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    Nyssa Glass and the Caper Crisis: Nyssa Glass
    Nyssa Glass and the Caper Crisis: Nyssa Glass
    Nyssa Glass and the Caper Crisis: Nyssa Glass
    Ebook50 pages43 minutes

    Nyssa Glass and the Caper Crisis: Nyssa Glass

    By H. L. Burke

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    About this ebook


    Orphaned cat burglar Nyssa Glass intends to outwit her rotten fate. 

    “Adopted” by her incarcerated uncle's gang of thieves, she breaks into homes and picks pockets to repay her family debt and one day buy her freedom from their dark enterprise. Mechanically adept and determined, Nyssa longs to attend Miss Pratchett's School for Mechanically Minded Maids and make an honest life she can take pride in.

    She wasn't made to steal things. She was made to create and fix them.

    However, before she can make her escape, the head of the gang taps her for a new assignment, one her conscience cannot bear. Nyssa is faced with a heartrending decision: sacrifice everything or become the very thing she's desperate to escape.

    A Prequel Short for the Nyssa Glass Steampunk Series.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherH. L. Burke
    Release dateJan 24, 2017
    ISBN9781386754534
    Nyssa Glass and the Caper Crisis: Nyssa Glass

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      Book preview

      Nyssa Glass and the Caper Crisis - H. L. Burke

      Chapter One

      Nyssa Glass picked through a collection of broken clocks and discarded videophones she’d salvaged from the trash bins. With her tweezers she separated a gear from inside one of the clocks. A draft crept in from the cracks in her attic room’s walls, and her already cold fingers stiffened. A lock of her wiry brown hair escaped from the twine she’d used to keep it out of her face. She ignored the tickle, focusing on her task.

      You look about the right size, she whispered to the part.

      She returned to her rickety workbench and picked up a magnifier she’d made out of pocket watch crystals. The magnification wasn’t as high as she would’ve liked, but if she fitted it over one eye and closed the other, it gave her a slightly better look at the smallest gears and cogs.

      The new gear snapped into place with a pleasing click. Nyssa exhaled and flipped the switch on the side of the mechanism. The clockwork whirred to life. Grinning, she shut the casing and turned it over to admire her work. Behind a glass window a tiny ballet dancer extended a tin-slippered toe then began a slow pirouette. As the clockwork wound up, the dancer spun a little faster. Tiny bells played a gentle lullaby from within.

      I did it! Nyssa’s smile broadened.

      It had taken weeks of scrounging to find the right parts, but finally she’d reconstructed the broken music box from the dismembered corpses of a half-dozen other machines.

      If I can do this without any training, imagine what I’ll be able to fix after a year of instruction. She beamed down at her creation. Chief will just have to understand. She reached into the pocket of her patched vest for the brochure. On its cover was a stately seal depicting a wrench and quill pen crossed like swords. Bold lettering advertised, Miss Pratchett’s School for Mechanically Minded Maids: Scholarship Program.

      Nyssa had read the application at least a dozen times. She could definitely pass the entrance exams. Though she had left school at ten when her parents had first fallen ill, she’d taken every opportunity in the four years since to learn, especially about machinery, and technical aptitude was 50% of the grade. If given a chance, she could earn her place at the school. It was only Chief she had to convince. She put the brochure back in her pocket.

      The pawn shop that served as a front for Chief’s lair would be closed now, and Chief, who never drank on the job, at least a few drinks in. Perhaps that would make him easier to convince.

      She slipped down the stairs, the old boards creaking under foot. When she opened the door at the bottom, heat and smoke hit her. Her fingers tingled as they came back to life.

      I wish Chief would let me leave this door open, so some of this would make its way up to me ... of course, the stench might come with it. She wrinkled her nose at the mix of cheap cigar smoke, spilt beer, and sweaty, unwashed men.

      Chief and two other men huddled around a rickety table covered in coins, cigar stubs, and playing cards. Heat radiated from the pot-bellied stove behind them. Sweat crept down their red faces. They stared at their cards, not looking up when Nyssa approached. She took a moment to warm herself and plot out her argument.

      Besides Chief, the other two players were both crew members—Old Barney and the new recruit with the ginger beard she knew simply as Red. Barney,

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