His eyes narrowed at first, as if he was trying to comprehend what he was seeing, but then they widened in happy surprise.
“Robin,” he sputtered as I walked up to him. “You look… incredible.”
It was all he had to say. My night could’ve ended right then and there. I had never felt as beautiful as I did standing in front of Jace at that moment.
“So do you,” I replied.
The song ended and the room grew quieter. I suddenly felt hot and self-conscious in the silence.
“We have a table on the other side,” I told him, gesturing to the OH table.
But a new song was starting—slower, more melodic. The lights over the dance floor stopped pulsing and instead began glowing softly, the room lighting with a dark blue that reminded me of being out under the stars back home in my cabin.
“Not just yet,” Jace said. He wrapped one hand around my waist and stepped onto the dance floor.
I followed helplessly.
I thought awkwardly of my fumbling school dances, stepping on the toes of gangly teenage boys and tripping over my own feet. It felt like so long ago now that Jace and I first danced, before Little John and Edgewood. I remembered him sweetly bumbling. He had certainly come a long way in terms of confidence in his abilities.
The dance floor had opened up a bit as singles had returned to their tables to catch their breath. Now the floor was dotted with twirling pairs of people dancing slowly, pressed up against one another. I was worried that I would bump into one of the pairs. But Jace was surprisingly light on his feet and maneuvered us out to the middle of the floor, then stopped.
One of his hands was warm and heavy on my hip while the other reached down to grab my right hand. He raised our hands up together as if we were about to waltz, and I placed my left hand up on his shoulder. Then he began to lead me through a dance. He stepped side to side, his hands never wavering from their places as he guided my form, and I felt myself flowing into the dance as I followed him.
He took a few missteps during our dance. His dips and twirls were a little heavy-handed and jerky. But I was honored that he felt comfortable enough to dance with me in front of everyone. Especially when he certainly wasn’t a professional.
We swayed under the soft spotlights, Jace’s arm wrapping around my waist until we had tightened the space between our bodies. I laid my head on his chest, and he bent slightly to kiss the top of my head.
But all too soon, the song was ending and another upbeat dance tune was blaring. Jace began to walk us toward our table, still holding my hand tightly. My head was spinning with pleasure.
“Robert, please!”
The sound snapped me out of my stupor. It sounded like Gabby.
I whirled around and saw her standing with her face in her hands on the side of the dance floor near our table. Her eyeliner had smudged and mascara was now running down her face in rivulets.
“I told you to stay away from me,” Robert gruffly responded.
Robert. The back of my neck felt hot just looking at him. He had shown up with an obvious distaste for the dress code, arrogantly sporting his suit jacket over a tee shirt and ripped jeans. His face was arranged in its usual perma-sneer.
How dare he speak to her like that?
“I just want to be friends,” Gabby pleaded, her face reddening as she became more aware of people turning to stare. “Why can’t we even be friends anymore?”
“We were never friends,” Robert said. “I already got what I wanted from you.”
Gabby’s emotions spilled over at that point, and she truly began to sob.
That was it. This wasn’t going to happen on my watch. I balled my fists and walked straight toward Robert.
He had always been a thorn in my side. He had led Gabby on and then viciously cast her aside. And he still had some serious questions to answer about Pandora’s Box. I was about to get to that—and more. But before I could act, Robert was staring up at two angry faces.
It was Ant and Abe.
Robert looked at them with revulsion.
“Do you two have something to say?” he spat menacingly. He was straightening himself up and puffing out his chest now, but he was significantly shorter than Ant and Abe.
And there was only one of him.
Suddenly, Ant and Abe were smiling.
“This poor fellow must have awful coordination,” Ant told Abe with a chuckle. “He has fallen and ripped his jeans all up.”
“And I suppose before the dance started he fell and ripped his slacks, which would explain why he couldn’t meet the simple dress code,” Abe replied matter-of-factly.
Robert stared at them with his eyes narrowed.
“Maybe we should help him on his way out, brother,” Ant said, stepping toward Robert.
“Yes, let’s show some goodwill!” Abe replied happily.
The two walked closer to Robert, until they were pressed against him.
“Here we go, friend-o,” Ant said.
He had taken Robert up under the arm, and Abe followed suit with the other arm. Robert looked momentarily too shocked to act, but then he pulled himself away and began to argue. Abe quickly cut him off.
“Look, pal,” he said mockingly, “if you don’t need help making it back to your room, we’ll back off.”
“Yeah,” Ant added, “but prove to us that you can handle it on your own. Otherwise we’re going to help you all the way back.”
“And then we’ll tuck you in,” Abe said with a wink.
Robert just stared. Gabby stood off to the side, her eyes wide, tears still streaming down her cheeks. But then Robert turned on his heel and exited the hall in a huff.
I ran over to Gabby. Her face was red and streaked with tears, so I pulled her close to me and stroked her hair as she calmed down. Jace stood behind me, and Nelson and Jackie came up beside us as well, putting their hands on Gabby’s shoulders.
When Gabby had calmed down enough, she pulled back to look at us. “I feel so stupid. But I didn’t ask him to dance or anything! I just asked him how he had been.”
“He’s not even worth that, Gabby,” Jackie said.
“And besides, you have plenty of friends,” Ant said as he and Abe walked up to Gabby.
Gabby smiled and then wrapped one of her arms around Ant and the other around Abe, pulling them both in for a hug.
“Thanks, guys,” she said. Then she was wiping away her mascara trails and smoothing her hair back.
I smiled at the turn of events. I hoped Gabby realized that she was a part of our team now. We were all in this together. Through the good and the bad, and no matter what happened in the future, we were a family.
“Anybody up for some dancing?” Jackie asked suddenly, grinning.
Fast, upbeat music was playing, and we all nodded and walked to the dance floor together. Jackie and Ant began dancing scandalously close together, Abe started twirling Gabby around, and Zion and Alexy were dancing rhythmically nearby. I smiled at Jace and pulled him close.
There was so much to do. We had a mission to plan and family members to bring home. But I felt like every day in Edgewood was getting us closer. And we were finally going to talk to Nathan tomorrow. Tonight, I thought, we could let our minds relax and have some fun.
Tomorrow, we would go back to work.
7
In my dream that night I was sitting alone in a dark room. There was a cold metal table in front of me with two empty chairs on the other side. The room held no windows. I shifted uncomfortably in my chair, waiting for something to happen, feeling both cold and confused.
Then two men walked in. They were middle-aged, dressed plainly, and didn’t smile or express any emotion. They sat in the chairs on the other side of the table and stared straight ahead at me. Their faces were nondescript, but I knew instinctively who they were.
It was an interrogation.
“Why did you kill us?” they asked in unison.
I bolted upright in my bed and stared into the darkne
ss before my eyes, my skin coated with a cold sweat, before I had to answer.
It wasn’t the first time I’d had a dream like this. And I didn’t think it would be the last. They’d been waking me at all hours of the night ever since we got back from the Smally mission, and though sometimes I would remember every detail of them, from the setting to the dialogue and even the feelings I had in the dream, there were other nights when I would awake in a panic with no clear recollection of what I had just been dreaming of.
But even when I couldn’t remember, I knew those two men had been plaguing me again.
They were always asking me why I had killed them. And the more they asked, the more I began to doubt my reasons. Yes, I had saved Jackie and Nathan. But whose life had truly been worth more? Was one inherently better than the other?
I almost fell out of bed and stumbled toward the bathroom, anxious to do something to take my mind off the faces in the dream. With a splash of cold water on my face, I was able to push it to the back of my mind. I had more important things to worry about.
It was time for our meeting with Nathan.
My entire team had received word to attend an early-morning meeting the day after the dance. The fact that we’d all been called made me think this had more to do with an upcoming mission—which in turn made me worry that Nelson and I wouldn’t be leaving to find our daughters anytime soon. If we were going on another mission, I wanted confirmation that we would at least begin planning how we were going to reclaim our family members.
I had come to terms with the fact that we were in Edgewood for a greater cause than just fulfilling our own needs. We were here to make a change on a larger scale. But I was a mother first and foremost, and Hope was more important to me than anything in the world. I needed to know that Nathan was at least on board with our mission, even if it would take time and planning.
Nelson and I stopped in the dining hall to grab a couple of oranges to eat on the way to Nathan’s office, picking up Alexy and Zion while we were there.
“So, what did you think about your first formal Edgewood dance?” Alexy asked as she peeled the wrapper off a zucchini muffin.
“It was all right,” Nelson demurred coolly.
“All right?” Zion teased. “You sure were dancing hard to just be calling it ‘all right.’”
Nelson blushed but didn’t answer him, and I quickly stepped in to save her. Nelson had trouble sharing intimate details with me; I didn’t think she’d take kindly to Zion teasing her about her obvious love of dancing. And we didn’t have time for fireworks to fly right now.
“Why didn’t Nathan go to the dance?” I asked Alexy and Zion. As longtime Edgewood members, I assumed they would have more information about his eccentricities and preferences than I did. Was his absence abnormal? Might it have anything to do with Piper’s claims about the government airship over Edgewood? Was Nathan stuck in an office taking care of defensive measures during the dance—or was he perhaps on a different base instead?
Alexy shrugged. “He’s been busy lately, like he’s getting pulled in lots of different directions. Maybe he had a meeting last night.”
“But it looked like there were people from the other bases there last night,” I said. There had been a lot more people than just Edgewood citizens, and the table that Corona had been sitting at had been populated by characters who looked important. I had gotten the impression that they were higher-ups in Little John, and since I had never seen them before, I thought they must be from other bases. Why else would they have been new to Edgewood and given prime seating with Piper and Corona?
“That wasn’t all of them,” Zion replied.
So they were from the other bases.
“I thought the bases didn’t mingle,” I mused. Hadn’t Alexy herself said so previously? The lack of connection between the bases would protect the rest should one of them fall.
“Airship traffic between bases is highly limited,” Zion replied, “but that isn’t the only way for people to travel.”
I wanted to press him further, but we had arrived at Nathan’s office by that time.
The rest of Team Hood was milling around Nathan’s large and impressive desk when we entered. Jace, Kory, Nelson, Jackie, Ant, Abe, Gabby, Alexy, Zion, and I were soon seated and waiting for Nathan to make his appearance. I was excited to be in his office and awaiting him after so much time and struggle, but I was also anxious to hear what he had to say. A mission? New information? Was he going to tell us about new security concerns?
“Surprised you can walk this morning, Robin,” Ant chuckled. “After how hard you danced last night.”
I rolled my eyes, and Jace came to my defense, as I had for Nelson earlier.
“At least she looked good doing it. Watching you two on the dance floor was like watching an execution by electric chair.”
Jackie erupted in laughter.
“Hey, leave me out of this!” Abe snapped playfully.
“I’m sure you’re all beautiful dancers,” Nathan chimed in as he entered the room and walked quickly to his chair.
He was as refined and poised as he ever was, but I noticed that the circles under his eyes were particularly dark. It didn’t look like he had been sleeping very well. Although, I thought grimly, I wasn’t either. But while my sleepless nights were just based on that recurring dream involving the two nameless men, Nathan’s lack of sleep was probably because of bigger concerns. Like surveillance and the overall operations—and safety—for all of his bases.
“So what comes next, boss?” Abe asked casually. We had come a long way from regarding Nathan as our shadowy underground leader. Now we felt like one big team—and it looked like we were all going to treat him as part of the team, rather than someone we needed to be careful with.
I just hoped he would be as honest with us.
“I’ve brought you here today because it’s time that you received some updates. And we finally have some,” Nathan replied.
I was elated to hear this. Maybe this was about the archives. Would we finally be able to discuss our recapture missions?
Nathan sensed the excitement in the room and nodded as if he could hear the questions we were asking ourselves. “I figured you guys deserved some news about the Artemis Protocol.”
I frowned in disappointment, but Nelson jumped right to the head of the conversation.
“The implementation was successful, right?” she queried. She had worked hard as part of the tech team when the virus was being inserted at Smally. It probably would’ve felt like an especially personal loss for her if anything had gone wrong since.
“Yeah, I thought that was what we got the fancy tuxes for,” Ant joked.
But it wasn’t too much of a joke. Hadn’t the parade and dance been a celebration of the success of that mission? Why were we still talking about it?
“It was a success in many ways,” Nathan began. “But, as you have known all along, there is more to be done.”
“Does the Artemis Protocol itself require anything else?” I asked, cutting to the chase. “Or are we moving to something bigger?”
We had known that it was only one phase in a larger mission. But what came next?
“That’s the best part about having you in a meeting, Robin,” Nathan replied, shooting a prideful glance in my direction. “You cut down on the dead air. Right. So, to the point: the mission was successful and we have our hands in the cookie jar, so to speak. We have unprecedented access to government files and communications, as well as some very handy insight into government satellites, surveillance, and military plans and blueprints.”
We knew this much already. Get to the point, Nathan, I thought, frustrated.
“So what’s the catch?” Alexy asked.
“The catch,” Nathan began, “is that we have to be careful about what we use and where we look. Every second we are active in the government system is a second when we’re risking discovery. Pandora’s Box is beautiful tech, but it isn’t foolproof. They will c
atch us in their software eventually. Hopefully by then we’ll have everything we need. But…”
“But we can’t just go opening files at random,” I finished. “We have to know where to look.”
“Bingo,” Nathan replied.
I knew what that meant. We had to be looking for things that were vitally important. We would be looking for higher-level documents in the government system: executive orders, mentions of unwritten protocols and processes, and communication sent to and from Burchard and his inner circle. One way for Little John to turn the tide against the government would be to prove that the government had ulterior motives. If the government really was selling kids or profiting off of their redistribution, like we had possibly seen with our own eyes when we saw the auction website, there had to be some mention of it somewhere. If we could find that mention and actually get it into the public eye, things might start to change.
“But how can we even begin to know where to look?” Jackie asked.
It was a great question. With all of the files and encryption the government must be using in their cloud system, it would be like trying to find a needle in a very dangerous haystack.
“You seem to be forgetting that not all information is electronic,” Nathan responded, almost as if he was beginning a riddle.
Not all information was electronic? Well… yeah. Some of it was written or spoken. But how were we going to come across personal written or spoken information from out here in Edgewood?
“The executives,” Jace said softly.
And suddenly we were all on the same page. Of course! The executives must’ve been interrogated. That was why Nathan had called us all together: to hear what they’d told him.
The Child Thief 5: Ghost Towns Page 7
