The jackal spider is an enormous species of spider, previously unknown to man because of their feeding method. The jackal spider injects a venom that makes a person unable to notice it. The spider starts injecting it’s victim when they are very young but it takes time for the venom to build up in their brain so young children can sense that something is wrong in their perception. This often happens when the spiders come out at night or are hiding under the child’s bed or in their closet. The effect of the venom is weaker when the spider is in the light so the creatures naturally avoid it.

A musk in the spider’s sent gland signals their victim’s brain to not pay attention to their presence. Over the years a single spider will feed on an individual hundreds of times with their health slowly degrading.

Some people have shown a resistance to the spider’s venom and are able to perceive the spiders under certain conditions. There are also unsubstantiated reports of a cure that partly reverses the venom’s effects in some people.

Attributes
Story: 2
Intelligence: -1
Will: 3
Honor: -5
Agility: 10
Perception: 8
Strength: 4
Charm: -4

Untrained Methods

Bite Agility +1

If a spider senses that it has been seen, they will attempt to make a bite attack.

Leap Agility +2

The spider can leap great distances.

Webs Str +10

The spider’s webbing is very strong, they will wrap their webbing around themselves, forming a protective layer and wear the webbing as a garment.

Venom Per +10

The Jackal Spider waits until their victim is sleeping and will inject their venom from a very early age. They seem to be able to tell if a person has been bitten.

Musk

This trick requires that a character beat the spider’s perception score to be able to see them.

“Siegfried, why is she here.” He turned his attention to her “This isn’t a playground for little girls.”

She glared at him. “Mr. Adler, since my father is missing, and I am his only heir, that makes this my property. Please call the constable and have him arrested for assault and theft.”

Siegfried opened and then closed his mouth as if to speak several times. He glared at one and then the other, “I helf hed enough. I em going home.” he turned, put his jacket on and stormed out of the building.

“Very well then, I’ll have to charge the cutter myself. Jake, bring it over here.” He started toward Siegfried’s workbench but she stepped into his path.

“Are you intending to steal more of my property? Right in full view?” She asked indignantly.

He sighed, “Listen young lady, you have no idea what’s going on. I’m the only chance your father’s got, so if you want to see him again,”

He was suddenly interrupted “Wrong Griffin, she’s the only chance you’ve got of saving Mr. Drake. I’d have gone with you but my days hunting are done, I messed up too badly last time.” The old man emerged from the shadows. “She can see ‘em!” he grinned a wild grin. “Sober even.” He offered.

“I can’t take her into those mines!” Griffin protested. “I just lost a man fighting them, she’ll be eaten alive.”

Coffer smiled “Well, that’s your foolishness for loosing a man. You don’t take a man into those mines, you take a Drake.”

“Drake or not, she can’t handle a gun, she can’t fight, she’s useless to me.”

“Silly Boy, who do ya’ think taught her father?” Coffer was enjoying this conversation immensely. “Jake, she still has trouble with shadows, can you fix that?”

“I think I can, the same formula that got Griffin hearing them should work.” Jake answered.

“Mr. Coffer, I will not work with these common thieves.” Emily insisted.

“Eh, they may be common thieves but you father kept em’ in his company. Griffin’s just a little impetuous, you’ll get used to him. Jake, mix up a batch and we’ll see how good you really are.”

“Coffer, when it comes to this kind of thing, not only am I the best at it, I’m the only show in town.” Jake said as he straightened up. He took out a set of vials filled with various oils. Emily had never seen the like of them.

“What are those?” She asked warily.

“These my dear, are from various parts of the spider’s anatomy. Their venom is an opium that convinces men that they don’t exist. This,” he said holding up a green liquid “is the bile of a sac in their abdomen that works with the venom. You see, when a little girl goes to bed at night, she can tell there’s something under her bed. The spider waits until she’s asleep and then bites her.” He said, lunging at Emily, who jumped back several paces. “The poison gets into the brain. Each night for years the spider sits under her bed, waiting for her to fall asleap and then he bites her. Each time she smells this bile it makes her think there’s nothing there under the bed. Once the little girl is old enough, the spider will start to feed on her as she gets sicker and sicker.”

He paused for a moment seeing that Emily was aghast at his story. He chuckled and then continued, “Your father kept the spiders away, kept them out from under the shadows of your bed. He kept you from getting stung hundreds of times without knowing it. That’s probably why you can see them in the light. Now I’ve played with these fluids and I can counteract the poison that’s still in you from when you were real small.”

“I have to drink that?” Emily grimaced.

“What are we doing here boy? There’s nothing here!” Harold nearly shouted.

“Sir, you try my patience. I have hired you for the skills you do possess, not the ones you do not. One of which being the ability to correctly assess this situation.” Griffin replied cooly. “Now please, I’m counting the guards, who are at the moment being very quiet so I need you to also be quiet.”

Griffin went back to counting. Jake fiddled with his vials of chemicals. Harold huffed and paced up and down impatiently and grumbled under his breath.

“Okay, I’ve got them.” Griffin said finally and fired his acoustic gun five times and then recharged it via a small pneumatic canister. “I’ve only five more shots after this. Jake, apply your chemicals to us so we can go in.”

Jake poured a vial in his hair and rubbed the contents on his neck and over his hands. “This will give us about fifteen minutes.” he said nervously. Then he applied the concoction to Griffin’s head and moved toward Harold.

Harold stepped back “Woah! I don’t need none of that. You can just keep it.”

“Harold put it on, if you don’t, it will doom our mission and I won’t pay you.” Griffin demanded.

“Well, let me put it on myself then.” Harold sputtered.

Jake glanced over at Griffin and shrugged. Griffin rolled his eyes and waved to let him apply the liquid himself. Jake handed Harold the vial. Griffin was already busy checking the entrance of the mine where Mother was. If they were going to save Mr. Drake, they would have to get in quick. Now, with the steam cutter they would be able to get through the webs.

Jake watched Harold apply the liquid. Unfortunately, one of the skills Harold did possess was the skill at slight of hand. Applying only a small portion of the pungent liquid and then dumping out the remaining contents.

The three entered the mine, Griffin always with his gun at the ready, listening for the Jackal Spiders. Five minutes of climbing down through the bowels of the mine passed when Griffin finally exclaimed “Aha! Here are Drake’s chalk marks” pointing to an arrow on the wall and several lines of chalk radiating out from a singular stone embedded in the wall. “Hand me the steam cutter please.” Griffin requested. The cutter screamed to life and Griffin applied it’s blade to the rock face.

Harold expected the rock to crack or split, but instead it collapsed like a curtain being cut away from it’s moorings, the face of the rock folding like fabric. “I’ll be, that was a queer stone.” Harold proclaimed.

Griffin shut down the steam cutter. “It wasn’t a stone, that’s just what you expected to see there. What was in truth blocking our progress was a spider web so strong that even a steel saw would dull trying to cut through it. That’s why we need the cutter.”

Harold looked at Griffin as if he had sprouted a tulip where his nose should be. Griffin ignored this and raised his gun, listening for Jackal Spiders. “Ho! They’re coming! There’s too many for me to shoot. Run!”

Harold, still bewildered stood stupefied. “What are you talkin’ about boy! You come down with yella’ fever or sumpin?”

Griffin grabbed Harold’s collar and dragged him. “Run you buffoon! Jake throw your seeing gas.”

Jake reached into his satchel and threw a vial at the floor. “How do they know we’re even here? Was it cutting though the web that alerted them? How can they know where we are?” Jake complained.

The gas filled the tunnel and as the vapors swirled, ghastly shapes took form inside the cloud. Dozens and dozens of shapes rushed from the opened passage. “No! How could there be so many!” Griffin exclaimed.

Harold froze in terror. Finally Griffin could no longer drag him and abandoned the effort. “On your feet and run man!”

Harold drew his pistol and emptied it’s cartridges into the shapes and then turned to run. All too late, the monsters overtook him and leapt upon him.

Exiting the mine, Jake and Griffin knew there was nothing they could do to rescue him. Both panted for breath bent double from the great strain of running. Now that they were out in the daylight, the spiders would not follow. They had been outmatched. Griffin stood up, “We need to get to Adler and have the cutter recharged if we are to try again.” Griffin stated finally.

“What? Did you not see how many there were down there? We can’t possibly fight that many, only Drake and Coffer together stood a chance with that many.” Jake whined.

“You might be right. Even still, I’m not ready to give up on Drake. Come Jake, we have work to do.” Griffin replied.

Siegfried was on top of Coffer a quarter of a second later, pummeling him with his huge fists. The old man kept up his arms doing his best to prevent the blows from knocking him out. “Get offa me ya’ lummox! I gotta grab it!” Coffer protested.

The energy went out of Siegfried Adler’s blows. Tears rolled down his face and his hands reached up and grabbed at the air in front of him. His mouth moved as if to say something, at first no sound came out but then a roar “I vill keel you!”

This pause was enough for Coffer to wriggle free. He ran five feet and then leapt face first into a shadow on the floor. He started pounding the ground with the but of his pistol and spinning in circles. Despite being driven mad with rage this bizarre performance even gave Siegfried Adler pause.

He blinked and tried to register what he was really seeing but he couldn’t stand it any longer and turned away in disgust. He stooped over the body of Emily Drake and picked her head up. Through his tears he could not see where the bullet had struck her. He tried to wipe them away from his eyes but his vision blurred all the more. He could not see any blood on her dress or any wound. Then the body of Emily Drake coughed and opened it’s eyes. Siegfried was stunned so badly that he fainted dead away.

Emily’s head was ringing and the room was spinning and when Mr. Adler dropped her head on the ground because he had fainted it didn’t help matters much. She had almost gotten her bearings when she saw Mr. Coffer spinning over and over in the shadows of the room. She looked back over at Mr. Adler and crawled over to him to check if he was alright. Aside from being pale and a look of horror frozen to his face, he seemed fine.

Emily got to her feet, stumbled a bit and began dusting herself off.

“Aha! I’ve got ‘im!” She heard Coffer declare as he emerged triumphantly from behind one of the soda engines. He marched proudly into the light of the acetylene lamp carrying a rolled up tarpaulin. “Well Miss Drake, here ‘e be.” he chortled.

“Mr. Coffer, that’s a tarpaulin.” She stated.

“No, no lass. It’s what’s in the tarpaulin.” He said as he unrolled it in the center of the lamp’s light.

Emily screamed.

It was the size of a hound dog but not in the right shape.

“Aha! I was right!” Coffer danced around doing a little jig. “That monster was about to snack on you. Saved you is what I did.”

The creature turned toward Coffer and leapt at him. His pistol fired again, this time the beast was blown apart by the blast. “Gotta hit them just right to get rid of them. It’s actually harder to catch em’ like that.”

Emily shrieked again.

“Oh calm yerself lass.”

What was worse, Emily had a feeling like she was being followed. In low slung shadows she could feel that something was waiting. It was laying in wait for the sun to slip further down in the sky so that the shadows would merge with other shadows and it could move around more freely.

She threw herself inside the building, slamming the iron door behind her.

Siegfried looked up from his work, “Fraulien Drake! Vot are you doing here? This ese no place for a gurl.” He quickly dropped his tools on the workbench and picked up a fresh rag with which he wiped his brow and then his hands.

All this excitement was too much for Emily, she fell to her knees crying.

Siegfried picked her up with ease, “Fraulien Drake, you poor leetle gurl, come I vill make you some tea.”

Mr. Coffer swung the door open and tossed aside a freshly empty whiskey bottle. “Them beasties won’t be sneakin’ up on us!” he declared triumphantly only to be felled by the huge right hand of Siegfried Adler.

“You! I should have known! Vat haf you done to her monster!” he turned his attention back to Emily, “Deed he hurt you fraulien?”

Emily was all the more shaken by this sudden turn of events and found herself unable to speak. Mr. Coffer who had gotten back to his feet lunged at Siegfried faster than his inebriated state would suggest possible and caught his jaw with an upper cut. Adler stumbled for a moment but regained his composure. He rolled up his sleeves and roared “I vill take you apart!”

“No! Stop!” Emily sobbed “Stop fighting!”

Siegfried regained some of his composure. “Very vell fraulien, I vill spare this monster if you vish.” He turned his attention to Coffer again. “Vat are you doink here? I tell you never to come here! Herr Drake may tolerate you but I do not vant you here.”

“Listen kraut, we came here for just one reason, so you could build another device for Ms. Emily and she could rescue her father. Now are you going to help us or not?” Coffer stated cooly.

“You are sick man. Fillink dis gurl’s head vith your madness. You got Herr Drake to believe you but you will not the get de fraulien into dis.” Siegfried insisted. His face turning two shades of red darker and getting ready to throw another punch at Coffer. In turn the drunk put up his hands and motioned that he was ready to his opponent.

“Wait. Wait!” Emily finnally shouted. “Mr. Adler, where is my father?” she asked, starting to collect herself. Siegfried thought about this a moment and sighed “I, don’t know fraulien, I hef not seen him for two veeks.”

“I have had a man named Griffin and two associates of his break into my home and steal a device of my fathers design and I believe your making. I want to know who this man is and how he knows what my father works on in his private workshop.”

Siegfried glared at Coffer. “Dis man iz Griffin Kerry and he vas a student of Herr Drake and myself. He vas brilliant! Dat vas until dis man got his hands on him!” He shouted, waving his finger at Coffer. “He got Griffin to chase after de leetle bugs like he got Herr Drake to. He iz infecting dem vith his madness!”

Coffer got defensive, “You got it all wrong, Drake came to me I didn’t come to him. Griffin just tagged along, he didn’t believe us either until he heard them for himself. It’s not our fault that your hearing is so bad you can’t hear them.”

“Hear what? What are you talking about? What is my father doing?” Emily asked.

Siegfried roll his eyes, “Dey think dere are bugs dat are invisible all over.”

“They aint invisible to me, well leastways not when I’ve had enough to drink.” Coffer offered almost wistfully. “Drake could see them and Griffin could hear them with his gun. An they aint just any bugs, they’re big bugs, Drake named em’ Jackal Spiders.” Coffer paused for a moment, pulled out his gun and cocked it. “I’m thinkin’ Ms. Emily might be able to see em’ too.” he said as he pointed his gun at Emily.

Siegfried lept at him to stop him but the old man was too quick, his action too unexpected. He fired his gun.

Emily wasn’t sure about getting on Mr. Coffer’s dog cart but her father’s boiler works was five miles outside of town. The old man was also the only one who seemed to know something about where her father might be. “Do you know where my father is?” She asked him.

“Mr. Drake has gone off to find Mother. I’m afraid this is all my fault.” He answered.

Emily frowned, “That isn’t very nice Mr. Coffer, you know mother died four years ago.”

Coffer blinked several times and shook his head slowly “No, that can’t be, how did she die?”

Emily stamped her foot in frustration at this awful man. Her eyes welled up with tears at the thought of her mother passing. She had gotten so weak before her death and the sanatorium wasn’t able to do anything for her. “Mr. Coffer! Really! You know full well my mother died of consumption.”

Again he blinked at her confused for a few moments as he considered this. “Ah, you mean your mother. Oh I’m sorry child, for your loss. ‘Cept I wasn’t meanin’ your mother, I mean Mother. Get on and I’ll take you to your father’s boilerworks. Siegfried will ‘splain it all when we get there. ”

Siegfried Adler was her father’s boiler works foreman. He was a stout man ruddy in complexion and as sweet as the chocolates that he would bring for Emily. He had come to the house many times to have dinner with them and afterward her father and Mr. Adler would retreat to the workshop and lock the door behind them. If there was anyone who knew about the cutter and could explain the notebook it would be Mr. Adler. Emily decided that if there was anyone that could bestow some clarity on this situation it would be him. She reluctantly stepped up on the cart.

Mr. Coffer flicked the reigns and Harold, his old horse clip clopped down the cobblestone out of town. Once they had gotten out of town Mr. Coffer kept looking toward the sun. Something was making him uneasy. “It’s no use Harold, the sun’s almost setting and we both know you’ve got no stomach for this. They’ll smell me and come runnin’, I best let you pasture out here and draw them off you.” He stopped the cart, got off and started to untie Harold’s bridal.

“Do you intend to pull the cart yourself?” Said Emily, a bit bewildered at this turn of events.

Coffer’s face scrunched into a strange knot. “Ms. Drake, do you remember the feeling of laying in bed and being afraid that there was something under it?”

Emily felt that he had gone mad from drink, “You are a strange man Mr. Coffer, what kind of question is that? I’m sixteen years old, I haven’t worried about that kind of thing since I was four years old.”

He regarded this for a moment. “Aye, that’d be about right. That’s about the time yer father discovered the jackal spiders. Shortly afterward he met me, I’ve been fighting off them beasties for near on thirty years now. Yer father is special though, I need a good measure of drink in me to see them, he doesn’t somehow. I wonder if you can see them like he can?”

Emily was quite sure he was completely mad. Now he had let the horse go and they wouldn’t make it any farther tonight. She would have to walk home and get another cart tomorrow. Then Mr. Coffer walked up to the front of the cart, opened a door in the front of it and began turning a crank. A curious little wheel emerged from the front of the cart and supported the front of the cart. The old man climbed back on, opened a panel on the side of the driver’s bench and pulled back on a lever. To Emily’s amazement the cart lurched forward in fits and starts.

“One of yer father’s designs, came before the soda engines he’s been workin’ on. A great spring drives the wheels, like a giant clock. We used this thing for years chasin’ down them jackal spiders.” He shouted every word with glee over the sound of the gear work in the cart.

The cart now built up to a tremendous speed. Emily feared that she’d be thrown from the back of it. As they bounced along the road, Emily caught out of the corner of her eye something that Mr. Coffer was waiving around. She turned to see what it was. He had an enormous pistol and he was pointing it at various places along their path. “What are you doing?” she shouted.

“The’ll be comin’ fer me. They know my smell an’ I haven’t had enough drink to see em’ coming. As soon as the sun is down they’ll be comin’ out. Fact, they’re probably in them shadows now.” He fired off a deafening shot. “That should scare em’ away for a bit.”

How could her father put his trust in this lunatic? He was absolutely mad. Emily thought about leaping from the cart but then she felt something that she had not felt since she was four. She looked into the shadow underneath a hedgerow and felt that something was there. She retreated back to the cart’s bench and hung on as tightly as she could.

“We should make it before the sun’s all the way down.” He said and then fired off another thunderous round.

She found him at the train station with his top hat placed precariously over his eyes, perched on his dog cart. Three men were trying to rouse him from sleep, but despite calling out to him quite loudly, he would not budge. In fact he would only snore the louder. Eventually, as any sane man would they abandoned them.

Emily walked up to him, prepared to strike him with her parasol until he roused, but was given a start when from under his hat called out to her “Good day Ms. Drake. You’ll be needin’ a ride home then will you?”

With as much indignation as she could muster she scolded him, “Mr. Coffer! You had three men trying to employ your services and your lazy ways have done you in. You sleep all day atop this cart, I wonder if your horse has had any exercise today.”

Coffer raised his hat onto his head and smiled, “Those business men are not in a business that I’m interested in. If I had  taken them, how could I be talking to you? It is for the purpose of speaking to me that you’ve come isn’t it?”

Emily, still annoyed at his ways was taken aback by this. He had been playing coy with the men. There was a seriousness in his voice that she had never heard before and it was chilling. “Indeed I have. I want to know about this man Griffin that broke into my house and stole my property.”

His eyebrows went up, “Griffin’s involved in this? So early? Eh, well that can’t be helped. I’m sorry lass, there’s not much left for you to do then but wait.” He muttered under his breath something that Emily couldn’t make out.

“Mr. Coffer, these are dangerous men. I will not just leave my father to them. They wanted his notebook, why?” She demanded.

“Aye these are dangerous men and without the device or the notebook there’s not anything you’ll be able to do. It’s time to go home and wait. Hop on and I’ll take you home.” He said.

Emily smiled “And what could be done if I still had one or the other?” Coffer considered this for a moment. “Well Ms. Drake in that case I’ll be takin’ you to yer father’s boilerworks.”

If I had a band, this would be it’s name. I don’t have a band. Or any discernible musical talent.

I guess it’ll just have to be the warning on the entrance of my secret lair.

The sound was so loud that Griffin had to pull the earflaps off. “Something just happened, we might have to go in.” He suggested. Harold just grinned. He wanted to go in and smash the place an take what they wanted but Griffin had got in his way. Jake looked worried. “It’s day, can’t go in durin’ the day.”

Griffin lowered the earflaps again. He  could hear movement in the room now. It sounded strange. Mr. Drake had not returned, his footsteps were heavier than this person’s. He was trying to figure out the breathing but it was moving around too much. As long as he could keep the horn of the gun centered on the person inside the building, he could hear the slightest sound they made.

Had Drake sent in that old fool Coffer to retrieve his things? There was the sound of papers being moved or no, a book’s pages being turned. Then the sound of a gasp. Griffin checked the gun, the voice sounded too high pitched. Something had to be out of adjustment. He checked the adjustments but they all checked good.

He could hear something metallic drag across a wooden surface. He had been trained to recognize common sounds like that.

“Wha’cha hearin’ boy?” Harold demanded. He was just hired muscle but for some reason he thought he was running the operation.

“Someone is in the room but something isn’t right, it’s not Drake or Coffer. Now be quiet and let me figure out who he is.” Griffin shushed.

“No no, we can’t be seen breaking in!” Jake moaned.

“Quiet Jake, you were paid enough to do this, if we need to. . .Shh! What is that?” Griffin focused. There was a gurgling sound, a sizzle and then a loud whistle. Even the other men heard it coming from the house. “He’s got the cutter! That’s settles it, we can’t wait.” Griffin raised the gun and fired a bullet, not of lead or copper but of pure sound at the person inside. Normally he would not have missed, even when firing through a brick wall like that but the whistle of the cutter made it hard to figure out where his target was. The cutter turned off. Griffin hoped he hadn’t damaged it.

“Come on!” He ran toward the house, and beckoned for his associates to follow. He was a faster runner than both of them and it was a good thing too. He wasn’t sure what Harold would do if they encountered any of the house help. If he stayed in the front he could at least try and prevent anyone from getting hurt.

A boy came out of the back door. He was probably a stable boy on his way to take care of the animals. Griffin raised the Acoustic Gun and shouted into the mouthpiece. The gun amplified his voice so powerfully that it knocked the young child right out and he collapsed to the floor. It was distasteful to Griffin to do that but he knew the boy would be fine in an hour or two.

They charged into the house, having only a vague idea of the layout of the house, they found themselves taking wrong turns a few times.

Finally they found the room, the door had been broken in and a massive brass candle holder lay on the ground and books lay all over the floor. Was someone else here for the same reason they were? Griffin rushed into the darkened room. “Jake strike a match.” As Jake complied the dim light allowed them to peer into the room.

Griffin was horrified, a young girl lay on the floor. He rushed over and knelt at her side trying to see if she was still alive. He had shot her! How could he have been so careless he wondered? No one in the family ever went into this room except Drake, why did she go in today? He looked for a wound but only found a bruise near her ear. Thank goodness the sound of the cutter threw off his aim. The young girl took a shallow breath, he hadn’t killed her after all.

“She’s alive, good! Quickly get the cutter and the notes, lets get out of here before someone sees us.” Griffin ordered.

“I’ve got the cutter.” Harold declared.

Jake looked around the room, “The notes aren’t here Griffin.”

“That’s too bad, I thought I heard her flipping pages. I would have expected it to be here. Let’s go!” Griffin and the two men left with the device.

The girl got up off the floor and pulled the notebook from the folds of her skirt. “Griffin. Now I have a name to track my father down with.” Emily said.

It had been a week since he disappeared and his usual associates in town could tell her nothing about what might have happened to him. All of them except Mr. Coffer, the old man that ran the dog cart. “If yer’ father’s gotten into trouble, he’ll be needin’ his notes from his workshop. An’ the device of course.”

Emily wondered if Mr. Coffer was playing some kind of a joke on her. He was always sly about something, or playing on words. Her father seemed to trust him though. She wasn’t sure what to say to him so she thanked him and rushed home. What did he mean by ‘the device’?

She came home and stood in front of the door of the workshop. She didn’t have a key so she imagined she might pick the lock somehow but after an hour of trying she had made no progress. In desperation she tried to use her shoulder to force the door open but her tiny frame did nothing to the door. She sat down for a moment when her eyes fell on the solid brass candlestand that graced the corner of the room. With a crash Emily found herself covered in books but she was in the workshop.

She found a candle and walked into the room that had always been denied her. A cushioned chair with a small end table lurked in one corner. A bound notebook sat atop the end table. Emily opened it up and examined the pages. The pages were full of calculations that Emily could not follow. A note in the margin caught her attention.

“The self focusing nozzle is a limited success. The steam pressure cutter can focus it’s blade up to a distance of two and a half feet. The principle is simple enough. A small arc light shines up through the nozzle and when the beam of light reflects back to the detector, the nozzle adjusts itself to the distance. At two feet the high pressure steam can cut through a four inch wooden beam or a quarter inch of iron plate in moments. My calculations show that it should do better than this. I must be missing something.”

What did he mean? What was this steam cutter? She waved the candle around the room. On the other end of it there was a work bench. Emily recognized some of the equipment on it. There was what appeared to be a miniature version of her father’s fireless soda engines. So small in fact that this one was designed with a system of straps so that a man could wear it on his back.

Attached to the fireless engine was a high pressure hose with some manner of nozzle on it. She found her father’s notes on how to activate the device. The engine gurgled as the soda of lime activated. The boiler almost instantly reached pressure and a blinding blue light shone up from the nozzle. Then a rush of steam burst from the nozzle with terrific force and heat. The steam formed a thin blade, impossibly thin and focused.

What had her father been doing? Why would he have invented such a device and how could it lead her to finding him?