I realized he was going to blindfold me. I didn’t feel I had the option to protest, so I let him wrap the handkerchief around my eyes and tie it. He guided me down the alley, his arm around my waist. We made two or three turns, and soon I heard street noise. He stopped and untied my blindfold, then unpinned his Mechanics’ insignia and put it in his pocket with the handkerchief. Following his lead, I removed the insignia Lizzie had given me, putting it in my pocket. I tucked the notebook under my arm as Alec peered out of the alley. He nodded, offered me his arm, and we stepped onto the sidewalk, blending in with the Saturday night crowds. “Try not to look nervous,” he whispered. “You’re merely out for the evening. There’s no reason to worry that anyone’s following you.” I nodded stiffly and forced myself to look ahead instead of darting glances over my shoulder. The blindfold had been entirely unnecessary, as I had no idea where I was even with it removed.

A distant clang of bells and the shriek of whistles could have been the police closing in on the theater, or it could have been a normal Saturday night in New York City. There seemed to be an alarming number of red-coated soldiers on the street. Were they also part of the raid? I’d always before seen soldiers as a sign of Imperial security and stability, but now they looked threatening.

After we’d walked several blocks, Alec pulled me into a narrow gap between buildings. He took a coil of wire out of his waistcoat pocket and clamped one end to a cable dangling into the alley down the side of the building. At the other end of Alec’s wire was a small disk that he held against his ear. He listened for a moment, then tapped on a tiny lever attached to his wire before disconnecting the apparatus and returning it to his pocket.

“Looks like everyone got out safely with all their machines. As far as the police knew, it was just an empty theater. But that was a close call. We’ll have to be more careful in the future,” he said. Then he explained, gesturing at the cable, “It’s a telegraph. It sends electrical signals down wires so we can communicate using a code. The cables go from building to building, hidden around clotheslines, and there are wires all over that we can tap into. The moment there’s a sign of danger from any lookout, the signal travels as fast as light, and we get the warning in plenty of time.”