“Sure.” Louise took the clipboard from him, scrawled her name on the bottom of a page, and handed it back. Then she gestured from Pip to the troll. “Pip, this is Voron. He’s in charge of overseeing the day-to-day operations here at the AMPC. Voron, this is Pippak Detmuk-Inawenys. She’s going to be working here at the AMPC for the next little bit.”
“Nice to meet you, Pippak.” Voron gave her a wide smile and tipped his head to her. “I’m sure I’ll be seeing you around.”
“Likely. She’s going to be living with me here in the AMPC.” Louise turned from Voron to Pip. “Voron, his wife Rikze, and their two girls also live here in the AMPC complex. Rikze is my Aunt Vriska’s younger sister.”
That answered the question of where she would be staying. Pip smiled and returned Voron’s nod. “I didn’t have the pleasureof actually speaking with the general, but I saw her and General Julien Ardon a couple of times while at Dar Goranth and Fort Defense.”
She’d heard that the famous troll general had led the reinforcements who rescued Fieran, but she hadn’t seen that for herself. She’d been busy rescuing Merrik and defending headquarters at that point.
Voron tipped his head to Pip again. “Rikze will be happy to help if you need anything. Good to have you here.”
With that, he moved off, the clipboard tucked under one arm.
Louise pointed to the building ahead of them. “This is the main building where we will be working.” She pushed open one of the double doors and led the way inside.
Pip followed before letting the door swing shut behind her.
This building didn’t have the bustle she’d heard from inside the other buildings. Here the cavernous space had a few random piles of junk along the sides. The center held what seemed to be scattered work stations where everything from some type of engine to a half-assembled biplane rested.
Louise strode between the work stations before she halted by a contraption so strange that even Pip wasn’t sure what it might be for.
Two men worked on the machine, goggles over their eyes and wearing nearly identical long vests with multiple pockets. One had darker, sandy-blond hair while the other’s was a lighter blond. The man with the lighter blond hair was slightly taller and appeared younger, but both of them had a slim build.
“Do you think we need to adjust the transducer?” The young man with the lighter hair spoke as Pip and Louise approached, but he seemed to be speaking to the other man instead of them. Neither man so much as glanced up.
“Hmm. Possibly.”
“Uncle Lance, Bennett. Our guest is here.” Louise raised her voice, as if the two men were hard of hearing.
The one with the darker hair flapped a hand at her. “Good. Good.”
Louise sighed and shook her head. She pointed at the man with the slightly darker hair. “Pip, that’s my Uncle Lance. And this is his and Aunt Illyna’s oldest, Bennett. Proper introductions will have to wait until they are less wrapped up in a project.”
“I can see that.” Pip switched her bag to her other hand. It wasn’t that heavy, but it would be nice to set it down.
“Sorry, I’ll hurry this up. But cutting through this building is the shortest way to the apartments.” Louise led the way farther into the building, and she halted by the half-assembled biplane. “Here’s one of the things I’m hoping you can help with. We’ve been trying to figure out how to stop bullets from hitting the propeller.” Louise’s expression turned grim, her voice going a bit rough. “As you can imagine, we’re even more motivated now.”
Pip nodded, flexing the fingers of her free hand. A broken propeller had sent Fieran plummeting from the sky. “I’ll help in any way I can. Especially with this.”
“We’ve reconstructed the interrupter gear the Mongavarians have been using.” Louise pointed to a mechanism of gears and wires in the engine compartment. “But it’s glitchy. It works, but not reliably. Production has started on this model, but I think between all of us, we can come up with something better.”
“Anything is better than nothing.” Pip tried to push the thoughts of Fieran falling from the sky out of her mind.
“Yes.” Louise blinked as she turned away, that cheery note returning to her voice as she pointed to the far wall, where several gigantic spools of braided cable wires rested. “And we were hoping you would also find time to infuse those with your magic so that more shields like the one you created for DarGoranth can be built around other places. Contrary to what that first impression might lead you to believe, Uncle Lance has been begging Uncle Julien to reassign you here for months. It wasn’t until now that Uncle Julien agreed.”
So was it Fieran’s Uncle Julien who had seen to it that she’d been sent here? On the long train ride during the few minutes he’d been awake, Fieran had shared with her some of his suspicions that his dacha had been behind her new assignment. Perhaps all three of them—his dacha and uncles—had colluded to get her here. At least it was beneficial for the war effort.
Still, it was daunting, realizing just how easily his family could move people about on a whim. Fieran’s family hadpower.
“Easy enough.” Shaking off her thoughts, Pip studied the spools, noting the big track in the ceiling for moving them. She’d have to rig up something to wind one spool to another one as she infused the wire with her magic. If Louise and the others didn’t mind her making herself at home.
Louise grinned, the expression so reminiscent of Fieran’s that it hurt deep inside Pip’s chest. “I think you’re going to fit in nicely here at the AMPC. Let’s wrap up your tour and show you where you’ll be staying.”
They exited the large warehouse into what must have been an alley between it and the next building. But now it had a glass roof while the space had lovely metal tables and chairs scattered within, separated by planters bursting with vibrant blooms and small bushes.
“This is where many of us who work in the inventing room take our lunches. You’re welcome to eat here as well.” Louise gestured around them, then back at the warehouse they’d just left. “We were just in what was the original building. This other one is mostly storage and contains Aunt Illyna’s workspace. There’s a garden on the roof that you’re welcome to visit duringbreaks, especially if you’re the type who needs a lot of green and growing things around.”
“No. Half-dwarf and all that.” Pip shrugged, resting a hand on one of the metal tables as she and Louise strode past. “Given my magic, the metal calls to me more than plants.”
