Steamed (32 page)

“Mmm. Let’s try this way, shall we?” I pushed myself away from the wall, and took Jack’s hand as we hurried down the street.

“Are you sure this Etienne guy is going to be willing to attack a full contingent of your emperor’s soldiers?” Jack asked after I briefly explained my plan to enlist the aid of the Black Hand. “Based on that raid on your ship in Rome, I have to say I don’t have a whole lot of confidence in their black ops skills.”

I frowned in confusion.

“Black ops means covert activities, such as freeing a prisoner from almost overwhelming odds.”

“Oh. Well, the odds aren’t overwhelming with regards to your sister—just very daunting. With the power of the Black Hand, I’m hoping we can overcome the troops that will be present to guard the prisoners. But even beyond that, Etienne will want to rescue the three members of the Hand who were captured in Rome. No doubt he has a plan of his own in place, and if it comes down to it, we can simply go along with him and rescue her at the same time.”

“I hope you’re right,” he said, shaking his head, exhaustion and worry etched into the lines around his mouth. “Because we aren’t going to have too many chances to save Hallie.”

His words echoed in my head as we made our way through London, haunting me when we arrived travel-stained and crumpled at the headquarters of the Black Hand. I knew that Etienne had a plan in mind for disturbing the royal wedding, so I was confident he would be present in that city, hidden away as he marshaled his forces and honed his plans.

“Jack, my dear,” I said as we were shown into the inner sanctum of what appeared to be a commonplace block of insurer’s offices, but was in fact the headquarters of the Black Hand, “you know I have every respect for you—”

“But let you do the talking?” Jack grinned as he interrupted me. “This is getting to be a habit.”

“Jack—”

“Don’t worry, sweetheart, I’m not such a pushy bastard that I have to be the one to make all the arrangements. I’m well aware that you have more experience with this guy than I do.”

“I would never refer to you as a pushy bastard, let alone think it,” I told him gently.

“OK, then, I’m not so jealous that I have to put on a show in front of all your ex- lovers.” He eyed me for a second. “Although I hope you don’t mind if I make it clear that we are a couple. I may not be overly jealous, but I wouldn’t like him getting the wrong idea and thinking he could have you all to himself again.”

I kissed his earlobe. “I assure you that Etienne wouldn’t dream of thinking that.”

“Oh really? What’s wrong with him?” Jack’s eyes narrowed in suspicion. “Just how long were you two together?”

“About the length of time it took me to discover that he had no intention of having a monogamous relationship—three days.”

Jack looked uncertain for a moment, then relaxed. “His loss, my gain, so I’m not going to complain.”

The wrought iron lift door opened, and we stepped out onto the fourth floor, swept immediately into pandemonium. Black Hand folk choked the hallway as they bustled hither and yon, many of them talking as they did so, although whom they were conversing with was difficult to detect.

“—said we wouldn’t have enough time to rally all the steam carriages, but would they listen to me? No! And now what am I to do? Those carriages go two miles an hour. They can’t possibly make it here in time to do any good—”

“—blasted William suddenly decided to forgo the Carmelite nuns at the wedding, which means a good six months’ work wasted, utterly wasted, not to mention all that cloth it took to make up the habits—”

“—Please, Mr. Hanson, you must sign the chit or else the quartermaster will not release the bombs, and I ask you, what good are bombardiers without bombs?”

“So this is what a revolutionary headquarters looks like,” Jack said, holding my arm tightly as people swarmed against and around us as they attended to the last-minute business connected with the royal wedding. Or rather, the attack that was planned against it. “Not quite what I expected.”

I eased my way between two women who were arguing about the merits of beards and wigs as disguises, and headed for the double doors at the end of the hallway. “What was it you expected?”

“A lot less chaos and more order,” Jack replied as I ducked when two men emerged from a room bearing a portable aether cannon on their shoulders. “Just how effective are these people?”

“Enough so that the emperor has made it his top priority to eliminate them,” I answered, tugging on his hand. I stopped before the double doors and raised my hand to knock. “It may look chaotic, but I assure you there is a method to Etienne’s plans.”

“There is more than method. There is brilliance,” a voice answered me as the door swung open. “Which you of all people should know, Octavia. I thought you were in Italy.”

“We were. We came back,” I said simply, noting the fevered glint to Etienne’s dark green eyes. He always reminded me of a cat, sly and purposeful, as if he had a thousand secrets that consumed him. He stood looking at me now, his expression mildly annoyed.

“We need to see you for a few minutes,” I said, pushing past him into his office.

“I am busy. The emperor is getting married today, if you hadn’t noticed,” he said with acid sarcasm.

“There are still three hours before the first of the festivities begins,” I said, glancing at the clock. “And it is about that we have come to seek help.”

Etienne looked for a moment like he was just going to walk out of the room, but his gaze slid over to Jack, assessing him quickly before returning to me. He closed the door and leaned against it. “I can give you five minutes, no more.”

“Thank you. This is Jack Fletcher. He is American.”

Etienne’s coppery brown eyebrows rose, but he said nothing. I’m sure he noticed the possessive manner with which Jack slid his arm around my waist as he said, “Octavia has spoken highly of you, Etienne. Pleased to meet you.”

“Jack’s sister was taken by the emperor’s forces in Rome. Unjustly, naturally.”

“Naturally,” Etienne said, his voice waspish.

Jack stiffened.

I elbowed him and continued. “She was brought to England to be part of the wedding executions along with the three who were captured during your raid on the
Tesla
. The executions are to be held at noon today. I thought we could piggyback on whatever plan you have to rescue your men.”

“What plan?” he asked.

“You don’t have a plan?” I asked, horrified.

“On the contrary, I have lots of plans. None of them concern the execution, however.”

Jack and I exchanged glances fraught with frustration and despair. “All right, then you can assist us in rescuing your men. We’ll simply release them when we get Jack’s sister.”

“No.”

I continued, ignoring his refusal. “Since the emperor and his bride are to attend the executions, I thought you would relish the chance to disrupt it, and we could join forces and work together to achieve both ends.”

“No,” Etienne said again, this time turning to open the door.

“Etienne!” I jumped forward and grabbed his arm. “You can’t mean that. Your own people are there! You wouldn’t let them die unnecessarily, would you?”

“I never say things I don’t mean,” he answered, frowning at my hand on his arm.

“Listen here, this isn’t a game,” Jack said, his hands fisted as he moved up beside me. “This is my sister’s life we’re talking about, and the lives of the people who look to you for leadership, people who were following
your
orders when they were captured. Aren’t you supposed to be protecting people from this emperor you want out of the way so badly?”

Etienne’s cool green gaze passed over Jack for a few seconds. “Not in the least. Our goal is to overthrow the government, not protect the common man.”

“For God’s sake—”

“Etienne, please.” I tightened my hold on his arm. “I have never asked you for a favor. I have worked untiringly for you since I was sixteen. I ask now that you honor my work, honor that done by Robert Anstruther, and give me the aid we need.”

He shook his head before I had more than a few words out. “It would serve no purpose, Octavia.”

“But the emperor will be there!”

“It doesn’t matter.”

I stared at him for a moment or two. “I can’t believe you can be so callous.”

He shrugged. “You say callous—I say discriminating. I have no wish to waste time and resources on another attack on a prison. I would have thought after the last one you organized, you’d feel the same way.”

“Well, I don’t!”

“It matters not. We have more important plans in place.”

“You’re so willing to throw away the lives of innocent people?” Jack asked, his voice thick.

Etienne shrugged again. “It is the way things are. Every member of the Black Hand is willing to give his life if needed.” His eyes slid over to me. “And that is how it will remain. Now, since you are in town, Octavia, I can put you to a much better use. The reception is to be held on the grounds of the palace. We have several airships ready and waiting outside of town, and we could use your ability to pilot in order to bomb the reception.”

“I’m sorry, I will be too busy rescuing the prisoners,” I said coolly, taking Jack’s hand.

Etienne frowned. “I have mentioned before, Octavia, that one of your shortcomings is that you do not see the overall picture. Do you not realize that the death of the innocent prisoners will do more for our cause than rescuing them ever could? The public will be incited. They will protest the death of an innocent woman. It will engender hard feelings amongst them. I regret that the innocent must suffer for our cause, but they will die a glorious death, for a just and right cause.”

“I’m sorry, Octavia,” Jack said softly as he shook off my hand.

“Oh, Jack, no—”

The words had barely left my lips when Jack punched Etienne in the face, the sickening sound of a bone cracking and flesh meeting flesh making me grimace as Etienne dropped to the ground.

Jack shook his hand as Etienne curled up into a ball, moaning loudly. “The sign of a good leader is one who values
all
life, a concept you clearly fail at. You may think that sacrificing my sister is a glorious thing, but we aren’t going to let that happen.”

Etienne uncovered his face, his nose slanted to the side, blood streaming out of it to wash over his mouth and chin. “You’ll die for this.”

“Not before I see my sister safe,” Jack vowed, and, grabbing me, hauled me over Etienne’s prone self, making sure, I noticed with a stab of amusement, of stepping on Etienne’s hand as he did so.

“I would suggest haste in getting out of here,” I said, spinning off to the left and pushing past a number of people who were toiling up a small set of back stairs. “Etienne will not hesitate to have us confined.”

“Right with you,” Jack said as we sprinted down the stairs. Above us, I could hear Etienne shouting orders to stop us.

Luckily, there was so much noise and confusion as everyone went about their business, we managed to slip out of the building without being restrained. It wasn’t until we were blocks away, however, out of breath from running, that I felt secure enough to stop and hail a cab.

“What the hell?” Jack asked as a steam carriage stopped at my direction. “You have cars?”

I gave the cabbie my address and climbed into the front seat, Jack following. “This is a steam carriage. They are commonplace in London.”

“I’ll be damned.” Jack peered around behind us. The cabbie watched him with a wary expression. “Where’s the steam? I can hear it hiss, but I can’t see anything.”

“The boiler and engine are beneath us. Jack, please, now is not the time to examine it.” I yanked on his coat-tails as he hung his upper body over the edge of the carriage to get a glimpse at the mechanisms underneath. “We have more important things to discuss,” I added in a lower tone of voice.

He rubbed the knuckles of his right hand, red and somewhat swollen. “I’m not going to apologize for punching him.”

“I wouldn’t ask you to. Etienne is far too narrow-minded for his own good. If you hadn’t struck him, I might have been inclined to do it. But that’s neither here nor there—we have slightly less than three hours to come up with plan of rescue.” I consulted my pocket watch. “The
Aurora
is probably landing at this moment. The prisoners will be sent up to London via train.”

“Then we won’t have time to get to her there?”

“No.” I slumped in defeat. “It’s going to have to be here, in London.”

Jack took my hand and, after a moment, kissed my fingers. “If it’s too much for you, Octavia—”

“Don’t be ridiculous. We’ll find a way to save her,” I interrupted, forcing a smile to my lips. “I have a few cards up my sleeves yet.”

“Really?” He made a show of looking up my sleeve. “I don’t see anything there. What do you have in mind?”

“Well, Alan should be in London by now, too,” I said, shying away from a thought that had been hanging in the back of my mind ever since Etienne had refused us. “He will help us.”

“How?”

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “But he is a resourceful man, and he will give us whatever aid is within his ability.”

“Will it be enough?” Jack asked morosely.

I was unable to answer that question. We rode in silence to the house Robert Anstruther had left me, my stomach sick with the knowledge that we were fast running out of time.