Rebel Mechanics (21 page)

“You should go lie down. I'll sit with the children until bedtime and get Olive to bed.”

He smiled wearily. “Thank you. I owe you a favor, Miss Newton.”

“I hope you feel better soon.”

While I sat with the children in the parlor, I listened for sounds of the front door opening, but then I realized he probably wouldn't go out so early after making the excuse of a headache. He'd slip out once he thought everyone was asleep. After I got Olive to bed and Rollo and Flora had gone to their own rooms, I remained fully dressed, though with my shoes off, as I turned out the light in my room and kept the door slightly ajar so I could listen for footsteps.

It was nearly eleven when I heard someone coming down the hallway. Holding my breath, I stood where I could peer through the crack in my door and watched Henry move with uncharacteristic grace and confidence toward the stairs. I counted to ten—long enough for him to get to the first landing—before easing my door open and tiptoeing after him.

I heard muffled voices in the foyer and ducked below the balustrade on the landing. Peeking between the railings, I saw Matthews meet Henry before the two of them left the house. I stood and started to hurry down the staircase, but stopped. What did I propose to do, catch him in the act and confront him? In my stocking feet, I realized, looking down. I could hardly chase him across the city like that. Reluctantly, I turned and trudged back up the stairs to get ready for bed.

Sleep didn't come easily. I couldn't stop myself from imagining horrific scenarios of my friends' fates—all of them, including Henry. Therefore, I sat bolt upright at the first tap on my bedroom window. I held my breath, waiting for another sound. I tried telling myself that it was just a tree branch tapping in the wind, but there was no tree that close to the house.

The sound returned, too rhythmic to be accidental. I slid out of bed and peered between the curtains, barely stifling a scream when I found myself face-to-face with someone outside my window. As I stumbled backward in horror, I inadvertently opened the curtains wider and then I recognized Alec. Opening the window, I blurted, “Alec! I was worried when I didn't hear from you after the riot.” Then the obvious question occurred to me. “How did you know which window was mine?”

“The other windows on this level have fancier curtains, with two windows per room. One window with simple curtains seemed like a governess's room.”

That made sense, I thought with a nod. And then the truly obvious question struck me. “How did you get up here?”

He was hanging on to a rope ladder dangling from something far above. I leaned out the window and looked upward to see a faint gray blur against the sky. After staring at it for a while, I realized it was an airship. “Would you like a ride on my magic carpet?” Alec whispered with a grin. “We're on a reconnaissance mission, and I thought another pair of eyes might help.”

“Oh,” I breathed, pulling back out of the window. “I shouldn't … I mustn't.” But to fly above the city … how could I not?

“Dress warmly,” Alec said, as if reading the decision from my mind, and then I remembered that I was in my nightgown. This really was the week for me to be seen in my nightclothes by men.

“One moment,” I said, letting the curtains fall closed. I doubted I had time to get fully dressed, so I pulled on woolen stockings under my nightgown. Without garters, they sagged around my knees. I shoved my feet into my boots and laced them loosely. I put on my long coat over my nightgown and buttoned it all the way up. My hair was braided, and I decided that would have to do. I put on my gloves, and then I carried my desk chair over to the window and climbed onto it, shoving the curtains aside.

Alec reached through the window and guided me out onto the ladder. I held my breath as I made the terrifying transition from the security of the house to the swaying ladder so far off the ground. “Hold tight,” he instructed, though that was hardly necessary, as I clung to the ladder for all I was worth. He scrambled up the ladder into the basket suspended beneath the airship. I hoped he didn't expect me to do the same because I wasn't sure I could. I couldn't stop a tiny yelp of shock when the ladder began to move. I looked up and saw that it was being reeled upward by a cranking device.

Now I was even higher off the ground, looking down at the roof of the mansion. Wind whipped around me, and I wrapped one arm and one leg around the ladder, in case my grip weakened. My head came up even with the bottom of the basket, and Alec was waiting there at a gate in the basket's wall. “Give me your hand, Verity,” he said.

It went against every survival instinct I possessed to release my hold while I hung so high in the air, but I pried my fingers off the rope and reached for him. He caught me with both hands and helped me on board. While I sat on the floor of the basket and caught my breath, he pulled the tail of the ladder inside and then closed the gate. “Off we go, Everett,” he said, and I turned to see the dark-skinned man I'd met at the exposition. He nodded to me before he pushed a lever, and then the ship moved forward, over the roof of the Lyndon home and toward the park.

Alec pulled goggles over his eyes, then handed a pair to me. “You'll need these,” he said. When he helped me stand, I was grateful for the goggles. It was windy this high in the air, especially with the airship moving. I wouldn't have been able to keep my eyes open, and I wouldn't want to miss this view.

Alec guided me to the edge of the basket, and I cautiously leaned over to look below. We were above the park, which looked like a dark hole in the middle of the city. Tiny pools of light made curving dotted lines throughout the park where lampposts marked the roads and walking paths. We crossed the park at an angle, coming out on the southwest corner, heading downtown. The city lay below me like a model railroad set. “This is amazing!” I shouted to Alec over the roar of the wind.

“Isn't it?” He grinned boyishly, reminding me of Rollo in his enthusiasm.

Someone came down from the rigging and landed next to me in the basket. “Good evening to you, miss,” he said. I might not have recognized Mick in clean clothes, a close-fitting leather coat, and a leather hood with goggles, but I couldn't mistake his voice.

“I'm glad you've recovered from your premature demise,” I said dryly. He grinned and darted to the rear of the basket.

Alec shifted uncomfortably, and I suspected that if I could have seen his eyes, they would have been full of remorse. “About that,” he said. “I know you were angry.”

“But it was for the cause,” I concluded. “And what about that riot?”

“I wasn't a part of it, but it was meant to show the anger of the masses against the magisters. Our own show of force, you might say.”

“How did the mob escape? The newspaper said they just vanished.”

“It's only a mob when they're all together, causing trouble. No one takes much notice of individuals coming and going if they disperse before the authorities arrive.”

I wasn't sure I believed that, especially since I detected a hint of amusement in his voice that implied there was more to the story that he couldn't—or wouldn't—tell me. “Did they spare my house on purpose, because of me?”

“That I can't tell you, but the leaders of the movement know about you. In fact, this ship is named for you.” He braced me so I could lean farther over the rim of the basket to see the name painted on the side in red lettering:
Liberty
. “Well, Everett named his ship for the cause, but between you and me, it's all about you.”

The basket itself was painted a mottled grayish-blue color, as was the lemon-shaped balloon above us. Against a partly cloudy night sky, it was practically invisible. “How does it run?” I asked. “You didn't steal a magical vessel, did you?”

“It's electric. We store the energy from the dynamo in a battery. This is a test run to see if it works on an airship.”

“
If
it works?” I gasped, grabbing the side of the basket.

He grinned. “Don't worry, the ship's sound. Everett's had it for a while. It's the power supply we're testing. We'll stay in the air, no matter what. The question is whether we can go where we want. We should have just enough power to get around the island, but it's enough to give us a look at where they're placing the troops, and this is quicker than sending people all over the city.” He leaned over to look at the ground below. “Looks like we're almost there.”

I saw what he meant when I looked down. There was a clear division between the wealthy neighborhoods and the rest of the city. The wealthy areas were well lit with soft, steady magical lights. Less-wealthy areas had flickering, dim gaslights. The poorest areas had hardly any light at all in the streets, though sometimes the faint glow of candlelight showed through a window.

Alec took a pair of binoculars from around his neck and studied the ground. Mick did the same on the other side of the ship. After a moment, Alec grunted in satisfaction and said, “Ah, there they are.” He lowered his binoculars and took a notepad and a pencil out of his coat pocket and handed them to me. “Would you mind recording my findings?” he asked.

Pencil in hand, I listened as he reeled off locations and numbers. “Light barrier at Fifty-Seventh and Columbus, six men. Same on Amsterdam.” He gestured to Everett, who pulled a lever. The ship angled to the east. Alec turned to me, his binoculars in his hand. “I owe you an apology.”

“An apology?”

“For what I said the other day, when I was more worried about your loss as a spy than about the loss of your position if you were recognized. I—I suppose I get too caught up in the cause. Lizzie says I forget to be human, that I'll turn into one of my machines one of these days.”

“I'd forgotten all about it,” I lied. It had eaten at me, but now that he'd apologized, I hoped I could forget it.

He put his hand on my shoulder. “Of course, if you ever were to lose your position, you've got our help, even if you're no longer of use to us in that way. You're our friend.”

In spite of the cold wind, I felt as warm as the inside of one of Alec's steam engines. I blinked back tears before they could smear the lenses of my goggles. “I appreciate that.”

“Hey, you two, you aren't on a romantic moonlight stroll!” Mick called from across the ship. “Keep your eyes open.”

Everett steered a zigzag pattern across the city, covering the entire island. Alec had a better grasp of the city's topography than I did, always knowing exactly where we were. I only got my bearings when I saw a major landmark, like the cathedral or the Croton water distributing reservoir. The wind whipped the loose tendrils of hair around my face, and my cheeks had gone numb from the cold, but my entire body tingled with exhilaration. I was flying!

The farther we went downtown, the more barriers and soldiers we saw. They were thickest in the area below Union Square and around the university. I barely had a chance to look down from frantically scribbling the locations and numbers Mick and Alec shouted to me. Everett cut the engines, and we hovered for a while, taking in the entire situation. After we'd noted it thoroughly, Alec handed me the binoculars and let me look. The streets were red with the coats of soldiers on patrol. Few other people were out at this time of night.

While I studied the ground, Alec went back to talk to Everett. “They're thick on the ground here, which makes me wonder how thin they are elsewhere.”

“You want to go all the way down to the fort?” Everett asked.

“Think we can? They're more likely to have lookouts there.”

I could hear the smile in Everett's voice as he said, “They won't be looking in the sky for us. They think that's their territory.”

“We've got enough power?”

“We can get there and back, so long as you don't want too many sightseeing excursions.”

Everett restarted the engine, and we drifted downtown. It was harder to make out landmarks below since these were poorer neighborhoods or commercial and industrial areas that weren't well lit. Alec tapped me on the shoulder and pointed out the graceful arches of the Brooklyn Bridge spanning the river.

“This really is a magic carpet,” I said, tearing my gaze away from the view to smile at him.

“Only without the magic. This is powered by human ingenuity, which is far superior. You like it, though?”

“Very much.”

“Bessie might get jealous if you like this better.”

“It's impossible to compare the two.”

“Very diplomatically spoken.”

The southernmost tip of the city was mostly dark, with the exception of the lanterns illuminating the rigging of a clipper ship docked at a wharf-side warehouse. “What a beautiful ship,” I said.

“It needs an engine.”

“Not everything needs an engine.”

“It does if it's to compete with the magisters' ships and airships. If you put a steam engine in a ship you don't have to worry about catching a good wind.”

We'd gone out over the water to approach the West Battery fort from behind. The water was inky black, but the wave crests sometimes held an eerie glow for a split second. That gave the harbor a sparkling effect. I could have stared at it for hours, as it was utterly mesmerizing, but then something else caught my eye.

A small boat raced across the harbor, heading toward the Battery. It must have been magically powered, for I saw neither oars nor sails. I handed the binoculars to Alec and pointed out the boat. “It's military,” he said after looking at it for a while. “They're wearing uniforms, and they've got something in the boat with them. Looks like a chest. I'll wager they're bringing the payroll over from Governor's Island.”

“In the darkness? And by boat, when they have airships?”

“They'll be as stealthy as possible when hauling around large sums of money.” Alec called to Everett, “Bring us over the fort. I want to see if there's any activity there.”