Part Twenty-Two

Madam Diode's house was far enough away that Marie and Sarah felt justified in hailing a steam carriage to get get there. The driver turned out to be an old acquaintance of Sarah's and while the two played catch up Marie stared at the houses and people passing by. As she watched store-keeps bringing in their wares for the evening and couples walking about arm in arm and enjoying the clear evening air she felt a faint twinge of longing for the life she'd never had. She didn't really know what it was like to be ordinary but the people on the street looked so happy being so. Although judging by the popularity of adventure books and the like she was pretty sure many of them fantasized of leading a similar life to her own. Funny how the pulp books rarely mention the waiting and the boredom and the worry, she thought and instantly felt a bit better.

"I guess everyone wants to be someone else sometimes..."

"What was that?" Miss Sarah turned absentmindedly to her boss.

"Oh nothing, just talking to myself." Marie smiled at her assistant.

"OK then. Well, we are almost there. Just another block or so."

"Great." Marie straightened in her seat, casually checking that all her concealed knives and assorted nifty gadgets where in place. It was not that she expected trouble but all inventors where by default crazy (even down-to-earth Argyle had his insane moments. Like that time with the tortoise and the feathers and the sprockets) and she was pretty sure Madam Diode was no exception. And it never hurt to be prepared for anything.

The house in which Madam Diode lived was one of many similar ones along an ordinary city street but no-one could mistake hers for anything but an inventor's abode. The short part up to the house from the street was lined with metal contraptions, some spinning, some oscillating and others just seemed unmoving until you stopped looking directly at them. The windows where fitted with bars from which weather vanes, gleaming extensions that looked like arms grabbing for the sky and various other instruments and contraptions hung like misshapen growths. Slender antennae shot out from the roof and a glass dome could be glimpsed up there as well. The house looked like it was sending out feelers before deciding for or against devouring the adjoining buildings.

Marie and Sarah walked up the path, trying not look like they where avoiding the machinery. The door was covered in corrugated metal and had a round window with slightly bulging glass covering it. As Marie reached out a hand to use the knocker, shaped like a slightly out of place fat cat, a shutter opened behind the window and a a speaking tube detached itself from the wall next to the door. The women could see themselves reflected in the glass as a dark, almost sultry, voice sounded from the tube.

"So, to what do I owe the pleasure of this unexpected visit?"