The Child Thief 6: Zero Hour

by Forrest, Bella

  And had she really recognized me like I thought she had back on the airship?

  I knelt down and grabbed one of her thin hands. If only she were awake to talk to, to question. I had waited almost two decades for this moment. And now it looked like I’d have to wait a little more.

  Still, I was just happy that I had the chance to speak to her. I knew I’d never get that chance with my biological father, but maybe I still had the opportunity to have a relationship with my mother.

  I just wasn’t going to get it right away. I squeezed Juno’s hand gently.

  “Let’s leave her to her rest,” I said as I stood. There would be time to speak to her again soon. For now, she needed to focus on her recovery.

  Nelson and I took the elevator down to the first floor again and walked out of the hospital building together. We paused when we reached the brick road, unsure of what to do next. Nelson suddenly reached for her pocket.

  “Forgot to give this back to you on the airship,” she said. She pulled my phone out of her pocket and handed it to me. “You’ll probably need that.”

  “Thanks,” I replied, shoving the phone into my own pocket.

  “They’ve probably put lunch out by now,” Nelson said. “If you want to go back and check it out.”

  I looked back at the tents and then down the other side of the brick road, toward Fiora’s office. I couldn’t talk to Nathan, or Juno, or spend time with Jace like I wanted to, but I did want to take some time for myself just to think. I had a lot of emotions to work through.

  “I’ll be there soon,” I said.

  Nelson nodded. Then she turned and began to walk back to the rest of the team. I watched her go for a few seconds before I starting walking up the road in the opposite direction.

  6

  Fiora’s verdant office building was up ahead on my right, the lush, sweet smell of the planted flowers crowding the wraparound porch even stronger in the warm midday sun. I took a deep breath in and then examined the building for any sign of activity. It wasn’t my intention to interrupt an official meeting. I just wanted to explore the town a bit and take some time to myself to think. Still, I couldn’t help but hope that someone was going to step outside and make themselves available for questions. But aside from the flowers swaying gently in the breeze and the running water in the fountain, there wasn’t any movement. I sighed.

  A high-pitched whinny caught my attention, and I turned to my left to look into the open field across from Fiora’s office. The stable sat picturesquely in the distance, and the open area was still dotted with grazing animals. But now a lone animal had ventured up to the fence beside the road. I walked over.

  A stately horse stood behind the wooden rails, looking straight at me. She was a beautiful golden-yellow color, like a springtime daffodil, with a white mane, socks, and diamond. I walked over to her and placed my hand against her muzzle.

  The soft, wrinkly feel took me back to my childhood. My siblings and I had loved spending time in the stables near our neighborhood where we learned to ride. I had started taking equestrian classes early, at our prestigious boarding school, and still remembered throwing my arms around my father’s neck in excitement when I opened my first shiny, black pair of riding boots.

  The horse exhaled warmly against my palm.

  I wondered then if Jace had any experience with horses. Maybe we’d have one or two when this was all said and done. It was a pleasant thing to imagine: Jace lifting Hope up to place her on the broad back of one of our horses while she giggled in nervous excitement. A silly dream, perhaps, but it was nice to imagine.

  To my surprise, my phone buzzed in my pocket. I pulled it out and peered at the bright screen. The call was from a number that I didn’t recognize.

  Robin, please meet us in the admin building. Come alone. –Corona

  I stared at the message for a few long seconds while I tried to understand. Why was Corona messaging me? Nathan had always been the one to reach out to us with official business before. And what business could we have now that wouldn’t involve the rest of the teams? I looked back at Fiora’s building. Were they looking at me through a window or a camera at this very moment?

  And why did they want me to come alone?

  I stuffed my phone back into my pocket and made my way across the road to Fiora’s building. A small wrought-iron fence cordoned off the yard of the building, and I swung its short gate open and walked through the grass to the porch.

  The wood creaked under my weight as I approached the front door. I briefly considered knocking, but I decided to just try the handle instead. It turned easily, and the door opened.

  My first step into the house sent something small and furry skittering away from my feet, and I yelped in surprise and fear. But it was gone before I could focus on it, around a staircase in the middle of the dark room. My eyes adjusted in the dim building. I had entered a parlor lit by flickering candles and dim, wall-mounted lanterns. A large wooden staircase stood before me, with a worn carpet runner leading up to the top, and a dusty-looking sitting room was on my right. To the left there was a small kitchen with a wooden table and chairs. Two cups of coffee sat on the table and grew cold.

  So it was basically a house. I wondered what to do next. But luckily, I didn’t have to do any guesswork. I had made my presence known.

  “We’re upstairs, Robin,” Corona’s voice called out. “Come on up!”

  Each stair creaked beneath me as I made my way up, and I examined the framed pictures along the wall as I went. One picture showed a young woman on a horse, her long blonde hair flowing behind her and her lips painted bright red. It looked like an older picture. The same woman graced several more photos: standing beside a cow with a blue ribbon tied around its neck, smiling broadly while holding up two tiny piglets, and crouching beside a large rabbit sitting in the grass. I cocked my brow. Whoever the woman was, she seemed interesting.

  A hallway stretched across the length of the second floor of the house. One door was open, so I walked through it and into another large, dim room. Inside, another furry blur raced between my feet and out into the hallway. I gasped again, unable to contain myself.

  “Never mind the ferrets, dear,” a wizened female voice said. “They think they have the run of the house.”

  As my brain tried to make sense of the words, my eyes settled on an older woman seated behind a desk and began taking in all of the details. I immediately recognized her as the woman from the photos. She still had the same long, curly hair—now an ashy gray color—and the same bright lipstick. She was sitting back in a wooden office chair with a velvet cushion in her lap. Atop the cushion sat a fat and fluffy Persian cat.

  There was a wooden stand beside her desk with a colorful macaw perched upon it. And against the wall was a lit terrarium with a large, striped snake coiled inside. I remembered what Luka had said about Fiora’s fondness for exotic pets, and suddenly the ferrets started to make sense.

  “Robin, this is Fiora,” Corona said, standing from a plush velvet loveseat beside the desk. “She’s Brightbirch’s leader.”

  For the first time I also noticed Nathan sitting in a large leather chair. He didn’t greet me beyond a curt nod.

  “Robin, I’ve heard lovely things about you,” Fiora said. She stood from her seat, unseating the displeased-looking cat, and walked around her desk to shake my hand. Gold chains tinkled melodically on her wrist as we shook.

  Corona walked up to us and smiled maternally at me.

  “Corona,” I sputtered. I had so many things that I wanted to say, but I was having a hard time putting them into words. “I’m so glad that you made it out safely.”

  Corona moved forward to hug me, and I hugged her tightly in return. I had felt a real fear for Corona’s safety when Nathan told us about the Edgewood attack. Even knowing that she had survived it, I had still worried that she would be the same type of broken and despondent person that the attack had made Nathan. But seeing her as her usual, graceful self was de
eply relieving.

  After Corona pulled away, a strange silence followed. Hadn’t they called me here for a reason? I wondered if the subject matter was uncomfortable for them to bring up. During the pause in conversation, I continued to look around Fiora’s office. There were more framed pictures in the office, mostly of Fiora at fairs with prize-winning animals or holding assorted exotic pets, and I stared at them in awe.

  “I see you’ve noticed some of my many friends,” Fiora said proudly.

  “It looks like you’ve had an impressive assortment,” I replied.

  “She definitely has a knack with animals,” Corona said. Then, in an obvious attempt to rope Nathan into polite conversation, she added, “Wouldn’t you agree, Nathan?”

  Nathan gave her a look and nodded. “I’d agree,” he said flatly.

  Corona’s and Fiora’s eyes met, exchanging a knowing look.

  “Umm,” I said, hoping to cut some of the tension, “I got your message, Corona.”

  “Yes, thank you for coming on such short notice, Robin,” she said. “Why don’t you take a seat?”

  I looked over at the only empty seat apprehensively. It was right next to Nathan. Nonetheless, it was the only option, and I sat rigidly beside him.

  “Nathan,” I started anxiously. He turned to look at me. “Is Piper here on base?”

  No one had definitively confirmed for me that Piper had died. But since he wasn’t here and Henry believed that he had been left behind at Edgewood, the fact seemed sadly self-evident.

  “Gone,” Nathan replied tersely.

  “I’m sorry,” I said.

  Nathan’s eyes softened. A melancholy half-smile graced his face briefly.

  “Thank you, Robin,” he said gently.

  “Robin, we brought you here to discuss something somewhat sensitive,” Corona interrupted timidly.

  At Corona’s words, Nathan’s face seemed to instantly harden again. It gave me an uneasy feeling.

  “Okay,” I said, hoping Corona would continue. But instead, she looked uncomfortable and abashed. Nathan plowed ahead.

  “Robin, how much contact did you have with Henry before running into him back at that truck stop?” he asked. His eyes were focused and cold. His tone was steady.

  Henry? They had brought me here to ask me about Henry?

  “I-I,” I started, stuttering over my words. I could feel myself faltering. “I hadn’t spoken to him in years.”

  Nathan’s eyes didn’t move, and his expression remained unchanged.

  “We only ask because we’re implementing some new security measures,” Corona said quickly. “It’s for the good of Little John. We certainly aren’t making any accusations.”

  But weren’t they? Nathan’s stare began to appear ominous and threatening to me. Was I being interrogated? Did they think Henry alone was guilty? Or, I thought uneasily as I looked into Nathan’s distant gaze, were they accusing me of . . . assisting him? It was a horrible thought to consider. But as Nathan stared coldly at me, I couldn’t help but wonder.

  Surely Nathan didn’t think I could be involved in the betrayal. Did he?

  “What did he say to you when he recognized you?” Nathan asked.

  My mind was drawing blanks. I tried to remember back to that day, when we were desperate to escape the Authority agents on our tails, but my mind was fogging over in my confusion and unease. It had felt fortuitous to run into Henry, sure, but it didn’t seem completely unbelievable at the time.

  “He seemed really surprised to see me,” I finally said. “Just like I was surprised to run into him.”

  “Do you think he was lying?” Nathan asked.

  I shook my head in disbelief. “Lying about what?”

  “Like he was actually expecting you? Like he was waiting for you,” Nathan replied.

  I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “Henry helped us. He sacrificed his old identity for us, knowing that it would put him in great danger,” I said. Strength was beginning to return to my voice.

  “The government might’ve been offering him a new one in exchange for his assistance,” Nathan retorted.

  “I don’t think there’s any way that we could have been trailed to that truck stop,” I replied. “And how could they have known we would stop there? How could they have known so much about my life so quickly? They had only just gotten my identity.”

  My voice had been gradually rising in volume and intensity as I spoke. I had given up everything to join Little John and fight the government, sacrificed my identity and my safety. I had postponed finding my daughter. I had risked my life and lost one of my friends. And this was how much Nathan appreciated that?

  “Never underestimate what this regime would be willing to do,” Nathan replied. “Or who can’t be trusted.”

  Anger was beginning to bubble up inside of me. Just because Nathan had trusted the wrong person didn’t make us all so naïve.

  “When was the last time you spoke to him?” Nathan asked, seemingly unperturbed by my obvious discomfort.

  “When our daughter was taken. He left,” I said. Nathan’s questions were starting to feel intrusive, and my tone was starting to reflect my displeasure.

  Nathan’s eyes narrowed again, and I felt immediately like I had just given him even more cause to be suspicious of Henry’s character.

  “He was just a kid. We were just kids. He’s not a bad person,” I said.

  “Of course not,” Corona interjected. She cast Nathan a glare before turning her attention back to me. “Robin, like I said, this isn’t about accusations. It’s just about heightened security.”

  “And rooting out moles,” Nathan said. I stared back at him defiantly.

  “If you want to root out the mole, you should start with the obvious choice,” I shot back. I knew I was being brash and disrespectful, but the words were pouring out of me in my emotional state. “Like Robert.”

  Nathan’s brow furrowed. Corona looked puzzled and uncomfortable.

  “Thank you, Robin,” Corona said. “We’ll be sure to—”

  “What about Robert?” Nathan interrupted.

  “He had access to Pandora’s Box before we joined Little John. He claimed it was his own software. And Piper himself didn’t trust him,” I replied.

  Nathan’s eyes grew wide. “How did you know about Pandora’s Box?” he demanded.

  I opened my mouth to speak, but Corona quickly cut me off.

  “That’s enough. Robin, thank you for coming. We’ll make sure to talk to Robert when it’s the right time,” she said, glancing over at Nathan. “As well as many other Little John members. But this isn’t the time. And we don’t want you to think that this is about accusations.”

  Nathan and I held eye contact, both of us communicating an obvious truth: Yes, it absolutely was.

  I broke our gaze and stood to leave but stopped before I reached the hallway. Might as well get this out of the way now.

  “Nathan, as long as we’re talking about the mole, what is being done to keep us safe? What is the plan moving forward? What about our missions? What about Helping Hands?” I asked strongly.

  “Robin, we assure you, Brightbirch is safe for the time being. And you will be involved in the next steps for mission work. Please trust that,” Corona said firmly.

  I stared at Nathan before I left. His gaze was strange, like it held a mixture of regret and stubborn determination. But I was so hurt by the situation that it was hard to sympathize with his position. Of course I wanted to help him find the government agent. And I understood that it could’ve been anyone on base, even a trusted friend. But was it really worth shelving our important Helping Hands mission entirely? Couldn’t the mission and the mole investigation happen at the same time?

  But with that parting look, I turned and left the room. There was no arguing with Nathan at the moment, not after our tense confrontation.

  A ferret sat still at the bottom of the stairs, watching me with its beady black eyes. I stooped down and scratched
the serpentine mammal behind its ears, and it flipped over onto its back and began clawing at and biting my fingers in play.

  Nathan’s suspicions of Henry aside, Brightbirch was a beautiful place. And Fiora and Corona seemed like a strong team. Little John would be okay through all of this. I had to believe that, because Little John was more than just a community of fighters. It was an ethos, a belief that our country could be what it once was again.

  Even if Nathan was too focused on enemies within to focus on the many enemies Little John had on the outside.

  7

  As I walked aimlessly along Brightbirch’s brick road, I thought more and more about Henry. I remembered our naïve romance, his stumbling courtship, and the first nervous embraces we shared whenever we were safely out of sight. It had felt so exciting and rebellious to love a boy I knew my parents would disprove of.

  But it had also roused something new in me: a feeling of injustice. The more I fell for Henry, the more I had begun to wonder exactly why he was considered an unsuitable suitor. After all, it wasn’t his fault that he’d been born into poverty. I had been born into poverty too, but back then the redistributions were more sporadic and uncertain than they would later become. So, for whatever reason, Henry’s birth was allowed, or overlooked enough to keep him with his parents, whereas I was scooped up and sent off to vast wealth.

  But why did that make us inherently different in the eyes of my adoptive father? Even then, at sixteen years old, I remembered wondering how that could be fair.

  So in a way, it was Henry who gave me my first taste of anti-regime revelation.

  I also remembered the pain I had seen on Henry’s face when the nurse came back into our hospital room to take Hope away forever. Even though my pain felt insurmountable, all-encompassing and all-consuming, I had seen a very similar emotion reflected back in Henry’s dark eyes. I knew that he had loved Hope.