"I didn't build it. Anit sent one along for me. To keep me company. And, I think, to keep us safe." Thomas seemed distracted but amused. He nailed a crossbar together with a single fast blow of his hammer and sat back on his haunches. "Beautiful, isn't she?"
It was one of the camouflage automata from America, and as Jess watched, it stretched, yawned to show bright, sharp metal teeth, and stretched out in a lazy sprawl by the furnace. It hadn't stopped watching him. "I thought you named the one we had in Rome Frauke."
///
"I did."
"And that one was male."
"No, it was a machine. She is a machine. I may call them as I like. And her name is still Frauke. Did you get the watches?"
Jess put the clocks down and pulled the watches from his coat, and Thomas stopped what he was doing to open the backs and examine the works.
"Yes," he said. "Yes, this is exactly what I need. Good quality. Thank you." He stood back and stared down at the clocks with his big hands stuffed in the pockets of his trousers. "I never expected to have to make anything but things of peace, you know. Things to better the lives of others. But that is not what I am doing, is it? Even this, the press . . . it's a weapon of war. A different kind of war, perhaps, but people will die for it. They already have."
That was a hard thing to acknowledge. Jess changed the subject. "What did you want the clocks and watches for?"
"I'm building another Ray of Apollo," he said. "And a few other things that require delicate parts. If I have enough time, I might repair Morgan's bird for her. I know she prized it." Thomas put the watches on the workbench. "Take those apart. Sort the parts into sizes. That should keep you too busy to frown at me. You are frowning at me, aren't you?"
"No," Jess lied. He was, of course. "You don't want me working on the press?"
"The press is the least of what we need to do. With these tools, with Wolfe's help, with a little time . . . I think we can do a great deal. And we'll need to, if we're planning to take on the Archivist. We need a different kind of genius to do that, I think."
That sounded eerily like things that were taking shape in Jess's head. He thought he could fool Thomas, with a little work. A little luck. But he wasn't sure.
So instead of trying, he sat down, took the set of delicate tools that Thomas set out, and began dismantling watches. "So is there anything else you might need?" he asked, slipping on magnifying glasses to better navigate the inner workings.
"Yes, when you have time," Thomas said. "I don't suppose your mother would part willingly with the three largest of her gemstones?" He drove home four more nails with sharp, perfectly aimed blows.
Jess unscrewed a gear from the watch assembly, picked it free with tweezers, and put it aside. "Let's just say that it's a good thing you have a thief for a best friend."
Stealing from his mother was a line Jess found himself unwilling to cross. He wouldn't have thought himself capable of such squeamishness, but he finally had to admit, after arguing with his worse angels for a few hours while breaking down the clocks and watches, that he didn't want to do it. Not alone.
So he asked Dario.
"No!" Dario exclaimed, far too loudly. "Who do you think I am, scrubber?"
Jess had brought him to the old library at the farthest end of the castle from his parents' quarters, and he'd hoped to find it deserted. He hadn't quite succeeded there, because Khalila was curled up on the lush old divan, book in her hands, and of course she'd heard that indignant outburst and looked up, and there was no use in pretending otherwise.
"I thought you were someone who might be able to exercise some discretion, but I see I was wrong," Jess shot back. "Never mind."
"No, just a minute, what is it you want me to, ah . . ."
"Steal," Khalila supplied. She set her book aside, stood, and came toward them. "Oh, don't bother-I heard it quite clearly, and I know you're aware of the word. For all your protests, you're probably the second-best thief in our circle; don't pretend otherwise for my benefit. So what exactly is it you wish for us to steal?"
"Us?" Dario said, at the same time Jess blurted out, "You?" They were, in that moment, identically shocked.
Her eyebrows formed perfect little arcs to frame the amusement in her gaze. "I admit I don't have much experience, but it seems to me that I could help. Somehow."