Take Back the Skies (16 page)

Coming up with a frustrating lack of useful information, Cat gave up, pocketing two framed photographs and one of her mother's necklaces. With any luck, Nathaniel wouldn't notice them gone, or would assume Samuel had tidied them away somewhere.

Her next stop was her father's office, her heart pounding as she crept into the room. She wanted to ransack the entire place, look in every nook and cranny for information. But she was short on time, and Nathaniel would notice even a hair out of place in his domain. She had to leave the office exactly as she found it. Leafing carefully through piles of paper, Cat searched for some sort of record or flight plan for the Collection ships. Collection wasn't her father's area, she knew, but surely he had some sort of information on it? He had information on everything.

Surprised and dismayed to find only dull meeting reports, and expenses records for the government offices, Cat glanced up at the ornate silver clock on the wall. She wasn't willing to risk it; if her father even thought for a second that someone had been in his personal office, he'd triple security in all the government areas. They'd never get into the compound. She had stayed too long, anyway. The crew would be wondering where she was.

Still, she figured she had a few more minutes to spare, and went upstairs to her room, nudging the door open. It was exactly as she had left it, though Samuel had clearly been in to tidy. A grin on her face at being back in her
bedroom, Cat crossed to dig out a leather satchel from beneath her wardrobe, throwing the wooden doors open to look at her clothes. It would be wonderful to have some clothing that hadn't previously belonged to Fox, even if she could only wear it on the ship.

All of her dresses and skirts were far too government-looking for her to even consider bringing, but she packed the few outfits she used when going out disguised as a boy, and some of her more ragged breeches and shirts. They fitted her better than Fox's clothes did. Adding some undergarments to the bag, she set about grabbing some of the more personal items which she hadn't been able to take when she'd first run away.

She packed a photograph of herself and her mother, on one of her good days, back when Cat was nine. Her mother's hair was still blonde rather than grey, and her pale cheeks were dimpled with a smile. Cat also seized some of the jewellery her mother had given to her just a few months before, knowing she would never wear it again. It was Ingate family jewellery – her mother's family – and Elizabeth had been determined that if her husband married again after her death, his new wife would never have it. A stuffed toy dog Cat had been given as a baby went into the bag, after she'd run her fingers over his floppy velveteen ears. He'd been a gift from the king and queen upon her birth, and her favourite toy throughout childhood. She just couldn't let Fox see him; the teasing would be
endless
.

With one last look around her room, eyes lingering wistfully on the tall bookcase stuffed to bursting – she would take far too long if she decided to choose only a
handful of books to take with her – Cat shouldered the satchel and left, wondering if she would ever return again. She doubted it.

‘Are you leaving again, Mistress Catherine?' Samuel queried, waiting for her in the hallway as she reached the bottom of the stairs.

‘I'm afraid so, Sam. I am sorry I can't take you with me, but … I'm safe, and happy, where I am.' Safe was a relative term, but the specifics were too complicated to explain to the mecha.

‘Then all is well,' Samuel replied, bowing his head with a faint creak. He needed maintenance. Cat wished she had the time to do it; storms knew Nathaniel never would.

‘Goodbye, Samuel. Look … Look after my mother when she returns, won't you?' Cat didn't give the mecha a chance to respond, but shoved her boots back on and slipped out of the house, locking the door behind her and replacing the spare key. Within minutes she was climbing the trellis and over the wall, back on the Greystone side. Dusting off the knees of her trousers, she hitched her satchel further up her shoulder, running to see if Fox was where she'd left him. She only hoped he hadn't gone back to the ship and told the crew she'd abandoned them.

Luckily for Cat, Fox wasn't far from where she'd left him, leaning against a lamppost with his hands in his pockets.

‘It's about time you showed up,' he said by way of greeting. ‘I was beginning to think you'd wandered off for good. What's in that bag?'

‘Just some things,' she replied evasively, tugging on his
sleeve to get him walking back in the direction of the shipyard.

‘Things from where?' Fox eyed her shrewdly, realisation dawning. ‘You went home, didn't you?'

‘It's not home,' Cat murmured. ‘Not any more.'

‘I bet you told your lord father everything about us.' Cat paused, glaring at Fox as he spoke, wishing she could shout at him once more without causing a scene.

‘He wasn't even
there
, if you must know! Besides, if I told him everything, I'd be in just as much trouble as you, wouldn't I?' Fox didn't seem to have an answer to that, and his silence made her grin smugly. ‘I went back to get some things from my room, and snoop around my father's office. There was nothing – no mention of Collections, nothing but useless paperwork.'

‘Sometimes a lack of evidence is as damning as evidence itself,' Fox said, frowning. ‘He probably keeps it all hidden somewhere. If you've been sneaking about since you were a wee'un, he must've known to keep anything truly incriminating where you'd never find it.'

‘You're probably on to something there,' Cat mused. ‘Anyway, did you hear anything at the smithy?'

Fox grinned wolfishly, a slight spring in his step as they crossed out of government territory. ‘Eventually, yes. East Gate is faulty,' he relayed. ‘Apparently there was a bit of a riot out there after the last Collection, and one of the gear plates got broken. The apprentice was complaining that the replacement won't be here for two days yet.'

Cat beamed at his words, feeling hope rise in her. That made their entry
so
much easier.

As they turned a corner, a flash of silver and black caught Cat's eye, and she froze, throwing out an arm to halt Fox. A little way ahead of them, two guards walked side by side, sporting distinctive long black coats with silver adornments, a silver armband around the left bicep. Collection officers.

She felt Fox's hand grip her shoulder, and the pair of them watched silently as the two officers stepped up to the door of a crumbling brick house, knocking sharply. A woman answered, her face draining of colour immediately upon spotting the uniforms.

‘She's not thirteen yet!' the woman cried, but the guards remained impassive.

‘Our records state otherwise,' one of the guards replied as his partner pushed his way past the woman and into the house. Cat's heart was in her throat as the woman began to sob, shouting her protests at the two men, who ignored her, the guard at the door restraining her. It wasn't long before a second set of cries joined the woman's, and the guard reappeared with a squirming dark-haired girl in his arms. There was no way that girl was over thirteen.

‘No! Please, don't take my daughter!' the woman begged, falling to her knees as the guard released her to help the other man with the girl, who was kicking and screaming. By this point, several people were watching from their own doorways, blank-faced. Collections were routine enough to not draw much attention, though there were still plenty who couldn't look away.

‘We should leave,' Fox murmured quietly, hand squeezing Cat's shoulder as they watched the two guards march the girl away, leaving the mother on the floor in her
doorway, sobbing into her hands. ‘If the officers are about, we don't want to risk being on the streets alone.'

Tearing her eyes away from the distraught woman, Cat nodded, swallowing back the lump in her throat and following Fox as he crept towards a narrow side alley. Soon they were far enough away to no longer hear the woman's cries, but they echoed in Cat's mind the entire way back to the ship.

Back on the
Stormdancer
, they slipped straight below deck, Cat darting away to deposit her bag in her room and compose herself before meeting with Fox to head over to the galley. The three men were sitting around the table, a large blue paper spread out in front of them. Ben had a notepad on his knee, and a pen in his left hand.

‘Morning! How did your little snooping trip go?' Matt asked cheerily, looking up. There was an ink smudge on his cheek.

‘Rather well, actually. Although Cat's knowledge of the upper-middle class is disturbingly intimate,' Fox declared, swinging his leg over the end of the bench beside Matt, peering over the blueprint. ‘And yours?'

‘Equally well. We got more blueprints of the three upper levels of the main building from a friend who owes me a favour, as well as schematics for all four entrance gates. We were just wondering which one would be the easiest to go for,' he replied.

Cat sat beside Harry, and leaned forward to get a better view of the blueprint.

‘East Gate,' she told them. ‘Fox found out that the gears are jammed, and it's going to take at least two days for a
replacement gear plate to arrive. It's practically an open door. And these blueprints will be useful, though I've been in the upper two levels and there's nothing of interest there. It's mostly offices, conference rooms and apartments for anyone working through the night. I was never allowed into the ground-floor level, so it'd be a good place to start. I know more than enough about the habits and backgrounds of the higher class government workers, though. Father always said that the best weapon is information,' she said.

‘I might not agree with your father's politics, but he seems like a smart bloke. Where's Alice, anyway?' Harry asked.

‘She went into the café where Mr Gale's housekeeper was having tea. Thomas Gale is a very important man – if anyone's likely to know anything about the government's plan, he will. She should be back soon,' Cat assured Harry, who didn't look too pleased at the prospect of his wife alone in Greystone.

‘So when are we going to do this, then? Tonight or tomorrow? I mean, once we're in, we should be fine. It's just getting past the initial guard that's the problem,' Matt said, looking excited.

‘Not tonight, they'll expect a break-in in the dark,' Fox said instantly.

‘Sunday morning, between seven and nine.' The group looked up as Alice entered, smiling cheerfully. ‘That's when the bulk of the guards get time off to go to worship. They'll have a skeleton guard, so it shouldn't be too hard for you boys to keep out of their way.' She sat down beside her husband, kissing him on the cheek. ‘I am so very glad we
weren't born upper class. No offence, dear,' she added to Cat, who laughed.

‘I wish I wasn't, don't worry,' she assured Alice vehemently. ‘Did you hear anything else?'

‘Only that Thomas Gale is going away for a spell, apparently. His housekeeper didn't say how long for, but it's all very sudden,' Alice explained.

Cat frowned; that was unusual. Where could Gale possibly be going? Did it have anything to do with her father, and his comments about the war coming to an end?

‘So we'll spend tonight preparing, and move after daybreak tomorrow?' Harry checked. The other five nodded, and Alice stood.

‘I'll get started downstairs, then.'

‘Cat, lass, if you've nothing else to do, Alice and I could do with a hand delivering the goods.' Harry said. It took a few moments for Cat to figure out what he meant, before remembering that the
Stormdancer
crew were smugglers at heart. The plan to overthrow the government wouldn't deter them from carrying out their essential work.

‘Of course. Just let me go get changed into something more suitable.'

Heading out of the galley, she found that Fox was following her. She glared over her shoulder at the redhead, and carried on to her room. When he didn't look like he was going to continue to his own, Cat turned around, folding her arms over her chest defensively.

‘Am I not allowed to change on my own, or are you afraid I'll run off in my undergarments all the way back to Greystone?' she snapped.

Fox snorted, leaning with catlike grace against the wall opposite.

‘Did you miss it? Being back in your old neighbourhood?' he asked.

Cat bristled, glaring.

‘No, I did
not
miss it. We've been through this! I don't appreciate you making out that I enjoyed being a government brat, because I hated every second of it, and I've never been happier than I am now I've left,' she retorted.

He didn't get angry back at her as he usually did, which surprised her. He just crossed one ankle over the other, cocking his head to one side as he looked at her.

‘I didn't mean it like that. I was just curious. You seemed like you had an attachment to it, even if you didn't really enjoy living there. You are allowed to get nostalgic, you know.'

Cat's glare faltered, and she looked at him in confusion.

‘What? One minute you're twisting every word I say to get me to admit liking growing up as government, now you're telling me to get nostalgic about my time there?' she asked sceptically. ‘I don't understand you.'

He shrugged, scratching at his jaw – Cat could see a faint dusting of copper-coloured stubble on his chin.

‘The feeling is entirely mutual,' he retorted drily. ‘I'm … just trying to figure you out. You're not like any other high-born girl I've met.'

Cat smiled at that, trying to keep the blush off her face. She didn't succeed.

‘I'll take that as a compliment, I hope.'

There was a long, awkward silence between them, until Cat suddenly blinked, snapping out of her daze.