Steampunk Omnibus: A Galvanic Century Collection Read Free Page B

wav'n."
    The girl had pulled out a jeweller's loupe to examine the swab that Bartleby had given her. "It's got bits of mica in the oil. See that slight sparkle? Definitely flashier than a base you'd use as a foundation. And look at how bright the white is -- any of my actors in this would be a huge distraction."
    "Just as I had thought," Bartleby said. "Thank you for the confirmation. Do you know who makes it?"
    She shook her head. "Nothing commonly available. I used to work with a stage magician who'd use something like this on his assistants. You should have seen the way they sparkled under the house lights."
    "A stage magician! How perfectly splendid. You wouldn't happen to know where I could find him, perchance?"
     
    ***
     
    Bartleby had once admitted to me a flirtation with opiates in his naval days. He seems the type, at first blush, to be drawn into the languid purgatory of opium addiction, but as any sensible man knows first impressions can be deceiving. It isn't pleasure that my partner is addicted to, but experience. The new and the novel, the strange and sublime. He confided in me that he knew almost immediately that he could not persist with his opium experimentation -- if he had, he wouldn't have wanted anything else, and to a man like Bartleby such artificial contentment is the world's greatest prison.
    Each opium den we visited in our search for the magician D'Agostino was more wretched and pathetic than the last. Old men and young, the poor and affluent of all races and nationalities lay insensate and uncaring, heedless of the amazements of this age of wonder we live in. I often wonder what it could be that makes the simple experience of living life so unpalatable to so many, that they'd rather lose themselves in such a numb escapism. The attendants of the dens, while initially taciturn and tight-lipped, were all too eager to help once Bartleby had given them a few coins.
    The stage magician looked like many of the other addicts, an older man in faded clothes, leaning against a wall, slack jawed with vacant eyes, cracked lips loosely held a pipe trailing thin wisps of smoke into the air. He was utterly unresponsive to Bartleby's initial attempts to rally his attention, and didn't so much as glance our way until I gave him a good hard shake.
    "D'Agostino?" The waste and excess had put me into a foul mood. "You! Are you the magician D'Agostino?"
    He muttered something that I didn't quite catch.
    "What?"
    "Illusionist!" His weak arms tried to push me away as he slumped to the side. "Prestidigitator! Never magician."
    Pity and revulsion warred within me, pity winning by the narrowest of margins. We weren't going to be getting any useful information out of the wretch in this state. I stood, still holding him, lifting the slack form of the illusionist to dangle by the waistband of his trousers.
    Bartleby turned to the den's attendant with an embarrassed chuckle. "We'll... uh, we'll be taking him home with us."
     
    ***
     
    Recovering from opiate addiction is a slow and painful ordeal. The body grows dependent on the drug to function, and when deprived it reacts like a spoilt child throwing a fit. The detoxification process naturally takes up to a week, and we did not have the luxury of time on our side. Fortunately, after hearing about Bartleby's experimentation with the drug, I resolved that if he ever should succumb I should help him recover -- and to that end I had built a detoxification apparatus.
    "I really don't think that this is entirely necessary." If I didn't know better I'd have said that Bartleby actually sounded concerned about the old addict. "We can simply sober him up and question him later."
    "Nonsense," I said. "Look at this poor wreck of man. We would be remiss in our social obligations if we didn't do all in our power to cure him of the drug's grip."
    Besides, I hadn't been able to test the Detoxification Apparatus, and if there's one thing an engineer understands, it's how to take advantage of