The Child Thief 4: Little Lies

by Bella Forrest

  “And those projections just... know to bend and make a dome?” Nelson asked, looking flabbergasted.

  Alexy nodded. “Mmhm. They must. And that’s the end of my understanding—not my job, not my problem.” She cracked an Alexy-like grin, then turned and gestured toward the city, moving us from the subject of the force field to something more important.

  The city stretching before us was a cacophony of color and light and texture, from the brightest steel to old-fashioned bricks mottled from red to black and in between. There were lofty arches of bright white concrete over the streets, drawing the eye to a skyline of flat-topped and gabled roofs and huge, egg-shaped structures perched on top of the buildings, mingling with the odd tower or two.

  The surrounding streets were just as rich in detail. Wide avenues made of ochre cobblestones and fresh asphalt curled between the buildings. Lampposts marched down the streets in stately lines, and a banner of a different color hung from each one, labeled with symbols that meant nothing to me, but were inherently pleasing to look at. These were things I’d only seen in the books I’d spent much of my childhood buried in.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Alexy grinning as we all stood in silence, eyes wide as we took it all in.

  There were people, too. Not many of them, but they were all clothed in clean, bright colors, strolling down the streets as if they had every right to be here. Every right to be in this clean, beautiful place, this place that looked nothing like the other cities of our nation. And nothing like the vision I’d seen from outside, in the field.

  “Alexy, have you given us all some sort of hallucinogen?” Ant asked from my right. I jumped, his voice overly loud in this quiet, peaceful city.

  She turned to him, her eyes shining. “Didn’t have to,” she said simply. “Gang… welcome to Edgewood.”

  She put a hand to her earpiece and frowned. “As much as I’d love to let you spend some time taking it all in, duty calls. I’ve got orders to get you to the Hall. Come on.”

  With that, she started walking quickly down the street in front of us, counting on us to follow.

  I dashed after her.

  “What’s the Hall?” I asked. “And what did you mean earlier when you said they’d changed the force field? Also, how do you keep strangers from walking right in? If we could get in, couldn’t anyone else?”

  She gave me a shrug. “The digital projection is backed up by a pretty mean electrified web that our techs can turn on and off. Only people with permission can get through—and only when the techs know they’re coming and disable the web,” she said. “If you weren’t with me, you would have hit something that gave you an electric shock big enough to knock you out. By the time you woke up, you would have been moved by the guards. It’s not much of a problem, this far from other cities, but there are safeties in place. As for the Hall, think of it as the executive building. It’s where Nathan and his crew stay, where guests are housed, and where all the business gets done. So, you guys are going to the center of it all. As for the force field, it’s got several different settings. They must be trying out a new one, because usually it shows a fully functional factory.”

  Jace drew even with me in time to hear the end of this statement and frowned. “A factory? Why would they… Why?” he finished, deciding that the one word would get a fuller response.

  “I second that question,” I said.

  I saw the corner of Jace’s mouth dimple with pleasure at that… and then saw him forcefully straighten his mouth and smooth his brow. I sighed.

  “The factory is to keep the government off our backs,” Alexy replied chirpily, leading us left onto another street.

  This one was paved in a herringbone pattern of gray bricks. A few were missing, here and there, and tufts of grass were starting to poke through. But I looked past that and up to the bright, shining buildings, unwilling to admit there might be flaws in this place.

  “They think we’re a factory, they think we’re valid,” Alexy continued, looking back briefly to ensure that the rest of the group was keeping up. “And they don’t bother us. Which is why it’s strange that the engineers put up a deserted factory today. Seems more likely to draw some negative attention. A deserted factory brings the government sniffing around to explore it… or knock it down.”

  I tilted my head, running through what she’d just said. There was something strange about that, something that didn’t quite make sense. Then a scrap of a conversation between my adoptive parents at dinner one night floated into my memory. My… father, had been saying something about factories and the financial system.

  “Wait, but all factories have to pay a portion of their earnings to the government, don’t they?” I asked. “They have to, in order to be allowed to do business. Factory owners pay their fees and the government leaves them alone to run things however they want, regardless of what they do to… to the workers.” I stuttered on the last part, remembering my own stint in the factories: the cruel working conditions, the lack of protection from unfair rules, how hard the managers had pushed us. Then the people on the streets in Trenton, who had said the rules had become even stricter, and the deserted apartment buildings and factories we’d come across while running from the Authority.

  No, factory workers did not live gentle lives. They were misused from the start. The owners of the factories paid good money for that control.

  “If this isn’t a real factory, how are they posing as one?” I continued. “How are they paying the fees to be left alone?”

  Alexy gave me a half smile. “You’re sharp, Robin. I’ve always liked that about you. But you’re now officially outside of the information I’m allowed to share with people who aren’t in the organization yet. Save those questions for Nathan.”

  It seemed there was still a limit to how much we could ask her. But this confirmed my suspicion—there was some serious funding behind Little John.

  This place was not only enormous and well built, but also allowed itself a few frills. I didn’t know how society worked here, but if Nathan and his cohorts could afford to build a place like this and maintain the image of a factory, it meant I had to rethink my opinion of the man.

  We didn’t know if he was the millionaire Gabby had found. And even if he was, would he be able to fund all of this by himself? I doubted it; no one was that rich.

  Which meant this might not all be his money. Where else would he get it? Donations?

  “So, Nathan’s the one who will tell us more?” I asked, trying to imagine where he’d find such wealth. “When will we be able to see him? Does he ignore as many questions as you do?”

  “Probably even more,” Alexy answered, sounding apologetic. “But I’m taking you to him. That’s why we were called in. Nathan is in residence right now, and he wants to see you. Him and Corona.”

  Corona was going to be there? I had about a million and one questions for the woman.

  “Not that I’m not super excited to meet the man who’s been playing with our lives for the last few weeks,” Ant butt in, “but Jackie is quite possibly dying here, and an emergency medical team or even a doctor would be nice.”

  Alexy activated her ear comm again. “ETA?” she asked. She waited a moment, listening. “Excellent.”

  The moment she hung up, a pale blue vehicle pulled up from a side street, its engine nearly silent. A crew of four, dressed in identical white outfits, all exited, talking in low, urgent tones as they swarmed around Jackie and her bed.

  Two of them, a lean man with bright blue eyes in a tan face and a bulky woman with short brown hair, gently eased the stretcher from the hands of my friends and carried it swiftly to the van, sliding Jackie inside with the utmost care. The third, a tiny woman who barely came up to my shoulder but had a muscular physique that strained the seams of her white suit, hopped into the driver’s seat.

  “Wait a minute, what are you doing?” Ant asked, starting to look panicky. “Where are you taking her?”

  “To the hospital
, like you asked,” Alexy told him. “You want her to get help, right?”

  He looked confused. “Well yeah, but—”

  “We’ll do our best for her,” said the last of the team, a dark-skinned woman with amber eyes. She squeezed Ant’s shoulder, then rushed back to the van and leapt in beside Jackie’s bed.

  The doors shut, and a moment later the van had disappeared down another street, the low hum of its engine soon out of range of our hearing.

  “When will we see her again?” I asked, my heart already feeling slightly emptier with her gone.

  Alexy gave me a serious look, which was completely unnatural for her face. “You’ll see her when they say she’s healthy enough to have visitors,” she said. “I’m sure you’ve known someone who went into the hospital before, right?”

  I nodded. “I have. But I went with them. I didn’t have them scooped up on the street and taken who knows where.”

  She reached out and took my hand, giving it a squeeze. “Robin, you know me. And you know how much I like Jackie. I sent her to the people who can help her best. Do you think I’d do anything that wasn’t in her best interest?”

  She had me there. Alexy was a strange person, but she’d also, kind of, become our friend. She was right; I didn’t think she’d do anything if she didn’t think it was in Jackie’s best interest.

  I doubted it was going to be good enough for Ant, though, who was still staring forlornly in the direction in which the van had disappeared.

  Suddenly, Alexy slapped a hand to her ear once more, eyes narrowing as she listened. When whoever was talking to her finished, she turned to us again.

  “Nathan and Corona aren’t available after all, so they’re going to be meeting with you later,” she said. “I’ve been ordered to take you to the guest suites. There are some people there waiting to talk to you.”

  She headed off again at a brisk march, and the rest of us had a time keeping up with her as she strode quickly down the streets of Edgewood, shouting out greetings to people as she walked.

  “We’ll be giving you a tour of the place later, after we pick up the other member of the group,” she said over her shoulder. “I don’t feel like giving the tour twice, so it makes the most sense to do it when you’re together.”

  “When who’s together?” I asked. How many new recruits were there in this place? The city looked like it could hold a significant population, but there weren’t many people on the street. Was this where they took new recruits, to train them? Was that why it was so empty?

  “That’s a surprise,” Alexy said with a wink. “Now come on. Less staring, more walking. There will be time to look at all the pretty buildings later.”

  “How much farther are we going?” Nelson asked, having moved up to walk directly on my left.

  Alexy pointed to a building up ahead. “That’s our stop right there.”

  It was a building unlike anything I’d seen so far in the city. It was only three stories rather than thirty, and was long, with two wings branching off the main house and a number of columns in front. The main building was capped with a huge dome in the middle, and the entire thing was painted a stark white.

  Something about it niggled at me, like maybe I’d seen something similar, a long time ago. Maybe in a book? Or was it somewhere I’d visited? No, that wasn’t right. The answer was there one moment and gone the next, but there were more important things to put my energy toward than remembering some stray bit of trivia.

  “That’s the Hall?” I asked, somewhat awestruck by the stately building.

  “It is,” Alexy replied with satisfaction. “That’s where you guys will be staying while you’re here, and where all the important things happen. It’s also where we’re housing all the other guests.”

  “What other guests?” I asked.

  Alexy gave me a moue of anticipation, her eyes sparkling with excitement, and paused for a long, dramatic moment. Then her face broke into a grin, and she shrugged. “Oh, I don’t know, something tells me you guys already know them.”

  She gestured over her shoulder with a thumb, and I followed her motion to see someone crossing the boulevard in front of us at a run.

  Someone with long, skinny legs and knobby knees.

  Someone I recognized immediately.

  “Gabby?!” I shrieked.

  7

  “They came and got us not long after the last time I talked to you!” Gabby was sobbing, her breath hot and moist against my neck. “But they told me I couldn’t call you and let you know, in case I led the Authority to you or you led them to me. They even made me get rid of my phone, and that had all my stuff on it!”

  I finally managed to detach her hands from each other and untangle myself from her arms, then stood back to get a good look at her.

  She was the same as I remembered: thin, her frame too small for the personality it held, her hair a dark brown, her eyes the brightest blue. And that smattering of freckles over her nose.

  “Did they save all of you?” I asked anxiously. “The entire family?”

  “Yes, they’re all here,” she replied, wiping at the tears streaming down her face. “Mom, Dad, my uncle and aunt, grandparents, and even all the kids.”

  She made a face at the last addition, and I had to laugh through the thickness in my throat.

  “You’re not glad they brought the kids?” I asked, grinning.

  She gave me a look. “I mean, sure, I’m glad they’re safe, and it’s not like they could have stayed on the ship by themselves. It’s just… this is my first real adventure, my first time away from the ship, and I guess I wish I could have taken it by myself, you know?”

  I grabbed her and pulled her into another hug, laughing. She’d become such a big part of our team, and had done so many important things, that I often forgot she was only sixteen.

  “Now, where is everyone?” I asked. I turned to Alexy and the others, who were standing back, watching my reunion with Gabby. “Alexy, you said something about us getting rooms? Do those come with clean clothes? Showers?”

  “They do,” she replied, and the whole team groaned in relief. “As for where everyone is, this is going to be your core group, for now, at least. Julia, Marco, the rest of them all came in earlier than you, so they’re housed in the same area where you’ll be staying, but they won’t be doing much with you during the day. They’re going to be on a different… team.”

  She finished the statement so vaguely that I frowned, but tried to put it aside. I would have preferred to do whatever we were tasked with doing alongside the rest of my OH+ team, but I wasn’t going to spend my first day in Edgewood questioning the decisions Little John had made about where to put personnel. Right now, getting clean and finding fresh clothes was at the top of my priority list. Everything else could wait.

  Jace reached out to grab Alexy, who had started to turn toward the street.

  “And Rhea?” he asked tensely. “Zion told me she was here. Where is she? When can I see her? Is she okay?”

  Alexy scoffed, but then seemed to notice the fear in Jace’s expression. Instead of giving him her usual smart-ass attitude, she put a hand on his forearm and squeezed.

  “She’s fine,” she said gently. “She’s in the same place they house all the kids, and I promise I’m going to get you over to see her as soon as I can. Just… gotta have patience, big guy. I’m not the boss around here and I don’t get to call all the shots.”

  “How long?” he asked through gritted teeth.

  I winced. Rhea was his only living family, and the idea that she was here, but still out of reach, had to be killing him.

  This time she did smile. “Didn’t I just tell you I’d get you over there as soon as I could? What, you don’t trust me? Soon, Jace, I promise. But that’s all I can do right now.”

  He let go of her, though I could tell it was difficult for him to do so, and gave her a grudging nod.

  “Tomorrow,” he said firmly. “Or there’ll be trouble.”

 
; Alexy rolled her eyes at me, but gave Jace a nod and then turned and started across the street toward the enormous white building.

  Ant, Abe, Kory, Nelson, Henry, Gabby, Jace, and I trailed after her, Gabby talking a million miles a minute about everything she’d seen since she arrived and what she thought of it all. When we finally arrived at the Hall, I was not surprised to find that the inside was just as grand as the outside.

  The floor was made of white marble, the walls painted a dusky blue, and the place was filled with ornate dark wooden furniture. Several tables lined the foyer we’d stepped into, some with vases of flowers on top, some with clocks or small bronze statues. I could see several more placed against the walls in the hallways curling off in either direction. Every so often a table was joined by an armchair, as if inviting a person to sit down and stay awhile. The paintings on the walls rivaled those in Corona’s house.

  Maybe she’d overseen the decoration of both places. After all, if she was Nathan’s equal, it made sense she would have had a hand in the construction of the Hall.

  Alexy was saying something to the rest of the group, and I shushed Gabby for just a sec. I’d missed her, but there was only so much sixteen-year-old chatter a girl could take in the space of ten minutes.

  “We have suites for all of you in the guest wing,” Alexy said. “Though of course you’re welcome to share rooms if you want. Just head up the stairs and down the corridor on the right, all the way to where it divides. Take another right, and that entire hallway is for your use. If there’s someone already in a suite, it’ll be locked. I would recommend finding one that’s unoccupied. Less awkward.” She smirked at her own joke.

  “And what about you?” I asked. “You’re not coming to show us around?”

  “I’ll show you around after you’ve gotten cleaned up,” she replied. “Right now, I have to report to my superior about why I arrived here with you rather than taking the ship to safety with Zion.” She rolled her eyes. “Honestly, what did they think I was going to do, push you out of the plane into the wilderness, count on you to know to go to the broken-down factory and manage to get through the shield by yourselves? Sometimes I’m shocked at what passes for intelligence around here.”