TCB Part 7: Chapter 2 (cont.)

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Chapter 2: Tuesday (cont.)

“Absolutely not.” The inventor’s wild hair seemed to take on a life of his own as he grumbled something to himself under his breath. Dr. Everton Leland Montebanque was eccentric to say the least. He wore a white lab coat, laden with clockwork enhancements whose purpose was not immediately apparent. He wore a pair of goggles on his head with various lenses and apertures, and a gas mask around his neck which did nothing to alleviate Higgs’s considerable reservations about the man.

Higgs looked around the back room of the inventor’s clock shop, which appeared to be a cross between some kind of commercial kitchen, chemistry lab, and machine shop. He wasn’t quite sure what was safe to touch, and what would explode on contact. Phineas didn’t have the same compunction; he was walking around the lab, grabbing this and that, turning it over.

“Don’t touch that!” Dr. Montebanque shouted at Phineas.

Phineas looked up, “Is it dangerous?” He turned it over in his hands, trying to determine its use. It looked like a small steel cylinder with thousands of tiny gears and springs inside.

“No, but it is very sensitive, and I’d prefer if you did not disturb it. That is one of my latest creations. It is an arithmetic machine. It is capable of very precise mathematics. Quite revolutionary, really.”

“Sounds like something a computer could probably have done better.” Phineas laughed, carefully returning the cylinder to its padded cradle.

“Perhaps,” said the inventor, “But that is blasphemy. This creation of mine is purely mechanical. It operates by hand crank, quite genius really, if I say so myself.”

Higgs cleared his throat and gave a stern look toward Phineas. “Dr. Montebanque, can we go back to the reason we’re here?”

“Must we? I have already given my answer.”

“Well, I feel that I have not adequately explained the situation. You see that there is a great deal of value on this train. You will be more than compensated for any of your devices that we use. I assure you that whatever you ask, we can afford.”

Dr. Everton Leland Montebanque grumbled some more. “It is not, Mr. Higgs, a matter of compensation. I do not wish to lend my creations to such an ignoble cause. I do not create these marvelous machines so that some villain can rob a train. It is out of the question.”

Higgs shook his head sadly. “This is your choice, sir. I can’t say that I blame you. A man of your brilliance should not have to take this kind of risk. We will find another way. Can you recommend another inventor that you think would be willing to help?”

Montebanque laughed out loud. “You will not find anyone whose inventions are as good as my creations. It is impossible.” The genius paused in thought, scratching his head beneath the wild hair. “Tell me, how exactly do you plan to do this train robbery.”

Higgs looked at Phineas, who had joined the other two in the center of the room. “Well, I think the plan was to use an airbike. Phineas, is that right?”

Phineas nodded, “Yes, airbike.”

“So we would use an airbike to get onto the train, and then I guess we would transport the goods off the train in the same way. I don’t see any other way, to be honest.”

Dr. Montebanque shook his head, “It will never work, you see. An airbike could not hold nearly enough cargo. They can barely hold a person. You need something bigger than that. Perhaps an entire airship would be enough. But then that could not keep up. I do have something that might work…”

Higgs smiled and winked at Phineas. “Please share, I’d love to hear it.”

“Well, it is not tested, quite dangerous. It would require a very foolish pilot. Ideally someone small.”

Phineas jumped in, “I know just the person.”

***

The pit area at the track was noisy and smelled strongly of grease and solid rocket fuel. The air was thick with the sounds of hammers pounding on metal, racing crews making last minute tweaks before the next race. Higgs heard a shout from somewhere down the line just before a rocket fell off its mount followed by five seconds of pregnant silence. The all clear was given and the sounds of tweaking and repairing resumed.

In a corner at the very back of the pit area, they found their target. She was working on her own airbike, making some adjustments to the wheels. She wore a loose gray jumpsuit that looked like it was designed for a man. Her hair was cropped short and looked like she didn’t do more to it than occasionally wash it and shove it into a helmet. The balloon was roughly patched in a few places from the previous race’s damages. As they were approaching, she cursed as she tried to get her front wheel somewhere close to true.

She looked up as Phineas and Higgs approached. “Sorry gents. That wasn’t very ladylike of me.” She stood up, wiped some grease from her hand on the side of her gray jumpsuit and put a hand out to Higgs. “The name’s Charlotte Avalon, some of the guys call me Charlie, so you can too if you like. I think it makes them less uncomfortable when they lose to a girl. Anyway, what can I do for you?”

Higgs shook her hand and stepped aside for Phineas to do the same. “Hello Charlotte, my name is Higgs, this is my friend Phineas Derbyshire. I saw your race this morning; that was quite a bit of piloting you did to pull that one off.”

“Yeah? You liked that move? I punctured the balloon on purpose at the end. The big balloon creates too much drag. When I put a hole in it, I can go a lot faster. Once I got to the home stretch, it didn’t do me much good anyway.”

Higgs smiled. It seemed there was more to this one than meets the eye. “Very impressive. And it won me a few bucks too.” He winked at Charlotte, who beamed back, clearly proud of her win.

She went back to her bike to look at the wheel again. “Mind if I work while we chat? I’ve got a lot of work to get done before the primetime race tonight. Under the lights! It’ll be my first race under the lights.”

Phineas shook his head. “Don’t you have a crew that should do that for you, Charlie?”

Charlotte threw her head back and laughed. “Derbyshire, you’ve got a lot to learn about the world. Ain’t a mechanic within 100 miles who wants to fix a bike for a girl. Even if that girl wins most of the races she’s in. It’s a man’s world in the racing circuit. They tell me to just be thankful that they let me race at all. But you don’t see them packing the house for a matinee the way I did this afternoon.” She tweaked a few of the spokes on her wheel, spinning it on its stand before choosing another spoke to tighten. “Besides, I don’t trust anyone else to work on my baby. This bike’s my pride and joy.”

Phineas walked around the airbike. He leaned down close to the rocket mount, scratching his finger across a rather sloppy weld. He ran his hand down one of the cables that kept the balloon attached to the bike; he nearly cut a finger open on a frayed wire. “Doesn’t look like you take very good care of your baby.”

“Back off, slick. She wins races. I wouldn’t have her any other way.” She picked up a small threaded spoke nut and threw it at Phineas. She giggled at the way he shied away as if it were going to get his pressed shirt dirty. “I take it you guys didn’t come here to talk about the poor condition of my airbike. So what is it? You guys promoters? Want me to enter a race? I’ll do it. I’ll race anywhere, any time.”

Higgs walked around the bike to where he could see her face. “No we don’t have a race for you. But we have a much better offer. If you work with us, you’ll be able to buy yourself as many airbikes as you want. You’ll be buying racetracks and giving those men the pleasure of racing on your track. Catch my drift?”

“You got my attention. Money like that doesn’t come easy. I’m guessing you guys are stealin’ something. Am I right?” She tried to flip a blonde ringlet off her forehead, but it fell right back to where it had been. Higgs couldn’t tell from her look whether the idea of theft excited or frightened her. He wasn’t sure if anything could frighten her.

“You’re right, Charlotte.” Higgs was impressed with her deduction. Just as he’d suspected earlier, she was more than just a brave fool. Somewhere beneath her tomboy exterior, he was sure she was a thinker. He’d have to remember that later.

“So what is it? Bank Job? Museum? What on earth do you need me to do for you with that?”

“Train. We’re robbing a train.”

“A moving train?”

“Probably, yes.”

“Sounds fun! But I’m not sure I’m up for something like that. You know, I’ve got a reputation to keep. I’m just starting to get some cred in the airbike circuit. It won’t be long before they let me enter the dozen rocket races. Can you imagine that? Sorry Higgs. It sounds fun, but I’m not ready to go to jail. Thanks for the offer.”

Higgs nodded to Phineas, who walked around to stand next to Higgs. He unbuttoned his overcoat, and reached into an inner pocket, pulling out a large envelope. “Charlotte, you’re good with airbike…The best really. I’ve watched you race dozens of times. Nobody matches your skill. Nobody else would have made that move you did this morning. I’ll be honest, when Higgs said he needed a stuntman, only one name came to mind. I told him he didn’t need a stuntman, he needed a woman. He needed you. If I thought that anybody else could pull this thing off, we’d walk away right now. But I can tell you that there’s nobody else that can pull this off. If you don’t do this, we don’t do this.”

Charlotte blushed at the compliment and looked away. Higgs was surprised at her reaction. She’d been so self-confident. He guessed she didn’t get many compliments like that one. Phineas was working his magic in the way only he could.

The great con artist continued, “Before you give us your final answer, I wanted you to have a look at this.” He handed her the envelope.

“What’s this?”

“It’s the schematic of the thing we want you to fly.” Phineas pretended to be preoccupied with a fingernail. It was a very nonchalant way to show his indifference. In reality, his heart was beating out of his chest hoping that this would work.

Charlotte opened the envelope, pulling out a few sheets of blueprints. She looked over the drawings. It was a drawing of a person in some kind of suit. The drawing showed the arms extended to the sides, rigid and blade shaped. Hands slipped through loops near the blade tips. The rigid blades connected at the shoulder, and curved lines indicated how the blades could retract when not in use. The suit continued down the torso, connecting to aerodynamic leg sections. The boots of the suit had small fins on the rear and sides. There was a helmet that was rounded on top, tapering back in a smooth curve toward the shoulders, where it seamlessly connected to the blades.

The next page showed a rear angle view of the suit, and Charlotte’s jaw dropped when she saw it. She looked up expectantly at Phineas, “Is that a rocket?”

“Sure is.”

“It’s a rocket powered wing suit? I’ve never seen anything like this? Is it even legal?”

“Hard to say. The designer is very careful to stay within the law. But everybody has a weakness. His is technology.”

Charlotte bit her lower lip and closed her eyes. Phineas could tell she was trying to talk herself out of doing it. “If I join you guys, I get to fly this thing?”

“That’s right. You’ll be landing it on a train.”

“Landing on a train? A moving train? Wearing this suit?”

“That’s the plan, right Higgs?” Phineas winked at Higgs, who nodded his agreement silently.

Charlotte shook her head. Her short curls bounced around her face as she did it. It was as if she was trying to shake the words out, but was failing miserably. “Ok. I’ll do it.”

Part 8 >