Free Turnkey (The Gaslight Volumes of Will Pocket Book 1) by Lori Williams, Christopher Dunkle Page A

needed to be wound. It had no chain.
    I looked back at
the couple by the water and felt instantly guilty. I think it was the way they
were staring at me.
    “Sorry,” I said to
them both, rather stupidly. “I don't usually break into places. I mean, I don't
at all. This is...I suppose...my first.”
    I laughed. The man
seemed to tighten his grip on the woman's hands. A protective move.
    “Anyway, I
apologize. I'll...uh...return the lantern. When I retrieve my friend. He's
just...”
    Something made of
glass shattered in the distance.
    “...robbing you
blind.” I looked at the gentleman's bristled eyebrows. “Anyway, I apologize.
Don't miss your ship.”
    The time seemed
right to move on, so I moved on. Lantern in hand, I continued down the wall. It
was still dark, but the glowing patch of portable light allowed me at least to
see where my feet were falling. Great snaking shadows were cast on the wall,
some large and hulking, others small and mechanical, but all completely
fascinating to the young man walking in the dark. So fascinating, in fact, that
I didn't see the long-handled lever protruding up from the floor until I had
walked into it. I nearly tripped, and then, a little annoyed at my
carelessness, regained composure.
    Shining the light
over the mechanism, I could see that it was made out of the same shiny metal as
the lantern and many of the other unusual objects I had nearly walked into in
the shadows. Now, I have read and have been told enough stories in my life to
know that when a man finds an unusual lever lurking in the darkness, he pulls
it.
    So I did.
     
    “What stories?”
    “I'm sorry?”
    “In what story is
there a man who pulls a lever in the darkness?”
    “Oh...I don't
know, there must be. Something with a hero chained in a sadist's dungeon,
maybe. Or a villainous laboratory.”
    “Mmm...doesn't
ring any bells, Pocket.”
    “Well, it doesn't
matter. I'm sure there are probably hundreds. Doesn't matter.”
    “Hey, since we're
intervening from the grand narrative here, you know what you could do?”
    “I'm going to
forget my place in the—”
    “You could have
yourself get chained up in a dungeon. I mean, later in the telling, right? And
then, you could get out, no, or Kitt could break you out, and then you find a
magic lever—“
    “I never said it
was magical.”
    “...find a magic
lever and pull it and say something really sharp like...uh...'Told you, Fox
Boy! Happens to heroes all the time!' Yeah, put that in!”
    “This isn't a work
of fiction, Alan.”
    “Mmm...”
    “I'm trying to
recall to the best of my ability the manner in which these events unfolded.”
    “So maybe you recall getting chained up in a dungeon later, is all I'm saying.”
    “Alan...”
    “Look, I told you.
I don't care if I believe it or not. It's entertaining.”
    “But it's more
than...fine. Where was I?”
    “Lever in the
darkness.”
     
    A soft, chugging
sound, much like a far-off locomotive, began building in the corners of the
room, or what I assumed to be where the corners were located in the dark. A
strong smell of gas began protruding into the space around me. I began to get
nervous. The smell continued and just at the moment when I was about to throw
my hands back on the lever and pull and yank with every panicky finger, the
room began to light up. Not all at once, but timed, like dominoes falling in
sequence. Larger blazes of fire ignited out of mounted fixtures across the
walls, one after another with a pop and hiss, until the entire basement was
completely lit. I realized I hadn't exhaled in a while and did so.
    Incredible.
    The basement was
much larger than I had suspected. The large room I was standing in was one of
several connected by open doorframes that unraveled under the surface of
London. Large rubber and metal coils crawled across the walls like vines,
sliding in and out of the rooms. Arteries, they seemed, moving from a central
heart across the body of this...this...
    Basement was