The time was close to eighteen o’clock. That was when the procession departed the city to the keep. As far as Flor could tell, everything was in the appropriate place, at least considering how she understood Alastair’s plan.

Flor idled her time by the east gate as part of the procession crowd. She stood under an awning to stay out of the rain. She would leave fifteen minutes after the procession and felt as ready as possible to pick a lock. Alastair and Irving were at the south gate where they would cause chaos enough to disturb traffic. Next, they would follow the procession, walking along while chatting with whichever locals they could hitch alongside, and pretending to be surprised at the outcome.

The gate to the manor opened and the four-horse vanguard rode out, followed by two hansoms, the carriage, and the rear guard before the manor gates closed. On the first viewing of the procession, Flor was surprised to see Oliver Guillem Francesc, Lord 3 riding in the second hansom next to Rosa Beatriu Meritxell-Francesc, Lady 3. Without knowing better, Flor guessed they were some secondary lord and lady and that the mayor and his wife would be in the carriage. I know better now. The kidnapping scum of West Shilgrave. What do they do with those kids?

The procession barely stopped on the way to the gate. It wasn’t much of a to-do, she now realized, and more of a regular occurrence that people just sort of accepted. She pulled up the interface to see the clock. Two after. I’ve got eight minutes to avoid causing concern.

When it was time, she stretched her neck and walked toward the gate. Once she was out of view of the gate guards, she would need to hustle to avoid falling far behind the rear guard. Assuming the idiot thugs didn’t plan their ambush site too close to the city, she’d need to maintain a pace for about three kilometers or maybe a bit more, then slow to observe the conditions on the ground. Hopefully, there won’t be violence. Those spears are probably a one-hit wonder.

She covered the ground quickly. I may be overly thin, but this character suit is nice for the stamina and speed it provides. After about fifteen minutes, she slowed. She should be another two or three minutes behind them and didn’t want to burst into the scene at a sprint. A bit of stealth might go a long way.

Sure enough, a couple minutes passed and she heard some shouting followed by wood being chopped. Those thugs did good, maybe. Flor moved slowly, stepping into the forest to see if she could spot the rear guard. As the procession came into view, she saw they had pulled the carriage in between the two hansoms. Oliver Guillem Francesc was yelling from one of the hansoms. Four of the guards chopped at the felled tree with axes. On the other side of the tree, the two thugs were being questioned by the remaining two guards. Perfect.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

As quietly as she could, Flor moved to the carriage. She gave it a once over. The lineup would be tricky. If the Mayor’s hansom driver looked back, she would be spotted, but fortunately, the guards wouldn’t have a good sight line where they were now.

Flor climbed up onto the railing and engaged the lock puzzle. The puzzle interface loaded in front of her overlying a cylinder lock. The puzzle appeared as a complex nine-by-nine Sudoku with several empty squares. Yikes, looks a bit harder than I expected, especially under the time constraints. She noticed a different indicator in the interface: “Use lock picks.” Mentally, she clicked that box, and she received a notification:

Use lock picks? Yes/No? (item will be lost upon use).

This is nothing like the cylinder I practiced on earlier today. Let’s see what these do. Yes, use lock picks. The interface flashed and then was overtaken by an animation of lock picks working on an actual lock with a pair of six-sided dice rolling. Flor noticed that the dice didn’t have pips but did have check marks and Xs. She estimated they resulted in success or failure. No whammies, come on, no whammies. Stop! The dice rolled to a stop, both with check marks showing.

Success x2!

The puzzle interface showed returned. It looks like the lock picks bypassed a number of the boxes. This puzzle probably went from Hard to Medium, just like that. Still need to do my end. Flor began to work through the symbols, which she had arbitrarily assigned values of one through nine. It took her three passes and she had only a couple of symbols left. Don’t let me down. Diamonds complete. And Bluetooth symbols complete. Done!

Puzzle complete. +2 to Sudoku.

Attempt puzzle again? Yes/No?

Nope.

The puzzle interface disappeared and the lock to the carriage came undone. Flor looked around her, hoping she wasn’t about to be impaled by a spear, or worse, hacked in two with an ax. Outside of the now shouting of Oliver Guillem Francesc and the persistent thwacking of axes, it didn’t sound as if there were any change. Flor would just have to open the carriage door and then disappear. Easy as…

Flor opened the door a crack, peeked in, and saw five young kids huddled together in fear. Flor motioned for quiet and to stay, then sneaked off the carriage and into the trees. She checked her clock interface. Eighteen twenty-five. Alastair and Irving should hopefully be arriving in a matter of minutes. That puzzle took me five minutes, even with the lock picks. Not too bad. I wonder how long it would have taken me without it. And what does +2 mean in puzzle-solving parlance?

As she continued to watch the carriage and down the road, Flor breathed slowly, not wanting to celebrate before true success. As she did, she noticed that the door to the carriage had begun to open a bit wider. One of the kids had poked his head out to see why the door was open. Seeing the carriage had stopped and the guards were occupied, the boy wiggled his way out the opening. He then motioned for the other kids to follow. To his credit, the boy helped the others down from the carriage one by one.