"Anyway," Mara went on, "I remember thinking that he'd better not talk like that where the draconians could hear him, or they'd go get a weapon first, and then I thought about how happy he'd be if I went first instead and found him a weapon and saved the village, and — well, I left." She folded her arms over her chest. "Under cover of darkness, like I said. Through the draconian camps — "
The gnome raised a bushy eyebrow. He was coming to know Mara. "Through their camps?"
"Well, around. Under their very scaly noses."
"So you saw them?"
"Not actually saw them," she admitted, but added quickly, "But I knew they were there, and was too clever to be caught by them. Alone and courageous, I came — "
'To find weapons." Standback frowned, thinking. "To fight these draconians, whom you haven't really seen. Um."
He reached a conclusion and rubbed his stained and callused hands together. "Well, as long as you're here, I don't see why we shouldn't strike a deal. Do you still want some gnome weapons?"
"What?" It took Mara, caught up in dreams of her own heroism, a moment to remember what she was doing here. Her thin young mouth set firmly. "More than ever."
"I'll let you take one," he said. "Any one you want. If you'll test my security device."
She swallowed. Anti-burglar devices? "Do I have a choice?"
Standback was ecstatic. "And right afterward," Standback burbled happily, "I'll write up my test results and submit them to the Committee. And then if they approve my work — and I have no doubt they will — I'll marry Watchout."
They strode down the tunnel together, their footsteps setting off an uneasy rustling and flapping in the invisible colony clinging to the walls and roof above them.
"They're only bats," Standback said reassuringly. "I hope," he added, less so.
They walked past a number of side tunnels, their entrances half hidden by debris and hanging ropes and cables. Mara, like a good thief, took note of the turns and the fork back to the exit. "Where does the money come from for weapons research?"
"I use only junk, spare parts. The main projects were started on a grant from the Knights of Solamnia."
"The knights?" Mara looked serious. "I hope you're not counting on them for support. They aren't as rich as they used to be, you know — "
"This was a while back. They aren't as frequent visitors as they used to be, either," Standback pointed out. He screwed up his forehead. "In fact," he said thoughtfully, "I haven't seen them since the last In-House Weapons Test, several years ago. No, make that several decades ago."
"And you kept the project going?"
"It never lapsed, even before I took it over. A project," Standback said stiffly, "is a commitment. It's as important as a vow."
"They paid in advance, didn't they?" Mara asked dryly.
"Well, yes. Quite a lot, in fact. Here we are."
He pulled an elaborate key (four notches and a combination lock) from a ring at his waist. He inserted the key with some difficulty in a lock attached to a thick beam door in the tunnel wall. After three tries, it opened easily. "After you," he said. "This room has my first anti-spy device."
Mara stepped in cautiously. "Shouldn't your alarms have sensed me?"
"It's a proximity alarm," the gnome said. "Once testing is complete, I'll put hundreds of them in any place that needs monitoring. You can't have too much redundancy, you know." He was scribbling another note on his shirt. "Would you mind standing on that large black X on the floor?" The X had a small bump at the crosspoint.
A gnome-size test dummy on wheels stood next to the X. Mara rolled it almost onto the X and stood well off to one side. "Let's try it this way first."
"I've done this many times," Standback objected, "with that very dummy."
Mara said firmly, "Well, I haven't seen it work yet." She noted that the dummy hadn't a mark on it, though the walls and floor of the room were dented and scraped.
Standback complained, with some justification, "You promised. Is there no honor among thieves?"
"There was once," Mara said. "Someone stole it." Then she sighed and moved the dummy off the X. "I warn you, I'm leaving at the first sign of danger. What is it we're testing?"
"It's called the Room Security Spybanger," Standback said impatiently. "Now will you step on the X?"
Mara tapped the X with her toe, leapt, tucked, and rolled easily away, preparing to watch from a safe distance.
She heard a twang. A stone mallet — its head the size of her own — whistled above her close enough to ruffle her hair. Mara ducked, heard a second twang and felt a sudden sharp sting on her cheek as an elastic cord attached to the mallet handle snapped taut against her skin.
The mallet struck the far wall. A trap door popped open beside it. The mallet whizzed back. Mara's back flip carried her just out of range. She dropped flat as a second mallet spun out of the trap door and careened past her, setting off a third mallet.
Soon six stone hammers were ricocheting and thudding around the room. Mara rolled, leapt, ducked, twisted, and at one point slid down a thrumming elastic cord to keep out of the way.
Eventually, in desperation, she crawled back to a section of floor that every last mallet had failed to pass over. She glanced in all directions, poised to spring, until the mallets gradually lost momentum and dangled limply from the tangled elastics.
In the far comer, Standback applauded. "A perfect test." He wrote furiously on his stomach. "Absolutely perfect, with the exception of a few trajectory defects."
Mara looked down. She was crouched over the X. "You tried to kill me."
Standback shook his head violently. "Never. The Spybanger is designed only for self-protection; killing is purely accidental. Can you help me rig these back up?"
From a comer cabinet, Standback produced a large wooden crank. He inserted the crank into a spring and ratchet arrangement in the first trap and turned it until the mechanism was tight enough to leave room for the hammer in front of it. He lifted the mallet laboriously, then stood back, panting.
"And so amazingly easy to reload," he said, struggling to shut the trap before the hammer flew out.
Mara helped crank and lift the other five. "What else have you been working on?"
In answer, he led her through a second door — which led through a short tunnel to another room.
"This isn't for spies, and it's not an offensive weapon. It's a shock-lessening device, a preventive measure for high-impact disasters. A pneumatically seismosensitive counter-measure for offsetting combat-related upheavals."
"What does it do?"
"I just told you," Standback snapped. "When we get there, would you stand in the center of the room, right on the X?"
Mara started to agree readily, then stopped. "Is it supposed to be the safest place?"
Standback nodded.
"In that case," Mara said politely, "why don't YOU stand on it, and I'll observe?"
The gnome's shaggy eyebrows shot up. "That's kind of you." He stepped onto the X. "You don't mind taking the extra risk?"
"Never." Mara folded her arms. "Danger and I are well acquainted."
"All right. Watch, then. The Thudbagger is designed to protect against impact." He paused. "You've seen the gnomeflingers in use, above?"
Mara shuddered. She. had flitted down from level to level in the shadows, watching as gnomes sailed from level to level (and, usually, down again) from the bulky catapults that were equipped with everything except accuracy and control.
"Well," Standback continued, "this may surprise you, but several visiting knights thought that the gnomeflingers might also be dangerous."