The Madness Project (The Madness Method) (56 page)

I winced and stared at the carpet.

“Look,” Kantian said, leaning back on his desk and rubbing
his jaw.  “Don’t make it too complicated.  The factory is an easy target.  You
boys can get in there, throw some poppers to shake people up, and get out nice
and easy.  No one has to get hurt.  No one has to get caught.  You just need to
time it so it happens when they roll out their new steam tram, when they’ll be
sure to have some newshawks on hand.”

“Why this factory?” I asked. 

Kantian had a map open on the desk behind him, but I wasn’t
standing quite close enough to see where his pin pointed.  He shifted his
weight a little, blocking more of the map from my view.

“Don’t ask too many questions.”

I folded my arms.  “I’m not going to agree to anything until
you answer some of them.”

For a moment we locked stares, but Kantian had never seemed particularly
fond of that game.  He pushed away from the desk and turned to study the map.

“Last week they found out one of their factory workers was a
mage.   Fellow named Arne.  Apparently he was running behind schedule so he
built a few pieces by hand.”  He took my silence for confusion and added, “He
shaped them with his bare hands.  Cold metal.  By hand.  Well, anyway, someone
saw him do it.  Apparently the foreman thought the mage had forgotten what a
furnace was because he decided to reintroduce him to it.  Head-first.”

“That’s murder,” I said.  “Even if he was a mage.  Why
weren’t the coppers called?”

“Not enough proof.  It looked like an accident.”

“And you know about this, how?”

He sighed, thrumming his fingers on the map.  “Arne’s
brother was on the factory floor when it happened.  Came running here a few
hours back, scared for his own life.”  He turned to face me again, his features
cold and dark in the dim light.  “Apparently it’s not the only time something
like this has happened.”

Silence lingered a few moments between us, then I asked, 
“Why do I need to take all the lads?  Won’t that just up the chance that one of
us will get nabbed?  Seems like something I could handle on my own.”

“Yes, the lone wolf, fighting injustice all on his own,”
Kantian said, the faintest sneer in his voice.  “But it doesn’t make the same
kind of statement as a small mob.”

“But the Meats aren’t mages,” I persisted, setting my jaw. 
“What sort of statement does that make, exactly?”

He sighed in exasperation.  “No one will know that except
you.” 

No
, I thought. 
You don’t really care that a mage
was murdered, do you?  This is just what Hayli was suggesting.  You want to get
us behind you, because you know you have no chance without the mages.

He flicked open his pocket watch.  “All right, listen. 
You’ve got till noon to get yourselves together and get to the factory. 
Don’t
disappoint me.”

I backed a step, and tipped my fingers to my forehead, and
left the room as fast as I could without looking like I was running away. 
Derrin was waiting for me inside the barracks, leaning against the wall with
his arms folded.  If I kept walking he would just track me down, so I stopped
beside him and mimicked his pose.

“So, he’s got you starting riots,” he said, bland.

“That’s what he thinks.”  I glanced over my shoulder, but
all the skitters were asleep.  “Though why I should actually do it…”

“Don’t be a grobbing simpleton.  I don’t know if you’ve
noticed, but Kantian doesn’t exactly seem to like you very much.  Not sure
why.  But I’m pretty sure that if you walk away now…” 

His voice trailed off, and after a moment he turned and
headed toward the stairs that led up to the west-side porch, beckoning me to
follow.  Once outside, we both leaned on the wall, facing the sulphur-smelling
darkness beyond.

“Listen,” he said, voice low.  “I’m not sure how much I
trust you.  But there’s a difference between me not trusting you, and Kantian
not trusting you.  I’d watch my back, if I were you.  If I know what he’s
planning with this riot, it’ll be pretty mild.  Just some broken windows and a
lot of shouting and making a scene, as if that will somehow make people
sympathetic to us.”  He rolled his eyes.  “Sometimes I don’t know what that man
is thinking.  But if you can swallow your pride and just do it…”

I shot him a rather annoyed glance.  “Whatever it is you
want to say, just say it.  Are you suggesting Kantian will have me offed if I
don’t play his stupid game?”

He met my gaze evenly.  “It’s not a suggestion.”

Chapter 11 — Hayli

Someone was jangling my curtain gears.  It couldn’t even
have been dawn yet, but I got the sense whoever was standing there had been at
it for a few good minutes, because a second after I picked up the sound, I heard
my name hissed in a whisper.  It almost sounded like…

It almost sounded like Shade.  But I hadn’t seen him in
days.

I sat up, brushing hair from my eyes, and tugged the curtain
back.  Shade stood there, looking a bit pensive with his head tilted to one
side, almost like he hadn’t expected me to wake up.  He had that massive
leather coat on, and in the low light of a single gas lamp, I could see the
shine of raindrops on its shoulders and the fringe of his hair.  The light
threw his face into shadow, turning the circles under his eyes hollow and
ghastly.

“Shade,” I whispered.  “You look grobbing awful.  Where you
been?”

His eyes flickered to mine, then he darted a glance around
the room and twitched his head toward the door.  He didn’t say a word, but I got
his meaning clear enough.  Soon as he’d turned and headed out, I pulled my
curtain closed again and slipped into my breeks and boots, and grabbed my worn
wool jumper, which was the warmest thing I owned.  Coins had given it to me
just yesterday, not because he’d grown out of it, but just because he was kind
that way.  I carried it until I got to the Hole stairs, then I stopped and
tugged it on over my head, the wool scratching a bit at my neck and on my hands
where the sleeves hung too long.

Out in the enclosure, I found Shade sitting on the wall,
studying the clouds.  The cold rain had turned to drizzle, and out east the sky
bled the faintest tinge of dark violet and silver.  I could smell snow on the
air.

“It’s early,” I said, wandering over to the wall.  “And you
really do look horrid.  Everything jake?”

Shade turned to me, finally.  I couldn’t tell if he was
smiling.

“Need you, Hayli,” he said.

A blush prickled up my neck, but all I could say was,
“What?”

“Need your help today.  If you’re willing.”

“Oh,” I said, feeling stupid.  Of course he didn’t mean
aught by it.  “What with?”

“Kantian’s asked me to lead a group over to the steel mill,
spot a little mischief.  Wanna come?”

I couldn’t keep the grin off my face.  After watching him
and the lads jaunt off for meets and God knew what else, I’d started to think
he’d push me away forever.  But if he wanted me for this…
this
was real
business.  This was action.  And he thought I could help. 

“What’s the story?” I asked, hopping onto the wall as close
to him as I dared.

“They murdered a mage who worked there, I’m told. 
Apparently it happens more than anyone likes to admit.  So, we need to show the
city we’re not going to take this sort of thing anymore.  The mages need to
stand together.  We need to put up a fight.”

I shifted, cold from more than just the wet stones beneath
me.  “I’m not sure about all that rebellion talk.  Seems awful drastic.  Maybe
things’ll get better if we just wait…”

He smiled.  “I’m not talking about taking up arms against
the government, Hayli.  Just want to let folks know we don’t like being treated
like we’re not human.”

“So, you and me…we’re ganna gan with some other mages to put
on a show?”

He made a quiet sound that I guessed was a snort, or maybe a
laugh.  “Not exactly.  I’m taking a few of the lads with me.  Kantian didn’t
seem to care too much that I was the only mage.”

I frowned, scraping the heels of my boots against the wall. 
“So you just wanted another mage along to make it look better?”

“Nah,” he said, so cool and careless that I couldn’t tell
what he meant by it.  Then he turned his head to study me, his eyes glinting in
the growing light.  “I want you along because you can handle yourself and you
see things like no one else does.  And because…”

He twitched his head away, and held his tongue.  We sat a
bit in silence, while the sun rose behind the clouds and the rain turned to
snow, and I tried to figure out what I felt about all of this.

“Shouldn’t be anything too dangerous,” he said finally.  He
held his palms up on his legs, staring at the frail white flakes melting on his
pale skin.  “Just a bit of smoke and shadows to make a scene.”  He glanced at
me again, holding my gaze just a fraction too long before he went back to
studying his hands.  “If things go bad, Hayli…if something happens we don’t
expect…I want you to get clear.”

“You want me to run away?” I asked, hot.  “You think I
can’t…”

“No,” he said, so sharp that I winced.  “That’s not what I
mean.  I mean I want you to take the lads and get them away, because I can’t be
sure they won’t try to play hero and come after me.”

My mouth dropped open.  Then, before I could think, I said,
“And you think I wouldn’t?”

This time I couldn’t meet his gaze.  But out of the corner
of my eye I caught the look on his face, all bemused surprise.

“Would you?”

I knotted and unknotted my fingers in my lap.  “I wouldn’t
let you stand alone.”

He planted his hands on the wall and bowed his head, letting
out all his breath in one long sigh.  I couldn’t tell if I’d disappointed him,
or annoyed him, or if maybe he was secretly happy to hear me say it.  Sometimes
I hated how well he could always mask what he was thinking.

“Will you promise me you’ll do it?  If it comes to that,
will you get them to safety?  I can get trouble off their backs, but only if I
don’t have to be distracted worrying about them.”  He leaned forward a bit,
peering at me sidelong, which I guessed was the closest he’d get to leaning
toward me.  “Please?”

“Drat,” I said.  “Can’t say no to that.  I got your back,
Shade.  Let’s just hope it doesn’t come to that.”

“My thought exactly.”  He slipped off the wall, tilting his
face back so the snowflakes caught in his lashes.  “We’ll leave near noon. 
That’s when they’re rolling out a new tram they’ve just built, so Kantian wants
to be sure the newshawks see us.”

“I’ll be there,” I said, and watched him disappear into the
shadows.

I wasn’t sure I could make myself keep my promise.  If
things went to the rails, I knew I’d want to follow him more than anything. 
And I knew the lads would, too.  It would take more gutsy strength than I
likely had to let Shade do his thing.  I wasn’t sure I was sorry about that,
either.

A little before noon I found Shade and the lads in one of
the warehouse rooms, putting together poppers.  Anuk must have been busy all
morning making the things, because he had a pile big as my head on the table in
front of him.  They were little more than smoke stones in a fragile shell the
size of a chicken’s egg that would shatter soon as they hit something. 
Basically all we had to do was throw the poppers through the windows and watch
the factory workers go up in a panic from all the smoke.  Jig had a notion it
would be funny to watch, and Link and Vim—already annoyed that Shade hadn’t
invited them along, again—thought Anuk should add shrapnel to the casings
because smoke was too boring.  Anuk just set his jaw and kept working, and
Shade got a darkish kind of air about him. 

“All right,” Anuk said finally, straightening up and handing
Shade a messenger bag filled with the devices.  “Try not to shake that too
much, so.  You ready?”

Shade gave him a pointed sort of look and slung the bag over
his shoulder.  “Fine,” he said, his voice heavier than I’d have expected. 
“Let’s get this done.”

We followed him out into the city and the spitting snow.  I
had no idea where we were headed, but Shade seemed to know just where to go,
and everyone tromped along behind him in willing silence.  After a bit, he
turned and met my gaze, then held his hand up by his shoulder where I could see
it and beckoned me up beside him.  Blushing at being singled out, I ignored Jig
and Coins and shouldered my way past Anuk to walk next to him.

For a few minutes we walked without speaking, then, as we
emerged onto Front Street, he turned to me with the corner of his mouth quirked
up in a strange little smile.

“You know where the Macallum Mill is?” he murmured.

I stifled a laugh.  “You dan’ na where you’re gannin’?”

“Haven’t a clue.”

“Fooled me.  Well, you’re headed the right way, anyhow,” I
said.  “We’ll turn right about three big streets east of here.  The mill’s at
the end of the road on the river bank.  If we gan on past it a bit, we can get
up near it kind of sneaky-like.”