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Chapter 4: Thursday Morning (Cont.)
Higgs
knocked on the door of the lab and waited for Dr. Montebanque to answer. The
inventor seemed to be in a flurry of activity. He was running around the lab in
a last minute rush to get everything ready for the heist. Higgs felt bad
bothering him, but he had something he needed to be sure of.
“Dr.
Montebanque, do you have something that can be used to move a train car?”
“I do not
have time for this, Higgs.” The doctor shook his head and ran a hand through
his white hair. “I have to prepare a device to help fly the largest airship
ever manufactured. I have to figure out the physics of filling it with
hydrogen. I have to assemble a winch capable of towing the same at 70 miles per
hour. And on top of all that, I have to prepare my wing suit, which is not
going as well as hoped.”
“Wait,
what?” Higgs was surprised at that last statement. “The wingsuit isn’t ready?”
“It is
ready. It is merely untested.”
“You’ve
never tested it?” Higgs rubbed his forehead. He felt a headache coming on, “You
didn’t think this was pertinent information to have shared with us earlier?
We’re depending on that suit working. If it fails, we fail, and Charlotte could
be hurt, or worse.”
Dr.
Montebanque paced the room, and continued working on his winch assembly. “It
will work. Do not worry. It is a perfect creation. Only, I do not know whether
it will be completely stable. The physics are solid, but of course, until it is
tested, we will not know for sure. “
“You’re
freaking me out, Everton. I’ve got a mind to call the whole thing off. I need
some assurance from you that you will find some time to be sure about it. I’d
rather call this whole thing off than take that kind of risk. By the time we
find out it failed, we’ve already stolen the airship, and with nothing to show
for it.”
“Have
confidence. I do.”
“I trust
you, because I have no choice. But please, if there’s anything you can do to
assure success I urge you to do so.”
“Understood.”
Dr. Montebanque went back to his work.
“So about
moving a train…” Higgs returned to the reason he came.
“I thought
you had forgotten. Yes. I have a small device that can turn a train car axle,
but it will require some muscle.”
“Fine. Can
I have it? I’ll leave you to your work.”
Dr.
Montebanque let out a frustrated sigh, and walked to a closet. He pulled out a
device that was essentially a lever with a box on the end of it. The box had a
cutout on one end and a long rubber strip hung from the cutout. “Wrap this
strap around the axle, cinch it tight with this wheel on the bottom. As you
pull the lever back and forth, it will turn the axle.”
“Thanks
Everton. I will see you this afternoon.”
Higgs
picked up the heavy lever device and carried it out of the lab. On the street,
he hailed a steamer cab. The slow car pulled up to the curb and popped the
trunk. Higgs loaded the lever into the trunk and climbed into the back seat of
the steam car.
“Why would
you want to go to the old East station?” The cab driver asked, looking in his
rearview mirror at the stranger in the back seat.
Higgs
wasn’t in the mood for small talk. “Why do you feel that’s any of your
business?”
“Sorry,
buddy, just making conversation. Didn’t mean to pry.” The driver went back to
driving without any further questions.
Higgs sat
in the backseat. The rumble of the steamdrive lulled him into a half-sleep. He
reflected on the heist. He was feeling less certain today than he had before
the plan was drawn up. Had they set themselves up for failure with such an
ambitious plan? He tried to think of other options. There had to be a simpler
way.
Could they
all swoop in on Airbikes? He didn’t know how to pilot one, but it couldn’t be
that hard, could it? Maybe they would be better off to try to get their people
on the train ahead of time. That was a very real possibility. If he could get
himself, maybe Phineas and Anabelle, Kostas to open doors for them. The four of
them could get into the car through the front door. Maybe offloading the goods
along the track was the best option. It meant a lot of cleanup, but not as many
components. Even better, if they timed their strike right, they could blow the
connection to the train just before a switch. They could let the train roll
ahead at full speed and redirect the armored car. It would take some timing,
and they lose the element of secrecy. That would make for a tough getaway, but
it wasn’t as much risk.
More and
more, Higgs was starting to feel like the whole thing was a bad idea. He still
wondered if he could truly go through with it in the end. There’s the matter of
the stranger in the mask. If he backed out, the stranger would surely want his
money back. Maybe more than that. If the stranger is well connected, Higgs
could find himself in prison or worse. He’d backed himself into a corner this
time, without any real way out. He would have to go through with this. He can
worry about repercussions after the whole thing is done. He could count on the
greed of the others on the team to provide him some cover if he needed to skip
town in the middle of the night.
The car
hit a big bump and snapped Higgs out of his reverie. He looked up and saw that
they were near the edge of the city. From here, they were heading into the
suburbs toward the commuter rail station where he hoped the stranger had left a
train car. The car pulled up to the station and he tossed the driver a few
coins. “Thanks for the ride.”
“No
problem, pal. You need me to stick around? There aren’t any trains coming out
here anymore. The steamers never caught on out here.”
“No. I’ll
find a way back. Thanks.” Higgs pulled his lever from the trunk and tossed a
few more coins the driver’s way. The driver tipped his hat. Higgs watched as
the car let off some excess steam and slowly lumbered away.
Higgs
walked into the train station and found his way to the platform. There, as
expected was a black boxcar. It was old, but that made no difference to Higgs.
It was probably better for keeping it low key. He slid open the door and looked
inside. There was an envelope on the floor in the center. He opened it and read
the note inside:
As promised. Do not let me down.
He pulled
a book of matches from his pocket, lit the note on fire and threw it down onto
the tracks. He climbed under the car and attached the lever that Dr.
Montebanque had given him. It went on quite easily, cinching into place tightly
around the axle. The lever itself stretched out in front of the car. The lever
was shaped like an “L” and a slight adjustment to the bottom portion allowed it
to fit perfectly to the car. He had to admit, Dr. Montebanque had a solution to
everything. He decided not to worry about the wingsuit issue. He would need to
trust his team, and Dr. Montebanque hadn’t given him any reason to doubt his
trustworthiness.
He stood
on the small platform at the front of the car. He pushed the lever away and
pulled back toward himself. The train began to slowly roll down the track.
Under the car, he could hear the click of a freewheel inside the gearbox
attached to the lever. Progress wasn’t
fast, but it would do. He would need to switch a few sections of the track, but
his study of the old rail system told him that this line could link up with the
financial district station and the old airport spur.
As the car
entered the opening of a tunnel, he settled in for a couple of hours of travel
and a lot of time to think.
Part 15 >
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