Rebel Magisters (Rebel Mechanics #2)(73)

I could pick an ordinary lock in a house, but I doubted the lock to a cell would be so easy. I thought for a moment that I might be able to use magic to open the lock, but then I realized that they would have to do something to keep magic from working in order to hold a magister prisoner.

“Do you know anything about the locks?” I asked.

“I haven’t paid much attention. The day crew cleans inside the cells. They aren’t opened for us.”

“The locks are strong,” the blond woman said in a thick German accent. “You cannot break them. There is an iron plate behind them so the prisoners can’t reach them from inside their cells.” That might be what blocked the magic, I thought, which meant they might be opened magically from outside. Even so, I knew I’d better have a backup plan.

“Do you know where they keep the keys?” I asked.

“You will not be able to get to them. They are in the office, where there is always a jailer.”

“So, you can get me in through the laundry, then get me to the cells as a charwoman,” I summarized. “If we can get my friend out of the cell, do you have a way to get him back to the laundry?”

“How good does he look in a dress and apron?” the dark-skinned woman asked with a grin.

“He’s rather tall, I’m afraid. People would notice a woman that tall. But perhaps he could crouch under a long skirt. Then how do we get him out through the laundry?”

The Chinese girl said something, and my friend, who’d been relaying the conversation to her all along, translated for us, “No one counts the number of laundresses who go in and out. We wait for a shift change. But we will not have very long before his absence is noticed.”

“I might be able to do something to keep the escape from being noticed, and I have ways of getting him quickly out of the area,” I said. At least, I hoped I did. “When will we be able to do this? Time is of the essence.”

“How about tonight?” the German woman asked. “You will come in with us when we start work at eight. You should wait before going to the cells because there isn’t another shift change until four.”

“Tonight? That doesn’t give me much time to have everything else in place, but I can do it.” I had to do it.

We finalized the details about when and where I would meet them, and my mind was already racing ahead to everything else I needed to set up. I needed to get the Mechanics ready to get Henry out of the city, and I felt like I’d need some other help. The biggest gaps in the plan were how to get Henry out of his cell and how to get him to the subway that could take him almost to the edge of the city. There were far too many blocks between the fort at the lower tip of Manhattan and the lowest station.

I didn’t actually know where Lizzie spent her days, but I headed to her boardinghouse to look for her. Her landlady directed me to the theater. “They’re in rehearsals,” she said with a wink.

Nat was watching the door at the theater and let me inside. The place was still set up as a theater, with no sign of Mechanics activity, but I heard Colin’s voice coming from the balcony. I hurried up the stairs, remembering the night not so long ago when Henry and I had come to warn them about the raid. I hoped the Mechanics remembered that night as vividly as I did.

I found that Lizzie was also there, along with Alec and some of the others. “I’ll be getting Henry out of the fort at four in the morning,” I said without preamble. “I’ll need help getting him out of the city soon afterward. Are you going to help me?”

“You sound very certain that you can get him out,” Alec said, frowning.

“I am. I have a plan, and I have help.”

“If you can get him out of the city to the airship hangar, we can get him to safety. But that’s about all we can do.”

“But what about the subway? Wouldn’t that be safer?”

“I’m not sure the subway would be of much use because by the time you get him there, the alert may already have gone up and he won’t make it across the bridge. That’s a long way from the fort.”

“I know,” I said.

“And there will be a manhunt,” he added. “They’ve been patrolling more heavily since we escaped.”

“I know. Don’t you think I know?” I snapped. “Do you think I shouldn’t try?”

“I didn’t say that,” Alec said.

“But you’re thinking it. What’s one more magister to you? Even if I free him, he’s no use to you anymore. He won’t have access to his money or to his friends. But he’s been there for me, and he’s been there for you. He’s the one who took the risk to get the information that may bring down the government and kick off your precious revolution. We all owe him, even if he’s no good to us anymore.”

“We’ll help,” Lizzie said, standing up and shooting the men a glare. “But there’s not a lot we can do right now aside from moving him out of the city and giving him sanctuary.”

“You can create a diversion,” I said. “Perhaps another midnight riot? Something big enough to draw troops away from the fort.”

“We don’t have our machines to really make a fuss, but I suppose we could come up with something. Did you have a particular place in mind?” Colin asked.

“The neighborhood near the fort would be good. And maybe somewhere else on the island, earlier in the evening.”