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. “Would you mind recording my findings?” he asked, handing them to me.
I took them and 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