Water rumbled in the kettle as it came to a boil. Ada took her attention off the younger two while she measured out the tea and filled the pot. Meena’s prized Darjeeling hit the water and bloomed into full fragrance, taking a little of the tension out of the air.
“Cor, that’s a hell of a thing!” Nelly was squinting at the front windows. She flew across the room and pressed her nose to the glass. “Smoke. Down at the corner.” She gestured toward the far end of the street. “Could be Mr. Edison. It’s just the kind of signal he’d send up.”
Ada pushed away from the counter and headed for the front just as Henry scooped up the revolver. “I’ll investigate,” he said.
Ada grabbed his arm. “Wait. Let’s think this through.”
An obstinate grimace turned down his lips, and he started to pull away, but a breath later, he relaxed in her grip and nodded.
“Mr. Edison never just hairs off,” Ada explained. “Hardly ever, I mean,” she corrected herself.
Figures ran past the window, some running toward the billowing gray smoke, some running away. All of which added to the sense of urgency pushing her to follow.
They should do something.
She pressed her own nose to the window, laying her cheek against the cold glass and squinting down the street. There was smoke, a great deal of thick gray smoke. But no flames.
Her heart gave a silly little stutter. It could be a smoke bomb. Exactly the sort of thing Edison would carry.
It could also be a trap.
Ada bit her lip and turned away from the window. She stared out over the empty desks, trying to come up with a logical plan. Edison and his friends knew what they were about. The Restitution League obviously invested in the best. The best equipment, the best training, the best plans.
They’d get themselves out of any trouble.
It was her job—her only job at the moment—to keep Nelly and Henry safe.
But it could be Edison out there, trying to gain their attention. What if the others were unaware of his signal? Meena and the men could be anywhere in the city by now.
Perhaps it came down to the three of them.
When Ada looked up, both Henry and Nelly were watching her. And though the strain of waiting was clear on their young faces, they were willing to let her take charge.
“All right. We’ll go.” Ada grabbed their hands and squeezed, wanting to emphasize her point. “But we stay together. No matter what.”
Nelly grinned.
Henry nodded solemnly, as if allowing any other emotion would suggest an unseemly frivolity.
Ada glanced around the kitchen area for something to use as a weapon. The paring knife just fit down the center of her corset.
Henry had the revolver. Mimicking Edison’s swagger, he stuffed it in the waistband of his trousers. The familiar gesture squeezed her heart.
Nelly hefted the small wrench she’d used to take the front off of her typing machine. Her small hands made the tool look bigger than it was.
“Makes a good cosher,” she explained.
Ada led the way out the door, peering cautiously up and down the street before setting out. The cold night air bit the lobes of her ears and stung the tip of her nose, but she paid the frost little mind.
If all went well, they wouldn’t be out long enough to worry about their lack of overcoats. Ada slid her hands between her upper arms and her sides, hoping to keep her fingers limber enough to grab the paring knife, should it come down to it. Both Nelly and Henry were blowing on their cupped hands, sending plumes of thin white steam out in front of them as they hurried down the pavement toward the billowing smoke.
By the time they reached the source of the smoke, a small crowd had gathered. Windows in the surrounding flats had been flung open. The residents leaned out over the sills to watch the goings’ on.
Now that they were closer, Ada could see that the smoke poured out of a broken window on the ground floor of a vacant shop across the street. It was thick and gray and curiously odorless.
There was no fire. No heat. No smell of burning wood. Just a bitter, chemical tang to the air.
Exactly the sort of diversion Edison would create.
Ada’s heart lifted. He would have set off the device in order to mask his escape.
The persistent clang of a brass bell signaled the arrival of a fire wagon. It stopped on the far side of the building. Though just across the street, the image of the horses and the firemen moved in and out of view as the smoke swirled around them.
It didn’t take but a moment for the uniformed men to uncoil a long line of firehose and pour water through the broken window. The smoke dissipated instantly.
Three firemen approached the front door of the small shop. One smashed the window with an axe, and they disappeared inside.
Ada held her breath. Hoping. Praying. Wishing with all her might they’d emerge with Edison, all patting each other on the back over a job well done.
“Nothing here.” One of the men hurried out the front, a paint can held high. “Place is deserted. Just this, chief.” He continued on to the fire wagon.
Ada sighed. “False alarm.”
Disappointment added weight to the worry that pressed down on her shoulders as she and her companions trudged back to the office. After the adrenaline, and the elation of hope, it was as if the rest of their meager energies had been sucked straight out of them.
Walking back took twice as long as hurrying out had done. It felt even longer. They’d just reached the office when a slender figure came up behind them.
Ada gasped. Her hand went to the bodice of her gown.
Henry tried to shove Nelly behind him and reach for the revolver at the same time.
Nelly raised her wrench to shoulder height, a fearsome scowl on her delicate face.
Hands out in a protective gesture, the figure stumbled back. “My apologies.” It was a woman’s voice. High and thin and soft with youth. She couldn’t see the woman’s features as she held a kerchief to her mouth and nose.
The woman grabbed Ada’s arm, sagging against her. “Wasn’t that the most frightening thing? I could faint dead away.”
Though the young woman was almost her own height, Ada held her up, propping her own arm beneath the woman’s elbow. She couldn’t leave the poor thing out on the pavement.
And they did have tea.
It couldn’t do any harm.
Henry shrugged. “Couldn’t hurt to offer her a chair and a glass of water.”
“We’ve got tea,” Ada offered. “Come. Sit. Get your feet back under you.”
“Thank you,” the woman whispered.
She continued to lean on Ada as they waited for Henry to unlock the door. They filed in, but before Ada could lock the deadbolt behind them, the woman pulled away.
Light eyes glittered above the kerchief. Though her eyes were the only features Ada could see, she could have sworn the woman was laughing.
A bony wrist, and hands too big to be ladylike, swept beneath her cloak. Then she lunged, a canister spraying some sort of mist aimed straight at them.
The scent of almonds, mixed with an odd sickly sweet odor spread through the air.
Chloroform.