Page 133 of Even Robots Die
From the corner of my eye, I see when they find the two small knives that were hidden in his boots and also the ones at his armpits. I know he has more than that, but I’m pretty sure the birds will find out soon enough.
Or maybe not, if I’m fast enough.
The guard that put the handcuffs on me grabs me by the arm and I have to remind myself that I’m not supposed to fight back.
I take a deep breath and follow him.
Let the show begin.
77
Florentine
After the guard brings me back to Raphaël, everything goes quickly.
Raphaël doesn’t really want to deal with us, so he dispatches two teams to send us on our way to the prison cells under Versailles’ palace.
I let my finger trail against the walls as we walk through the palace, and no one is the wiser.
When the guard closes the door of my cell and goes back up the stairs, I hear the mess that has started upstairs.
It’s not lost on me that I was lucky and that we haven’t encountered a single room where the light was dimmed and that I managed not to bump my wings against anything on the way.
It’s quiet here, but I know for a fact that it’s pandemonium at Versailles’ palace gates right now.
“Milton? You’re in?” I mouth for myself as I take a look at my current cell.
It’s small and dirty. The thing that’s on the ground can barely be called a mattress, and I think the bucket on the other side of the cell is supposed to be the equivalent of my toilet.
My cell shares bars with two others and, from what I can see, there are rows and rows of cells under the palace, and most of them are occupied. Or are we still under the palace? I heard rumors that theécuries du roiwere where Versailles’ jail cells were, so maybe I didn't realize how much the guard made me walk.
“Take all their electricity systems down,” I tell Milton.
That’s something I didn’t miss from the document I stole from the birds. The nets they launch with their new guns need to be charged. I don’t know how many they have in stock and I don't know how long this battle is going to last, but I won’t allow them to recharge those devil nets. They’ll have to do with the ones they have on hand, and that’s already too much.
I wait for a few seconds and then suddenly, darkness falls around me.
I hear a gasp from the cell on my right.
“What are those?” someone on my left asks.
I can’t see who they are in the dark. The only indication I currently have is the map with the heat signatures that Milton loaded for me. At least thanks to that, I know where they sent Brice.
I don’t have time for small talk.
I quickly power up the wings, and they open completely. I get a few more gasps and then I grab the lock from the outside.
I recognize it from their file. It’s an electronic lock. No need for a key. It recognizes the jailer's fingerprints.
“You can’t pass through the bars,” says the man who asked about my wings. “It’s electrified so no shifter can pass through it.
I’d like to say, not being a shifter is what will make it okay for me, but I know it would be a blatant lie. Humans are more fragile than shifters, it’s well known.
“I think you’ll find that there is no electricity anymore,” I tell him right when I fry the lock. Yes, there is no power anymore but that doesn’t prevent anything with internal batteries from functioning.
There is a click that sounds in the whole room and then silence. As if everyone in their cell was holding their breath.
They might very well be doing just that.
