It was time for the first full scale trial run of one of the scenes. Various parts of it had been tested but it had never been tried with everything in place. The artisans were nervous. The designers were worried. The boys were simply excited.

Roger stayed in the background. He’d gone through this moment plenty of times before. You could only do so much on the blackboard. At some point you had to actually start something up and see if it ran.

He could identify with the various anxieties around him but he didn’t feel any of them. This project only meant one thing to him. If it brought him closer to his boys and taught them some valuable lessons, he’d be happy with it. He wished his dad was here with him.

A small voice in the back of his head said something about the five million dollars he could lose if this didn’t do well. That was a large chunk of money and he didn’t want to throw it away. It wasn’t that big of a deal, though. He’d make money with this here building. People would come from far away to see it. Even the locals would come more than once if they really wanted to see everything. It would be a moneymaker.

The lights glowed brightly. They’d played with them to get everything just right, and he was sure they’d play with them some more. For now, it just meant that they were ready to start.

There was a hum and a whir and he thought he could hear some clicking. The little men started moving towards each other. Some of them glided while others seemed to bob a little bit. He wasn’t sure if they were supposed to or not but he liked the effect.

The two groups met and the scene became confused. He focused on one small battle near the front. Two small figures neared each other and their two weapons met. Then one of them spun and the other seemed to be hit. The wounded one fell and the victor moved forward. It was suddenly hit by another soldier and then it fell.

The new figure moved forward and then seemed to stop. It jerked forward but couldn’t quite go. Roger noticed that the entire field of them were acting like that. A groan went up and the emergency stop button was pressed.

There was a problem and they’d have to stop and reconfigure something. They didn’t have to go quite back to the drawing board. The lead engineer said something about getting caught somewhere. They seemed confident that they could fix it and that would be that.

The main group started to move back to the workshops. Roger was a little surprised when he saw Phil go with them. He guessed it made sense but still…

He put his arm around Alex and made their way through the building. He wanted to talk to him about his latest idea for a diorama. Something about a village being wiped out while UN forces sat back and enjoyed their drinks. Maybe Arthur hadn’t been such a good influence after all.

They got the bugs worked out in the end. Everyone was impressed with the level of detail that they brought to the subject. Critics raved about the experience of watching these complex battles take place. They kept saying that you’d have to watch each scene a dozen times before it all sank in. There was no better line to encourage repeat business. Roger considered selling all day passes so a patron could just keep circling through.

In the course of their work they set several world records and that wasn’t bad news either. This was the most complicated ‘clockwork’ set on the entire planet. If they kept it in good order, it would keep that title for years. Maybe forever.

The city embraced it. The mayor had been here several times. They even put up signs to direct tourists to the right spot. If it wasn’t a World Wonder, it was certainly a local one. Actually, Roger felt like he had a serious shot at winning both parts of the bet. This surprised him.

It wasn’t the only surprise that he had gotten. When the project started he had wanted to get to know his sons a bit more. Early on he’d been worried that his youngest son didn’t really understand just how bad wars can be. His viewpoint was now a bit more mature. That was a good thing.

His older son had been quiet and very good with his hands. Phil’s grades were enough to help him into any college he wanted to go to. His old man’s money wouldn’t hurt either. This project was a chance for him to see some team management up close and personal. He’d gotten all of that and it would serve him well in life.

The surprise? An acceptance letter had come in, one that Roger never expected to see. His boy wouldn’t be going to an ivy league school or even staying in Colorado. Phil would be doing his thing on a larger stage. He’d been accepted into the Army.