Page 31 of Crooked Kingdom (Dregs 2)
Again Kaz shrugged. “No one is going to believe that girl had anything to do with a financial scheme. Alys will sue for divorce and probably move back in with her parents. She’ll cry for a week, sing for two, and then get over it. Maybe she’ll marry a prince.”
“Or maybe a music teacher,” Inej said, remembering Bajan’s panic when he heard Alys had been abducted.
“There’s just one small problem,” said Jesper, “and by small, I mean ‘huge, glaring, let’s scrap this and go get a lager.’ The silos. I know we’re all about breaching the unbreachable, but how are we supposed to get inside?”
“Kaz can pick the locks,” said Wylan.
“No,” said Kaz, “I can’t.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever heard those words leave your lips,” said Nina. “Say it again, nice and slow.”
Kaz ignored her. “They’re quatrefoil locks. Four keys in four locks turned at the same time or they trigger security doors and an alarm. I can pick any lock, but I can’t pick four at once.”
“Then how do we get in?” Jesper asked.
“The silos also open at the top.”
“Those silos are nearly twenty stories high! Is Inej going to go up and down ten of them in one night?”
“Just one,” said Kaz.
“And then what?” said Nina, hands back on her hips and green eyes blazing.
Inej remembered the towering silos, the gaps between them.
“And then,” said Inej, “I’m going to walk a high wire from one silo to the next.”
Nina threw her hands in the air. “And all of it without a net, I suppose?”
“A Ghafa never performs with a net,” Inej said indignantly.
“Does a Ghafa frequently perform twenty stories above cobblestones after being held prisoner for a week?”
“There will be a net,” said Kaz. “It’s in place behind the silo guardhouse already, under a stack of sandbags.”
The silence in the tomb was sudden and complete. Inej couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “I don’t need a net.”
Kaz consulted his watch. “Didn’t ask. We have six hours to sleep and heal up. I’ll nab supplies from the Cirkus Zirkoa. They’re camped on the western outskirts of town. Inej, make a list of what you’ll need. We hit the silos in twenty-four hours.”
“Absolutely not,” said Nina. “Inej needs to rest.”
“That’s right,” Jesper agreed. “She looks thin enough to blow away in a stiff breeze.”
“I’m fine,” said Inej.
Jesper rolled his eyes. “You always say that.”
“Isn’t that how things are done around here?” asked Wylan. “We all tell Kaz we’re fine and then do something stupid?”
“Are we that predictable?” said Inej.
Wylan and Matthias said in unison, “Yes.”
“Do you want to beat Van Eck?” Kaz asked.
Nina blew out an exasperated breath. “Of course.”
Kaz’s eyes scanned the room, moving from face to face. “Do you? Do you want your money? The money we fought, and bled, and nearly drowned for? Or do you want Van Eck to be glad he picked a bunch of nobodies from the Barrel to scam? Because no one else is going to get him for us. No one else is going to care that he cheated us or that we risked our lives for nothing. No one else is going to make this right. So I’m asking, do you want to beat Van Eck?”
“Yes,” said Inej. She wanted some kind of justice.
“Soundly,” said Nina.
“Around the ears with Wylan’s flute,” said Jesper.
One by one, they nodded.
“The stakes have changed,” said Kaz. “Based on Van Eck’s little demonstration today, wanted posters with our faces on them are probably already going up all over Ketterdam, and I suspect he’ll be offering a handsome reward. He’s trading on his credibility, and the sooner we destroy it, the better. We’re going to take his money, his reputation, and his freedom all in one night. But that means we don’t stop. Angry as he is, tonight Van Eck is going to eat a fine dinner and fall off to a fitful sleep in his soft merch bed. Those stadwatch grunts will rest their weary heads until they get to the next shift, wondering if maybe they’ll earn a little overtime. But we don’t stop. The clock is ticking. We can rest when we’re rich. Agreed?”
Another round of nods.
“Nina, there are guards who walk the perimeter of the silos. You’ll be the distraction, a distressed Ravkan, new to the city, looking for work in the warehouse district. You need to keep them occupied long enough for the rest of us to get inside and for Inej to scale the first silo. Then—”
“On one condition,” said Nina, arms crossed.
“This is not a negotiation.”
“Everything is a negotiation with you, Brekker. You probably bartered your way out of the womb. If I’m going to do this, I want us to get the rest of the Grisha out of the city.”
“Forget it. I’m not running a charity for refugees.”
“Then I’m out.”
“Fine. You’re out. You’ll still get your share of the money for your work on the Ice Court job, but I don’t need you on this crew.”
“No,” said Inej quietly. “But you need me.”
Kaz rested his cane across his legs. “It seems everyone is forming alliances.”
Inej remembered the way the sun had caught the brown in his eyes only hours before. Now they were the color of coffee gone bitter in the brewing. But she was not going to back down.
“They’re called friendships, Kaz.”
His gaze shifted to Nina. “I don’t like being held hostage.”
“And I don’t like shoes that pinch at the toes, but we must all suffer. Think of it as a challenge for your monstrous brain.”
After a long pause, Kaz said, “How many people are we talking about?”
“There are less than thirty Grisha in the city that I know of, other than the Council of Tides.”
“And how would you like to corral them? Hand out pamphlets directing them to a giant raft?”
“There’s a tavern near the Ravkan embassy. We use it to leave messages and exchange information. I can get the word out from there. Then we just need a ship. Van Eck can’t watch all the harbors.”
Inej didn’t want to disagree, but it had to be said. “I think he can. Van Eck has the full power of the city government behind him. And you didn’t see his reaction when he discovered Kaz had dared to take Alys.”
“Please tell me he actually frothed at the mouth,” said Jesper.
“It was a close thing.”
Kaz limped to the tomb door, staring out into the darkness. “Van Eck won’t have made the choice to involve the city lightly. It’s a risk, and he wouldn’t take that risk if he didn’t intend to capitalize on it to the fullest. He’ll have every harbor and watchtower on the coast on full alert, with orders to question anyone trying to leave Ketterdam. He’ll just claim that he knows Wylan’s captors may plan to take him from Kerch.”
“Trying to get all of the Grisha out will be extremely dangerous,” said M
atthias. “The last thing we need is for a group of them to fall into Van Eck’s hands when he may still have a store of parem.”
Jesper tapped his fingers on the grips of his revolvers. “We need a miracle. And possibly a bottle of whiskey. Helps lubricate the brainpan.”
“No,” said Kaz slowly. “We need a ship. A ship that couldn’t possibly be suspect, that Van Eck and the stadwatch would never have cause to stop. We need one of his ships.”
Nina wriggled to the edge of her chair. “Van Eck’s trading company must have plenty of ships heading to Ravka.”
Matthias folded his huge arms, considering. “Get the Grisha refugees out on one of Van Eck’s own vessels?”
“We’d need a forged manifest and papers of transit,” said Inej.
“Why do you think they kicked Specht out of the navy?” Kaz asked. “He was forging leave documents and supply orders.”
Wylan pulled on his lip. “But it’s not just a question of a few documents. Let’s say there are thirty Grisha refugees. A ship’s captain is going to want to know why thirty people—”
“Thirty-one,” Kuwei said.
“Are you actually following all of this?” said Jesper incredulously.
“A ship to Ravka,” said Kuwei. “I understand that very well.”
Kaz shrugged. “If we’re going to steal a boat, we might as well put you on it.”
“Thirty-one it is,” said Nina with a smile, though if the muscle twitching in Matthias’ jaw was any indication, he wasn’t nearly so thrilled.
“Okay,” said Wylan, smoothing a crease in the map. “But a ship’s captain is going to wonder why there are thirty-one people being added to his manifest.”
“Not if the captain thinks he’s in on a secret,” said Kaz. “Van Eck will write a passionately worded letter calling upon the captain to use the utmost discretion in transporting these valuable political refugees and asking him to keep them hidden from anyone susceptible to Shu bribes—including the stadwatch—at all costs. Van Eck will promise the captain a huge reward when he returns, just to make sure he doesn’t get any ideas about selling out the Grisha. We already have a sample of Van Eck’s handwriting. We just need his seal.”
“Where does he keep it?” Jesper asked Wylan.
“In his office. At least that’s where it used to be.”
