Emma supervised Mr. Wolf and Hutchens, tying Big Ron to a chair with coarse hemp rope. The strands had trapped oil and grit over for some unknown time and from numerous mundane tasks. Mr. Wolf tightened bonds around Ron's wrists, causing minor scratches and small cuts on Ron's wrists, contaminating the wound, and marking the skin with dark oil. They had all manhandled Ron back to the Tinkers club, surprisingly not one person raised an objection. Even thou, from casual observation, four individuals were carrying a body into a building known for experiments with electricity.

Emma supervised Mr. Wolf and Hutchens, tying Big Ron to a chair with course hemp rope. The strands had trapped oil and grit over for some unknown time and from numerous creative tasks. Mr. Wolf tightened bonds around Ron's wrists, putting minor scratches on his wrist, contaminating the wound, and marking the skin with dark oil.

"Lads, don't bind his mouth. I want answers," Emma requested.

Slowly winding around the parameter of Hutchen's workshop, picking up half-built devices and putting them back after an examination. Five workstations each had a bramble bush of brass, copper, and steel that had been planted, manipulated, and then abandoned in the grand tradition of Leonardo da Vinci in varying states of completion. Other bits looked left to grow like the outdoor plant wild and free of the ministrations of a gardener's master plans.

The shelves along the far wall were filled with stacks of books and blue scrolls. Moving to the end of the case, with only a few steps, Emma reached out to pluck one of the scrolls. Unfurling it, she confirmed her suspicion that it was, indeed, plans for a machine of some kind--or possibly, a part for a device. She returned the scroll to its resting place amongst the books to rest with its friends and stacks of cogs, jars of oil, and other liquids, small bell jars with wire twisted through the middle atop wooden boxes piled at the footing of the shelves.

In the periphery of her vision, she noticed that Mr. Wolf had moved behind Big Ron with a bucket of water in hand. He looked up at Emma capturing her attention. She nodded from her, and he poured the content of the bucket over Ron. Who immediately pulled his head back with a sharp inhale of air. Then tossed his head forward and vomited over himself, mixing with the water into his lap. The smell of beer meat pie emanated from the pie in his lap and dripped onto the floor.

"Bugger me sideways. That's bracing!" Big Ron shook his head, flinging rust-brown water and chunks of half-eaten waste over the floor. He was unable to move from the chair he was restrained in.

The bucket had been used to clean and cool worked metals, the colors of rust-brown and dark blacks staining his front.

"Kinda reminds me of how my dear old Mum would wake us in the morning before turning us out for the workhouse; them was the days, eh" Ron continued. Emma pulled a chair directly opposite Ron and sat. For a moment, she did not move or look at Ron. Then, a bell jar grabbed her attention; she reached out and picked it up, and held it just so, that it was between her and Big Ron. On the inside of the jar, bearly bigger than a large jam jar, was a tremendous black gorilla, and it was moving, standing to roar a defiant scream over the body of a giant lizard. The image repeated, and Emma smiled and returned the jar.

"Ron. Do you have a last name?" Emma asked quietly. "I do like to know my employees." She added.

"Your man here was offered fair consideration for the job. Which, I might add, was turned down, and what's more, he tried to give me a little jab with that chopper of his. Don't know what you would call that…"

"A job not finished!" Mr. Wolf growled into Ron's ear. Emma raised a single hand just under shoulder height.

"Our past may have started… a little… strained, shall we say. But this is the start of a new arrangement that could be profitable for both of us. All you have to do is provide us with my brother's location, and we shall part ways. You will be able to walk away with enough to live for quite some time." Emma raised her hand, and a small bar of gold the width and height of a playing court the light.

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"I get that shiny bar for what? Telling you someone I never met was someplace I never have bin? No deal. I don't grass. My word is my bond. I will get that little trinket as soon as I free myself. Course, I take it from your lifeless body. You lot not got the bottle for this work." Ron snarled.

Mr. Wolf slapped the back of Ron's head with a small black pouch. Ron stiffened in surprise, then his head fell forward, unconscious, followed by his tongue falling free from his mouth, dangling like a parlor curtain flapping in the breeze of an open window.

"You bastard! You killed him." Amelia scream.

"Calm down. He is not dead. Although the part about wanting to question him seems to have been forgotten." Emma retorted and chastised two different individuals in one statement.

"Well, if he hasn't killed him. He is coming damn close. I will not tolerate this nonsense for much longer, Madame!" Hutchens added to the conversation while moving to Amelia's side and laying his hand on her shoulder; Amelia responded to the kindness by placing her own hand on his in return.

"I am not sure we can get anything out of this guy by buying or beating on him." Mr. Wolf offered.

"Agreed. Our Ron does not seem inclined to give away any secrets. But we will need to have those secrets nonetheless." Emma said from her chair where she had remained.

"Hmmm, excuse me but may intervene in your little party." Came a voice from the door. The four turned to meet Igor looking into the room with one finger raised, pointing at the ceiling.

"Oh, hello, Igor. It's not what you think." Hutchens offered as a greeting.

"I was raised in a European village that happily hosted 'the travelers'. It is hard to find anything that is not what I think. The perils of an education." Offered the small man with a much thicker and deep-toned accent than he had previously used, placing his thumbs into his waistcoat, the sleeves of this white shirt already rolled up to the elbows.

"Igor. Wonderful to see you again. But we are somewhat indisposed. Perhaps we should meet at another time and place." Emma offered.

"Hutchens. You look like you need a little help." Igor said, disregarding Emma.

"Talk is that this man has something we need to find our friend, which is why he is trusted up like a Sunday roast." Hutchens offered

"How can I help you?" Igor asked.

Hutchens immediately gave the synopsis of the day and how it got to this strange and unusual state. Mr. Wolf crossed his arms and glared at the small man.

"Yes. I see. And this is not a job for the police. Because?" Igor asked.

Emma marched over to Big Ron grabbing the back of his head and holding his face up to show Igor.

"Because the police have been informed, and yet nothing has happened, and no one has been found," Emma said, pointing at Big Ron.

"The constabulary of this town is where competence goes to die. This one knows where Kincade is or how to find him," Emma continued shaking Ron's head.

"Just checking. Wanted to know how far we are going. It seems like we can go a long way." Igor added.

"Just get your tiny elf self off to a tiny elf shelf somewhere else and get out of my work." Mr. Wolf said from behind Ron, who was yet to show any signs of stirring.

"Just wait there. I will show you who this is work for." Igor snapped back at Mr. Wolf with a two-finger solute to chase.

"Stop it, both of you." Amelia pleaded.

"Do you want my help with this circus Reg?" Igor asked. Hutchens looked to Emma, who, in turn, shrugged her shoulders.

Hutchens replied after a moment to look at Ron, then took a longer steer at Emma. "Yes." He said.

"Excellent. Do you remember the aether impressions extractor experiments? Your monkey will need to be awake, of course if you would be so kind. Oh, and the man in the chair will also need to be awake. If he isn't already," Said Igor as he left the room.

"What is wrong with you lot? We don't need that vampier servant," Mr. Wolf said, pointing to Igor.

"I disagree that is someone we need. Igor was educated in Europe and has an excellent understanding of the qualities of electricity. And this next bit is significant. Vampires are characters in novels. They do not exist in the real world. Science, my good man, the observable world is ours to see and control," Hutchens enunciated each word.

"You know this is a remarkably bug-free room. Just saying is all." Mr. Wolf responded with a shrug.

"Anything is better than putting this dreadful matter in your hands, Mr. Wolf," Added Amelia, her hand firmly inside her purse.

"Nothing is better than getting answers," Emma said in a different tone than she had been using today; the tone signaled Mr. Wolf's shoulders to lift, and his chin raised, his gaze fixed on a spot just over Emma's shoulder. The effect of a commanding officer on a subordinate went unnoticed by the others in the room, all but big Ron as he peered through a half-open eyelid. Igor clapped his hands together and, with a small but noticeable hope, left the room.