A Mexican standoff: A confrontation in which no strategy exists that allows any party to achieve victory. Any party initiating aggression might trigger its own demise. At the same time, the parties are unable to extricate themselves from the situation without suffering a loss.

Hephaestus

Part XIV - Mexican Stand Off

Melanie stared back at the man in disbelief.

"You want me to give you control of the train?"

The man gave her a satisfied smile in return. "Many 'gifts have gone out. None have come back."

"That isn't true, Hes." Melanie countered. "You get 'gifts' in return."

The man simply stared back at her, his face set in a hard frown.

"You came from a tiny forge in the Tail to the front of the train. You have a larger work area, apprentices, a large cabin to yourself..."

"Deal." Hes stated curtly.

"What?"

"Was part of deal." Hes explained. "Not 'gifts'. 'Gifts' are returns for Hes' work. To show appreciation."

"And we returned our portion to you. Metal for metal."

"Part of deal." Hes repeated again. "Not 'gifts'. All should show appreciation for Hes' 'gifts'."

Layton suddenly spoke up again. "But the 'gift' you ask for can not exceed the value of the one you gave, Hes. Asking Melanie for the train seems a bit...out of balance to me."

The man turned to Layton for a moment, his frown still firmly in place. "Is true." He stated. "But also, Hes' work benefited all on train. Therefore, should get return from each person who benefited from 'gifts'."

Melanie narrowed her eyes at the man. "You want each person on Snowpiercer to give you some 'gift' for the parts you've been making?"

"Aye. Is how things work." The metallurgist answered her confidently.

But Layton stepped in again. "You don't get to have it both ways, Hes."

Hephaestus turned back to his former Tailie comrade. "Meaning?"

"You just spelled out to Melanie that she couldn't count the things she gave you in return for your work for the train as her 'gift' because that was part of the deal. As such, the work you have done to help the train is also, then, part of the deal. Regardless of who benefited from it."

Layton could feel the anger building in the man. Of one thing he absolutely positive about the metallurgist; he did not like to lose.

"Are playing a trick on Hephaestus. Trying to cheat."

But Layton shook his head, keeping a close watch should the man make any move to harm his first engineer. "I'm repeating your own words back to you, Hes. How is that a trick?"

The man suddenly got up out of his chair fast enough to tip it over.

At the move Layton also rose, causing Hes to stop and turn back to him.

"Think to challenge Hephaestus?" He asked Layton.

Layton fixed a solid stare on the man, not backing down one inch as he nodded slightly to where Melanie sat. "Only if your next move if foolish enough to try and harm her."

Hes paused for a moment as he leaned against the table, considering his next move.

"Will shut down forge." He finally stated. "No more parts for train."

Layton echoed his stance at the table. "How will that solve anything, Hes? You shut down the forge, then everyone suffers."

The man pulled back from the table with a pleased smile. "Nay. Hes be just fine. Will see then who holds power on train."

As they both watched the metallurgist leave the room, Melanie slowly turned a worried stare to Layton. "Was that wise?" She asked.

Layton remained with his stare fixed on the door. "It was necessary." He replied, turning finally to her. "We can't keep giving into all his demands, Melanie. With him, one just leads to another. I told you, he'll keep pushing. We'll just have to see how serious he is and go from there."

The walk back to the cabin was in near silence. Occasionally the pair would encounter someone in the corridor and offer a quick greeting as they passed. But the walking gave Melanie time to think over the situation. So far everything had gone just as Layton predicted. Apparently his skills as a detective and being able to predict peoples actions based on their past ones hadn't diminished in the least. But she also knew that in this game of chicken, they were likely the ones to be forced to back down first. Hes indeed had a skill vital to the train. While it was true others were working under him to learn his skill set, they were by no means at his level of expertise. And when it came to the more delicate, intricate parts needed for the engine, it was that level of skill that was needed to produce the needed part.

But like Layton, she didn't like being held hostage.

"What if I just gave the train back to him?" Melanie asked, following Layton into their cabin as the door closed after her. "Would that solve this mess?"

Layton shook his head as he went over and sat down on the sofa with a heavy sigh. "That would just upset him more." He explained as she took her customary place next to him.

"Why?"

"Hes would view that as an insult. It would be the same as your telling him outright his work wasn't good enough for you. And that would be a sure fire way to make sure he never made another hex nut for this train."

"Well, if he's true to his word, he isn't exactly down there making any right now."

Layton leaned his head back against the sofa. "Hes has been working in the forge for several weeks. We've bought ourselves some time with the parts he's already made. Lets just wait and see what he does now. He's not one for liking to sit idle for too long. It gets under his skin. My guess is he won't shut the forge down completely. He'll just slow production, hoping we'll give in."

"And if we don't?"

Layton turned his head to her. "Then we renegotiate. But in the end, we have to be prepared to possibly having to give him what he wants."

Melanie sighed quietly as she watched him get up and head for the bedroom.

It was the part of the plan she liked the least.

Once more, Layton's predictions of the metallurgist's actions proved spot on. While Hephaestus didn't shut the forge down, he dramatically slowed the production of requested parts. Soon others were coming to Layton with complaints of not getting the parts they needed to make repairs or keep certain areas of the train stable. And even though he understood what was going on better than most, even Bennett started to complain to Melanie that soon they would need to negotiate with Hephaestus if they didn't want the train falling back to it's earlier state of needing serious repairs to the engine.

That was the more urgent need Melanie understood better than any others of the train regarding the matter. Especially since she and Bennett had started making repairs to the engine based on the belief they would be getting the parts they needed to complete what they were working on. To have to stop suddenly in the middle of their work put stress on the new parts, putting them in danger of failing. This in turn could start a chain reaction that could take down major systems of the engine.

All of this Layton carefully listened to each evening as Melanie gave him her running report of how things were in the engine. For a week he simply told her they had to hold out for a little while longer.

"How much longer, Layton?" She countered one night when the answer came back the same. "When we talked about this, I warned you the engine would be the deciding factor. Other projects can be put on hold for days, even weeks. But not the engine. We are reaching a critical level in needing those parts."

"And I took all that into consideration, Melanie. I know the man better than he thinks. And right now he's down in that forge room of his just itching like crazy because he's not working his craft very much. It's like a drug for him."

"How can you be so sure?"

Layton got to his feet as he walked over to her. "Do you remember when we went down to Hes' old forge room?"

Melanie nodded.

"What did you see?"

"Layton, we don't have time for..."

But Layton waved her down. "Just trust me." He stated. "What did you see?"

Melanie paused at the request. 'Trust me'.

Giving a small sigh, she thought for a moment. "I remember the forge, he had a small pile of metal scraps in a corner. He had some gloves laying around, some tools..."

"And what was on the walls?" Layton prompted her.

Melanie thought for a moment. "He had a lot of shelves," she answered with a small smile, "and I remember they were crowded with a lot of small figurines. I remember some of them were absolutely beautiful."

"Exactly." Layton said, pointing to her small train now sitting prominently displayed on it's own shelf in their cabin. "How long do you think it took Hes to make something like that?"

Melanie considered the small train. How delicate it looked and all the moving parts on it. "A few weeks I guess."

"There were a lot of people in the Tail. But nothing compared to how many are on the whole train. And we didn't have a lot of resources. 'Gifts' to give so we could get Hes to make what we needed. So he wasn't as busy as you're keeping him right now. Which is probably one of the reasons he likes you so much."

"Because I give him something to do?"

"You're giving him a purpose. Never underestimate what that can mean to someone like Hes. He needs to be needed."

"Well, he has an odd way of showing his gratitude."

"He's a Tailie, Melanie. Leave that part to me." Layton said, going back to their original conversation. "The point is, Hes made those figurines when he got bored. When no one had anything to trade with him to allow him to have something to do.

Sometimes he even came to us to trade something for metal. That's all he ever seemed to want to trade for. So his figurines not only became his way of having something to do, they also became his way of bartering. And Hes could work on one of those figurines for weeks or months, depending on how intricate it was. Constantly improving on it, changing it. That train of yours," he added, pointing to it again, "likely took him months of work. The moment he gave it to you, I knew something was up. Hes would never part with something that took him that much time to create without a reason attached."

"Surely he wasn't already thinking back then of trying to take control of the train?" Melanie asked.

Layton gave her a small smile. "You're underestimating him again, Melanie. You look at him and you see some slow witted, metallurgist savant. Stop doing that. Look at him and think of Wilford in a blacksmith's apron. He's dangerously cunning. Living in the Tail made you that way. I saw a lot of people down there who started out good, honest people, become something just short of animals trying to stay alive. I could keep you up nights with stories of things that went on there. Rosa and her family showed you one side of life in the Tail. I try to protect you from the other."

Melanie hardened her expression a little. "I know what life was like in the Tail, Layton."

But the man shook his head at her. "No. You don't."

Melanie pulled back just a little from that stare.

No matter how long she knew him, how close they became, or what situations they found themselves facing down together, she always swore that stare would never cease to run a cold chill down her spine. Sometimes...rarely...he would tell her small bit and pieces of what life was like in the Tail. Those 'things he tried to protect her from'.

But occasionally things would slip past that self imposed filter of his and make it's way into a conversation. Those were the times she found herself facing down someone she wasn't sure she knew at all.

Someone who frightened her.

And so she did what she always did in those moments.

"So what do we do about Hephaestus?" She asked calmly, trying to draw him out of those memories.

Layton paused as he kept his eyes fixed on her. But she also knew by experience and by the look in those eyes now he was slowly shutting out the memories creeping to the forefront of his thoughts.

Slowly the smallest smile came to his lips as he answered her.

"We wait."