Ticker by Lisa Mantchev Read Free Book Online

pamphlet over in my hands. Originally published under the title
Unvarnished Truths
, it had been surreptitiously distributed in the months preceding Warwick’s very public trial and anonymously justified the risks of his experiments and the deaths of those involved. After he was arraigned on twenty counts of murder, he publicly claimed authorship of the manifesto, and the treatise went into second, third, and fourth printings within a month. I’d read part of it, but Mama caught me and burned it in the hearth.
    Opening Papa’s copy, I saw it was inscribed with an ink scrawl.
    Perhaps this will help broker an understanding between us.
    Though it was unsigned, I knew who’d sent it.
    I set the pamphlet aside to wrestle with the desk’s other hidden compartments and decorative panels. Within minutes, I’d amassed a collection of letters, all of them from Warwick. The earliest one dated back to the week after Dimitria’s death.
    Dear Sir:
    It is my sincere hope that together we can avert further tragedy.
    That one contained a rough pencil sketch in the margin: an early diagram of my Ticker. The newer missives, written on the thin, cheap paper provided by Gannet Penitentiary, were decorated with angry ink blots where Warwick pressed his pen too long or too hard upon the page.
    You are not the only one to doubt me, but you are the only one whom I called “friend.”
    The final note I discovered had my name upon it. “This one is for me.”
    “Do you want me to read it for you?” Nic asked.
    I shook my head. The broken wax seal on the back indicated my father had opened it already.
    Dear Penny:
    You are too young to understand yet, but it is my sincerest wish that someday soon we will speak and I will be able to explain everything to you. At the heart of the matter, I am both guilty and innocent. And I would do it all over again to save you. It is what your sister wanted.
    “Lies. Dimitria never would have wanted him to kill in my name.” With a shudder, I shoved all the notes into a pile and pushed away from the desk. “What we need isn’t here. We have to get to the Bibliothèca.”
    “Whatever for?” Violet asked, forehead scrunched up.
    “Papa kept copies of important information on Eidolachometer punch cards,” I explained. “We need to retrieve them from our vault before the thieves realize that’s an option.”
    Unable to stop himself, Nic raised a protest. “Downtown is going to be utter chaos. Everyone is waiting for the verdict. There are Edoceon everywhere. Never mind that you shouldn’t go running about after what happened in the hall.”
    “I can, and I shall.” I started to stand and felt the floor tilt under my feet. “But a few more minutes to gather my thoughts and another piece of cake wouldn’t come amiss.”
    Violet laughed and handed me the last slice as Sebastian whistled, long and low.
    “Little did I know when I woke up this morning that I would be knee-deep in Gordian knots by the lunch hour,” he said with a sardonic glance at my brother.
    “Enjoy the ride,” Nic muttered. “If I know Penny, we’ll be up to our eyeballs in trouble by teatime.”

FOUR
    In Which Silence Is More Than Golden

    It was a ridiculous thing to have to stop and consider my clothes. Ripped in countless places and dotted with Nic’s blood, my sadly maligned morning suit was now as inappropriate for a rescue excursion as Violet’s SugarWerks uniform. I hurried as fast as I dared up the stairs, with everyone following close behind. The terrible knowledge that Mama and Papa were in certain peril pursued us to the third floor.
    “I think my aubergine dress will fit you,” I said to Violet, “if you can avoid tripping over the skirts.”
    “I’ll loop them up about my neck if I have to,” she promised as we reached my bedroom.
    None of us commented on the door just down the hallway that was shrouded in mourning gloom. To my knowledge, no one in the family save Mama had entered Dimitria’s room in