Take Back the Skies (23 page)

‘We don't know how many workers there will be out there and somehow I don't think they'll overlook a wayward prince wandering free,' Fox said sharply.

James's face fell. ‘I suppose you're right,' he admitted reluctantly.

Cat could understand where he was coming from – she knew she would want to leave as soon as possible had she spent her whole life in the same set of rooms – but she was grateful to Fox for backing her up.

‘Glad you see it our way. Cat, shall we?'

She nodded, stepping back to allow Fox to unlock the door. He pushed it open tentatively.

‘Be careful,' Mary told them, and Fox flashed her a mischievous grin, before shutting the door.

‘Where to first, then?' Cat asked.

Fox was staring upwards.

‘Start at the top, work our way down? According to Harry's sources, there'll be hardly anyone about at this time of night.'

Cat nodded, and they set off up the long spiral staircase, Fox going first to check every floor was clear as they ascended.

‘I wouldn't marry James, you know,' she blurted out, then blushed. She didn't want to admit, even to herself, exactly why she felt the need to clarify that to Fox. His step faltered for a brief second, but he didn't say anything. ‘I mean, when
this is all over, if he takes the country back and tries to put a betrothal contract in place … I won't do it. I'm not Catherine,' she declared fiercely.

‘I know,' he replied simply, his tone not giving anything away.

Cat bit her lip, wondering if he was just placating her, but could have sworn she saw some of the tension bleed from his shoulders as they hurried up the remaining stairs.

They made it to the top of the staircase, and Fox peered through the window of the closest door.

‘Empty,' he told her, turning the handle and entering the room.

Cat followed quickly. ‘Why so many mechanics' workshops?' she wondered aloud, walking over to the nearest desk and looking at the project assembled on it. ‘These look like parts of a mecha.' They looked very similar to what she knew Samuel contained, only … not.

‘This is a gun,' Fox added, pointing over her head to a metal box-like object mounted on the bronze-plated shoulder of a mechanical arm, the opening narrowing out into a gun barrel. He ran a finger down the back of the box, before flipping the arm upside down. ‘Look, there.'

Cat stared where he was pointing, seeing only a complicated webbing of gears and chains, before the pattern began to click into place.

‘The trigger is in the finger of the hand. There are bullets stored in the hollow of the casing.'

Cat's eyes widened; what were they doing with guns mounted on mechanical arms?

The other rooms on that floor were similar; all mechanics' workshops, all empty, none of them giving away their exact purpose. Cat and Fox went down to the floor below, where they saw three mechanics walking down the corridor. Ducking into an alcove, they waited for the men to pass. One of the men paused, a frown on his face and his gaze directed at their alcove. Cat flattened herself against the wall as much as she could, glad for the low lighting during the night shift. Her heart was so loud she half expected the man to hear her, and she didn't dare turn her head to look at Fox.

‘What you dawdling for?' one of the man's companions called. The man shrugged to himself, shaking his head and continuing on. When they were alone once more, Cat let out a long breath.

‘That was too close,' she murmured, and Fox nodded, looking spooked. Staying on their guard, they began to explore.

The rooms on this floor were a mix of yet more workshops and small office spaces. Cat tugged frantically on Fox's arm when she saw that the walls inside one room were pasted with blueprints, looking eerily similar to Fox's own workroom back on the ship. Checking there was no one around, they slipped inside, Fox immediately directing his video recorder to scan over the blueprints.

‘These are all mechanical body parts,' he murmured quietly. ‘Arms, legs, torsos. It's like … they're building mechas, but more advanced models. Mechanical soldiers, armed to the teeth. But … there's something wrong. There's no fuel source, and some of these connections don't seem to lead anywhere. They're … unfinished,' he explained, frustrated.

Cat drew closer. She could see what he meant; most of the parts seemed to just stop halfway, like there was something they connected to that wasn't part of the schematics.

‘They're preparing for war!' she exclaimed. ‘Building a mechanical army that doesn't age, or bleed, or feel pain. An army with no limits – it can be rebuilt and replaced as needed. Soldiers with no morals or emotions. If it works, they'd be unstoppable.'

Fox looked grim, and stopped filming the blueprints.

‘We'd better stop them before they get that far, then, hadn't we?' he retorted. ‘There's one thing I don't understand, though. If they've got these grand ideas about mechanical soldiers, what are they kidnapping children for?'

Cat shrugged, staring at the blueprints as if they would give her answers.

‘Commanders, maybe? Raising them away from their families, training them to be the perfect leaders for their metal army? They'll need someone to give orders, and I can't see many of the aristocrats wanting to get their hands dirty like that,' she suggested.

Fox tilted his head thoughtfully.

‘Only way to find out for sure is to keep looking.'

Passing several workshops, at the end of the corridor they reached a locked door with no window, which instantly made them curious.

‘Can you get the lock?' Cat queried, and Fox shot her an affronted look.

‘Of course I can get the lock. But what if there are people on the other side?'

‘Look, Fox, this is the only locked door we've found, other than the one to Mary and James's rooms. I think we should take the risk on the assumption that whatever's in there will be equally important. It's worth it.'

Fox nodded, dropping to his knees and pulling out his tool kit. Cat glanced around nervously as he worked, hating the feeling of exposure she got from standing there. She crossed her fingers, muttering under her breath and almost letting out a yelp of relief when the lock clicked.

‘Here goes nothing,' he murmured, pushing the door open.

It was pitch-black inside and completely silent, and Cat relaxed somewhat, assuming it was empty. A strange smell, like meat that had gone off, reached her nostrils and she gagged.

‘Hang on,' Fox muttered.

There was a click, and the lamps on the walls sparked, the small flames flaring to life.

Cat gasped.

Lining the walls of the room were large, steel-barred cages, locked with simple padlocks. Every single cage held at least a dozen children. They were all younger than Cat, and each one had some sort of mechanical attachment; a crudely fused mechanical arm or leg, similar to the ones Cat and Fox had seen in the workshops. Some of the children had entire sections of their heads missing, springs and gears jammed into the flesh of their brain. Others had metal plating in place of skin over their chests, and there were large, gaping wounds where the mechanics had failed to bond the metal to human skin. Bile rose in Cat's throat,
and she gripped Fox's arm tightly. Not one of the children moved, and Cat realised in horror that every single one was dead.

‘Oh, gods,' Fox breathed, face pale. ‘Those twisted, perverted monsters. Cat, the mechanical attachments … that's why they didn't connect to anything. They're not building mechanical soldiers – they're fusing metal and flesh, they're connecting wires to nerves and making
human mechas. Gods
.' His voice trailed off hoarsely, and a tear leaked from the corner of his eye.

‘These must be the “failed experiments”,' he continued after a pause.

Cat shook her head, her mouth opening and closing silently – she couldn't speak. The smell of blood and decay was making her nauseous, and she looked up at Fox desperately.

‘Go and wait outside, Cat,' he told her softly. ‘I need … I need to film this.'

Cat kept shaking her head, clinging tighter to Fox's coat sleeve. She wasn't leaving him; she wasn't going out into the building alone. He looked at her, then sighed in understanding, squeezing her quickly around the shoulders and pulling out his video recorder with his free hand.

‘Cat, I need to get closer. I need you to let go of me,' he urged softly, his fingers prying gently at the hand clutching his shirt cuff.

Reluctantly, Cat released him, watching with glassy eyes as he walked closer to the cages. He was two feet away from the front of the nearest cage before he stopped, unable to force himself any closer. Cat waited as he filmed the cages,
his quiet voice letting her know that he'd also turned on his audio recorder. It wasn't long before he'd had more than he could take and switched both recorders off, returning quickly to Cat. She had slid down the door and was sitting with her knees tucked up to her chest, face buried in her arms. She jumped as she felt a hand rest on her hair, and looked up to see Fox eyeing her worriedly.

‘Let's go,' he prompted, nudging her to her feet.

Outside, Cat dashed down the corridor to the nearest alcove, practically collapsing to the floor as she reached it, silent tears streaming down her cheeks. When Fox joined her, he sank to the floor beside her and hugged her. She latched on to him, burying her face against his chest, crying into his waistcoat. His cheek pressed against the top of her head, his arm around her.

‘I feel sick. I don't want to be sick,' she murmured frantically, her breath coming short and fast. He rubbed her back soothingly, squeezing her hand.

‘Just breathe, Cat. Nice and deep, copy my breathing, focus on me,' he whispered, exaggerating his own breaths. Eventually, she calmed down a little, though all she could see when she closed her eyes was the room full of children. It could have been her, had she not been high-born. It could have been Fox, had he not run away. Her brain conjured an image of a girl with Ben's features, and she went cold; how could they tell Ben about his sister's fate?

She didn't know how long they sat in that alcove until she managed to get herself under control. She realised that she was practically sitting on Fox's lap, and scrambled away. There was a wet patch on his shirt, and she bit her lip.

‘I'm sorry, I …' she trailed off.

‘Don't worry about it,' Fox said simply, squeezing her hand. She looked away, wiping her face on her sleeve. She was sure she looked a mess, with red-rimmed puffy eyes and tear-stains on her cheeks, but she didn't care.

‘We should … keep looking,' she murmured, her voice croaky. ‘Now that we know what we're looking for.'

But gods, how she wished she'd stayed oblivious.

The atmosphere in the compound had completely changed for Cat. No longer was there the buzz of excitement, the thrill of doing something against the law; now, all she could feel was a persistent gnawing in the pit of her stomach and the overwhelming urge to curl up and cry. Fox too was even quieter than usual.

Still, they doggedly kept on with their task, quickly sneaking to the floor below. There they found more workshops, which were bigger and more extensive than those they'd seen before, but Cat wasn't interested in figuring out how the devices worked any more. She was hoping they would find some children alive and untouched, but considering how the mechanics had complained about running out of test subjects, she wasn't confident that hope would be realised. The men had talked about bringing in a new batch from the country, though; maybe children were brought to the compound in groups at a time. Maybe there were hundreds of healthy kids still out in the country.

‘Wait,' Fox breathed suddenly, pushing her into a dark corner.

Cat blinked, snapping out of her thoughts, and held her
breath as four men in overalls and lab coats walked past. She grimaced when she saw a rust-red stain on one of the men's white coat, knowing there was only one thing it could possibly be. The purple heart embroidered on his coat identified him as a doctor, sending a chill down her spine. How could a man trained to save people be doing something so awful?

‘We're getting closer to something important,' Fox told her quietly, once the men were gone. ‘There are more and more workers around here.'

Cat and Fox continued in the direction the men had come from. Near the end of the corridor they found another door and Cat stood on tiptoe to look through its window. A stifled gasp escaped from her mouth and she beckoned Fox closer.

The workshop inside was at least twice the size of all the others they'd seen and, unlike the others, it was a hive of activity. Cat counted twelve mechanics and two government men, both of whom she recognised. There were three large metal tables in the centre of the room with several carts full of medical and mechanical equipment surrounding them. In one corner was a cage similar to those they'd seen before. The only difference was the children inside these were alive. Unconscious by the look of it, but definitely breathing.

She hastily removed her video recorder from her buttonhole and lifted it up to point it through the window, watching in silent horror as three of the mechanics opened the cage and removed a sleeping boy, his light brown hair matted over his small face. The boy was naked and thin and
she was sure he couldn't have been much older than thirteen. He was sleeping too deeply for his slumber to be natural, and Cat realised he had been drugged. The men laid the boy on one of the metal tables, and a doctor in a heavily blood-stained lab coat stepped forward, a scalpel in his hand. Cat looked away and saw Fox crouching down.

‘What are you doing?' she hissed.

‘Trying to get this door open,' he told her quietly. ‘We need audio, and we can't do that with the door closed.'