Rebel Magisters (Rebel Mechanics #2)(19)
“You know nothing could ever happen with your magister boy.”
“It’s not about him,” I said, willing my face not to flush and give me away. “Whether or not Henry and I have any interest in each other—which we don’t—it doesn’t change the fact that I can’t trust you to be honest with me as long as the cause is involved, and the cause is what’s most important for all of us right now.”
“Then after the revolution, we’ll talk.”
After the revolution, perhaps I would have a chance to be with Henry, but that seemed like such a far-off dream that it was no more realistic than one of Olive’s storybooks. “Perhaps,” was all I said. “Now I think I should return to”—I almost said “my friends,” which would likely have been interpreted badly—“the others.”
We reached Henry and Geoffrey just as Colin approached them. “We’re all here, if you can extract your friend from Emma’s delightful grasp,” he said.
Henry signaled to Philip, who handed Emma over to another dance partner before joining us on one of the benches that had been pushed against a wall. Colin, Alec, and two other men I didn’t know pulled up chairs to face us. The two strange men wore goggles, and they weren’t introduced to us.
Colin was apparently the spokesman for the group. “You’ve seen our machines and what they can do,” he said. “We’ve got the big engines that can haul just about anything, and they also make a rather formidable battering ram. The same sort of engine could be put on a railroad and haul just as much, just as quickly, as a magical engine. We’ve got an airship we’re still improving. There’s this underground railway, and we’ve got electric dynamos that can give us lights and communications.”
“Yes, it’s all very impressive,” Geoffrey said. “I’d love a chance to get a better look.”
“No offense to your lordships, but we figure these machines are the key to us beating the magisters,” Colin continued. “You have magical power that you control, and that’s been what stopped us from winning our freedom before, but now we’ve come up with ways to generate our own power. The problem is, it costs money to make enough of these to make any difference. A couple of steam traction engines aren’t going to win a war for us. Having the technology will also allow us to maintain our independence after we kick you lot out. So, we need money.”
“We’ve been funding you all along,” Henry said.
“Yes, and that’s how we’ve been able to develop the prototypes,” Alec said. “Production requires a different sort of financing. And since you’ve been funding us…”
“I’m afraid there won’t be any money from the Masked Bandits for some time,” Henry said. “We’re on hiatus. We came too close to getting caught, so we want the authorities to think we’ve quit or have left town.”
“There’s also no way we could steal enough money to fund the kind of industry you’re talking about,” Philip added. “We’d have to hit every bank in the colonies. That’s beyond our capability.”
Geoffrey took a sheet of paper out of his breast pocket. “I ran some hypothetical numbers, based on material and labor costs. What you want to do is just about impossible. Do you realize how many factories it would require to produce enough to make a difference in a war against the Empire? How much raw material and manpower? You need an entire industry. And you’d have to do it without anyone noticing so you don’t get shut down before you finish production.”
“We thought we might take some existing magical equipment and retrofit it for a new power supply,” Alec said.
“No one will notice you buying up surplus equipment?”
“So we’re just supposed to lie down and take it? Not revolt at all?” Colin said.
“No, but I’m afraid this is beyond us,” Geoffrey said. “It would take many more of us, all over the colonies, maybe even back in England, to have the resources to pull this off. I might be able to buy you a magical engine or two and the equipment you’d need to retrofit it. But you need hundreds of engines, plus the organizational infrastructure to hide what you’re doing as some innocuous enterprise.”
It was as though someone had dumped cold water over the party. The magisters and Mechanics alike looked crestfallen. “So, you’re not going to help us, then?” Colin said.
“We didn’t say that,” Henry said. “There are more of us than you might realize who are sympathetic to the cause. Many of us want revolution, too. We might be able to find investors to fund your efforts.”
Alec’s angry response surprised me. With a fierce glare, he crossed his arms over his chest and said, “Oh, so our overlords will deign to give us money? What will you expect in return? Are you buying us?”
Henry’s eyes flashed, but he kept his tone perfectly cool as he replied, “You were willing to ask us to put our lives on the line to steal money to fund your cause. Is it so different if we offer to give you money?”
“If you give us your money, we’re beholden to you. You might expect us to dance to your tune,” Alec said. “Isn’t that how investment usually works?”
“We would want to be equal partners in the revolution,” Henry said. “We wouldn’t just be funding your rebellion. We’re doing this not because we like you, but because we want to be free just as much as you do.”