Since dropping to the other side of the crate, Claire had listened to the exchange between Hida and the guards. She felt proud of her friend for standing up defiantly to the men, but things had started to go south.
While she couldn't see what was happening, hearing her friend cry out to ask the guards to stop was too much for Claire to bare. She began to feel rage well up inside of her. She had to do something and she had to do it now.
Whatever plan she made, she would only have audio cues to work with, but would that be enough? She cataloged what she knew and started forming a plan.
First off, from listening to the footsteps and the voices of the guards, she determined that there was only two of them.
Secondly, it was probably better to act sooner rather than later if she wanted to rescue Hida. If there was to be an exchange of money, there would certainly be more people coming to the storehouse.
"I probably don't have that much time," she thought.
What she knew was limited, but it was what she didn't know that had her mostly concerned. A large part of what she could do was relegated to metalmancy, so there were a lot of ifs in the equation.
Were the guards wearing metallic armor of some sort? If so, that could be to her advantage. She knew that back in Cain's Point, the men and women who patrolled the streets wore a simple metal breastplate. If the guards here dressed similar, she might be able to do something with that - that is if she could get close enough.
"That's the question though isn't it?" she frowned to herself. She had only been in this town long enough for her and her friends to jump ship, and then for her and the boy to make it to this storehouse. During the escape, she hadn't the time to note the presence of any sort of city watch, so she had no idea as to what the local guard actually wore.
"Even if they don't have metal armor, they surely have to have some metal on them," Claire thought to herself. "A weapon perhaps?" That seemed likely.
"This is it," she thought. "This is the first time I'm going to have to rely on my metalmancy."
Aside from using her powers to give herself some extra freedoms with her wheelchair, she had never really taken the time to practice or improve them. The most that she had ever done was to change and reinforce the locks back at the Right Rudder Inn. Following the initial kidnapping attempt, she resolved to ask Mand and Val to stay for a few weeks to give her some tutelage in better developing her metalmancy, but she and Mand had been abducted on the very afternoon she had planned to ask for help.
She would have to chance it. Her first step would be to try and separate the guards. No matter what she did, it would be easier to do it to them one at a time. The question was how.
The only real resources that she had access to right now were: the bundle of sacks that she sat upon, and the boy up in the catwalk.
"The boy! I need him to make a distraction, but how?" she asked herself.
She felt bad for the boy as soon as the idea entered her mind, but it was the only way she could visualize him doing what she needed right now.
She waved until she drew the boys attention. She then made a series of hand gestures indicating that she intended to bring the catwalk down.
"I can't actually do this," she thought to herself. "But I have to make him think I can."
She saw the boy's eyes go wide and he shook his head no.
She shook her head yes. She started counting down fingers.
"Come on!" she thought. "I'm sorry about lying, but I need you to do this!"
As Claire counted down her remaining two fingers, she saw the boy shuffle backwards on the catwalk as fast as he could. As he disappeared into the darkness, a loud series of *CLANGs* resonated through the storehouse building as he moved on the metallic structure.
"Later, I'll have to tell him I'm sorry about this," Claire said to herself as she saw the boy's shape fade into the shadows.
"What's that?" She heard one guard ask.
She heard shuffling, "What are you talking about?" Claire recognized this guard's voice as the one that talked the most about hurting Hida.
"Heard something coming from above. Sure I saw something move up there as well."
"Probably rats, I'd really be surprised if they didn't have a nest in all this junk."
She heard a "Shh!" and then things went quiet for a moment.
"Come on, take the bait!" Claire wished. For this to work, she really needed to draw one guard away temporarily.
"Probably right," said the guard after a few moments of listening.
"Going to have to do this the hard way then!" Claire grimaced. She knocked on the crate next to her a couple of times.
"Shh!" She heard one of the guards say. "I heard it again."
Claire heard another *CLANG* from the catwalk. Thankfully, the boy seemed to have clued into what she was trying to do.
"There, the catwalk! There's something up there!" one of the guards said. "I'll stay here with the girl, you check it out."
Claire heard footsteps as one of the guards began to move. She began throwing bags and sacks over her body, burying herself underneath the pile as best she could.
If she remembered the route the boy had taken, the pathway that the guard would have to take to get to the catwalk went directly past where she had now hidden herself. All she would have to do, is reach out and grab the man as he went by.
"And then?" she asked herself. "What happens then will require A LOT of luck"