Chapter 5 - Breakout – To Catch a Thief - Once more into the Breach - The Newspapers notice The Masked Lady - The Banks are Wising Up - Run Jenny Run.
Madame Vastra scowled, considering her options. "First, we'll open the vault door. Then I will deal with any guards while you remain in here. You will only leave the vault without the 'all clear' from me if, and only if, the water starts to enter. Understood?"
"Right ho!" Jenny nodded, obeying an earlier instruction to 'forgo honorifics while in hostile territory.'
"Just 'yes' will do," sighed Vastra.
While Vastra considered the rising water outside the mouth of the tunnel, Jenny nipped back towards to vault. Vastra turned and saw her stretching on her toes, looking into the vault, the tunnel in darkness as Jenny used the small lantern to see. The girl quickly returned and asked, "How long to dig out of here if you can't open the door?"
"Too long, and we'd have the same problem if we dug back to the sewers."
"Sorry, wasn't clear what I meant: How long to dig under the floor, beneath the vault door, then up? Even just a crawl hole would do." Jenny pointed to where the floor of the vault and the top of the access tunnel that Vastra had dug was visible, then off on the angle towards where the door was above. "It's maybe five or six paces? You dig awful fast. Would that be easier and quicker than going through the door?"
Vastra thought carefully. She took a minute, levered herself back into the vault and examined the door. It wasn't very large, just slightly bigger than the door to Vastra's flat. Not like the huge vault doors in the Bank of England.
Go through the door or under the floor? Time was passing, and the water was rising. If she started digging, she could be trapped by flooding.
Vastra's warrior training kicked in. Make a decision and live or die with the choice.
Vastra glanced at Jenny, whose masked face was now peeking out of the hole in the floor.
'And if she dies here with you, she's had three more months' life than if we'd never met.' Somehow the thought wasn't much comfort to Vastra.
Vastra examined the door carefully. Although it was made of strong steel, the locking mechanism wasn't very sophisticated. Vastra realized that it was probably a fairly old system, which had never been upgraded as the bank grew. Four strong thick metal poles attached to a central wheel. When the door was locked, the outer ends of the poles fit into deep, heavy sockets in the door frame. Turning the wheel retracted the poles from the sockets and allowed the door to open. Simple. The poles were protected from being cut by the simple fact that they were inside the vault, and normally any would-be thief would be outside trying to get in.
The problem was that when locked, the wheel was prevented from turning by a tumbler which was buried inside the door, and opened with a key. The keyhole went straight through; Vastra could see to faint shadows through the door. "What do we have that is inflammable or explosive?" she asked.
After a moment of silence she looked back at Jenny, to see the girl gazing at her patiently, head slightly cocked. "What do we have that will burn or explode?" she tried again.
"Matches, the kerosene in the lamp and the wick, my 'kerchief and lots of paper," Jenny waved at the banknotes. "Maybe the coal gas from the lamps," she pointed to a fixture near the door, and another further back in the vault.
Vastra eyed them for a long moment. Pity they didn't have a way to contain the gas, it might have been useful. As for the rest; "Not enough," said Vastra. "Not nearly enough strength to take out a lock of this size."
"Do you use something to tunnel with? Would that help?"
Interesting idea, considered Vastra, looking back at the door. Ape steel in this time was mostly iron and carbon; could she bio-manipulate it with the small device she concealed in the same way she moved the earth and bricks of the sewers?
Jenny continued, "Guess your tongue won't fit? Maybe use it to turn the lock?"
"Absolutely not! One of the first lessons our hatchlings are taught is not to stick one's tongue into strange holes." Vastra heard a sound behind her and turned. Jenny had her hand over her mouth and seemed to be trying to choke herself.
"Now what?" asked Vastra.
"Yer such an innocent sometimes," the dockworker's daughter replied with a sheepish grin. "Yer right, shouldn't have asked. Never mind."
Vastra realized that the little monkey had been trying not to laugh, and felt annoyed. There was nothing funny here, what she'd said was merely common sense! "Mind in the Now, please!" she growled.
"Right!"
Vastra collected Jenny's matches and handkerchief, which she soaked in kerosene from the lamp. She used her bio-manipulation device to remove the heads of the rivets holding the locking poles to the central wheel, and blackened the ends with lampblack from the lantern wick. Then she simply pulled the locking poles out of their sockets, and opened the vault door slightly. Finally she stuffed the keyhole with handkerchief and a few matches, and lit it with another match so that is left burn marks on the door. After dropping the blacked rivets on the floor, one at a good distance from the door, she smirked at her work.
"Let's see how long it takes the police to sort out what really happened. " said Vastra. A scrabbling noise from behind interrupted her musing.
She turned to see Jenny trying to get out of the hole, clawing at the smooth floor of the vault. "There's water coming in!" Jenny yelled.
Vastra grabbed Jenny by the back of her jacket, and hauled her out of the hole. Behind the girl she could see water swirling into the tunnel in small waves. Even as she watched, a larger gush entered the tunnel, filling it about a third full. 'Fortunate timing' she thought, and wondered idly if her pet could swim.
Madame Vastra's quick exploration of the area outside the vault didn't turn up a guard, 'though she said she could smell sweat in the air.
The vault turned out to be in the basement of the building. They cautiously moved into the bank. Madame led the way, carrying a mixed quantity of gold and banknotes. Jenny carried a smaller packet of banknotes, some gold and a packet of coins, which included several pounds worth of shillings. She thought they'd be easier for her to spend in the markets than the sovereigns. More in keeping with what a maid would have as spending money.
They left their loot by the front door. Vastra listened carefully, but couldn't hear anyone else in the bank. If there was a guard, he was hiding.
She motioned to Jenny to follow her and they quickly searched the main floor, found the ledgers and day books and added them to the pile.
Madame Vastra made a motion to Jenny that was likely 'wait here' ('tho Jenny thought it looked rather like 'sit' and 'stay') and eased into the darkness.
Leaving Jenny to guard their collection, Vastra cautiously climbed the stairs to the second floor. There were several small rooms with large and small desks, and tall sets of drawers. Exploring these she uncovered more documents that looked interesting, and took them. At one point she thought she heard someone in a nearby room, but a quick check revealed no one, and Vastra decided that the night watchman might truly be hiding from them. She hurried back to Jenny; she'd gathered enough information, there was no need to risk the small human being attacked while Vastra lingered elsewhere.
It turned out that Jenny had been busy; she'd found a key for the door and everything they'd taken was neatly bundled and ready to go. Vastra was amused and pleased: the girl continued to surprise her.
They let themselves out the front door, and then Jenny turned, locked up behind them, and slipped the key under the front mat. Vastra simply shook her head; sometimes Jenny's behaviour was very, very strange.
Vastra led them away from the route straight home; she expected that the night watchman would be watching from an upper window, and noting their movements. Instead they went north through the Queen's Head passage, then made their way east through the back alleys and lanes, to the gin palace and their flat.
On Monday Jenny's sums showed that they'd collected over 425,000 pounds in coins and notes. The other items they'd taken were also interesting; the safe deposit boxes especially yielded a number of pieces of paper with the words 'stock' and 'principal stock.' These were unfamiliar to both of them.
Vastra decided to take the opportunity to teach Jenny something new. They sorted the notes, first by the 'Company' name number of 'shares' on each note and wrote down the information, and then by the name of the Scorpions who owned the notes, and wrote that down. Then Vastra showed Jenny how to record the information as various types of graphs on her slate, so they could see patterns. Jenny was so fascinated by the idea that she bought a small, cheap set of watercolors while she was running errands later. Vastra found her later that evening putting the finishing touches on a set of coloured graphs in her notebook, 'in case we need 'em later.' Vastra praised her initiative, then bundled up the stock notes and put them aside.
The papers all referred to 'transferred in the company books' and Vastra suspected that having the 'stock' itself might mean little, as each piece bore a name. The 'company books' however might be a useful prize. If they could ascertain where they were, and make them disappear, perhaps it would be troublesome for their enemies.
On Tuesday, James Thackeray and Inspector Abernathy found Madame Vastra and Jenny sitting behind the Gin Palace, enjoying the evening breeze.
They chatted a bit, and Jenny told the Inspector she hadn't seen the two toughs since Friday. However she'd seen Constable Palmer several times in the area, sometimes alone, sometimes with another constable.
"That's almost a pity. Sherwin and Soames on Paternoster Row was robbed on Sunday night. Scotland Yard has an excellent set of leads on the robbers though! I'm personally leading the investigation, and I certainly want to talk with those two. But even without that, I'll have them soon enough."
"Oh?" asked Jenny. She glanced up at Madame Vastra, who was sitting very still. Jenny could see that she was ready for action if needed.
"Absolutely! They made off with a tremendous sum of gold and notes, and took the ledgers. That almost certainly points to your two would be thieves! The same ledgers they were after, suddenly disappear? Almost too easy! I'd be surprised if you saw them again, now that they have what they wanted." Inspector Abernathy leaned back on the bench, rested against the wall and spread his legs out straight, pleased to have an attentive audience. "Don't worry though, we'll catch them the same way we always do." He grinned. "Most criminals of that sort have no sense. They'll start spending the money like water, and since they probably don't have much to begin with, it'll stand out like a beacon. After that, it's just a matter of time 'till someone notices, and turns them in for the reward."
"Reward, sir?" said Jenny.
"Of course! They've robbed two banks! The reward is a hundred pounds for these criminals."
"Goodness!" exclaimed Jenny.
Jenny suddenly felt the weight of the shillings in her pocket. 'Might be best to stick just buying fresh food for now,' she decided, 'and maybe another notebook. Better keep up the haggling too. Don't stick out. Can't be too careful.'
Madame Vastra listened to Inspector Abernathy spouting off, and could see that Jenny was listening intently. Vastra was amused: obviously while James was very nice, and quite intelligent, if Inspector Abernathy was any indicator of the quality of Scotland Yard, they truly needed help!
And speaking of James… Thackeray turned to her and quietly asked, "Madame, is the matter you previously mentioned progressing smoothly?" Vastra assured him that it was.
"I know it is perhaps rather forward of me, but when the matter is resolved, by chance will you be looking for accommodations more in keeping with your station? If so, I would be pleased to refer you to some excellent estate agents."
Vastra made a note to ask Jenny about the "station" comment, but gathered that Thackeray was offering guidance in finding new living quarters. Hopefully he didn't mean on a train!
"I will be, but perhaps you could assist me with something else first? Are you familiar with what is called 'principal stock?' I think I may have several notes arriving, and I'm uncertain about what they are or what to do with them."
As always, Mr Thackeray was most helpful. Vastra's lack of knowledge about Ape finances actually assisted her now: James didn't expect a supposed 'foreign widow' to know much about such things, and he was delighted to refer her to a colleague at the London Stock Exchange, conveniently located near the Bank of England, on Old Broad Street.
Mr Thackeray's associate was indeed happy to help, and was able to solve one mystery for them without realizing it. As it turned out the Mercantile Bank on High Holborn, their next target, was one of two banks owned by the senior members of the Black Scorpions.
They'd known that the Mercantile seemed to be the most popular of the banks the senior Scorpions dealt with. Jenny and Vastra had observed all fourteen men walk through its door at one time or another. Once they discovered the full connection, Vastra decided that the plan was different here. They were not going to simply raid the bank and carry off a few bags of notes and coins. They were going to clean out the vault. Coins, notes, safe deposit boxes, all of it. They'd take anything that was not nailed down, and possibly a great deal that was.
Jenny protested, "That means we'll be slogging back and forth through the tunnels and streets all night, getting things out. That's a good thirty minute walk through the streets back to here ma'am! Be longer through the tunnels!"
"Which is why we won't be bringing most of the spoils back here; we're going to cache them instead."
"Cash them? Ain't they already cash?"
"No, I mean that we're going to store most of what we take somewhere near the bank. Remember, our goal is to cripple the Black Scorpions. So our primary objective is to remove their assets. If possible, we'll retrieve the cache sometime in the future, but given that we currently have more than sufficient for our needs, that's not a priority at this time. We just don't want them to find it. So we need to put the cache somewhere safe."
They spent the next week scouting the bank and the surrounding area. They were able to get a good idea of the bank's layout, and Jenny even made a little sketch, with everything marked in paces. Madame Vastra scouted the streets, and located several open gardens nearby, as well as some buildings that Jenny told her were churches and schools. Eventually she decided on the perfect place to dig a cache: the grounds of a very large building that looked like it might also be a bank. It was connected to the sewers, Vastra simply needed to dig a nice dry cache tunnel, which she would seal once it was full. Even better, it was about a five minute walk from their target through the sewers, close enough to go back and forth to the bank on High Holborn and far enough that the police wouldn't find the cache easily.
Vastra sent Jenny to scout the building while she waited nearby. Jenny returned shortly, waving to two small pieces of paper, and said "Come on, you can come have a look too, even with your veil. I got us tickets!"
"Tickets?" asked Vastra, confused.
"Yes ma'am! Admission tickets! Lovely choice you made, very safe, and we can visit any time we like! You picked a spot right under the British Museum!"
Vastra dug the cache tunnel and the access tunnel to the vault, as well as a spare escape crawl under the bank on Friday and Saturday nights, sealing the entrances with a thin layer of dirt when she wasn't working.
On Sunday night they gained the vault with no problem, and emptied it fairly quickly, storing the notes and coins and bags of items taken from the safe deposit boxes first in the access tunnel, and then taking them over to the cache tunnel nearby. When they were done, Vastra sealed the cache tunnel both at the cache hole itself, and then back where it left the sewers. In the dim light of the candle lantern, it was not noticeable, so Vastra carefully carved a small sign from her people's language in one of the bricks, and showed it to Jenny. That way both of them would be able to find the cache again.
"What's it mean?" asked Jenny, running her fingers over the rounded symbol.
"'Here.'"
"Know it's here, but what's it mean?"
Vastra shook her head. "The word is 'icha.' Literally it means 'eggs.' It was used to mark egg nests when my people were not as civilized as we are… as we were. The same word came to mean 'here.'"
"'Eecha' " said Jenny, "Right then, 'eggs' marks the spot."
"Exactly," answered Vastra.
They returned to the bank, and Vastra took the ledgers and books. She wanted to get up to the bank offices here, as she'd done at Sherwin's, but now she had a new prize to search for thanks to unwitting information from their new friend at the Stock Exchange: The Bank Charter, company books and company seal! If those went missing, the bank would be in a great deal of trouble.
Jenny knelt and examined the vault door, which had a much more complicated locking system than the one at Sherwin's. The door was rimmed with a series of bolts, and the controlling plates were concealed within a sturdy metal plate. Jenny was curious about how the locks worked, and Vastra let her look for a moment, though they didn't need to waste time trying to open it. Vastra had already decided to simply use the crawl space and go under the vault door. With everything already dug, it would only take Vastra a few minutes to break through the floor on the other side of the door.
Jenny shone the lantern into the door frame. "I can see the bolts, I can see the sockets in the frame, but I can't see how they're locking. Looks like they aren't coming together. Must be another bit covered by the frame that's the real bolt, but I can't see it." Jenny made a noise almost like a growl, Vastra thought she might be annoyed.
The girl started to stand, but stumbled slightly and leaned against the door for support.
The door smoothly and quietly slid open.
Jenny looked up at Vastra.
Vastra looked down at Jenny.
Jenny just shook her head and whispered. "Blimey, someone's going to be embarrassed in the morning. Silly blighters left the vault unlocked
all weekend! Anyone could have walked right in!"
They were surprised by a sudden noise outside the vault:
"What's all this, then? Who's there?" came a strong voice from the darkness. "Come on out, and keep yer hands where I can see them."
"Night watchman!" whispered Jenny, immediately shuttering the lens of the lantern. "That's us done for!"
"Leave this to me," said Vastra. "Stay silent until I tell you."
Jenny nodded in reply.
From the darkness further away came a second voice: "What you found, Cooper?"
"Warder, get down here. We've got company."
Vastra waited in the shadows, her excellent night vision allowing her to track the approaching watchman. Vastra reminded herself that he was doing his job, and might not be a Scorpion himself. Mr Thackeray had told them that the guards were there 'for emergencies.' They'd been lucky before now, they had not met any guards on the first two raids, though one had been watching from the shadows. There had likely been one at the first bank as well.
Vastra took careful aim. She didn't want to kill, only incapacitate.
A hissing flick, and the watchman was down. Jenny started forward, but Vastra waived her back, eye fixed on the shadows.
"Cooper, you there?" the second voice called again.
Jenny and Vastra exchanged a glance. This one was out of range. If he was smart enough to run, they were in trouble. How to get him close enough that Vastra could deal with him?
"Cooper?"
Jenny did the only thing she could think of, and let out a soft "meow?"
"Great Caesar's Ghost! How did a cat get down here?" The man clattered down the stairs, "Mind with the mice we get in the spring…" and with a flick of her tongue, Vastra knocked him out cold. She glanced over at Jenny, who shrugged, and looked embarrassed.
"Only thing I could think of," she explained.
"Well done," said Vastra. "This is the first bank that we've encountered guards."
"First one you were only in the vault. No one was expecting us. Second one, we got lucky, that's all. Small bank, only one guard and he had sense; he was more scared of us than we are of him. We're dangerous criminals, we are."
Vastra glanced down at the slight young hatchling beside her, and tried not to smile. "Speak for yourself," she murmured, "I'm as gentle as a garter snake."
Jenny grinned up at her. "Yer as gentle as a crocodile, ma'am. And when we get home I'll show you the burn from your tongue on the countertop to prove it."
Jenny hunted around, and found some rope in a storeroom. She tied the men up, back to back, lying on their sides. She checked one more time to make sure both were still breathing. Madame Vastra kept eying them, and licking her lips, and Jenny wasn't sure what was going on in Madame's head.
"Mind in the Now," Madame muttered to herself, and Jenny was suddenly very worried about what Madame was thinking. Jenny glanced down at the men. Madame couldn't… 'want' them, could she? Jenny had heard of women who hungered for sex, but Madame really didn't seem the type.
Jenny decided that it was too confusing for her, and they both needed action. Best to get on with robbing the bank! She moved away from the men, and spoke to Madame.
"They're right and tight for now. Got their 'kerchiefs and I'll gag 'em if they wake up."
Madame dragged her eyes away from the men, and nodded. She left Jenny standing guard while she went and searched the bank offices on the second floor. She found the items she was looking for in a locked wooden cabinet. The lock held firm, but the wood didn't lasted very long. She returned quickly to Jenny, who had the watchmen's keys, and again let themselves out, this time by the back door, just to be different.
The next morning both 'The Times' and 'The Guardian' mentioned the recent bank robberies. Jenny bought one of each, and clipped the article from 'The Guardian' on "The Masked Lady." She rather liked the little sketch that went with it. She also saw that the date (May 30th) meant that her birthday was soon. Early June, she remembered that. Didn't know the exact date though. Ma always kept track of things like that. Maybe she'd just pick one if she couldn't remember. Not that there'd be a 'family outing', as Ma called them, this year. Unless maybe they robbed a bank.
Jenny's birthday was usually a good excuse to go somewhere different each year, even if it was just somewhere in London. Watching Cutlass Drill on a Warship at the London Docks, or a ride on the Metropolitan Railway, or even a trip to a fair with jugglers and magicians and poets and some special treat, which Jenny never got to see. That day hadn't ended well; Jenny had been eight, and only remembered a fun day, followed by a flashing blade, fear, being dragged, kicking and running, and lots of yelling adults. And someone telling her that kicking the nasty man was very, very brave.
She'd liked that bit. And the hot tea from the lady with the kind eyes and green scarf had been nice too. Jenny just wished she could remember more.
Masked Lady Robs Third Bank
Vaults Blown Clean Open
Police Seek Disguised Thief
The Mercantile Bank on High Holborn was last night the third bank to be attacked by the mysterious figure police are calling The Masked Lady. The robber is believed to be a man despite reports of skirts and petticoats due to his remarkable strength and agility.
"Right," remarked Jenny, as she slowly read the rest of the article, sounding out some of the words. "' cause we all know there's no such thing as strong, agile women." She shook her head.
"So according to the police, I'm a skirt-wearing man with a whip," said Vastra, who was reading over Jenny's shoulder. "However do they come up with these ideas? And we blew open the vault? They can't be that incompetent, we did no such thing!"
"Our tax shillings at work. You made it look like you blew the vault at the bank on Paternoster Row, remember? Looks like you baffled them," remarked Jenny. "And they can't very well say they just left the ruddy door open at the Mercantile, now can they? Or that you just disconnected the lock poles at Sherwin's? Every thief in London would try to get himself locked into a vault at night."
"Are your newspapers always so… disingenuous… with the facts?"
Jenny gave her a puzzled look, and Vastra rephrased the question: "Do they often lie like this?"
"Ma said more often than they should, ma'am. Helps sell the papers, I guess."
"It's going to cause trouble someday." Vasta glanced again at the small article. "Oh look; I have an accomplice. At least that part is correct, if rather understated."
"Nice to get a mention, I guess." Jenny chuckled. "Partners in Crime, that's us." She handed the paper to Vastra. "Every bank in the city is going to be on watch now."
Madame Vastra nodded. "So far, we've struck quickly, and hard. For now though, we'll rest and regroup. Let our enemies taste their fear."
Jenny tried not to roll her eyes. More like the Scorpions would be searching even harder than the Police for the bank robbers. She stopped and considered that.
"Wonder if we could confuse things by pinning the jobs on those two bully boys who were after Mr Thackeray? Inspector Abernathy's on the case, and he half believes that already."
"The ones who met with the Chinese Scorpion? Convince one faction of the tong that they were being betrayed by the other? Interesting idea. I like it. Now, how do we do it?"
Jenny shrugged. "Not a clue, ma'am. But you'll think of something, I bet."
Ten days later, Madame Vastra looked up from cleaning her sword. "Enough time has passed. We'll conduct our next raid this Sunday night."
Jenny looked up from her notes, surprised. "Bit soon, don't you think, ma'am?"
Vastra drew herself up straight, "Apes… Humans aren't very bright. They won't be expecting us."
"Would your people fall for that?" asked Jenny. "If a bandit only skipped a week of raiding?"
"We're not discussing my people. We're talking about your humans. Can you honestly see Inspector Abernathy anticipating this?"
Abernathy, well no, Jenny admitted, but she still wasn't sure that this'd work. It seemed too soon to her. She knew humans weren't as daft as Madame Vastra often thought they were.
Using the information from the man at the Stock Exchange, they'd locate the fourth bank. It was in Trafalgar Square, on Cockspur Street, across from the Union Club building. The only problem was, it was right around the corner from Scotland Yard!
As far as Jenny could tell, that didn't give Madame Vastra the least bit of worry. They'd used the two weeks to explore the surrounding area (Jenny still could not understand why there were two King Streets, nowhere close to each other) and to plan the raid. There were lots of sewers and tunnels to choose from, they were close to the Charing Cross Railway station, and the underground station, and the Lower sewer ran through the area. Jenny felt better though once she knew the streets as well, and it was rather fun to have a good look at Scotland Yard and Whitehall.
Madame dug the cache tunnel and access tunnel in advance and they were ready for Sunday night. The last thing she did, while Jenny watched where the access tunnel met the sewer, was dig a crawl space out to the street that ran behind the bank. Just as she was ready to break into the vault, Jenny gave a clicking noise that Vastra had taught her, and Vastra went to investigate.
Jenny was near the tunnel entrance at the sewer. She glanced back at Vastra. "Someone's nearby," she whispered, "I can hear them talking now and then, but I can't understand what they're saying."
Vastra listened, but couldn't hear anything. She frowned a little, and shook her head at Jenny, "I don't hear…" Jenny stopped her with a hand on her arm.
"There it is again," Jenny whispered. Now Vastra could hear very faint voices.
"You can hear that?" she asked, astounded. It hadn't occurred to her that the Apes might have better hearing than she did. Perhaps those silly cupped ears were useful after all.
"They're getting closer." breathed Jenny, "Don't think they're speaking English, and don't know what they're saying. I can hear a lot of sloshing too."
"The tunnels echo…"
"Don't think that's it, ma'am. Hang on." The girl knelt and peered carefully around the corner. She quickly drew back, her eyes wide.
"I can see lots of lanterns, ma'am! They've got a patrol down here! They've figured out we're using the sewers to get around! What'll we do? Take them on? Try and go 'round them? Slip by the other way?"
"None of the above," replied Vastra, "It's likely a random group of toshers, so we'll go through the bank and use the door. Go back to the crawlspace while I seal the tunnel entrance. Wait there for me; I just broke a small hole into the vault when you came to get me, so there will be air even when this is sealed. We'll go into the vault together."
Jenny did as she was told. She scrambled back to where they were ready to break through the floor into the vault, and sat up into the smaller tunnel the Madame had dug under the bank floor to a nearby alley. This way they had options to remove things from the bank, and didn't need to worry about opening the vault door.
As she waited for Madame, she heard a soft, short scraping noise. 'Rats' she wondered? No, it seemed to come from above her head. She listened, and heard a different sound, a quiet cough. Madame Vastra was coming back up the tunnel now, and Jenny motioned her to be quiet. Madame didn't seem to understand, and Jenny had to quickly put a hand over Vastra's mouth. She cocked her head, tapped her ear, and then pointed upwards. Vastra cocked her head, she didn't understand. Jenny, looked at Vastra's head, frowning, then pointed at her ear, and at Vastra's head. It took a moment, but Vastra soon got the idea, and lead forward so Jenny could speak softly to her. Jenny scraped her nails along the roof of the tunnel by the small hole, so that it sounded as if they were digging, and to cover what they were saying.
"There's someone in the vault waiting for us," breathed Jenny. "At least two, maybe more. The banks must be wising up."
Madame Vastra glanced behind her at the sealed tunnel, and then up at the vault. She reached up and scraped at the ceiling herself. The hole she'd made was only an inch or so big, but she could now taste the sweat of the Apes above in the air. She nodded and pointed at the crawlspace and motioned to Jenny to go through. Just as Vastra pulled herself into the small tunnel herself, there was a tremendous CRACK, and she felt bits of debris hit her feet.
"Get the lights down there, and grab the blighters as soon as you see them! With luck we've got them trapped!"
Jenny heard the commotion, and started to try to turn. Looking over her shoulder, she could see light from above, and with another crack, she could see the tip of a pickaxe breaking through the floor into the main tunnel. She straightened up and crawled as fast as she could, feeling Vastra hard on her heels.
"Don't see them, they must have run back to the sewers!"
"They're trapped, then! There's a horde of dockworkers and flushers down there, they'll get them!"
"When you get to the surface, run." Came Vastra's voice behind her. "The shadows hide the entrance, so they haven't found this tunnel yet, but it won't take them long."
Jenny finished scrambling through the crawlspace, and out into the alley behind some dustbins. She wasn't sure which scared her more; her being caught, or Madame Vastra being caught. She doubted that Madame would go peacefully, or that the police would treat the lizard woman gently.
Madame Vastra emerged just behind her. "We'll split up, and I'll lure them away. Meet me back at the flat."
"It's too dangerous for you, I can help!"
"No! Get out of here!"
"But…"
"OBEY ME! NOW GO!"
"Yes, Ma'am!" Jenny, shaken, forgot to drop Vastra's title.
"You there! Stop!" A whistle sounded back on the main street, and someone ran towards them.
Oh Bloody, Bloody Hell! Police!
Jenny took a last glance at Madame Vastra, and then bolted.
Vastra took a deep breath, ready to draw her sword. The constable running towards her only carried a truncheon, and Vastra decided to deal with him by hand and take the weapon. She waited until he was close enough, then simply grabbed his truncheon with her tongue, pulled him off balance, and threw him into the dustbins. The man was stunned, so Vastra grabbed the truncheon, and gave him a short sharp rap on the head. The constable went down again, and Vastra decided that was good enough for now. She heard more whistles, and realized several more constables were approaching, although they were still a distance away. She ran, watching for an opportunity to get above them if possible. The Apes, she noticed, often forgot to look up. She ran, turned a corner and saw in front of her an enormous column, rising into the dark. She leapt and climbed, her claws catching in small cracks in the column, pulling herself upwards. When the police arrived, they checked the square, looking behind the recumbent lions, and carefully examining the other statues. None of them, however, ever realized that Admiral Nelson had somehow acquired his own gargoyle.
Jenny ran, hearing the police whistles behind her. A horde policemen were following her; although she had a decent lead, losing them might be hard. And she was tiring. This wasn't the Merry Men and the Sherriff's henchmen. This was real and very, very bad. She wanted to just disappear.
Jenny rounded the corner into an alley. It was deserted, and Jenny half-remembered a story of Robin and his men disguising themselves. As she headed down the alley, she snatched her long skirt from her satchel, and moved fast as she ran. Skirt over her head and down. Rip off the cap and mask. Toss the cap behind a dustbin, and wrap the mask around her throat, twisted like a scarf. Matches out. Satchel off. Collapse at the end of the alley by the corner, sitting with the satchel behind her, matches in front. Head down.
And here were the police running into the alley. They pounded towards her. Jenny took a breath, and released it slowly as Madame had taught her. Stay calm in the face of danger. She was a Match Girl. It was late; she was hungry and desperate for a sale.
She'd survived the Scorpions and her Da. Could she get through this?
"Matches,sir? A penny a box!"
"You there! A boy ran through here a moment ago. Where did he go?"
Deny? Act dumb? Ah...!
"Was half-asleep sir. Thought someone went down the street to the right, and then left maybe? Two or three alleys down? Couldn't swear to it, though."
"Good enough. After him, lads! He's built a bit of a lead!" The constables took off at a run. And they were even kind enough to NOT blow their whistles right beside Jenny.
'Close' thought Jenny. Too close. She waited a minute; the police would think it strange if she moved too soon. Then she stood, and made her way back up the alley, retrieving her cap, and folding it, the satchel and her mask into a small bundle.
Slowly, cautiously, Jenny made her way back to the Cheapside Gin Palace.
Madame Vastra was waiting for her at the flat. And so was a tongue-lashing.
"In the middle of a battle or an emergency, there is no time for discussion. You need to do as I tell you, without questioning."
"Yes ma'am."
"You are a quick study, and you are fairly clever. The time will come when you will be capable of more independent action. But that time is not now. For now, I will lead, and you will follow. Are we clear?"
"Yes Ma'am."
Jenny was tired and badly scared. They'd almost been caught, and she'd been far closer to being arrested by the police than she ever wanted to be. Honestly, if Madame decreed that Jenny was to be tomorrow's lunch instead of a pigeon, Jenny would most likely agree, if it meant she could sleep first.
Fortunately, while still unfamiliar with Ape ways, Vastra had seen enough of her own warrior cadets to interpret Jenny's quiet agreement as pure exhaustion. Tomorrow. Tomorrow was time enough to regroup, re-plan and re-engage. Pushing Jenny tonight was pointless. But Vastra knew she'd best debrief the girl, and let her calm down so she could sleep.
"What happened after we parted?"
And then Madame Vastra listened to the most listless telling of quick thinking cleverness she'd ever heard from a hatchling. To Jenny it was simple survival; to Vastra the idea of changing from a boy to a girl in the length of an alley was close to genius. While she knew that she still had to enforce Jenny obeying her in an emergency, the girl clearly had a strong survival instinct and a talent for thinking on the run.
And right now, that talented youngster was asleep on her feet. Time for lights out.
And woe to any pigeon that disturbed them in the morning!
Author's Notes: The Brilliant Book strikes again: the article from 'The Guardian' is a partial quotation of the blurb in the Brilliant Book 2012 that inspired this story.
'Jenny and the Vault door', was inspired by a story about Harry Houdini trying to escape from a British Bank vault. He could not figure out why his usual lock picking skills weren't working, until he leaned on the door and discovered that it was unlocked!
Yes, in 1881 (or at least 1878) there was a bank on High Holborn about 5-6 minutes from the British Museum. It stands in for the Mercantile Bank. (Robbery #3)
"The fourth bank… was in Trafalgar Square, on Cockspur Street, across from the Union Club building." In other words it was right across from where Canada House (the Canadian High Commission in London) now stands. According to an 1878 map of London that I use, there was a bank exactly where I described, and so it becomes the model for the fourth robbery in this story. Happy (belated) Canada Day!
Bonus points if you picked up on the partial reference to 'The Adventure of The Red Headed League."