The Child Thief 6: Zero Hour

by Forrest, Bella

  “I’m going to check the hospital,” he said. “You search for Rhea.”

  I nodded quickly in return. Of course I would.

  Abe, Ant, Jackie, and I walked together toward the ramp to await our turns to disembark, and Gabby and Nelson walked up to join us, with Gabby looking the worse for wear. Her eyes were red and rimmed with water. It was obvious that she was worried about her family.

  Abe placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.

  “They’ll be there,” he said gently.

  “And we’ll hear them from a mile away,” Ant added.

  Gabby smiled and chuckled slightly, but her pain and fear were still palpable. She was poised to race off the airship and try to find her family. Looking at her small figure and wide, fearful eyes, I was reminded how young she was.

  As we reached the top of the airship ramp, I looked back to Nathan’s cabin. He hadn’t emerged yet, and I felt uneasy about the sudden and extreme change in his demeanor.

  A chill wrapped around me as we stepped out of the climate-controlled airship cabin. I remembered Alexy saying that Brightbirch was north of Edgewood, and the cool, thin air made that fact vastly apparent. It felt like we were at a higher altitude.

  As my eyes adjusted to the bright sun reflecting off the tarmac, my theory was confirmed. We had stepped out into a valley that was surrounded by snow-capped mountains. The sun was bright, and its rays felt warm and close, but the ground and trees around us were covered with a light frost in the cool, early morning air.

  It was also obvious how the base had gotten its name. Surrounding the sunlit valley were thick groves of white-trunked birch trees. It was a beautiful sight on a terrifying day.

  As peaceful and serene as the mountains and trees looked, the feeling on the tarmac was anything but. The electronic whirring sound of large airships filled the air. All of the Little John ships that had followed us from the Helping Hands compound were touching down now, with additional stretchers being wheeled out around us. I wondered how they knew where to go in Brightbirch. Had any of these teams been on this base before?

  Looking around, I suddenly realized that there were too many ships landing to have all been from the mission. And then a voice sounded out over the tumult of the tarmac, and I understood where the other ships had come from.

  “Gabby!” a woman screamed.

  I whirled around and saw that it was Martha, Gabby’s mom. She was standing just yards away from us, her eyes full of relieved tears.

  That explained the additional airships on the tarmac. The Edgewood survivors were touching down as well.

  Gabby squealed in emotional delight and raced to a large group of people, where she leapt up to hug her mother as her siblings, grandparents, cousins, aunts, and uncles surrounded them with boisterous greetings and tight hugs.

  I couldn’t help but smile. It was nice to see Gabby’s fears dissolve in an instant. But the smile faded from my face as I peered around the rest of the crowd gathering on the tarmac. I had many more faces that I wanted to see before I’d feel comfortable, with Henry’s being high on that list. But I noticed uneasily that there were far fewer people on the tarmac than there should have been, unless some of the Edgewood evacuee ships had been diverted. There were several hundred people, but that couldn’t have been even half of the population of Edgewood.

  Were these the only survivors? My heart sank. Edgewood wasn’t just a Little John base. It was also a thriving community filled with families, some with young children. I thought back to the little girl I had seen picking up flowers and candy during the Edgewood parade. Had she made it? Had her mother? What about all of the schoolchildren?

  The mole had theoretically been someone living inside of Edgewood. He would have known how many people that community held—and what sort of people they were. What kind of monster could’ve endangered all of those families and children by betraying Little John and Nathan?

  We were all stalling on the tarmac, for what I assumed were multiple reasons. For one, many of us seemed to be looking for our friends and family in the crowd. And secondly, it wasn’t immediately obvious where we were supposed to go. The stretchers had been pushed off the tarmac toward the hangar, but none of us knew if we were supposed to follow them or if this base had other accommodations for us. There were no directions, no signs to follow, and none of us knew what we were doing here. I realized that this was what Little John would be like without a leader.

  We needed Nathan. But he still hadn’t stepped off of our airship. There were only team members and families among us. It didn’t look like anyone with authority was around.

  Suddenly Zion pushed a stretcher through the crowd beside us. He nodded curtly to our group as he passed, an unknown man moaning painfully on the stretcher in front of him. And the moment he disappeared toward the hangar, Cloyd walked up in his wake.

  He looked us over, seemingly making eye contact with everyone except me, and then asked an obvious question.

  “Where are Kory and Jace?”

  My heart sank. Cloyd had been with the rest of the combat team on a different airship. He didn’t know yet.

  Something about our silence and expressions must’ve tipped him off to the problem.

  “Where?” he repeated strongly.

  “They’re heading to the hospital,” I managed to squeak out.

  It didn’t feel right telling him the whole truth, but I also felt uncomfortable only giving him a partial answer.

  Cloyd’s eyes narrowed as he homed in on me for the first time. Usually his unfriendly stare elicited a sense of injustice and anger in me, but not now. Not when I knew what type of pain he was about to experience when he did find Kory.

  And then, just like that, Cloyd was off toward the hangar where the rest of the stretchers were going.

  The crowd was also moving slowly toward the hangar together, following the stretchers, since we didn’t have any other direction. I peered through the crowd as we walked together, but still didn’t see Henry or Rhea. It was hard not to lose hope entirely, though I tried to stay focused. It was a large crowd, so there was a good chance they were both here, maybe even looking for me. Or they might’ve survived the attack but gotten injured and taken to the hospital.

  But I still had my doubts.

  I turned back to the airship for a final time and was surprised to see Nathan stepping slowly down the ramp. He was walking in such a dejected manner that I could’ve mistaken him for injured.

  Nelson turned around and saw what I had been looking at.

  “I hope he doesn’t stay like this for long,” she said, and I nodded. There was a chance that we were still in grave danger here and at risk of another attack.

  We needed our leader.

  As we watched, Nathan looked up and seemed to notice our stares. But then he was staring over our heads with laser-like precision. It looked like he was focusing in on someone or something in the crowd in front of us.

  I turned just in time to see Corona spot Nathan. It almost looked like she had been holding her breath in anticipation, and the minute she saw him, she started walking toward us with long, graceful strides. We parted to make room for her, and she walked past us without sparing any of us a glance.

  I let out a sigh of relief upon spotting her. I’d already known that she had escaped, from our conversation with Nathan on the airship, but I’d still been worried about her health and safety. I had grown so close to her over the past few weeks. Seeing her was a breath of fresh air.

  Nathan must’ve felt similarly, because what he did then shocked me.

  He took off running. He ran down the rest of the ramp and through the thin crowd around him and didn’t stop until he had reached Corona. When he got to her, he threw his arms around her in a complete and utter show of emotion and vulnerability. I had never seen anything like it from Nathan before. Corona hugged him tightly in return.

  Watching the two of them embrace so wholeheartedly, I thought back to what Nelson had just said. />
  “I think he’ll be okay,” I replied, still entranced by the sight of Nathan and Corona’s reunion. “As long as the people he loves can remind him what we’re fighting for.”

  Our large group had reached the hangar by this point, and now we were walking along a path that ran beside it. Suddenly the town of Brightbirch opened up in front of us. And it definitely didn’t look at all like Edgewood.

  Brightbirch had a bright and airy layout and was much more rustic. With the exception of the concrete-and-steel hangar and the shiny asphalt tarmac, the rest of the base looked like a quaint village. The main street was a cheerful red brick, and the buildings mostly appeared to be wood and thatch—a far cry from the modern stone façade of Edgewood. Flowering bushes and stubby pine trees lined the street on either side, perfuming the thin air around us.

  The buildings were also more spread out than they had been in Edgewood. Planted fields and wooden pens filled with grazing animals dotted the space between some of the buildings in the city, and beyond the city I could see even more extensive agricultural fields. I was also surprised to see long rows of glass buildings on one side of the red brick road: greenhouses.

  Brightbirch seemed so different from Edgewood already, and I wondered then whether all of the Little John bases served different purposes. If Edgewood had been an administrative hub, then what was Brightbirch’s purpose? Growing food? Providing a peaceful retreat?

  Whatever it was, I was suddenly feeling more calm and collected than I had been just minutes before. The city was definitely beautiful, with all of the greenery and animals around.

  But, I remembered ominously, the enemy might be here with us somewhere, plotting their next move.

  “Robin!” I heard a familiar voice shout. And then, almost before I had time to register what was happening, a young man with tan skin had pushed through the crowd in front of me and was suddenly holding me in a tight embrace.

  “Henry,” I breathed in shock. Then I wrapped my arms around him in relief. Hope’s father had survived the attack.

  3

  “Henry,” I said again, still shocked by his sudden appearance. Seeing the Edgewood crowd looking so small and vulnerable on the tarmac had made me start bracing for the worst-case scenario when it came to my friend.

  “I’m so glad you’re okay,” he said, his face nuzzled into my hair.

  “I’m happy that you’re okay, too,” I said, pulling back to look him in his eyes.

  I had so many burning questions to ask him about what had happened in Edgewood, but for now I was just glad to see him.

  “I always worry when you disappear on a mission,” he replied. “We made a promise to each other to get Hope back. And I need you alive for that.”

  “I’m not going anywhere,” I told him confidently. I needed to believe that we would get through this and find Hope again, even if the odds were against us.

  “Good,” Henry replied. “Because I want my family together again.”

  His eyes softened and his smile faded slightly, and I noticed that his eyes were drawn to my lips, even though I wasn’t speaking. My heart fluttered, but more out of nervousness than anything. My mind went back to Jace. How could I tell Henry that I wanted our family back, too, but that it was going to be a new, blended family from here on out?

  Because no matter what, I wanted Jace to be a part of it.

  Luckily, the rest of Team Hood approached, and I didn’t have to go into it.

  “Henry, what happened in Edgewood?” Nelson asked quickly.

  Ant, Abe, and Jackie crowded around to hear the answer. Henry glanced back at me as if disappointed that we had been interrupted, but then he answered Nelson.

  “I wish I could say,” he replied. “But truthfully I didn’t see much.”

  The team was staring intently at Henry as he spoke, and I could see a flush rising in his cheeks.

  “But you were in Edgewood, weren’t you?” Ant asked.

  “Well, yeah,” Henry replied, sounding slightly uncertain. “But I was under an airship when it happened. My team and I were doing routine airship maintenance in the hangar. My shift was almost up, and it was getting dark.”

  I zeroed in on his statements, trying to make sense of them. If it was just getting dark, then that would’ve been while our mission was underway in the Helping Hands compound.

  “So did you see the projection go down?” I asked.

  But immediately after I had said it, I realized that some of the information that Nathan had shared with us might be classified. Did everyone know that the projection had been turned off from the inside, or did most of them assume that it had somehow been disabled or destroyed by the government’s attack?

  Who exactly was privy to the presence of a traitor?

  Nelson cast a sideways glance at me, and I could tell she was thinking the same thing. With a traitor somewhere in our midst, we were no longer at liberty to talk as freely as we had been before.

  Even with someone whom I trusted implicitly.

  But Henry answered casually. “I just heard alarms go off. When I got out from under the airship, I saw new ships hovering over Edgewood. Ships that weren’t ours. Then everyone started running.”

  My pulse quickened as I lost myself in his recollection. How horrifying that must have been for everyone in Edgewood! To be going about your day, maybe finishing up your team duties or making dinner for your family, and then looking up and seeing the enemy poised overhead.

  “How many ships?” Abe thought to ask.

  Henry shook his head. “Maybe five or six. I didn’t have time to count.”

  Nelson was furrowing her brow in thought, and I wondered if we were thinking the same thing: Why send so few ships? Was it because they knew that Nathan and most of the teams weren’t there, and so knew it wouldn’t be much of a fight?

  Henry’s face looked pained, as if he was dredging up a memory that he’d rather forget.

  “Everyone on the tarmac and in the hangar started running around. People were yelling orders. They were calling for pilots,” he said slowly, considering his words. “And even people who weren’t pilots but had flight experience. Anyone who could help. Our team was told to start firing up all of the airships that were left.”

  Many of the airships had followed us to the Helping Hands compound to aid in that mission—along with the people who knew how to fly them. Edgewood had been vulnerable . . . and primed for an outside attack.

  “What about the government ships?” Jackie asked.

  “They just . . . started firing,” he replied flatly. “Indiscriminately, it looked like. Over the main Edgewood buildings.”

  I closed my eyes to shut out the image that his words had conjured up in my mind: families, friends, and children in the brownstones or out in the streets, directly beneath those powerful weapons.

  “People started racing to the hangar from the main street. We got a lot of airships up and running, and we were helping people board. And the surveillance team was providing cover,” Henry said.

  Cover?

  “I guess they had access to big ground-based weapons that none of my team knew about,” he continued. “Maybe Nathan told his mission teams and you guys already knew, but we sure didn’t. Anyway, these big guns and launchers came up out of the ground around the city and were shooting back at the government ships. So we got as many people as we could on the airships, and then we got out of there. Once we were in the air and getting away, I heard a big explosion from behind us. Rocked the ship. I didn’t see it, but people were saying then that Edgewood was gone,” he finished.

  A silence fell over us as we soaked in Henry’s words. Finally, a thought occurred to me.

  “What about the surveillance team?” I asked.

  “We wouldn’t have survived without them,” Henry replied. “They stayed behind so that we could escape.”

  “Wait . . . all of them?” Nelson asked, her eyes wide with surprise.

  Henry nodded. “At least everyone
who was in the surveillance room.”

  My heart sank. A whole team was gone. I remembered back to my brief trip into the surveillance room for the executive interrogations. All of those team members in the surveillance room . . . just gone.

  I looked around our crowd once more and realized for the first time that Piper was nowhere to be seen.

  “Piper?” I asked.

  “No one from the surveillance team got out,” Henry replied. “I could hear our pilot talking to Piper on his comm link as our ship was taking off. Piper stayed behind with the rest of them.”

  My mind went right to Nathan, horrified. Piper was one of his oldest and dearest friends, according to Corona. How was he going to take the news of his loss, on top of the crushing betrayal of harboring a government spy? I turned to look over the crowd at Nathan and was surprised to see that he was already looking at us.

  Or it looked like he was looking at us. But I noticed with unease that his eyes were narrowed and sharp with suspicion. And he wasn’t so much looking at us as he was staring at Henry individually. I turned back to see whether anyone or anything was positioned behind Henry, but no. Nathan had been staring directly at Henry. But why?

  Suddenly a figure was rushing at us, but I noticed who it was with relief.

  “Where is Jace?” Rhea asked breathlessly.

  “Rhea!” I shouted in return. I lunged forward and grabbed her in a bear hug, ecstatic to see her. Jace would be so relieved! “Thank goodness! How did you escape?”

  “Our coding teacher helped. Now what about Jace?” Rhea asked again, pulling away from me. She obviously had only one thing on her mind for now.

  “He’s fine! I’m sorry, I’m just so glad that you’re okay!” I said. I pulled her in again for another hug, and this time she hugged back tightly.

  “He’s in the hospital,” I said as I pulled away. “But he’s fine.”

  “Then why is he going to the hospital?” Rhea asked with concern.