Frozen In Time - Rescue

Part IV - Aboard Big Alice

On Big Alice, Wilford was already making as much use of his time with Snowpiercer's blacksmith as he could. But he wasn't finding the going an easy path. Since being brought to Big Alice, the man had done little but regard anyone who came near him with suspicion and hostility. If any of the guards got too close, it was a mistake that could easy land them in the medical car with a broken arm or worse.

So had Wilford had the man taken to a secure room and kept there alone, but with four guards positioned outside his door.

Inside the room Hes prowled around it like a caged tiger. He didn't like being confided, but he liked not knowing why he was confined even less.

This mindset was what worked the most in Wilford's favor when he came back to check on his newest addition to his train's crew.

Hearing the door open, Hes quickly turned to the sound and watched as the same man who had apparently planned his abduction entered the room, followed by no less than six guards, all carrying long thin poles that they kept pointed at the blacksmith, effectively cornering him in the room. Hes had already had one brief encounter with the poles, finding that each carried a small device attached to the end that made it effectively a shock stick.

The man positioned himself just behind the reach of the poles as he addressed Hes.

"So, you are Melanie's blacksmith?"

Hes made no move to answer the man, but kept his attention fixed on the men with the poles.

"I am sorry," The man answered Hes' weary look at the others in the room as he leaned slightly on his gold headed cane, "but the guards are necessary. You've shown yourself to be quite dangerous with just your hands. Now, if we could come to some sort of understanding, perhaps we could dispense with them."

Hes turned his eyes slowly to the man. "What sort of...'understanding'?"

Wilford stepped forward a short ways. "From what I have been told, you possess a very valuable skill."

Hes only stared back at the man in response.

"Not very friendly, are you?" Wilford added with a small smile.

"Not when find self attacked."

The man seemed to pass that matter off as of no consequence. "That was an unfortunate occurrence." He replied, "And I do apologize for those who were...rougher than they should have been. I assure you they have been dealt with accordingly. No, no. My orders were that you were only to be brought to Big Alice so we could...have a friendly little chat."

"Chat about what?"

"First, let's make sure you have been properly taken care of. I do take offense when my guests are not treated well."

"Guest?" The blacksmith all but laughed at the word.

"But of course."

"Am not 'guest'. Am prisoner. Smart enough to know the difference."

Wilford smiled at the man. "Well, that doesn't seem to be the case, now does it, since I can assure you, your status on my train is nothing more or less than that of a very honored guest. And again, I do apologize for how things went so wrong in getting you here. But you see, it was necessary."

"Why?"

"I told you, my good man, so we could have this little chat, you and I."

"Again, chat about what?"

Wilford leaned on his cane. "Tell me about how things are for you on Snowpiercer?"

Hes pulled up slightly. "Do well enough."

"My understanding is you tried to take control of the train from Melanie and her puppet, Mr. Layton. And that you succeeded!" Wilford added with a happy chuckle. "Oh, how I would have liked to have seen that. A lowly blacksmith taking control of her train. That must have come as quite a surprise to her."

Hes' eyes narrowed slightly at the man's term for him, but kept silent on it for now. It was a trait in the man he felt he could use to his advantage.

Most on Snowpiercer, he knew, saw him as some savant metallurgist. An image he did his best for years to play into while he lived in the Tail. It kept people for the most part away from him and worked to his advantage in dealing with others if they thought him slow witted. People tended to be off their guard if they thought you were less intelligent than they saw themselves.

"Hes can be very clever sometimes." He stated with a small smile. Since they began their conversation Hes had reverted to his usual manner of speaking to lull people into thinking they had the upper hand.

"My question," Wilford asked. "is if you were in control of Snowpiercer, why are you not anymore?"

Hes didn't answer the man, but continued to keep a hard, unfriendly stare fixed on him.

"My guess," Wilford continued, "is Melanie and her little puppet played a trick on you, hey? Tricked you back into being their personal little blacksmith. With what? A few creature comforts? She made you a forge to work in? For what?" The man asked, then supplied his own answer with enthusiasm. "To serve her! To build her parts for the train. YOUR work, my good man, allows her to stay in control of that train. Without you, her tyrannical rule would crumble."

"Pretty little engineer does not run train." Hes answered simply.

Wilford leaned a little closer to him. "Oh, you don't think so, do you?"

"Layton runs train."

Wilford made a sweeping, dismissive gesture with his hand.

"Don't be so easily fooled." He replied. "Layton is nothing more than Melanie's puppet. She gives him things; food, privileges..., extra amenities. Layton," Wilford added, "came from the Tail, my good man. Toss him an apple and he'll do whatever you say. Melanie is very good at manipulating people. Surely you know that? It's likely how she got her train back from you. She...what? Told you some sad story about how the train needed her in control? Offered you some secondary, subservient role as some advisor? Part of some..." Wilford fanned his arms out in a grand gesture, "ELITE group of advisors she 'relies on' to run the train?"

Hes stared back at the man. He marveled at how this man could manipulate things to sound right. He likened him to a fortune teller. Sit down at the table and they tell just enough ambiguous things to keep you talking. The more you tell them, the more they can align their stories with your life.

Hes decided to see how good the man was.

"Maybe."

The man chuckled at him again. "Ah...see. I'm right. So what did she promise you, hey? A nicer cabin?"

"Live in forge." Hes replied flatly.

"In the forge?" Wilford replied with great indignation, as though the mere thought was an insult. "Is that the best she could do for someone of your importance? Sticking you in a hot, smelly forge?"

"Like living in forge."

Wilford seemed momentarily taken aback by the statement.

"Well, if that's your preference, you can live in the forge here. Or a more spacious, more comfortable accommodation could be arranged."

"Like living in forge." Hes repeated.

Wilford chuckled at the statement. "Well, then, I see no reason you shouldn't be able to have the same accommodations here on Big Alice." He offered. "You see, my good man? Anything you like. I'm a reasonable fellow. Far more than I think you ever found Ms. Cavill and her little puppet to be."

Hes smiled slightly. He found this Mr. Wilford to be a very interesting and amusing person. He decided when he got back to Snowpiercer he would have to ask Ms. Audrey why she held back so much in her descriptions of him.

"Talk a lot." Hes stated flatly to the man. "Not see anything yet to back up promises."

Wilford leaned a little more on his cane. "Well, if we can come to some sort of agreement about how we are going to behave, I would be more than happy to show you your new accommodations."

Hes liked how confidently Wilford was assuming he was going to acquiesce to his demands that he stay on Big Alice. But he saw no point in fighting over it now. The man was simply far to entertaining.

"Well not fight." Was all he offered, but quickly added as he stared down each guard in turn, "Unless am attacked."

Wilford quickly waved off the guards, who all pulled back their poles at his signal. "No one will harm you, I promise. But the guards will accompany us." He added with a smile. "Until we get to know each other a bit better. Until we learn...to trust each other."

Hes watched carefully as the guards stepped back and made a clear path for him to walk out the door that was now opened.

Stepping out into the corridor, he tried to take mental notes of any landmarks that could serve him in the future to tell him where he was and where he was going in relation to his current location.

The walk seemed to take a great deal of time, and Hes tried to time it out for future reference. Looking outside windows as they past, watching as things past by, he deciphered they were moving down the train, towards the engine. Unlike Snowpiercer, Big Alice was a push-pull engine, allowing it to move in either direction. From what Hes could figure out, it was apparently currently pushing its cars rather than pulling them.

But after some time walking, Hes found himself ceremoniously directed by Wilford into a side corridor. The short hallway led to an open area. But unlike on Snowpiercer, this area was much smaller, and as such, so was the forge he now stood facing.

Wilford stood back as the blacksmith took in the sights of the new forge, seemingly waiting for the explosion of gratitude and pleasure at the sight to begin.

For his part Hes simply began to walk slowly about and examine different aspects of the forge. While it appeared aesthetically appealing, that was about as far as his praise for it went. The forge was workable, but from what he could tell, whoever built it didn't know much about forges, and Hes was willing to bet Wilford didn't either. And that was where he laid the foundation for his plan.

The Metallurgist ended his tour by giving the forge a disgruntled look and walked back over to Wilford. As he approached he noted the guards all tensing up as they stood with their poles still in hand, almost daring him to make a wrong move. Hes paid them little mind as he set his gaze on Wilford's beaming, happy face.

"Well, my boy!" Wilford exclaimed with enthusiasm. "What do you think? It's a fine forge, right?"

The blacksmith set his jaw as he stared back at him. "No."

Wilford froze in front of the man. "No? What do you mean, 'No'?"

"Easy word. Only two letters. Not hard to understand."

Wilford paused. "What's wrong with it?"

"What's right? Shorter answer."

Wilford's questioning look hardened into one of a man suddenly insulted.

"Then what, in your educated opinion, is not right?"

Hes quickly poked a finger in the man's chest. "You know train. I know forge. You want to know what is wrong with it? Hes hardly knows where to start." He continued as he turned back to the forge. "Wasted many resources building this. For nothing. Forge is not correctly built. Will last...week...maybe two. Then will start to fail."

Wilford studied the man for a few moments. "I was told you were a clever man, Hephaestus. And I think I am being shown just how much of one you are."

Hes crossed his arms over his chest. "How so?"

"There's nothing wrong with this forge. I already tested it. It can melt almost any metal put to it."

"More to forge than melting metals." Hes replied stoically.

"True enough." Wilford agreed with a smile. "Which is where you come in, my dear man. Now, there's no need for this to be an unpleasant experience for you at all. I'm told you like working in the forge. You like...making things out of metal. So nothing is really going to change for you. Just where you live now."

Hes gave the man a deep frown this time. "Liked where I lived just fine." He replied in a determined manner. "Want to go back to Snowpiercer."

Wilford leaned on his cane, staring back at the man as though he couldn't quite believe what he had just said. But finally Wilford gave the decision a dismissive clicking of his tongue several times as he shook his head. "Now...now I'm afraid that isn't going to be possible." He stated. "Because you see..., I need someone of your talents on Big Alice, Hepheastus. So like it or not, this is your new home."

Hes set his stare on the man. "Can put in front of forge." He replied in a solid tone. "Does not mean will work it."

Wilford waved finger at the man as he walked a few steps around the room. "Now you see, that's where I'm afraid you are incorrect."

"Think so? Others have thought same. Could make Hes work for them against his will. Did not work out so well for them."

"Others?" Wilford asked. "And who might that be? Melanie and her traitorous group on that other train? Well, I have no doubt...no doubt at all you made your point with them. But you see, Hepheastus. 'I' am not Ms. Cavill. 'I' know how to get thing done with minimum problems interrupting the process."

Hes quickly decided he did not like the way things were developing and quickly took a step back from the man, giving himself at least some small amount of room to take whatever action would be call for. Even if that action was just to try and make a hasty retreat. But what he liked less was that Wilford kept moving around the room, forcing him to divide his attention between the man and his guards.

"You are...a very clever man, Hepheastus." Wilford went on, continuing to make a closed circuit of the room. "And what you said in the beginning was very true. I know trains. You know forges. And in correlation to that, you know fire..." A small, nearly insignificant gesture of his hand had four of the guards suddenly rush forward and grab hold of the blacksmith and hold him secured as Wilford walked up to the man. Leaning down he looked the metallurgist directly in the face. "...and I know ice." He finished.

With that Wilford gave a quick nod of his head to a small portal fashioned into the wall of the room where he had built the forge. Dragging a struggling blacksmith over to it, another guard seized hold of his arm while the other four continued to hold him secured. Fighting against the man, Hes found he couldn't stop the four working to aim his hand toward the portal and shove it inside. Almost instantly he felt a metal clamp in the wall fall and secure his hand in place, so he could not pull it back inside.

Standing where he had been, Wilford gave another sharp nod. One of the guards standing near the wall reached up and pulled a lever down.

For a moment Hes felt nothing. But in a matter of a few seconds he suddenly felt the bone chilling cold grip the skin around his hand. With a howl of pain the blacksmith yanked at his arm, trying to get his hand away from the freezing cold.

Standing where he was, Wilford watched with a fixed expression as the cold outside the train made his point for him. After less than 30 seconds, he nodded again and the guard instantly raised the lever again.

Hes couldn't feel the clamp release his hand, but he never stopped trying to get free of the portal. As soon as the clamp released, he yanked his hand back with enough force to have him stumbling backwards, nearly losing his footing as the guards released him.

Leaned over, he kept the hand protectively sheltered against him out of sight as he set a heated stare on Wilford.

"That," Wilford stated in a monotone voice as he met the man's stare, "...is just a small taste of what the cold outside this train can do to the human body. That," he continued, pointing to where Hes cradled his hand against his body, "...was only a few seconds exposed to the cold. The next time you refuse an order, I'll make sure that hand doesn't come back."

Wilford gestured to several of the guards. "Take him to the Headwoods. Tell them a one handed blacksmith is of no use to me."

With a none to gentle prod of their poles, eight guards all but herded a still shaky Hepheastus out of the room.