The exact reality of the workshop’s finances was laid out on the pine table by seven in the evening. Pella and Eren sat with their cups of cold mint tea. She looked at the small stack of silver and copper coins that represented the entire working capital of the Lowbank Upkeep Backup.
‘We have enough silver for exactly one ninety-minute overtime deployment,’ Pella said. She tapped her finger on the ledger. ‘Nine silver coins for the three specialists, and three silver coins locked in the injury locked deposit. If we call them through tomorrow morning for the preliminary vault check, we will have nothing left. Just then, the main storm crest hits the city on Day Twenty-Five.’
Eren nodded slowly, his heavy hands resting on his knees. ‘Then we don’t call them tomorrow morning. We do the scouting ourselves. You, me, and Korr Var can walk the narrow high walkways, take the measurements with Hal’s measuring tongs, and locate the wedges. We save the ninety minutes for the moment when the water is coming over the doorstep and we have to cut those racks free under load.’
‘That means you and I are going into that boiling chamber alone, Eren,’ Pella reminded him quietly. ‘Sorell’s wardens will be watching every move we make. If the spirit thrashes while we’re on the lower platform, there is no thirty-second red tab to pull us back to Yorkshire.’
