Charmed Vengeance

is Helga. She’s my laboratory assistant. I have programmed her with twenty-seven routine tasks.”

“She is marvelous,” Steven breathed, taking her—and the concept behind her—in.

“Does she speak?” James’ eyes went alight with boyish curiosity.

“No, but she responds to simple voice commands which correspond with her programmed tasks as well as directions such as come here and stop.” Dr. Heinz puffed up with pride and gave the automaton a fond look.

Steven moved closer to get a better look at her. Helga’s back was as smooth as her front with the exception of a windup key. “She is clockwork?”

Twenty-seven task and voice commands? Wondrous.

“Partially. She also runs on an analog system … ” Dr. Heinz continued but Steven didn’t understand a word past system.

“She truly is amazing,” Steven finally added trying to get the good doctor to cease speaking about things he didn’t comprehend and didn’t have time to understand. If only Noli were here. She’d probably have Dr. Heinz telling her all his industrial secrets in moments. Dr. Heinz shook his head. “She’s not for sale.”

“Of course, you need her for your work,” he soothed. Having often worked beside Noli he could understand the benefits of someone who obeyed orders perfectly and didn’t offer their own opinions.

“Is she intelligent?” James squinted at the automaton.

“Intelligent is relative,” Dr. Heinz replied. “She can perform up to three tasks in a series, but cannot look at something and decide which tasks to do on her own. Not yet, anyhow.” He twitched. “There are … .there are people who would as soon never see such a thing.”

“True. Not everyone has embraced the progress of the American Renaissance,” Steven agreed. People such as Noli’s mother, though she simply didn’t use it. Some sought to keep others from using advanced technology— or creating it.

“Could you make something like Helga, but make her tasks more … feminine?” James grinned cheekily. “I think mother would like something that responds to her orders.

That she would,” Steven replied dryly. Especially one that couldn’t think for itself.

Dr. Heinz rubbed his chin. “Yes, I could. But it would take time … months.”

“Oh.” Steven’s heart fell all the way to the floor and lay at his feet, gaping like a fish on land. “We need it in about two weeks.” To give them about a week’s buffer to get it back to the Otherworld, just in case they encountered more … helpers.

“I … ” The doctor went quiet for a long moment, then walked into the other room, gesturing for them to follow. When they joined him in what seemed like half storeroom half junkyard, Dr. Heinz pulled back a curtain. “There is Hilde. She’s unfinished. She’s being programmed to play games, tell stories, and sing songs. She, too, will respond to voice commands, but cannot speak directly.”

Hilde was smaller than Helga, a child instead of a woman, with a molded dress and hair.

“Could she dance?” James asked.

Now Hilde, Hilde would be perfect. “Could you have her ready in a week?”

Dr. Heinz’s mouth clamped shut and his eyes narrowed. “If you want Hilde and not one like her, it will be expensive, but yes, I could have her ready in a week for the right price.”

“Oh. Right.” Something else Steven had forgotten— Igan had taken everything. Mathias had given them supplies, but not money to purchase the item. That was his responsibility.

Dr. Heinz stiffened. “I think it would be best for you to go. Return when you have the money and we’ll talk.

Is there something we can trade or do for you?” James asked.

“Not unless you can bring back my daughter.” Dr. Heinz stomped back into his main lab. Steven and James followed.

“Daughter?” Steven asked softly. “Wait, was Hilde for her?” An automaton that played games, told stories, and sang would be ideal for a small child.

Dr. Heinz nodded. “She doesn’t know about Hilde, hence my willingness to sell her for the right price then create another when I get her back. The police keep promising to find my daughter. But they haven’t.” His cheeks flushed with anger, hands fisting. “If I could, I’d go after her myself.”

“Wait, she’s been taken?” For a moment Steven had thought that she’d died.

“My Rahel is only five. She’s all I have left.” Pain swept through Dr. Heinz’s face causing it to contort. “She was taken several days ago. I fear the traffickers got her.

Traffickers?” The very word soured in Steven’s mouth. “I hope not, but who else would steal a child from her own yard? They were reported in the area.” He sighed. “They’re probably halfway across the states by now.

What if we brought her back?” James piped. “If we bring back Rahel in two weeks or less, could we have a fully functioning Hilde for no charge?”

“James, what are you doing?” Steven hissed, eyes bulging. He didn’t know how to find a stolen child. He barely found Noli in the Otherworld and there he could track her by her sigil.

James shook his head and hissed, “Trust me.”

Dr. Heinz looked at the both of them, so much pain in his face that Steven took a step back. “Young gentleman, bring back my sweet Rahel and you may have whatever you wish.”

They sat in the train as it sped back to New York City. Unlike Noli, Steven didn’t mind them. He put his head in his hands. “I can’t believe you promised him we’d find his little girl. Nay, if our wits run the wild- goose chase, I am done,” he quoted.

That’s what this felt like, a wild-goose chase. “Ease up,” James shot back from the seat next to him.

“And stop quoting Chaucer.”

“It’s Shakespeare, you heathen,” he corrected. James waved him off. “Whomever. I can’t believe you borrowed a book from him.” He nodded at the book on Steven’s lap. “Boring.”

Steven’s eyes narrowed at his brother. “Machiavelli’s The Prince is not boring.”

“Sure,” he scoffed. “If we pull this off, then we’ll have the best automaton ever and the doctor gets back his little girl. Everyone wins. Besides, the idea of children being stolen makes me ill.”

“Me, too. But time is slipping away. How are we going to find the traffickers?” He picked up the book, grateful he had something to block his brother out with. James shoved a little doll under his nose. “What?” Steven sat up.

“This was Rahel’s. I can use it for a tracking spell.” James’ chest puffed up with pride.

Steven blinked at his brother’s words. “You know a tracking spell? I don’t even know a tracking spell.”

James smirked. “Finding Noli would have gone much differently if you had. Um,” his cheeks flushed. “I had to do something in the Otherworld, so I started working with a magic tutor from the Academe. It was either that or join mother’s royal guard, and you know I’d rather muck stalls than do that.”

“You voluntarily learned spells?” He gaped at his brother in disbelief. Usually James had to be bribed with swordplay to learn spells.

“I told you, I had to do something.” James shrugged it off as if it were nothing. “What do you say, should we try and rescue the little girl?”

What had they gotten themselves into? Part of Steven wanted to rage at his brother for leading them into another idiotic mess. Yet at the same time, if they succeeded then they’d not only have what they sought, but have done something good for someone else in the process. Steven sighed, wishing he could exhale all his problems. “We might as well.”

Certainly they didn’t have more to lose.

Twelve Denver