supposed to make us invisible, you know. Still, not a total
loss;
it does wonders for pest control down here. Mostly.” He
glanced from side to side.
“Mostly?” Mara jumped as a loud chittering sound
flew by her ear. She whirled, but saw nothing.
“We ran out of the original batch lately, so we made a
new one. It doesn’t seem to kill them any more.”
Standback ducked as a flapping sound passed near his
head. “Lately it just makes them invisible.”
Mara looked around nervously. The tunnel, at the
bottom of the crater that formed Mount Nevermind, was
rough-hewn rock scored by some huge excavating blade
and riddled with drill holes and iron bolts. Ropes and
cables hung every which way, with pulleys, blocks and
tackles, and crane tracks running the length of the ceiling.
Though there were no torches, the tunnel was quite
bright. Mara gingerly felt the walls; they were warm to the
touch, but nowhere near hot enough to give off light.
“How are these tunnels lit?”
Standback pointed to the glowing fungi on the wall. “We
cultivated them for food. Fortunately, the ones we
cultivated for light are quite tasty.” He mused, “You know,
we’d like to do more with biological engineering. It’s the
technology of the future.”
“Or the end of the world,” Mara muttered. She was
beginning to worry, marginally, about the wisdom of
stealing gnome inventions. However, if the wise and
wonderful Kalend. Knight of Solamnia, believed in gnome
technology… “Could you show me some of your
weapons?”
“I would love to,” Standback said unhesitatingly and
formally. “This way, please.”
They moved down the junk-strewn tunnel. “You seem
awfully at ease with women, even startlingly beautiful
ones,” Mara told him.
Standback was silent – a rare condition for a gnome.
Finally he said, “Perhaps that is because I love someone.”
“Really?” Mara was fascinated. “What’s she like?”
Standback Went on at length about the exquisite curve
of her left little finger.
“Okay, we’ll take it that she’s pretty. What’s her name?
Her human name,” Mara added hastily.
“It’s very beautiful.” Standback stared upward
dreamily. “She’s called Watch As Her Machines Move In
and Out, Like a Night Watchman Blowing Out A Candle
to Light a Lamp of Such Incredible – ”
“The short form.”
“Watchout.” He sighed.
Mara nodded. “Standback and Watchout. You were
made for each other.”
“I think so,” he said sadly, “and she thinks so. But
unless things change, it can never be.”
“Why?” Mara asked sympathetically.
Standback glowered and said suddenly, gnome-to-
gnome, “Thatisabsolutelytheworstpart – ”
“What?”
He took a shuddering breath and said in slower human
fashion, “That is absolutely the worst part of this whole
business. I have not as yet received approval for my Life
Quest.”
“Your what?”
“My Life Quest. My one achievement, my one goal. It
is to be the sensors that go into the burglar alarms. I’ve
already designed them and put them in place throughout
Mount Nevermind.”
Mara, remembering how she had slipped in without
setting any off, murmured, “Still in the development
stage, I guess.”
“Oh, no; they’re highly functional. By the way, how
did you pass them?”
“I made an elaborate and clever plan to drop from the
top of the crater by rope on a winch . . .” Mara hesitated.
Standback shook his head. “Impossible. I have every
passage, every window, every cranny and cut of the outer
mountain covered by a sensor. How did your plan work?”
–
Mara fidgeted. “I didn’t use it,” she said finally. “I was
standing at the steel entrance doors, trying to figure out
how to climb up the mountain, while the doors were
sliding shut. But the triple-lock fell off and jammed them
open so I was able to slip through – ”
“The doors.” Standback slapped his forehead, leaving
a pen mark. “Of course. I knew I’d forgotten something.
Sensors on the doors. Still,” he said quickly, “it was very
clever, making a plan with a lot of rope and a winch.
You’re almost thinking like a gnome.”
Mara chose to take that as a compliment. “Have you
shown the committee the evidence of your research?”
“I can’t.” Standback looked uncomfortable. “I was