The City in the Sky

From somewhere on the first floor, Mulligan heard a small but distinct thud.

“Everything all right?“, he yelled, but was met with no reply. He pulled on his pajama bottoms and stepped into the hallway. It was deserted.

“Lucy?!“, he yelled again, and again no answer came. Growing alarmed, he grabbed his pistol.

It was dark downstairs. The only source of light came from the kitchen. As James stepped off the last stair, something hard connected with the back of his skull. An explosion went off in his head and his vision went white before fading into blackness.

The light assaulted his eyes. He squinted them against the pain trying to make out his surroundings. He heard noises like someone was rummaging through the silverware drawer.

“Lucy”, he said aloud but quickly stopped and as yelling sent shoots of pain through his head like hot needles.

“I’m sorry, James. I was hoping not to involve you in this”, came a familiar voice.

His eyes finally focused. Doctor Drakolisk sat beside Lucy, who lay on her back unmoving. The doctor’s hands shook as they searched through his black medical bag.

“Joshua? What are you doing here? What’s happened to Lucy? Ahhh...“, James cried out as the pain assailed him once more.

“Don’t try to move, James. You’ve had a nasty blow to the head. Just relax.“, said the Doctor in his customary bedside manner. Then his voice grew tremulous as he continued, “James, listen to me. I’m afraid Lucy won’t be with us much longer.”

“What?! No! Doc you’ve got to help her...“, Mulligan cried ignoring the agony. He tried to stand but found he couldn’t move. He looked wildly about him and found his hands and feet were bound by rope.

“Joshua, why am I tied up?! What’s going on here?”

The doctor stopped searching his bag and wiped the sweat from his brow. “The less you know the better for you, James”, he said admonishingly. “Just know that I am sorry. Really this is all your fault, when I think about it. If you hadn’t destroyed my Clockwork, then I wouldn’t have even had to have been here.”

A fit of terror thrashed about like a wounded animal inside James chest as he asked, “‘Your Clockwork’?! You mean the assassin?! That was you?”

“Yes. I built him myself. It took months, but all that’s gone now”, replied Drakolisk sadly.

James could only stare at his friend, dumbstruck by disbelief.

“Now, James. Don’t look at me like that. It’s not as if I had much of a choice”, said the doctor angrily. “Though, I must confess, building a Clockwork was one of the greatest triumphs of my life. An opportunity that a medical professional such as myself could only dream of. Even if it wasn’t a fully functional model. But it’s not like you can just grab any Clockwork off the street for the job, what with their violence inhibitors...”

The Doctor’s cryptic ramblings only incensed the growing anger and confusion in Mulligan.

“Damnit, Joshua!“, he yelled, “Just tell my why you would hurt Lucy? She’s your patient, for godsakes!”

“Calm down, James. You’ll aggravate your injuries. I never wanted to ‘hurt Lucy’. But I’m here because she’s my patient.”

“I don’t understand...”

“You brought her to me, James, remember? You don’t know how happy he was, once he found out that I was treating the ‘Unofficial Prime Model’. He had lost track of her whereabouts after the first Devonshire was killed, and then, out of the blue, you come and dump her right in our laps”, the doctor said with a bitter laugh.

Suddenly, a brief flash of movement caught Mulligan’s eye. He wasn’t sure if he really saw it so he waited for a moment till Lucy stirred again. Relief and hope drove out some of the despair that had filled him so completely. Quickly he turned his attention to distracting Drakolisk.

“You keep talking about ‘he’. Who the hell is he?“, asked James.

“I told you, James. The less you know, the better. If you were wise, you’d keep your mouth shut and you may yet live a long, fulfilling life.”

The doctor found what he was looking for and pulled a long, thin blade from his bag. Mulligan immediately identified it as being nearly identical to the one the assassin had used to murder Eliza Devonshire.

“To hell with that”, yelled James, “I’m going straight to the press. You’re just going to have to kill me.”

Drakolisk turned and looked Mulligan in the eyes. He gave the detective a look of pity as he said, “No, James, not me. You don’t know how high all this goes. Honestly, I’m not even sure. But I imagine they will deal with you quite harshly should you try anything like that. No, I just have to deal with poor Lucy.”

Mulligan glimpsed Lucy’s hand slowly creeping along the ground towards the doctor’s medical bag. The movement must have caught Drakolisk’s peripheral vision as he started to turn his head.

Playing the only card he held, Mulligan blurted, “Gregory Irons is behind this, isn’t he!” . Though he had little evidence to support his suspicions, his act of desperation worked at refocusing Joshua’s concentration on himself.

“My my, James!“, exclaimed the doctor, his eyes filled with surprise. “You are quite the detective. Yes, it seems that our Minister of Energy is a very ruthless man...”

“And what does that make you?!“, asked James angrily.

“Oh, James, you think I am part of this of my own free will?” Drakolisk now sounded sincerely hurt as he went on, “I never wanted any part of this. It was Irons who approached me. Said he needed my ‘professional expertise’.”

“You could’ve refused!”

“Don’t you think I tried!“, retorted Drakolisk vehemently. “He threatened me. He threatened to ruin me, my career, everything I’ve ever worked for. He threatened to hurt my family, James....Maybe you’ll never worry about having to lose someone you love, but I do! He’s an evil man. I’ve learned a lot about our beloved Minister since all this began. Did you know he used to be the head of a crime ring before he moved into the rosier field of politics? His organization specialized in fencing pilfered Clockwork parts. It was he who devised this plan, and provided everything I would need to assemble the ‘Clockwork Slayer’. Rather ingenious, using a Clockwork to kill other Clockworks. Who would ever suspect...”

“But why?“, asked James, who was fairly sure he already knew the answer, but was still trying to buy some time.

“Ha, I though you were a detective, James”, laughed Joshua. “It’s pretty clear, isn’t it? Kill all the Devonshires, the Crown gets control of coal production. He gets a promotion, raises, accolades and such. And humanity doesn’t care, because there are a few less Clockworks in the world and everyone is paying lower energy prices. You know what, James? The real problem isn’t Irons or the Clockworks, it’s people like you and me who only give a damn if something is interrupting our little lives.” The fire in Drakolisk’s eyes died down and he regained some composure. “To hell with it all.” said the Doctor with a wave of his hand. “I’m sorry, James, I’m rambling. Tell you what: After I have finished with Lucy, I will set you free, seeing as how we’re old friends.”

Drakolisk gave James a grim smile, but Mulligan wasn’t having it. He had found someone to love and he wasn’t about to lose her.

“Finished with Lucy?“, he snorted with rage, “You mean kill her!”

The doctor gave a short laugh at the detective’s outrage and said, “Now, James, you know as well as I that you can’t kill that which was never alive to begin with. I don’t see why you’re getting all worked up about this. I mean after all, she is only a machine... huh?”

Drakolisk jumped with a start as Lucy pushed the barrel of the Sakai into the side of his head.

“Lucy!“, he said in a shaky voice, “What a surprise. I was certain I had rendered you incapacitated.”

Lucy gave a small cry of anger. Her hands shook as tried to keep the weapon steady.

“What are you going to do now, Lucy?“, asked Joshua, his voice becoming more even. “Kill me? No. Of course not. We both know that you can’t.”

“No”, Lucy’s said in a voice quavering with enmity and fear. “You’re right. I can’t. But he can!“, she yelled as she tossed the pistol towards James Mulligan.

It slid across the floor coming to rest about a foot away from the detectives bound hands. He quickly reached for the gun and clumsily aimed it from his prone position. The doctor still knelt immobilized in bewilderment for a second, but as he saw James take aim he recovered his senses and swung the long blade towards Lucy’s breast. James pulled the trigger. The bullet struck the doctor square in the back, just as his blade slammed home into Lucy’s chest. Their screams came in a chorus of terrified agony that tore into Mulligan’s heart. James struggled to his knees and ungracefully crawled towards his fallen love.

Steam and fluid burst from the small hole in her chest. Her whole body shook. James pressed his hands over the wound trying to staunch the flow, but the pressurized vapor poured out around his hands and in between his fingers. Though it painfully scalded his palms, he dared not remove them.

“Hang on, Lucy, please!“, he cried. “It’ll be okay. It’s....”

“J...James, I.....I....“, was all Lucy could say before she lost all pressure and fell still. Her copper irises dilated till they were small black holes, devoid of the one who once resided there.

Alone once more, James fell across her chest and wept bitterly.