Flashback ( PDFDrive )

stopped in front of a cluster of widemouthed pipes jutting from the
floor, unleashing white swirls into the air that somehow made the
room feel colder. Tinker motioned for them to sit at a table that was
mostly empty—just two small gray puffs of fur in the middle, along
with what looked like an antique jewelry box.
Sophie sank onto the bench, not caring that it was made of frigid
metal. Her head was spinning, and she couldn’t decide if it was from
the cold, the altitude, or the fact that her still-healing body was weaker
than she wanted.
Then again, the dizziness could’ve been triggered by the thousands
of gears whirling all around her.
The lab’s glass walls were filled with interlocking cogs all spinning
in perfect unison, dragging a web of copper wires sideways and
slantways and longways until they fed into a circuit in the center of a
foggy round window at the far end of the room.
“Are we inside the clock?” Sophie asked, glancing up to find five
iron bells dangling from the peaked skylight. “Or whatever it is?”
“It won’t chime again until later tonight, in case you’re worried,”
Mr. Forkle assured her. “It only peals five times a day. Though even if
we were here for one of them, the sound is strangely muffled.”
“That’s because of the pillars,” Dex explained. “The springs absorb
the vibration. And see all those tiny holes?” He pointed to the nearest
coil, and Sophie was surprised to notice its texture was more like steel
wool. “Those absorb the sound.”
Tinker’s eyebrow raised. “How long did that take you to puzzle
out?”
Dex shrugged. “I don’t know—it’s pretty obvious, isn’t it?”
“I told you his talent was special,” Mr. Forkle said.