I immediately went to the medieval reenactment store after my encounter with the engineers at the Tasmanian observatory. I had no leads on where to find the best mechanic in the area and realised that I had no ammunition for my bow. Time to fix that.

The shopkeeper greeted me with a smile, and I headed over to the arrows, picking out a bunch and bringing them over to the counter. I also needed a new sword, given I’d left my old one sticking in a telescope which had exploded.

“Bow and arrow’s good,” said the proprietor, “but have you considered an automatic bow? It’s the latest technology. Nobody knows how it works. Nobody questions it. But it’s awesome. All the mechanics local to Brighton are using them.”

I looked up at him, confused, heart pumping fast. “Mechanics? Why would mechanics use crossbows?”

“Don’t rightly know,” said the man. “Just had one of them come in every few days and buy more of them. Seems to love the things. Says that they’re helping business boom.”

“Did he say anything else that was strange?”

The shopkeeper nodded. “Said something about he needed to make space for the space flight engineers. No idea what that means.”

The engineers, again? What did they have to do with this? I was starting to think this whole thing wasn’t just a quest, it was a full-blown conspiracy. I had to uncover it, and fast.

“Give me two auto crossbows. Do you know where I can go in Brighton for car repair?”

The man gave me an address, and soon after I left the shop with two automatic crossbows and a new shortsword.

I’d assumed that the best mechanic workshop around would be in Hobart, but perhaps I was looking in the wrong place. Could it actually be in Brighton? There was only one way to find out.

I was going to get to the bottom of this, one way or another. Hopefully, at the end of it, I’d get some excellent car repair.