Clementine

“Not anymore,” she said, and then before Maria could offer her greetings she continued, “This is Maria, and she’s here to see about a job. I was only now going to speak with her, and see if we might have a position open. But we need to sit down and chat, and see what sort of employment might best suit her.”

The older woman cast Maria the same gaze she might’ve used to appraise a mule, and she said, “She’s got good height on her, and she looks sturdy. We’ll have to cover that better,” she gestured at Maria’s cleavage. “Some of the male patients can scarcely spot a knuckle without improper arousal and inappropriate behavior. This having been said, A

“It’s a fact,” A

Maria retrieved her bag and followed behind A

A

“You may safely assume it,” Maria told her. “Your accent, I can’t place it as precisely as I’d like, but I must guess you’re a native of Florida, or southern Georgia. Am I close?”

“Valdosta,” the blonde nurse said. “You’ve got an ear for it, don’t you?”

“So I’ve been told. And in the interest of utter honesty, I’m no longer acting in any official capacity on behalf of the Confederacy-which was not a decision of mine, I assure you. I’ve been cut loose and sent on my way, but my loyalties remain. And those loyalties bring me here, to a military scientist with a terrible project. This Ossian Steen is preparing to destroy my native land, and I wish to…” she searched for Madeline’s word and used it. “Interfere.”

Nurse A

“Then why?”

“Because Steen is a wicked bastard. A fiend, and worse-but stronger language I’d shudder to deploy in front of the cat. He’s cruel and vile, and…”

Maria suggested, “Revolting? I understand he’s creating a weapon, applying his scientific prowess to ungodly research, and to the creation of a solar ca

“That’s true,” A

“I don’t understand…?”

A

The nurse hastily led Maria down another hallway littered with medical detritus-bedpans, medicine trays, and assorted straps or other restraints. As they walked, Maria sought to clarify, “This is a hospital for the mentally afflicted, isn’t that right?”

“That’s right,” A

“I thought perhaps this was only a cover for a weapons laboratory. Or so the intelligence I’d received implied as much.”

“That’s fu

She called out, “Doctor Smeeks? Doctor Smeeks, I’ve brought you a visitor.”

From within, they were answered by a thin voice stretched thi

“Yes, Doctor Smeeks. It’s me, A

“Help?”

“Yes sir,” Maria said before she even saw the speaker. “Please, could I…” she looked to A

The nurse squeezed Maria’s elbow and whispered, “I beg you, be gentle.”

He crept around a table like a nervous rodent, eyeing Maria and A

“Sir,” A

“And she’s here to help?”

“She’s here to help. Would you show her your work? She’s very interested in what you’re doing down here, and I promise you,” she added into his ear. “She is no friend of Steen’s.”

“No friend of…that man. What was his name again? A

“Steen, sir. And it’s all right, don’t worry yourself. Just, could you show us your work?”

“My work?”

“Yes sir, your work. Will you give us a tour of your most recent piece? Remember it, sir? The one you’re building in order to bring back Edwin.” She patted his forearm and he nodded.

“For Edwin.” He glared up at Maria. “The army man. He took my assistant,” his lip trembled. “A fine assistant, and a nice boy. He took him away from me, and I do believe he intends to harm the child if I can’t…if I don’t…”

He twisted his fingers into knots.

“Please, come this way.” He led the women deeper into his laboratory-a dark place brightened by lanterns, lamps, and the few thin windows that ran the length of the wall’s eastern rim. Glass containers of a thousand shapes, sizes, and purposes were stacked and piled from table to table, and tubes made of copper, tin, and steel were bundled like sticks for a fire. The floor was coated with papers covered in tiny, scratchy handwritten notes; and from the ceiling hung models of projects that had been, and projects that were yet to come.

But in the back corner, underneath the longest stretch of ski

The lenses varied in size from thumbnail-small to windowpane-large, with the biggest mounted before a seat and a console covered with complicated buttons and levers. Maria thought the airship looked like a wind-up toy in comparison to this astonishing machine-all the more astonishing because she had only the vaguest idea of what it was meant to do.

She asked, “Doctor Smeeks, is this…is this a solar ca

“A solar ca