Flashback (Keeper of the Lost Cities, #7)

by Shannon Messenger

her waist beneath a wide copper tool belt stuffed with hammers and pliers and screwdrivers—plus all kinds of twisted, springy things. Copper bracers around her wrists completed the look, connecting to hinged silver finger guards that covered each of her pointer fingers like metal scales. Tinker didn’t smile as the hatch silently sealed closed. She just stood there, studying them one by one, her gaze lingering on Dex as she repeated, “You can’t see the trick?” Dex’s eyebrows scrunched together as he examined the clockwork monkey again. “No,” he eventually admitted. He bent to set the creature on the ground and froze. “Unless it’s this.” He lifted the marmoset again and pointed to something in its neck that Sophie couldn’t see—just like she couldn’t understand any of the Technopathy explanations he rattled off after that. Most of it didn’t even sound like words, just gibberish with a bunch of syllables. But she could tell that Tinker was impressed. Mr. Forkle introduced them. “Tinker, this is Mr. Dizznee and Miss Foster. We appreciate you granting us this rare visit.” Tinker’s gaze shifted to the sling supporting Sophie’s arm. “They don’t know why you brought them here?” “Not yet. So perhaps we should head to your laboratory. Seems like a more fitting place for that conversation, don’t you think?” Sophie shared a look with Dex—a look that said they both found those words to be uncomfortably ominous. But it didn’t stop them from following Tinker through the atrium, to a gilde...