Holly went back to her examination. “This one here”—she pointed to the heart taken from the massive crawler whose identity remained unknown—“is quite interesting. It is close in design to those of the GIM in that one cannot detect a single weld mark and the gears are of a similar style.”
Mary did not want to know how or when Holly had had the chance to inspect GIM hearts.
“However,” said Holly, “unlike the golden heart of the GIM, the material used is an outdated blend of iron.” She picked up a scalpel and scraped along the outer edge of the heart. With her free hand, she pulled on a pair of massive goggles and peered at the fillings. “Yes, you can see it quite well here.”
Talent gave Mary a look clearly stating he’d take Holly’s word on that account. Mary bit the bottom of her lip to keep from smiling back.
Holly lifted her goggles and frowned a bit as she studied the hearts lying side by side.
“Go on, Mistress Evernight,” Talent said, knowing, as most regulators who consulted with Holly did, that she had a propensity for drifting off in mid-thought. “In broad terms, if you please.”
A reluctant amusement glinted in Holly’s eyes. “Very well. The older heart is not as efficient. It is bigger, the gears clumsy and not well designed.” She gestured to the hearts upon her table. “Just look at them side by side. Even a novice should be able to see the difference.”
Mary studied the hearts. “I wonder.… Hmm.”
“Out with it, Chase.” Talent’s hard features were even more so than usual, and she knew suddenly that he wanted to be out and about, searching. A restless soul.
“It simply struck me that, while the older crawler very well could be one of Adam’s early experiments, Mr. Pierce is not. He possesses a GIM heart, yes, but if he were a true GIM, he would not be… well, a veritable physical mess.”
Holly grinned wide. “My thoughts as well. See there.” Her thin, pale finger pointed to the golden GIM heart that had found its way into Mr. Pierce. A thick weld mark ran down the curve along what would be the left ventricle. “It has been repaired.”
A jolt of understanding, and dark dread, went through Mary. “There is a saying, that one must possess a GIM’s soul to possess a GIM’s heart.” She glanced at both Talent and Holly. “If you try to take our heart without earning our soul, our heart will break.”
“Pretty words,” murmured Talent. “But it sounds as though you are suggesting this is more than a bit of poetic fluff.”
“That is exactly what I am suggesting, Master Talent.” She studied the broken heart. “To my knowledge, no one has ever tried to steal a GIM heart until now. Perhaps the heart truly did crack upon theft. In some ways it makes sense. Adam gave us a clockwork heart so that he might control us. I can well imagine him placing that sort of proprietary restriction upon the device.” Mary looked at Holly. “Would the break, and subsequent weld, affect function?”
Holly bent close to the heart, gingerly turning it this way and that. “Given the precision of the design, I should think it highly likely that the break would hinder performance.”
Talent grunted, then tapped his chin with one long finger. “Tell me more about Adam and these crawlers, Chase.”
“There isn’t much in the way of hard facts. These are stories. Before now, I cannot recall anyone having actually seen a crawler. But it is said that they were the very first beings Adam created. Unlike with the GIM, there were no souls waiting to find a new home or for extended life.” Her lips pressed together as a bitter taste flooded her mouth. “It is said that he simply found a dead body and tried to revive it.”
She glance at a horrified Holly and a grim-faced Talent. “Of course the results were disastrous, as the body was nothing more than a mindless machine.” Mary stared at the hearts. “So he found souls to place in them. That too was a failure because the damage was already done to the body.” She grimaced. “If the brain has started to decay, then the body is not a good candidate.”
In the silence she risked a look, not at Talent, but toward Holly. “Now, I do not know if part of his failure was also because the bodies he used for the first ones were demonic, not human. Lore says that demons, shifters, and lycans cannot be turned into GIM as their bodies do not accept the invasion of metal within their systems.”
Holly glanced in the direction of where the bodies lay covered with a shroud. “Pierce was a shifter. And the other one, his eyes appear black now. A demon?”
“Looks like it.” Talent turned to Mary. “So Adam turned his focus on fresh human bodies. Irreverent bloke, isn’t he? I’m surprised his primus brethren didn’t come after him for such offenses.”