Page 100

Peabody brought the train to a jerky stop.

“Shit,” Gabriel said. He stepped off the car and moved to take a closer look at the device exhibited on the workbench. “It looks a lot like the prototype weapon that we just confiscated from Westover’s operation.”

“I was afraid of that,” Peabody said. He left the train and walked across the small space to join Gabriel. “Notice the glass canisters.”

Gabriel looked at the three tubes. “They’re empty.”

“The notebook that one of the figures holds indicates they are meant to contain a liquid crystal of some kind. I’m more concerned with the name embroidered on the lab coat.”

It took Gabriel a few seconds to make out the old-fashioned writing, because it dated from the First Generation. The style had changed drastically after the Era of Discord.

“Trenchard,” he said. He looked at Peabody. “Preston Trenchard is the name of the inventor that developed the suppressor. We found his lab and his body.”

“I think this figure is one of Preston Trenchard’s ancestors. According to Fallon Jones’s diary, one of the scientists who worked for Vortex back in the twenty-first century on the Old World was named Harvey Trenchard. Evidently he was a genius when it came to crystal technology.”

“Is this supposed to be a scene from the Old World?”

“No,” Peabody said. “If I am correctly interpreting the story that Aloysius Jones was trying to tell in this exhibit, it is a warning.”

Gabriel studied the scene. “A warning that a Trenchard came through the Curtain, settled on Harmony, and tried to go back into the weapons business. Apparently Preston Trenchard inherited both the technology and the talent.”

“Yes,” Peabody said. “There is a vast, mostly undiscovered trove of crystals and resonating amber here on Harmony, not to mention artifacts of a vanished civilization that was technologically advanced. But with so many resources available and so much potential, why go into the weapons business? That was the last thing anyone needed in the Colonial era. The city-states were struggling just to survive.”

“I doubt if anyone ever went broke in the weapons business, regardless of the era,” Gabriel said.

Chapter Forty-Four

The Lord of the Underworld showed up with the dust bunny and a pizza.

Lucy smiled at the sight of Gabriel standing in the doorway. He had an Ollie’s House of Pizza box in his hand. Otis was on his shoulder.

“It’s about time you two got home,” she said. “I thought you might have had an emergency at the office.”

“Ollie’s was busy tonight,” Gabriel said. “Long line.”

She eyed the box in his hands. “You stopped to pick up pizza?”

“I thought it would make things more romantic,” Gabriel said.

“Pizza? Romantic?”

“We met over a box of pizza, remember?”

“Oh. Right. How sweet.” She stepped back so that Gabriel and Otis could move into the hall.

Gabriel was trying to be romantic. She had to respect and appreciate the gesture. Okay, so she did not consider the days and nights she hadbeen imprisoned in the Underworld chamber romantic. She had been hallucinating wildly, and Gabriel had been simply doing his job when he rescued her. But apparently he looked back on the experiences in a different light.

The man might be struggling with the nuances of a relationship, but he was making a concerted effort. That’s all that mattered. He was on a mission again. Focused. On her.

She smiled and then realized Gabriel was still standing in the doorway.

“Aren’t you going to come inside?” she asked.

“Not yet,” he said. “I have to ask you the question I wanted to ask the first time I saw you sitting there on your quartz throne.”

“You wanted to ask me if I was hallucinating?”

“No.”