what that stone is and how it works.” He marched to the door, his moustache in full twitch, adding as a final thought, “I would suggest installing a coffee machine before you start – no one in your team sleeps till I see some results.”
Outside, the larger laboratory was empty, though no doubt it would soon be full. Every available hand in the facility was working round the clock to help house and tend to the Viceroy and his evacuees.
The Tinker had not had the answers he’d hoped for and Ned had never felt darker in his life.
“Well, that didn’t go as I’d hoped,” he sighed.
“He’s right though, pup,” said Benissimo.
“How can you say that?” replied Ned angrily. “I love that little ball of bolts. I mean, I’m not really sure I know what he is any more, but he’s mine, and—”
“No, no, not about Whiskers,” said the Ringmaster. “Faisal – what he said about your powers.”
Ned sighed again. “In Dublin, when the Fey charged, I tried my Engine and it just fizzled. Nearly everyone I care about was on the brink of being torn to shreds and all I could do was just stand there and watch! Even if we do figure out what I’m supposed to do with the stone … what if I can’t actually do it?”
Benissimo put a firm hand on Ned’s shoulder and leant in towards him.
“Well, I would have thought that was obvious. Everyone who stands beside you, and everyone that stands behind them, dies.”
“I think, Bene, that it might be time for some training.”