As more and more days flew by, Sigerson, deciding enough time had passed for recovering, went to find Mr Mansell with a strong desire to ask if he could go on a quick excursion.
"Just wait for another week," cuckold the middle-aged man, rubbing his bristly beard. "My office will get a cab for you and Eve to take you out of the country."
"Oh, I'm sorry I forgot to mention it, but Harvey'll be coming along with us too."
"Is he? Well, it won't change much. I'll tell the organisers."
"Do, uh… Do the organisers know who we are?"
Mr Mansell blinked rapidly, unsure of what to say, then burst out laughing.
"You really are as thorough as Eve said, Liam! No, of course not—nobody except us know your identities. Anyways, here."
He handed him a clay pipe and lit it for him.
"You must recover as much as you can, Liam."
Taking occasional puffs of his pipe, Sigerson laid back on the couch stiffly; even after the warning he did not feel like resting or sitting still, waiting for his enemies to make their moves. Out of the corner of his eye, he kept watch over Mr Mansell, still a little annoyed at his situation. His host noticed this, however, and not long after, spoke up again. At the same time, Evelyn and Harvey entered the room with the latter taking in every word the enthusiastic Evelyn was saying.
"There is something you ought to know though, Liam, but I don't want you running off just yet."
Sigerson inclined his head to show that he was listening, and although she didn't show it, he knew Evelyn was paying careful attention too.
"A man has disappeared within these city walls and the police force is in shambles at the moment."
He took a deep breath before continuing.
"We, that is, myself and the rest of the council, think it may have something to do with a larger plan related to Blight. You see, the man was quite close with Blight before Blight himself had vanished and on top of that, he's a top-notch engineer."
Hang on… Why does this sound so familiar? Was it in the newspaper before?
"His name is Bernard Bork. You might've heard his name before."
A crystal-clear photo of the man popped into Sigerson's mind like an exhibition in an art gallery. Soon, more and more appeared, filling his mind with newspaper articles and his achievements over the years.
Bork… He was the one who designed the walls in this district and added the turrets here as well… This might lead to something interesting…
"What I really wanted to tell you," continued Mr Mansell, "was that his workshop, or more accurately, his experimentation laboratory, is located in this district and I've got access to it, but—"
Sigerson looked as if he were ready to jump out the door like an eager hound.
"—I'm not allowing you to leave just yet. You have to stay for at least another day or two."
His face sank.
There won't be enough time… If I don't act now, something's bound to happen…
"I can go!" piped up a bright voice which, to the overthinking detective, seemed to be coming from miles away. All eyes were fixed on Evelyn.
"That's not a terrible idea," agreed Mr Mansell, bobbing his head lightly. However, Sigerson interjected unsurprisingly, "No. It's far too dangerous for you to go alone, Evie. I won't allow it."
"Who said I was going alone?"
She dragged over to her side an unsuspecting Harvey.
"None of you have enough experience," said Sigerson flatly, snuffing out every one of his cousin's arguments like candles.
"If it makes you feel any better, Liam, I can provide them with bodyguards."
Still deep in thought, Sigerson made no reply. True, it was rather dangerous to go out into the open, but it was also undeniable that this would be a game-changing opportunity missed if he declined. In the end, he grudgingly agreed but turned down Mansell's offer.
"They won't need guarding," he assured the surprised man. "Evelyn's been here countless times, so I'm sure she has a few emergency routes in mind. Besides, bodyguards would attract attention, and I don't want that."
Not to mention the revolver she has.
Mr Mansell contemplated this decision for a moment, then said, "Alright, if you say so. I'll still watch over you two from a distance, if that's alright?"
They both nodded readily.
"With that settled then," said Mansell, clapping his hands together. "I guess it's time for me to properly explain things. Right before his disappearance, Bork confessed to me that he had disclosed some of Blight's secrets and hidden them in his workshop. When I told him you would be coming—of course, he doesn't know your true identity—he said, "Tell your detective friend I've left behind the information in my workshop." Turns out, he never really decided on a hiding spot, but he mentioned something about a clock."
"Was he ever threatened?" asked Evelyn curiously but without any of her usual carefree attitude.
"I believe so. He told me he'd been threatened with death several times through a series of 'disturbing' letters."
"Well then," said Evelyn matter-of-factly, getting up from her seat to stretch. "We'd better go now."
"Now?" asked Mr Mansell as if he was unsure if he heard correctly. "If you insist…"
Evelyn grabbed a beret cap from the hatstand before throwing on a thick cloak that covered her dusty jacket and black leggings. She turned around to her cousin as she was leaving and said, "Don't worry about us, Will. We should be back in a few hours or so."
And with a final wave, they were gone.
—
Although it had stopped snowing, the weather was still brutally cold and as Evelyn trudged forwards, completely unfazed by the frost, Harvey, on the other hand, began to shiver within the first two minutes.
"Are we gonna have to walk all the way there, Miss Evelyn?"
She gave him a look that plainly thought he was an adorable puppy.
"There's no need to be so formal, Harvey," she beamed. "Just Eve is fine. I'm only two years older than you anyways, so I guess…"
Her lips trembled faintly, as Harvey waited for her continuation.
"I think… You can treat me as a big sister, I guess?"
"Huh?"
Clearly, he was not expecting that.
"I've always wanted a little brother, you know. Will's way too serious all the time, so he's no fun at all to talk to. By the way—"
She stopped talking only to give Harvey a sympathetic glance.
"How was your time with him? He didn't put you through any trouble, did he?"
Before he could answer, a soft familiar sound echoed from around the imperial street's corner. In they went, and before they could reorganise their thoughts, they were once again whisked away into the snowy white scenery by their pitch black cab.
—
"So that's the workshop?" asked Harvey, squinting at the pillaring brass chimney sticking out from the ground.
"Yep, that should be it. Not what you'd expect from a genius engineer, huh?"
An intimidating steel door guarded the entrance, frowning down at the two puny humans in front of it. There was an obvious lot, which Evelyn quickly shoved the key she had been given in, and the door began to creak open. The sound of dozens of individual cogs moving grinded into their ears as the final movements stopped. A gaping hole opened up to them from the side of a metal box beside the chimney.
Feeling the massive steel doors with her slender fingers, Evelyn whispered, "Be careful; there might be other people around here."
"You think there are other people looking for the clue Bork left behind?"
"Possibly. Could you turn that switch on? Thanks."
Light buzzed into the room in the form of a very dim row of orange lightbulbs above them. The moment they were switched on, the metal doors whirred back into place, shutting them in.
"You don't seem to be worried, Harvey."
"Not really," he replied in a tone of voice that might've suggested they were going on a stroll through a park.
"Ive been in these kinds of situations for as long as I can remember and besides—"
His ears were tinted with the finest touch of pink.
"I have you to help me."
Evelyn blinked rather rapidly, then ruffled the boy's hair in high spirits. She beamed at him and said, "You can always rely on me; I might not seem like it, but when it comes to puzzle solving, I'm actually a lot better than Will. The main room is this way, I think."
Down a steep flight of stairs they went, taking in the metallic tang of the brass walls surrounding them, until they reached a circular room at the bottom.
On every inch of its walls were gears, each one interlocking with another. In the centre of the room was another opening which, when investigated thoroughly, led to the chimney that they'd seen earlier.
"That's strange," said Harvey, looking up the chimney. "There's no opening for air to escape through here; it's completely sealed."
The moment he said this, a loud series of whirring commenced—every gear in the room sprang to life and within seconds, steam hissed from hidden valves built into the curved walls of the room.
"Harvey, get out!" shouted Evelyn, pointing at the rapidly closing entrance of the room. Being the more agile out of the two, Harvey leapt out of the way just before the doors snapped shut, leaving Evelyn, who didn't even bother moving, alone in the room.
"A–Are you alright?"
Her voice seemed so far away, as if the metal door spanned across countries.
"I'm fine. How are we gonna get ya outta there?"
"Don't worry about me, Harvey—the door probably had some sensing mechanism somewhere that shut me in. I'll find the switch, so don't be alarmed."
There was something about her voice that filled Harvey with hope; he exhaled slowly and replied, "Okay, I'll wait for you here."
And then, after hearing a few gentle footsteps, he knew Evelyn had gone back to investigating the room.
—
Steam poured faster than ever inside the room, already drenching Evelyn's body and legs. The little valves dotted around the edges of the room whistled like mechanical monotonous birds, shrill and displeasing to the ears. Evelyn sat on the table presumably prepared for Bork, which was scattered with blueprints and peculiar cogs with numbers engraved on them, and blocked out everything from her mind, focusing only on the present situation.
What do I know so far? Is there anything that could help me find Bork's hidden message? Let me see… I know somebody's trying to kill him and I know he's hidden a clue on that 'somebody' here. He's also an engineer with an aptitude for mathematics, so if I were him, I'd definitely hide an unnoticeable riddle in here to lead the person I want to the message. Right, there should be something here…
Rummaging through the stacks of paper, she rapidly threw aside the unimportant documents and found it—a diagram of three different cogs with a peculiar caption underneath it. It read:
4 cogs power the machine with the same number of cycles
The copper doubles its power with each cycle
The iron quadruples its power with each cycle
The gold octuples its power with each cycle
The last cog follows copper's rule, yet its power matches the three cogs united
When the final cog stops cycling and joins an imaginary cog with imaginary cycles, the time past noon will become your escape…
"This is it…" she muttered to herself. "I'd better solve this quickly if I want to prove myself equal to Will…"