Within the Apple Ch11A

Chapter 11

PRT HQ, Brockton Bay

Emily Piggot eyed the pair across from her with a firm gaze that masked her curiosity. Armsmaster had an odd look in his eye that she’d come to associate with him being lost in some idea for a new Tinker project, while Miss Militia looked… tired.

“Well now, out with it,” She said. “What are we looking at with this Magus?”

The pair shifted, their focus coming back into the moment as they fixed gazes with her ion return. Armsmaster spoke up first.

“Magus is a skilled Tinker,” He said finally, though there was an element of reluctance to it that was far from his usual derision for other ‘lesser’ Tinkers, “His work is efficient, effective, and… surprising.”

Emily raised an eyebrow, that was high praise from Armsmaster, but she could still hear the reluctance.

“Explain.”

“Magus’ communication device is… possibly… the single most advanced example of Tinker technology I’ve ever encountered, bar none,” Armsmaster said firmly, drawing surprised looks from both women.

Emily understood her own surprise, of course. That sort of statement from Armsmaster was the sort of thing that only, possibly, Dragon herself was likely to receive from the man. Miss Militia had been in the testing with them, however, and she shouldn’t be surprised by anything said about it. Emily looked to the patriotic heroine, “Anything to add?”

“I hadn’t realized that the communication device was that impressive,” Hannah admitted with a shrug, “though it was clearly well thought out, and solidly built. Colin, what makes it so advanced?”

Armsmaster shifted uncomfortably as the two sets of eyes settled back on him.

“If it is built as he claims, and I have no reason to doubt it at the moment,” Colin said reluctantly, “There is possibly no practical, nor even a theoretical, limit to its range. Across the planet, or across the universe, would be the same thing for this device.”

Emily gaped briefly, “Ok, that is impressive, I’ll grant. Somewhat overkill, but impressive.”

“That’s not all,” Colin said with a frown. “It is likely impossible to jam it, impossible to tap it, there may be no effective signal delay at any range, and I’m not even certain that it requires any form of power source, or maintenance.”

Both Emily and Hannah stared blankly for a long moment.

“Well,” Hannah said after a moment, “I can imagine practically every government agency on the planet would very much love getting their hands on a few of those.”

Emily snorted at the understatement, “Are you certain about the lack of maintenance requirements?”

“No,” Colin admitted, “however it would fit with technology he claimed.”

“It also would fit with his statements while building it,” Hannah admitted after a moment. “Though Magus did say that he tends to build for decades of maintenance free operations rather than centuries… however he clearly believed that centuries or longer were easily achievable.”

Emily settled back in her chair, considering that, “Unusual, for a Tinker.”

“Indeed,” Colin agreed. “However not entirely unprecedented.”

She nodded, there were few Tinkers who could build items that didn’t require significant upkeep, but a small handful were known across the world.

“What about his interactions with the Wards?” She asked, looking to Hannah.

A trobled look crossed the Heroine’s face as the woman clearly pondered what to say to that, leaving a shiver a worry to run through Emily.

Was allowing him near them a mistake?

“He had a conversation with Kid Win,” Hannah said, “a simple suggestion from Magus was enough to send Kid into a fugue.”

Emily sighed with a grimace, but couldn’t be entirely surprised by that. Kid Win was young and still rough as far as Tinker’s went. His lack of understanding of his own specialty made the young Tinker… brittle, it seemed.

“Is that all?”

“It was what happened next that concerns me,” Hannah admitted, causing both of them to tense, so she hurriedly moved forward, “It’s not bad… just… Well, I’m honestly not sure. When Kid slipped into the fugue, Magus took advantage of the opportunity to scan him.”

Armsmaster straightened, “Scan? With what?”

“His glasses, a pair of normal looking sunglasses,” Hannah said with a shrug, “It’s what he said that has me thinking on it.”

“And that was?” Emily prompted.

“Kid’s neural activity was off the charts,” Hannah said, getting a nod from the pair.

Tinkers had been placed in MRI machines of varying capabilities in the past, and fugue state brain activity were known to be off the scale to levels that would result in severe brain damage for any normal human.

“That can’t be everything,” Emily prompted again.

“It’s not,” Hannah confirmed. "He said that the information was being offloaded, extra-dimensionally, processed and then sent back. Magus called it a Planar Contract, I believe. Clock snarked at him, of course, scoffing at the idea of Kid having made a deal with the devil…”

“And Magus’ response,” Colin asked, leaning in intently.

“He casually said that it wasn’t a deal with the devil, or even a demon… he knew what those looked like,” Hannah said uncomfortably. “He also suggested that he had a contract himself, though he described his own as an ‘external’ contract, unlike Kid’s.”

Colin leaned back, letting his armor settle heavily onto the reinforced chair that he was sitting in.

“Interesting.”

“Are you buying that?” Emily asked, somewhat incredulously. “Contracts with demons?”

Colin shrugged it off, “I have no opinion on that at the moment, I’m more interested in the fact that Magus concluded that the information was being offloaded in such a way.”

“He said that he needed to see more Tinkers to be sure, but he believed that Tinkers might have a… extra dimensional supercomputer as part of their powers?” Hannah said, sounding uncertain.

Colin nodded slowly, “An unusual theory, I will admit, but it does fit the known facts better than most I’ve heard. Curious, actually…”

“What?” Emily asked sharply.

“It’s… obvious, now that it’s been suggested,” Colin said bluntly. “How is it then, that no one else suggested it by this point?”

The silence between them hung heavily as they all pondered that question.

*****