The Detective and The Clockmaker – Chapter 14
Cole’s Heroics
The clock tower had no elevator.
Mara climbed two hundred and seventeen steps in near darkness, her flashlight beam bouncing off stone walls that hadn’t been cleaned in a century. The air was cold and damp, thick with the smell of old iron and bird droppings. Somewhere above her, the massive clock mechanism ticked with a sound like a heartbeat.
Lamont had stayed in the car. “I’m a liability,” he’d said. “If he sees me with you, he’ll change his plan.” He wasn’t wrong. Mara had gone alone.
Or so she thought.
Halfway up, she heard footsteps behind her. Fast. Light. She spun, hand on her weapon.
“Whoa, whoa—it’s me!” Cole emerged from the darkness, chest heaving, face slick with sweat. “You didn’t think I’d let you do this alone, did you?”
“I ordered you to stay at the precinct.”
“Yeah, well, I’m bad at following orders. You taught me that.”
Mara wanted to be angry. Instead, she felt something she hadn’t felt in years: relief. “Stay behind me. Don’t touch anything. And if I start acting strange—”
“I shoot you?”
“No. You drag me back down those stairs. Even if I fight you.”
Cole nodded. They continued climbing.
The clock mechanism occupied the top three floors of the tower: a forest of brass gears, counterweights, and pendulums, all connected by catwalks and ladders. The heart of it was a massive escapement wheel, ten feet across, ticking once per second with a sound that vibrated in Mara’s teeth.
“He’s here,” Cole whispered. “I can feel it.”
Mara swept her flashlight across the room. Nothing moved. But on the far wall, someone had written in fresh chalk:
“Welcome, Detective. You’re early. I’m not ready yet. But please—make yourself comfortable.”
Beneath the message, a small speaker sat on a wooden crate. It was no larger than a thimble, identical to the one Clara had shown her. A tiny red light blinked on its side.
Active.
Mara took a step toward it. Then another.
The ticking of the clock seemed to grow louder. Or maybe it was the blood in her ears. She couldn’t tell anymore.
“Detective?” Cole’s voice sounded far away. “Mara. Stop.”
She didn’t stop. Her hand reached for the speaker. The red light pulsed faster.
Pick it up, a voice whispered in her mind. Not Caspian’s voice. Her own. Pick it up and listen. Just once. Just to understand.
Her fingers were inches from the speaker when Cole tackled her from behind.
They crashed to the floor. Mara’s flashlight spun away, casting wild shadows. She fought him—she actually fought him, clawing at his arms, trying to get back to the speaker. But Cole was younger and stronger, and he pinned her wrists to the cold stone.
“Mara! Look at me!”
She couldn’t. Her eyes were fixed on the blinking red light.
Cole slapped her. Hard.
The shock broke the trance. Mara blinked. Gasped. The voice in her head vanished, replaced by the ordinary tick of the clock.
“What—what happened?” she whispered.
“You almost picked up the speaker,” Cole said, breathless. “You were three inches away. Your eyes went glassy. You weren’t responding to your name.”
Mara looked at her hands. They were trembling.
“He wasn’t here,” she said. “He didn’t need to be. The speaker alone was enough. The proof doesn’t need a person to deliver it.”
She sat up slowly, her cheek stinging from Cole’s slap. “Thank you.”
Cole released her wrists. “Don’t thank me. Just promise me something.”
“What?”
“Next time you want to play bait, tell me first. So I can bring a sledgehammer.”
Mara almost smiled. She stood up, walked to the speaker, and crushed it under her heel.
The red light died.
The clock kept ticking.
“We need to find the others,” she said. “Every speaker we destroy is one less voice at noon. Cole—how many are left?”
He pulled out his phone. Petrova had been sending updates. “She’s located twelve so far. Eight are still active. One is in this building. We just killed it. Seven to go.”
Mara looked out the tower’s narrow window. The city sprawled below her, dark and defenseless.
“We don’t have time to find them all,” she said. “But maybe we don’t have to. Petrova said she could build a cancellation grid. We just need to buy her enough time.”
“How?”
Mara turned from the window. “We find Caspian. We keep him talking. As long as he’s focused on me, he’s not activating the speakers early.”
Cole nodded. “And if he won’t talk?”
Mara patted her holster. “Then we end it.”
They descended the stairs together, two shadows against the stone, the clock ticking above them like a countdown they couldn’t escape.