𝑮𝑳𝑰𝑻𝑻𝑬𝑹 | 𝑘.𝑏.

33

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N E W  P L A N
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"THOSE COSTUMES WOULD WORK PERFECTLY," Feta admitted sheepishly. "Heavy cloaks, dark hoods. All the Fjerdans would see is what they wanted to see. A Zemeni fawn. A Kaelish mare."

"A Suli lynx," Inej forced out.

Feta grimaced though agreed, "Their perfect fantasy."

"It's a risk," Kaz said.

"What job isn't?" Inej shot back. It was touching of Kaz to offer an out, but Inej had made up her mind, and trying to get her to change it would be more of a challenge than any of them were prepared for.

"Kaz, how are you and Matthias going to get through?" asked Nina. "We might need you for locks, and if things go bad on the island, I don't want to be stranded. I doubt you can pass yourselves off as members of the Menagerie."

"That shouldn't be a problem," said Kaz. "Helvar's been holding out on us."

Feta raised her eyebrows, her lips quirking into a smile. "Have you, now?"

"It's not—" Matthias dragged a hand over his cropped hair. "How do you know these things, demjin?" he growled at Kaz.

"Logic," Kaz said. Feta snickered. "The whole Ice Court is a masterpiece of fail-safes and doubled systems. That glass bridge is impressive, but in an emergency, there would have to be another way to get reinforcements to the White Island and get the royal family out."

"Yes," said Matthias in exasperation. "There's another way to the White Island. But it's messy." He glanced at Nina. "And it certainly can't be done in a gown."

Feta bit her tongue at this, recalling several jobs where she was still strapped in silks, where her pocket knife was hidden in the folds of a dress or her vial of water tucked beneath a lacy neckline.

"Hold on," Jesper interrupted. "Who cares if you can all get onto the White Island? Let's say Nina sparkles Yul-Bayur's location out of some higher up, or Feta charms someone into leading her right to him, and you actually manage to get him back here. We'll still be trapped. By then, the prison guards will have completed their search and are going to know seven inmates got out of the sector somehow. Any chance we have of making it through the embassy gates and the checkpoints will be gone."

Kaz peered past the dome to the embassy's open courtyard and the ringwall gatehouse beyond.

"Wylan, how hard would it be to disable one of these gates?"

"To get it open?"

"No, to keep it closed."

"You mean break it?" Wylan shrugged. "I don't think it would be too difficult. I couldn't see the mechanism when we entered the prison gate, but from the layout, I'm guessing it's pretty standard."

"Pulleys, cogs, some really big screws?"

"Well, yes, and a sizable winch. The cables wrap around it like a big spool, and the guards just turn it with some kind of handle or wheel."

"I know how a winch works," said Kaz, earning yet another snicker from Feta who adored seeing her fallen prince and big bad Dirtyhands interact. "Can you take one apart?"

"I think so, but it's the alarm system the cables are attached to that's complicated. I doubt I could do it without triggering Black Protocol."

"Good," said Kaz with a nod. "Then that's what we'll do."

Feta slung a punch to Wylan's arm, grinning at him proudly. "We'll make a criminal mastermind out of you yet."

Jesper held up a hand, shockingly being the voice of reason for once. "I'm sorry, isn't Black Protocol the thing we want to avoid at all costs?"