“But you may have noticed that I didn’t snub you when I saw you again, and I accepted your invitations. You could have told me the truth at any time.”
She gathered several rolled charts into a bundle. “I suspect that what you’re really angry about is Alec. That might have been going too far. That’s my fault. I thought that would be the best way to reach you, and I pushed him into it.”
“So, he wasn’t interested,” I said with a grim nod.
“That’s not what I meant. He didn’t want to recruit you by seducing you.”
“And yet he did.” I had an armload of papers and maps, so I left the balcony.
She came behind me. “You’re a good writer. That wasn’t part of the recruitment plan—well, asking you to help was, but keeping you doing it wasn’t. I hope you’ll keep writing for the paper. I’ll find you a new contact if you don’t want to talk to me. But I hope you’ll want to talk to me.”
“Can we discuss it later?” I asked. “We have other priorities right now—such as the British troops who’ll be here at any moment.”
When we returned to the station, the others had sent several more loads and were working with the calliope, which required some tricky maneuvering. It wouldn’t fit through the tunnel to the rail station, so it had to be partially dismantled. While the Mechanics were frantically separating the largest pipes from the machine, Nat ran into the tunnel, shouting, “The soldiers are coming! They’re almost at the theater!”
“This will have to be the last load, then,” Henry said.
“This is almost everything. Our other big machines are stored out of town,” Alec said.
“We can buy some time,” Henry said, gesturing to one of his friends. They ran to the door, and I wasn’t sure what they did, but I felt the magic. The Mechanics doubled their efforts on the calliope, while Lizzie and I made one more pass around the theater to make sure we had removed every last trace of the Mechanics’ presence.
The soldiers were pounding on the theater’s front doors when the calliope at last made it through the tunnel into the station. “It will take them a while to get past those seals,” Henry said when he rejoined us.
Alec and the Mechanics closed the doors that led into the tunnels and bolted it from the inside. “With any luck, they won’t find the passage,” Alec said. “I’d hate to lose the railway.”
With a grin, Henry placed his hand on the door, and I shivered as his spell took effect. “Unless they have a magister with them, they won’t see it,” he said.
I heard shouting in the theater as we ran down the tunnel into the rail station. It seemed like an eternity before the pilot car came back from its last trip uptown, and the entire time we waited, I cast frequent glances at the tunnel, fearing that the locks and Henry’s spells wouldn’t hold. I went weak with relief when at last the car arrived. The Mechanics got it turned around, then connected it to a flatbed car loaded with odds and ends and small machines. “Looks like we’ll have to find a new headquarters,” Alec said wistfully as he took a seat on the pilot car.
“I don’t think I was cut out for a life in the theater,” Colin quipped. Then he looked at his sister, who hadn’t yet boarded the car. “Aren’t you coming, Liz?”
She shook her head. “No, I’ve got work to do here, and I’m useless with machines. I’ll get out through one of the other exits. Someone will have to report on how the mysterious disappearance of the Rebel Mechanics baffled the British.”
Nat stood by her side. “And that’s gonna sell a lot of papers for me.”
“Verity, we’ll talk,” Lizzie said, her tone pleading. I gave her a curt nod before boarding the car with the others.
When the car shot down the tunnel, Henry threw back his head and laughed. “Amazing!” he shouted, grinning widely, and some of the Mechanics grinned back at him. Alec still gave him wary glances, but the others had warmed to him. I couldn’t blame them. This Henry, who was a blend between the boyish enthusiasm of his cover persona and the daring intensity of his Bandit identity, was irresistible.
Some of the Mechanics and magisters had gone ahead with the other machines, and they were waiting at the end of the line. They’d hooked the flatbed cars carrying