The Child Thief 6: Zero Hour

by Forrest, Bella

  “You’re going to the top floor of the westernmost tower,” Nathan said as soon as we had all gotten within earshot. “You’ll know you’re there because that particular conference room has one wall that is all glass. You should be able to look in and see every one of them sitting around their conference table. That’s where you’re aiming, Robin.”

  I took a deep breath. I was going to have to look in and see all of those people before I killed them? As foolish as it was, I had been picturing shooting at a brick wall, not at the faces of other human beings.

  But I nodded to Nathan nonetheless.

  “Jace and Rio, the coordinates are preprogrammed to get you there and to get you back. Make sure the stealth is on the entire time. And move quickly,” Nathan continued. “We’ll need to get out of here post-haste after the explosion. Before any of the government’s airships show up.”

  Pyro walked in and headed over toward us.

  “Pyro, I don’t need to tell you how those explosives work,” Nathan joked. “So just make sure they’re at the proper distance from their target before they shoot.”

  Pyro nodded curtly. “Will do,” he said.

  “And Robin,” Nathan said, turning to look at me. “Pyro can tell you how dangerous these explosives are. We want to minimize the loss of life on this mission, which is tricky to do when you’re using bombs. So all I’ll say is . . . don’t miss.”

  He clapped his hand down on my shoulder. “It’s time, team,” he said. “Good luck.”

  Behind us, the rest of the flight team had been working to get the mini-airship out of the cabin of the airship and outside. I could see now that it was done and that it really was time for us to begin our attack.

  Pyro, Rio, Jace, and I were just stepping outside to begin boarding the mini-airship when the rest of Team Hood came flying out of the hull of the main airship to catch us.

  “You didn’t think you were going to set off without saying goodbye to us, did you?” Denver asked.

  Jace stepped forward. “This isn’t goodbye,” he said resolutely.

  “It better not be,” Cloyd said. “Because I can’t lose another brother.”

  “Robin, please be careful,” Jackie said.

  “We know you can do it,” Abe said.

  I took a deep breath and tried to believe that myself. I knew that Rio and Jace were good pilots, and I trusted that Pyro knew what he was talking about, too. The only person I didn’t have total confidence in was myself.

  There were so many ways that things could go wrong: We could kill people we weren’t intending to kill, or our explosives could be faulty, or we could do everything right and still get caught in an air fight against government airships if we didn’t escape fast enough. But I tried to focus on just my own role in the mission as Nathan’s words echoed in my head.

  Don’t miss.

  Jace and I shared a few hugs with our team members before we stepped back and waved our goodbyes. Then we walked onto the mini-airship and closed the hatch.

  Rio and Jace immediately went for the controls, leaving Pyro and me standing awkwardly in the middle of the small space. But it didn’t seem uncomfortable for Pyro at all. In fact, he looked right in his element.

  “Stealth on,” Rio said. “Readying for takeoff.”

  “Guess that means we should take a seat,” Pyro said with a smile. He jumped into his chair and then loudly clapped his hands once.

  I was barely strapped into my seat when I felt the ship lift up off the ground.

  “No going back now,” Pyro said with an almost maniacal laugh.

  I looked over at him and wondered if he was really the person to be in charge of an airship cannon full of explosives. But he was right: there wasn’t any going back now. And with that, the airship took off toward Preston Industries like it had been shot out of a slingshot. I held on to the armrests of the cabin seat tightly.

  “You two all right back there?” Rio asked cheerfully.

  “Better than all right!” Pyro shouted back enthusiastically.

  But I kept silent and dug my fingers into the armrests instead. I was used to flying at high speeds in the mini-airship by now, but I would never be used to flying into a mission that carried with it a high probability of injury or death.

  No matter how many times I did it.

  We arrived at Preston Industries within minutes and began to scope out the building. Preston Industries was headquartered in a very large complex with the nondescript qualities of a corporate office. Like Nathan had said, it had several tall towers with at least forty stories in each. Its parking lot alone was the size of some of the abandoned factory towns Jace and I had visited for our Helping Hands missions. One of the towers even had an airship landing pad situated on the top. I had never seen such a large facility.

  And, I thought with disgust, it was all aimed toward keeping bad people in power and taking money from the desperately poor to put even more money into the pockets of the rich.

  “That’s the west tower,” Jace said, pointing at a tower that looked to be at least a few stories taller than the others. The glint of sunlight coming off of a humongous window confirmed it. That was the wall of glass that led into the conference room.

  The conference room that we were about to obliterate, along with everyone inside of it.

  “Still on stealth mode,” Rio said as the mini-airship zipped over to the west tower.

  “Pyro, are we ready?” Jace asked.

  Pyro looked like a kid in a candy store. His chosen name definitely was fitting. I didn’t think I had ever seen someone so excited to destroy something.

  He smiled hugely and then said, “We’re all set.” Then he looked over at me. “Hope you’re a good aim,” he said. “We can’t get too close without getting a pretty big blowback from the explosives, and you need to aim at the ceiling of the room to avoid too much damage to the floors below.”

  I nodded. That seemed like a good-sized target, or at least much easier to hit than the heart of Aurora’s would-be executioner in Chanley.

  I could do this.

  Meanwhile, Rio was talking into a headset that I suddenly realized must be going straight back to the ground team. “Coming around on the west tower now,” he said.

  The airship moved quickly and quietly through the calm air around Preston Industries until we were merely yards away from the brick of the west tower. I could see every crack in the façade. And then, as we moved around to face the window directly, I could see something else, too.

  I could see their faces.

  There were dozens of people in that conference room. Men and women from old age all the way down to what looked like people only a few years older than me. They were dressed in their business best and seated around a huge glass conference table, drinking coffee and bottled water and taking notes.

  And I was being asked to kill them all. My stomach dropped, and I suddenly felt very sick.

  “Cannons activated,” Rio said.

  “Robin, the cannon controls are on the control panel,” Pyro said. “Go on.”

  I stepped forward, and Rio and Jace both moved slightly to get out of my way. My eyes traced over the control panel until I saw a device that looked like a small joystick. It reminded me of an old-fashioned arcade game.

  I grabbed it gently and tested the controls. The airship cannon was below the windshield, so I couldn’t see it as I moved the joystick, but a small video screen on the panel showed me where I was aiming via a camera that must’ve been attached to the cannon itself. I could see the conference room from the cannon’s point of view now, and red crosshairs on the screen moved as I fiddled with the joystick. It wasn’t particularly complicated.

  “That red X is what you point at whatever you want to explode,” Pyro said, his eye afire with excitement.

  I looked at the people inside the conference room from the cannon’s vantage point, through the red crosshairs. It was strange to imagine that I was going to cause so much damage and destruction w
ith that red X.

  “Ready when you are, Robin,” Rio said. “Give us a countdown so Jace and I can get us out of here quickly as soon as you fire.”

  I moved the joystick around with both hands until I had it situated on a spot in the top of the conference room. I looked back and forth between the control panel screen and the people in the conference room.

  “Robin?” Rio asked again.

  Long seconds were ticking by. I hovered my thumb over the button to fire, but . . . I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t kill all of those people.

  I could feel Rio’s, Jace’s, and Pyro’s eyes on me. Did they think I was weak-willed? A coward? I knew Jace would understand, but the rest of Little John wouldn’t. Still, I didn’t think I could do this.

  “Robin, we have to go,” Pyro said. “Shoot!”

  My finger hovered over the button. These people were murderers, I told myself. They were thieves. They were liars. And they had elected a dictator knowing what he was going to do to our country. I began to move my finger down, when . . .

  Mr. Sylvone.

  My adoptive father walked into the room from a door in the back.

  30

  I watched him walk quickly and confidently to an empty seat at the table. I was close enough to see every detail: his expensive, well-tailored suit; his thin-lipped expression; and even his gold watch, which my adoptive mother had gifted him for Christmas when I was little. He looked like he hadn’t aged a day, so it was hard to believe that any time had passed since I last saw him.

  I’d known that there was a chance he’d be here, but I hadn’t really put any thought into it. Maybe because I hadn’t wanted to consider it—or what it might mean.

  Now my fears were realized. If I did my job for Little John today, it’d mean killing my own adoptive father.

  “Robin?” Jace asked.

  “Robin!” Pyro repeated aggressively.

  All I could do was stare at the only father I had ever known. The father who had taken me in, said he loved me, spent money on my upbringing and education and fancy clothes and seven-course dinners, and then kicked me out like I was nothing to him. And in my heart, I didn’t know how I really felt. Did I hate him? Or did I still love him?

  And either way, could I really kill him?

  I could hear Nathan speaking frantically through Rio’s headset. Rio listened and then turned to Pyro.

  “Pyro, take the controls,” Rio said firmly.

  But I gripped down on them tightly.

  “Robin, we have to do this quickly!” Rio said, his voice rising. “Pyro, do you think you can shoot?”

  “Turn off the stealth,” I said. My voice sounded strange and foreign to me, like it was coming from a place far away.

  “What?” Pyro asked in disbelief. “Are you nuts? This is a stealth mission. Give me the controls! I’ll just have to try to do it myself.”

  “Turn off the stealth,” I repeated. “I’m not going to do this unless they can see us.”

  I knew it was stupid. I knew it was incredibly dangerous. Turning off the stealth meant they’d be able to see us—and call reinforcements. It could cost us the mission, and our lives.

  But I wasn’t going to kill the man I’d called Father without him seeing me first.

  Rio was staring at me like I was a madwoman. Pyro’s mouth was hanging agape. Even Jace was looking at me with doubt. Nathan’s voice was still coming through Rio’s headset.

  “Why?” Jace snapped.

  “I can’t kill all of these people without letting them know that it’s about to happen,” I replied. My voice was shaky, but my resolve was solid. “They have to know that we’ve come for them.”

  “They’ll hit the panic button,” Rio said quickly, frustrated. “Government airships will be here in thirty seconds.”

  “The explosion is going to send airships here anyway,” I shot back. “This only shaves a couple of seconds off of our time.”

  I felt like Rio had something else to say in argument, but Pyro moved to the stealth controls so quickly that we barely had time to register what he was doing.

  “Whatever,” he said. “Let’s get this over with. I’m sick of waiting.”

  And with a flick of his wrist, he switched them off.

  Suddenly we were staring at our own reflection in the huge window of the conference room. I could see all four of us perfectly reflected in the glass: Pyro standing over me, Jace and Rio sitting, and me leaning forward with my hand on the cannon controls.

  And then, almost as quickly, every eye inside the conference room had turned to face us. There was a moment of confusion and then horror as they realized what was happening. But I was only looking at one person. I was only watching one of the executives who had betrayed this country, killing and enslaving millions to benefit only the rich. And it was personal.

  When my adoptive father looked through the glass, we made eye contact. In the span of two seconds, his face went from confusion to recognition. I could see that he saw me and knew who I was, even after all that time. And for a split second, I wondered if he had ever loved me. If even though he had thrown me out, there was still a part of him that saw me as his daughter. The next second, his face contorted into an expression of hatred. He knew who I was, he knew what I was here for, and he hated me for it.

  But now he’d finally face justice.

  “Three, two, one,” I said, probably too quickly, and then I pressed down to fire.

  “Move back!” Pyro shouted.

  He was cut off by the massive boom of an explosion. The explosive shot into the conference room, shattering the glass window, and erupted when it hit the ceiling. Flames and a massive whoosh of air sent our airship hurtling away from the building. Pyro and I flew back, but Rio and Jace were strapped in and didn’t take their hands off the controls.

  “Pull her up!” Rio shouted.

  I rolled to the back of the airship and looked up in terror as Jace and Rio pulled back on their controls as hard as they could to shoot the airship up into the air and away from the explosion.

  “Stealth on!” Jace shouted, taking one hand off the controls to flip a switch.

  “Get us out of here!” Pyro yelled from the floor beside me.

  And then the airship was rocketing away from the flames. I watched as fire and smoke poured out of the conference room until the airship had completely turned away and was racing for the ground team again.

  As the airship gained speed and got farther away from Preston Industries, Rio turned on me angrily.

  “What were you trying to pull back there?” he shouted. His face was red, and sweat was beading on his forehead.

  “Don’t raise your voice to her!” Jace yelled as he whirled to glare at Rio.

  Pyro started to lift himself up from the ground, but then shifted to face me where I was still sitting on the cabin floor.

  “Tell me why,” he said simply.

  Rio and Jace both turned from their argument to look at me.

  “My adoptive dad was in there,” I said quietly.

  The three of them stared back at me in disbelief.

  “I’m sorry,” I continued, slowly and hesitantly. “I know that was dangerous. I just . . . I couldn’t do it without them seeing us. I needed them to know that we were there and what we were about to do. I needed my adoptive father to see me, to know that he was finally facing justice. I couldn’t kill him sight unseen.”

  The airship cabin was silent after I finished speaking. Everyone looked shocked, but Jace also looked deeply sympathetic.

  “Robin,” Jace said softly. “Robin, I’m so sorry.”

  I shook my head. “It had to happen.”

  Rio turned back to the windshield and took the controls, his focus on getting us back to the ground team quickly. Jace was still looking at me.

  I stood up and walked to the cabin seats to sit down. Pyro stood and followed me, then he sat beside me and turned to face me. His eye was still hardened with anger.

  “That wa
s stupid,” Pyro said simply. “I get why you did it. We all go a little nutty sometimes. But it doesn’t change the fact that it was stupid.”

  “I know,” I replied. “You’re right.”

  “Robin,” Jace began again.

  Rio interrupted us. “Preparing to land, guys,” he said. “We’re going to have to move quickly. Nathan says we’ve got company coming.”

  I sighed. I didn’t know if that was my fault or not. I knew that turning stealth off hadn’t been part of the plan, but I just hadn’t had it in me to kill my father without letting him see what was coming. It was supposed to be justice, not an ambush execution. I just wasn’t sure if Nathan would see it that way.

  Jace and Rio turned their full attention back to the controls. The landing was tricky, since they had to maneuver the mini-airship into the hatch of the main airship so we could all take off together. It was a very tight squeeze and would’ve been difficult for even the most experienced pilots. And as good as he was, Jace was technically still a rookie.

  I sat, still but tense, as we entered the main airship’s hull and gently touched down. Rio popped open the mini-airship’s hatch, and we all stood to disembark.

  The hull was bustling when we got off. The tech teams were frantically entering coordinates for what I assumed was a new flight path, and the flight teams were hovering over the controls, readying for takeoff.

  “Let’s move!” Nathan yelled from the front of the ship. “We’ve got incoming government airships, according to the radar. We have less than two minutes!”

  “Robin!” Jackie shouted as soon as she spotted me. “So glad you guys are okay.”

  “We heard that you made the shot!” Ant said. “Great job.”

  “Well, it’s probably not hard to shoot into a room full of monsters and criminals,” Abe added.

  I looked away.

  “Combat, medic, and mission teams need to get seated and strapped in!” Sy yelled out.

  I walked quickly to the cabin seats and started to buckle myself in. Jace sat beside me.

  “Robin, are you okay?” he asked.

  I knew he had been waiting this whole time to ask that. But I didn’t have a good answer for him.