David Liss - The Devil's Company

“What did it mean?” he said at last. “His last words about Miss Glade?”

Discovering Elias’s congress with her seemed now to be a lifetime ago, and I had no energy to spare to think of it then. The betrayal had been insignificant in the light of all that had happened, and I meant to treat it accordingly. “It could mean either of two things: that we must seek her help, or we must seek protection from her.”

In the dark of the hackney, I could see him nod methodically. “And which do you think?”

“I know nothing but that we must see Mr. Franco at once. I must learn what he knows of this Teaser fellow and Pepper’s invention.”

“He is supposed to be your friend,” Elias said. “Can it be that he serves the Company?”

I shook my head. “I don’t think so. I think it more likely that he has made some investments, perhaps knows more than he realizes, and that he was selected as Cobb’s first victim as much for Cobb’s convenience as my consternation.”

“To keep him from realizing a connection and revealing it?”

“That is my guess. Baghat and Teaser suggested he had some investment in the engine, and the engine is at the very heart of this madness. If there is a way to get our hands on the designs for the cotton-weaving device, we must get it to Ellershaw, and we must do so before midday tomorrow.”

“What?” Elias barked. “Give it to the Company? Have you not understood how monstrous it is?”

“Of course I do, but these companies are born to be monstrous. We cannot ask them not to be what they are. Ellershaw once said that government is not the solution to the problems of business, it is the problem of business. In that he was wrong. The company is a monster, and it is for Parliament to decide the size and shape of its cage. I shall not quarrel with Company men for seeking to make their profit, so there is great harm neither in keeping the plans from Ellershaw nor giving them up.”

“Then why do it?”

“Because the one thing I know about Cobb, the one thing of which I can be certain, is that he knows of the plans for Pepper’s engine and he is desperate to possess them. And so the plans must be found. We shall see who threatens whom if I dangle the plans over a fire or promise to deliver them to Craven House. It is time for us to drive this coach. My uncle is dead. Mr. Franco rots in jail. The men I seek to guide me end up murdered. It is foolishness to believe that we will fare much better unless we make new rules for this game.”

“Cobb now threatens only us and your aunt,” Elias said. “If we choose to ignore the threat, to elude whatever bailiffs he sends after us, he cannot stop us. As to your aunt, I have no doubt that the good lady will endure any temporary inconvenience, no matter how distressing, if you can use it to strike back at your enemies.”

Though he could not see it, I offered him a smile. It had been a terrible night for him, and for our friendship, but I knew full well what he had just said to me. He would risk Cobb’s wrath and stand by me. And I knew he risked far more than his freedom. Elias was a surgeon with a fine reputation; he had men and women of station to visit. He would risk it all to stand by my side and fight my enemies.

“I thank you,” I said. “With luck, this shall be resolved soon. We’ll know more after we speak with Mr. Franco.”

“Do you then propose that we simply go to sleep and await the opening of the Fleet Prison?”

I let out a humorless laugh. “No, I am in no mind to wait. We’ll go to the Fleet now.”

“They won’t let you visit a prisoner in the middle of the night.”

“Anything may be got at any time for silver,” I told him. “You know that.”

“Indeed,” he said. It was hard not to hear the bitterness in his voice. “Has not this whole affair been in defense of that view?”

THE COACHMAN APPEARED skeptical about taking us within the Rules of the Fleet, fearing we would refuse to pay him, and because of the peculiarities of that neighborhood, he would have no legal recourse. Paying him in advance quelled that anxiety, though he still appeared uneasy about a pair of men seeking to gain entrance to the Fleet at night. Nevertheless, he agreed to take us and await our return, though neither Elias nor I expressed much surprise when we heard his coach retreating the moment our backs were turned.

It was now well after midnight, so when I pounded upon the prison gates it took several minutes before anyone arrived to slide back the viewing latch and see who we were and what we wished for.

“I have great need to visit with a prisoner,” I said. “One Moses Franco. I must speak with him at once.”

“And I must be the king of Prussia,” the guard returned. “No visitors at night, and if you weren’t a miscreant out about nefarious work, you’d know that.” He sniffed a few times like an eager dog. “You smell like a chimney sweep.”

I ignored this observation, which I had no doubt was true enough. “Let us dispense with the games. How much to view the prisoner right now?”

The guard did not even pause. “Two shillings.”

I handed him the coins. “’Twere better if you, like a public inn, would post a slate with the day’s prices and save your customers the trouble of games.”

“Mayhap I like the games,” he answered. “Now wait here while I fetch your prisoner.”

We pressed ourselves close against the slick stones of the building, for the rain had not let up, and though it had been good news not an hour earlier, now we were cold and wet and miserable. The guard was gone for what felt like an eternity, but he finally returned, close to half an hour later. “I can’t help you,” he told me. “The prisoner has been released. He’s gone.”

“Gone?” I shouted. “How could he be gone?”

“It were a strange thing that was related to me, and I’d have been back sooner had I not paused to hear the whole story, but thinking you would wish to hear it too, I stayed to learn of it. Now, having checked the slate with the day’s prices, I find that interesting stories relating to released prisoners also cost two shillings, so hand over your silver and be glad the prison ain’t charging this week for fruitless fetchings.”

I slid the coins through the slat. The guard snatched them up. “Now, here’s what I heard. A gentleman showed up and offered to discharge the prisoner of his debts and his prison fees. Nothing unusual about that. It happens all the time, of course, but in this case the story made the rounds, for it seems that the very same fellow who come to pay the piper is the one who committed the prisoner in the first place-fellow by the name of Cobb. And what was more interesting than that was that the prisoner didn’t wish to be released to go with this fellow. Said he’d rather stay in prison. But we ain’t in the business of running an inn, despite what you might have to say, even though it took a couple of turnkeys to force the reluctant and liberated Mr. Franco into his liberator’s coach.”

A knot of fear and outrage gripped me. It had not been very long since Elias and I reasoned that Cobb could threaten me now with nothing for which I was not prepared, but it seemed he had anticipated this position. No longer content to let Mr. Franco rot in prison, he now took hold of the man himself. I was ever more determined to strike back and strike back hard, and I was now, more than ever, without any idea of how to do so.

THE NEXT MORNING, now but two days before the meeting of the Court of Proprietors, Elias met me at my rooms, as I had asked, and as early as I asked-clear signs that he was every bit as concerned as I was.

“Ought you not to be at Craven House?” he asked me, “managing affairs from there?”