To be truthful, I sympathise with the Clockwork Twins, I do. Had I been subject to Zachary’s perpetual torment then I would have most likely found a much messier and nastier way to end him than dragging him to The Thames.
After all, what creature with a mind of its own would not retaliate when sufficiently provoked? The lad knew exactly what he was doing and deserved what he got. Locking Clocks in boxes! What was he thinking? Even if they weren’t jailbroken it’s a publicity minefield. If there was ever a more fitting illustration of the word cretin then I do not know of it. Unfortunately upon opening The Den one of the conditions of limiting Hargreaves’ operations within the East End was appointing his odious nephew as manager.
Good Riddance.
However this does rather open up a troubling can of worms. Hargreaves is now an inferno of anti clock rage. Not only could this be bad for business but will draw even more attention from the MLF, the Watch, the Police and, oddly, cronies of a dubious back-street scientists reported to operate with in the area. Then there’s the bigger question:
If they were certified by The Watch, who jail-broke the Twins?
My temper got the better of me when questioning Hargreaves, so much so that I had to be restrained by two of my Mayhems. Perhaps I did go a little far though one can always be certain that a man with a sgein dubh held to his groin is going to be pretty keen to answer succinctly. He assured me that he had no knowledge of Mei Mei nor Ming Cho “being mucked about with” and if he is to be believed I am obliged to entertain the following hypotheses:
Zach arranged for the jailbreak himself. If he did so then he reaped what he sowed and if he hadn’t had met his watery fate at the hands of the Twins that night then it would have been at the hands of some of the human staff at The Den or members of The Network.
The Twins were targeted by the MLF. I know little of the MLF however I was led to believe that to allow such a backlash exerted by the Twins would do little to further their cause nor win support. I could be mistaken of course. Such a stunt would draw much attention to their campaign and, if anything is to be learned from these events, it is indeed true that “Clocks are People Too”.
Lastly, it is possible that the Twines were jailbroken by ‘freelancers’, perhaps by the same ghouls connected with whispers concerning experimental ‘hacking’. I am unsure about what motives this questionable party could have, unless they hope purely to plummet the East End in to chaos, just as things were calming down, to divert attention away from their alleyway ‘chop-shops’, should they exist. I hear that distress hasn’t been this rife since the Ripper was active all those years ago.
I blame myself. I shouldn’t have left for my rounds so early. Granted, what I experienced at the Red Lion that evening was invaluable and unforgettable. After all, it is not every night that one gets taken on a backstreet adventure by one of the brilliants mind behind the Clockwork Project, albeit an intoxicated one. Nonetheless, I feel I may have been able to have done something.
We now have two frightened, lost and deadly children roaming the city.
God help them
Ella Mayhem