The Child Thief 6: Zero Hour

by Forrest, Bella

  “Now take us to Hope,” I said.

  “I’ll take you to Ginny,” Mavis replied. “Just try not to shoot me along the way.”

  And then she walked to the door and out of the room, Cloyd following her closely with his gun still raised. We had no time to waste.

  “Jace, I’ve got to get Nathan into the mini-airship to wrap his wounds and try to staunch the bleeding. I’ll come back to help when I’m done,” Zion said.

  Jace nodded at him as we followed Mavis. We were entering dangerous territory. We knew that the office was clear, since Piper and Mavis were disarmed, but now Mavis might be leading us right into a trap. What if there were other armed agents in the building somewhere?

  “Wait!” Piper suddenly cried out. “Don’t leave me! You can’t leave me in here!”

  The rest of the team didn’t even turn back to look at him. It was obvious that we were going to leave him behind. But I turned to face him one last time before we stepped out of the office.

  “I’d promise you safety, Piper,” I told him coldly. “But my promises aren’t worth anything.”

  And then I raced out of the room. Piper’s cries followed us out into the hallway, first angry . . . and then panicked and fearful. Soon his cries were drifting away from us entirely as we sped farther down the hall and away from him forever.

  Zion dashed out in front of us, Nathan slumped over his shoulder, to exit through the front of the capitol building—where, I assumed, they’d parked the mini-airship.

  “What about the other agents?” I asked Jace anxiously as I watched Zion leave.

  Surely they would’ve seen or heard the commotion from the capitol building steps and made their way over here by now.

  “The explosives team set off a few dummy bombs around the perimeter. The agents know this place is wired now. They were fleeing by the dozens when we flew over,” Jace replied.

  I was relieved to hear that, but terribly anxious about the real explosives being ready and unstoppable. We had so little time to get Hope onto the ship.

  Mavis led us under the huge domed ceiling and over the Burchard seal to the opposite wing of the building. Then she turned right and went into a large conference room. I followed her closely, trying to move as quickly as possible, to make sure she wasn’t trying to trick us. But as soon as we entered the room, I saw what I had been waiting years to see.

  Hope.

  She was sitting quietly on the floor against the back wall of the room, behind the conference table and the plush office chairs. She was playing with a few small toys on the floor when we approached.

  “Hope,” I said involuntarily when I saw her.

  She looked up to see all of us, and suddenly her eyes widened in fear. She stood up and began to back away from us. My heart broke at the sight.

  I turned to Jace. “Keep your weapon on Mavis,” I told him.

  And then I holstered my gun and knelt down to Hope’s eye level. She was pressed almost entirely against the back wall of the room, so I approached her slowly.

  “Hope, honey,” I said in the gentlest tone I could muster. “It’s okay.”

  But Hope began to cry. Her light-colored eyes glazed over with frightened tears, and a heartbreaking, high-pitched wail came from her.

  “Ginny, my love,” Mavis said. “It’s all right. Mommy is here.”

  And then Hope turned to see Mavis and ran over to her. Mavis picked her up swiftly and held her tight. Seeing it knocked the wind out of me. I had never felt so wounded.

  Mavis shot me a horrible smile as she clutched her daughter—my daughter—close to her. In that moment, I knew exactly what she was trying to say to me: she will never love you like this. And I couldn’t say with certainty that I disagreed with her.

  “All right, let’s go,” Cloyd said. “Before this place blows.”

  “Come on, Mavis,” I said. I turned to walk to the door but kept my weapon holstered. I didn’t want to scare Hope any more than I already had. “We can all fit on the airship.”

  “And then what?” Mavis asked coldly. “You execute me on the ship? You throw me to the poor in the factories so they can tear me apart? You put me in prison for the rest of my life under the guise of justice?”

  I turned to look back with my brow furrowed in confusion. What was she doing? We had already agreed on terms, and precious seconds were ticking by.

  “We don’t have time for this, Mavis,” I replied. “And that’s not up to me. But since we’re not like you, I can assure you that you’ll be treated humanely.”

  “Somehow I doubt that,” she replied. “And I don’t think I want to find out.”

  “Mavis! The explosives are going to go off in a few minutes. Let’s go!” I said strongly, trying not to frighten Hope any more than she already was.

  But Mavis shook her head.

  I took a step toward Mavis, but she whipped Hope around to place her into a headlock. I watched with wide eyes and a slack jaw as Mavis pulled out the heavy pen that she had handed me back in her office and pressed its point against Hope’s throat. Hope squealed in confusion and pain.

  “Mavis!” I screamed.

  Jace and Cloyd suddenly took offensive positions and trained their weapons on Mavis. Hope kicked and struggled, her eyes wide with shock, but Mavis’s eyes just narrowed in cold, calculating resolve. It felt like my heart had stopped. How could Mavis do this to her own child? Had she never loved her at all? Had this all been part of her ploy?

  “Mavis, please,” I said. “Please don’t do this. Put her down.”

  “She’s staying with me!” Mavis shrieked back at us. “We’re going down together. Now you can make your choice: stay and die with us, or leave her behind to save your own miserable life!”

  I shook my head. “Why?” I whimpered.

  I couldn’t understand. Why doom Hope for no reason? Why doom herself?

  Mavis smiled. “A parting gift,” she offered venomously. “Just for you, Robin. You can win your war and put your precious Nathan in charge, but you will never get your child back. I won’t allow her to be raised by treasonous scum.”

  Hope began to cry, little tears spilling down her precious, cherubic cheeks.

  “Please, Mavis!” I cried out. “Please. She’s just a child!”

  “The bombs, guys!” Cloyd yelled. “We don’t have time for this! This whole place is about to go up in flames, with all of us inside!”

  “Wait!” Jace shouted back at Cloyd. He was staring at Mavis with a hatred that I had never seen in my life.

  Mavis turned to meet Jace’s penetrative gaze.

  “What are you going to do, boy?” she sneered. “Are you a good shot? Think you can hit me past the child? How would you feel if you killed her on accident? Is it worth it?”

  Mavis pressed the sharp point of the pen harder against Hope’s tiny neck, and Jace tightened his grip on the gun until all of his knuckles had gone completely white. Mavis was smiling madly at us, her eyes wild with desperation and hatred, like a rabid animal that was backed into a corner, about to lunge.

  “Hope!” I cried out.

  “Guys!” Cloyd shouted.

  But he barely finished saying the word when the first explosion rocked us all. Jace managed to stay upright, but I fell to the ground, and Mavis dropped Hope as well.

  This was my chance.

  I picked myself up and raced toward Hope as she wailed on the floor. I grabbed her, scooped her into the shelter of my chest, and turned and raced toward the doorway.

  “No!” Mavis bellowed.

  She stood to chase after us while Hope thrashed and cried in my arms.

  Then Jace took his shot, and Mavis crumpled to the floor with a scream. I whirled around to see red blood oozing out of her right leg.

  “No!” Mavis said, trying to stand. But her injury had rendered her unable to walk, and she fell back to the ground.

  “Let’s go!” Jace screamed.

  “No!” Mavis howled again from her spot on the floor. �
��NO!”

  I looked at Mavis on the ground and clutched my daughter closer to me, even as she kicked and screamed.

  “Goodbye, Mavis,” I told her as I turned with Hope.

  Mavis’s horrible, furious wails followed us down the hall and even out the front doors of the capitol building. The mini-airship was hovering just outside, its rope ladder lowered for us. Zion must’ve already gotten in with Nathan and lifted the ship off the ground for a fast escape.

  “You first!” Jace shouted. “Quick!”

  I grabbed the bottom rung and hoisted myself up, Hope pressing her face into my neck in terror. Outside, the night had been suddenly lit with fire. The first of the buildings around the perimeter was already aflame in a powerful fireball.

  The whole place is wired, I reminded myself. And that meant the rest of these buildings were about to go up, too.

  I pulled mightily with one arm, the other wrapped protectively around my child, and stepped up onto the ladder.

  “You can do it, Robin! Come on!” Zion’s voice cried out from above.

  Hope and I moved slowly but surely upward, and soon Cloyd was behind us.

  Another explosion sounded, this time much closer than the last. The airship rocked in the air above us, and I closed my eyes and hung tightly to the ladder.

  “MOVE!” Jace shouted.

  I looked down to see that he was on the bottom rung of the ladder now.

  I reached the top, and Zion hoisted Hope up from my arms and into the safety of the hull. I pulled myself up after her and then turned to assist Cloyd.

  “I’ve got to get on the controls,” Zion said.

  “I’ve got this!” I shouted back as I pulled Cloyd up.

  Zion raced to the controls, but another bomb went off, knocking all of us off our feet when the airship ricocheted from the force. Hope cried out again in fear, and Nathan moaned as he was rolled from one side of the airship to another, leaving a trail of dark blood beneath him.

  “Jace!” I screamed. He was hanging on tightly to the airship ladder.

  Zion jumped up and made it to the controls. “Hold on!” he shouted.

  “Jace, hold on!” I yelled down to Jace on the airship ladder.

  The airship took off like a slingshot. Cloyd caught Hope before she could go flying backward and held onto her tightly. Nathan was pressed helplessly against the back of the ship, while Jace was whipped back and forth beneath us as he gripped the ladder with white knuckles. I pressed myself down as hard as I could against the hull of the ship beside the open hatch.

  I wasn’t going to lose Jace. Not when we were so close to the family I had always wanted.

  I couldn’t lose it right at the end. I wouldn’t lose him.

  But suddenly Jace was continuing his climb against the massive force of the wind outside. And then his hands reached the top. I stuck out my arms, and he grabbed both so I could pull him inside.

  As the mini-airship soared away, the final, massive explosion sent the capitol building, Mavis, and Piper up in flames.

  Chanley was gone. And the regime with it.

  38

  Hope didn’t want to be touched for the entirety of the flight. She cowered in the back of the airship by Nathan’s wounded figure. Any time we approached her she squealed in terror, so I asked that everyone leave her alone. I knew she was scared and confused, and I didn’t want to make it any worse than it had to be.

  But my heart broke with her every cry. And seeing her in so much fear caused me physical pain.

  When we touched down inside the main airship, Bridge was the first to greet us. Zion had communicated Nathan’s dire condition to him en route.

  Bridge looked pale and deeply concerned as he examined Nathan.

  “Stretcher!” he shouted.

  Hope had moved to the other corner at the back of the airship, seeming to have worn herself out with crying. Now she was just watching with red, teary eyes as new and confusing action unfolded all around her.

  Jace, Cloyd, and Zion disembarked from the mini-airship to allow the medics more room. But I stayed inside, off to the corner, with Hope. She let me approach her without too much of a fuss but kept inching away the closer I got.

  Then Bridge and another medic loaded Nathan up onto the stretcher and wheeled him out of the airship. Suddenly it was just Hope and me.

  “Hope,” I said gently. She looked over at me but quickly turned away.

  “Ginny,” I corrected myself.

  It was hard to use the name that Mavis had given her, but Hope finally responded to hearing her adopted name. She turned back to me and stared with her big, scared eyes.

  “Come here, Ginny,” I said. I held my arms out.

  She pressed herself more tightly into the corner of the airship, and I sighed, dropping my arms down.

  She obviously didn’t want me to touch her, and I couldn’t blame her. I was the scary stranger who had been in the room when she was in so much terror. And the only mother she had ever known had caused her pain and frightened her further before she was whisked away on a scary new ride.

  “Poor Ginny,” I said softly.

  Jace poked his head into the airship cabin once the medics and Nathan were gone. “Is everything okay?” he asked.

  I shook my head. Jace looked over at Hope tucked into the corner of the airship. And then, to my surprise, he stepped into the ship.

  Hope saw him and recoiled again, trying to squeeze as much of her little body as possible into the back corner of the ship. My heart broke for her, knowing that she was trying to tuck herself away and become invisible to hide from us. But Jace didn’t seem to be discouraged.

  He slowly moved toward us while I watched him in confusion and anxiety. Jace had such a large, hulking figure. I couldn’t imagine Hope being okay with him coming any closer if she wouldn’t even let me near.

  “Hope,” Jace cooed in a voice so gentle that it shocked me.

  I watched him, wide-eyed.

  Hope turned to look at him, and, miraculously, looked somewhat unafraid. She continued to watch him instead of turning back into her corner.

  “Hey, Hope. Pretty girl,” Jace continued softly. “Do you want something to eat?”

  Hope nodded, almost imperceptibly. I was dumbstruck. How was Jace getting through to her when I couldn’t? I was her mother! But watching Jace interact with her was the only thing thus far that had soothed the pain of seeing her in fear.

  Jace held his arms out. They were so big and so strong that I couldn’t imagine Hope feeling safe enough to go to him. But, to my shock, she moved out of her corner and stood. Then she took a toddling step in his direction.

  I watched with my mouth hanging open as Hope wobbled over to Jace and went right into his outstretched arms. Then he stood, picking her up with him.

  She looked up into his eyes and then pressed her little head against his chest. Jace leaned down to rest his chin against the top of her head while Hope rubbed her eyes and seemed to relax her body.

  “Jace?” I said in confusion.

  “Don’t worry, Robin,” he said, his tone soft and gentle so as not to upset Hope. “She’ll come around. I’m just really good with kids.”

  He winked at me, and I smiled back at him. Maybe I was a bit jealous, but I was thrilled to see Hope looking less terrified. She had just been through so much, and I was impressed by her bravery and resilience.

  “Jace, Piper told me something back in Chanley before the explosion,” I said, suddenly thinking back to our conversation. Jace looked at me intently until I went on. “He told me that he was getting help from inside. From Robert.”

  Jace’s eyes flashed with anger. “It was just like you thought,” he said, his voice tense. “We’ve got to find him when we get back to base.”

  “If he’s even still there,” I said. “If the base has heard about our success, he might’ve already left.”

  “We’ll hunt him down, then,” Jace replied.

  “Piper said he had stopped workin
g with the government after Edgewood, though,” I said, not sure where I was going with the statement. I didn’t think it let Robert off the hook, but it was still something to consider.

  “Then how’d they find Brightbirch?” Jace asked.

  “Piper must’ve known about the base all along,” I replied. It had been something I was wondering myself, and it was the only logical answer I could think of. “Maybe he even knew the real coordinates to enter to account for the GPS scrambling tech. But I guess we’ll never know for sure. It’s not like we can ask Piper.”

  We were quiet for a while as we considered that.

  “You’re right,” Jace said after the pause. “But we can ask his conspirators. We’re going to find all of the Burchard executives who survived and bring them to justice. And then maybe we’ll hear the whole story.”

  I nodded. We still had to find Burchard himself. Even if he was just a figurehead, he was guilty, and he was still out there somewhere. Along with many others who had committed wrongs. We still had to bring them to justice.

  “I think she’s worn out,” Jace said, interrupting my thoughts and cuddling my daughter. “Let’s get her something to munch on. How does that sound, Hope?”

  And then Jace stepped out into the main airship cabin with my daughter, holding her like she was his own child. My heart filled with love and gratitude as I followed them out of the mini-airship.

  The atmosphere inside the main airship was a strange mix of celebratory and woeful, and I quickly realized why. Nathan was pale and still on a stretcher at the back of the airship, a small crowd gathered around him. As Jace carried Hope to the rations and other supplies, I walked toward Nathan.

  I was initially afraid that he had died. His chest looked completely still as I walked up, and some of the team members around him, including Sy, had tears in their eyes. But as I got closer, he took a strained and ragged breath.

  “How much longer?” he asked Bridge with much difficulty.

  “We’re taking off now, Nathan,” Bridge replied. “A few hours.”

  “I want to see them,” Nathan said slowly and quietly. “Corona and Aurora. I want to see them before I go.”