“This is not punishment, Agent Bering,” the Caretaker had said. Frederic had showed up in Myka’s bedroom. And who knew, she’d thought, maybe at the end of it Artie would come around.Īnd then, later that same day, Mrs. So Myka really hadn’t protested too loudly (or at all, really). On the other hand, it meant a multiple-week road trip with H.G. He’d refused to shake the woman’s hand after she was reinstated, he kept grumbling whenever her name was mentioned, and now he sent Myka along with her to retrieve artifacts like ‘a box cutter that ensures there is always one too few screws in any package opened with it to assemble its contents, but will change all the contents of the package to all screws if it is used to open something that doesn’t need assembly.’ And yes, alright, Myka knew that even the lowest of low-risk artifact retrievals could go horribly wrong, but still. to have the Warehouse’s best interest at heart. The truth behind her presence on this trip hadn’t hit her until quite a bit later, when she realized that Artie had told her but not H.G.: she wasn’t appointed because Artie thought it made sense, but because he still didn’t trust H.G. It also made sense to send along an experienced agent – and driver! If anyone had asked her, Myka would have told them that she was extremely ill at ease with the fact that among the paperwork the Regents had provided for H.G. Wells! Myka wasn’t over that yet) on a low-risk assignment one which would also serve nicely as a way for her to acquaint herself with the time she now found herself in. And in a way, it made sense to send newly reinstated H.G. You two will be the once in a while this time. Agent can’t bring artifact back, agent leaves artifact stashed in a safe place, high-risk artifacts get collected ASAP, low-risk artifacts get collected every once in a while. But, as Artie had told Myka when he’d handed it to her, one: odd was part of the job, and two: she hadn’t been doing the job nearly as long as he had, and something that came along every five or even ten years might be odd to her but perfectly routine for him, ‘and this is. went on listing, oblivious to Myka’s thoughts, “do not touch the air conditioning controls without asking, with the singular exception of activating or de-activating your heated seat when applicable.” A slender hand gestured to the sunny countryside, and H.G.
“Do not question the route that the driver has chosen,” H.G. to everything the twenty-first century had to offer. Granted, a skeletal horseman would probably have drawn comment regardless, but she knew her fellow agents, especially Claudia’s quest to introduce H.G. said diligently, and Myka nodded to herself – that’s what she had figured. “Point out interesting things along the road,” H.G. Then she asked, “That wasn’t the only thing they told you, right?” Myka sucked in her lower lip to keep from laughing more, and nodded with a hum of confirmation. She chanced a brief glance sideways to see a small but proud smile curl the corners of H.G.’s mouth. She’d known it was coming (anyone who knew Claudia or Pete would have), but to hear it delivered, verbatim, in H.G.’s voice? Priceless. Myka couldn’t help it: she let out a whoop of laughter. “Ah yes,” Helena went on, “first and most importantly: driver picks the music, shotgun shuts their cake hole.” Myka knew it was for show, and bit down on her cheek a bit harder to keep the smile off her face. mused, tapping one of her slender fingers on her lips. “Such as?” she prompted, still hiding her amusement. Myka could easily hear the capital letters, shaped so beautifully by H.G.’s diction. “And they conveyed to me the Road Trip Rules.” Of all the promised endless wonder, surely this was the pinnacle, the absolute summit, the cherry on top of everything. Wells, who was a woman, and alive, and a recently reinstated Warehouse agent, and sitting in the passenger seat, pointing out roadside attractions. She was reasonably certain what she’d be hearing, but it was… it was nice, being able to tease H.G. Myka couldn’t look over for long, not when she was driving, but from H.G.’s tone of voice, she could infer the gleam of amusement in the other woman’s eyes. Myka could see, from the corners of her eyes, H.G. “Tell me, did you speak with Pete and/or Claudia before we set out?” Then she decided to just go ahead and ask the question that H.G.’s comment had her thinking of. She briefly took her eyes from the road to acknowledge the skeletal cowboy on their skeletal horse roping a skeletal cow before focusing on traffic again – such as it was. “Indeed it is,” Myka said, hiding her smile, not shaking her head. sounded half excited, half amused as she pointed out the sculpture on the side of the road. “Goodness, Myka, look – is that a skeletal horseman?” H.G.