Free Arcadia Snips and the Steamwork Consortium by Robert Rodgers

him like a shield. "Mind if I ask you a few questions?"
    The boy's face began to burn. "Err—questions? I suppose, um, if it's important. Do you mind if you ask me on the way, though?" He ducked out beneath her arm, darting over to pluck up a sheet that had escaped him. "I’m behind schedule as it is."
    "Fine, fine," Snips said, sliding her arms behind her back and moving to walk besides him. "What's all this business?" Snips leaned forward to peek at one of the sheets at the top of the pile.
    "All these numbers—"
    "It's for the Steamwork's new calculation engine," William said, quickening his pace to a loose jog. "Bank data that we must input."
    "Calculation engine? The Steamwork has one of those things they use in banks?" Snips asked. "To, like, calculate interest and all that junk?"
    "We've completed one, yes," William said. "It's one of the more important projects we've been working on."
    "Why? Don't the banks have them already?"
    "Yes, but the calculation engines they use possess fundamental flaws," William explained. "They can be damaged or disrupted by creative mathematics, or a mistake on the part of an operator. The recent plague of disasters facing the banks is representative of that."
    "Oh," Snips said, wrinkling her nose. "Don't tell me you buy into that whole Professor Hemlock business."
    William looked surprised. "What's not to believe, Miss...?"
    "Snips," she said. "Just Snips. And Hemlock's a joke; a scam they use to sell news rags. A bedtime story mathematicians use to scare their kids into showing their work when they solve for X."

    "That may be, but the fact that a misplaced decimal point can bring Aberwick's financial district to a crashing halt remains a problem in need of a solution," William said. "Our new calculation engine is that solution."
    Snips noticed that as the discussion turned to his engine, William relaxed more; the nervous agitation flickered out of his eyes as he took on a confident stride.
    "So, what? You're going to sell it to the banks?"
    "Oh, no. It's too large for the banks to build," William said.
    "It occupies the entire basement of the Steamwork. No, we're going to rent it to them."
    "Rent it?" A gentle hum had gradually been growing as they walked; as they reached the wide stairwell, it grew to a clanking purr. Snips peered down the stairs, inching her way forward.
    "Yes, rent it," William said, stepping past her and moving downward. Snips reluctantly followed, listening as William explained. "In addition to the calculation engine, we've fitted all the banks with pneumatic piping that connects them to the Steamwork. We’re able to send near-instant messages to any bank in Aberwick, and vice versa."
    "Like mail carriages," Snips said.
    "No, it’s not a large carriage," William corrected her. "It’s an array of pipes."
    "Sounds like grave dealings."
    "Anyway, once the improved engine is complete, we'll rent them space on it, which is impervious to disruption via operator error. The banks will send us all their accounting information, we’ll do all the calculations, and then we’ll send it back to them."
    "Seems risky," Snips said. "Letting you guys run all the banks' books."
    "Oh, they'd still run their own engines," William said.
    "We'd only be on stand-by as a back up, in case their engines failed. They could send a message to us, requesting the lost or unavailable information, and we'd help them fill in their blanks. In addition, when their engines go down, we can do the calculations for them."
    "I think I see," Snips said, and by then they had arrived in the Steamwork’s basement. It was a dauntingly wide chamber that occupied nearly a block of space beneath the city; it was deep enough to swallow entire sections of the apartments that bustled on the streets above it. Every inch of it below the catwalk they now stood on was occupied by a machine—one single whirring, grinding, spinning, humming machine.

    It was a consortium of gears and cogs all spinning in tandem,