Sometimes she hears the engineers talking, about taking apart watches when they were five, or going to an airshow and being enthralled, some genesis moment that set them on their path to becoming engineers at the most prestigious works in the country.

Greta didn't even really know what an engineer did until she was 19. She came here because it ( Read more... )

Macy hurried from shadow to shadow, her thin shawl drawn low over her arms and the package she was cradling. She crept up the stairs, and tapped on the door. It opened a crack, then wider when Nick saw it was her. "Come in, quick."

Macy licked dry lips. "How bad?"

Nick's features were pale and drawn. Instead of answering, he pointed to the bed drawn ( Read more... )

"What's this?"

"Don't!" Greta snapped, not even looking up from where she was bent over a bench. Her golden hair was tied up in a loose knot, and there was a smear of grease on the top of her ear, from where she had absently tucked a stand of hair back. "Remember last time you touched something without me explaining it first?"

Kevin rubbed the faint ( Read more... )

"And then, the powder you created? It flows through this chamber, pressurizes instantly, and is expelled as a fine spray at the end of this nozzle."

Macy studied the contraption. "Ingenious!" she said delightedly. She loved visiting Greta's lab, hidden behind mops and buckets in a corner of the building that none of the official engineers ever ( Read more... )

Greta is a sensible girl, and she doesn’t hold with pining. If she were going to pine, she’s willing to admit that Macy Misa, the tiny, fierce, girl-apothecary with a fondness for pyrotechnics would probably be a pretty good choice for it ( Read more... )

It occurs to Kevin sometimes that some people might call it kind of creepy the way he trails Mike home each time Mike comes to see him, but he just wants him to get home safely.

"No," Ryan had said the other day, "The creepy part isn't that you're keeping him from getting knifed, the creepy part is that he doesn't know about it because you're always ( Read more... )

When the note says that they'll have their own celebration of Mike's birthday the next time he comes downtown, he expects--well, he's not sure what he expects, but it's not for Kevin to take him by the hand and lead him out, the next night he's there, with the words, "Come on, we've got to go celebrate your birthday."

At Mike's questioning look he ( Read more... )

Greta does end up in sticky situations now and then, between staying late at the foundry to work and going to help Kevin whenever needed. She walks on dangerous streets. Luckily, she knows how to look after herself, and she's got one or two toys of her own. It's not too long before everyone in their group is carrying something - like a little ( Read more... )

The day Gerard brings his new pastor-friend out drinking with Kevin and the rest of them happens to be two days after the fifth time Kevin has run into Frank on his rounds at night. Either Frank has a knack for finding trouble, or he's doing his best to seek Kevin out, and it's starting to make him nervous.

Seeing him is a surprise--Kevin always ( Read more... )

Nick hears that no one's even trying to get into the foundry, that they're giving it up as a lost cause because half of the structure's totally unstable, and even though the fire never reached the fuel room, it's only a matter of time.  Nick knows that Greta stays in the foundry to do her own projects when everyone else has gone home , but no one ( Read more... )