The Child Thief 4: Little Lies

by Bella Forrest

  She tossed one more look around the circle. “I’ll meet you back down here in an hour and show you around. You guys belong to me until Nathan and Corona decide they have time.”

  She gave us a final grin, then was gone, leaving the rest of us staring around at each other, unsure of how to proceed.

  In the end, Gabby decided for us.

  “Oh my God, you guys are so slow,” she muttered. “Come on, I’ll show you the wing Alexy was talking about. My entire family is already up there, along with a bunch of other people. You really can’t miss it if you follow the directions she gave.”

  With that she darted up the dark blue carpet that ran up the sweeping staircase in front of us, hand skimming along the gleaming wood of the banister.

  Getting to the guest wing was as simple as both Alexy and Gabby had promised, though the deeper we traveled into the building, the larger the knot of suspicion grew in my gut. This was just all so strange.

  The amount of money spent on this building alone, never mind the city, was mindboggling. Not to mention the money they must be paying the government for the freedom from censure that generally protected factories and other large businesses. Then there was the fact that they had a literal cloaking device, force field… thing.

  That was an awful lot of money.

  Who knew there was money in revolution?

  “Long time no see, squad.”

  A familiar voice drew me from my reverie. I looked up and saw a face I recognized, and then another, and another. With a joyous yelp, I was running down the hall, Nelson with me, and throwing myself into Marco’s arms, laughing and crying at the same time.

  “We were so worried about you!” I cried. “We couldn’t get back for you, and once we figured out the apartment we left you in might not be safe—”

  “Zion came for us almost immediately,” he said. “It was so quick we thought you guys must have passed on the stairs or something. We were surprised when he didn’t have you with him.”

  “He told us he was going to take us someplace safe,” Julia said, her lip trembling a little. “We’ve been here waiting for you ever since.”

  I turned and wrapped my arms around her neck, overwhelmed with gratitude at her appearance and more than a little surprised she was allowing any of us to handle her this way. She’d always seemed against public displays of affection in the past, but now she wrapped me in a bear hug and laughed and cried into my hair, mumbling about how she’d been afraid we were all dead.

  “You and me both!” I replied. Then I looked up and saw the rest of them. Winter was there, and Austin, and even Robert. The moment I saw his weaselly face, I whirled around, wondering if Gabby was still as starry-eyed about him as she had been.

  However, when I turned, I saw she’d been engulfed by her family and was being ushered—unhappily, if the look on her face was anything to go by—into a set of rooms at the far end of the hall.

  I waved at her, selfishly glad I wouldn’t have to talk to her about Robert and what I thought of him right now, and then turned back to my friends as we set about choosing our rooms.

  The room I found my way into was nice. The fact that I was sharing it with Nelson was even nicer. The thought of being alone left a hollow place in the pit of my stomach, so when she’d asked if I minded if we shared a suite, I jumped at the opportunity. Apparently she didn’t want to be alone either.

  She let me take a shower first, saying she wanted to spend a little time with Julia, and I remembered that they hadn’t seen each other in quite some time. It made sense for the two to seek each other out, given how close they’d been, and I was more than happy to take advantage of getting the shower first.

  I had never really thought about what heaven might be like, but if it was anything like that shower, I would be happy to spend eternity there.

  It was concerning that I couldn’t remember when I’d last been truly clean—a solid indicator it had been too long. The shower was wonderfully roomy, tiled in honey-colored stone with soft lighting that shifted though shades of gold. I took my time, reveling in the feel of the water melting away the dirt and sweat and fear of the last week or so. Small bottles of shampoo, conditioner, and soap sat on a shelf in the shower, all smelling of lavender and sweet orange. It reminded me of home.

  I went through three bottles of each before I felt fully clean again.

  By the time I stepped out of the shower, the bathroom was filled with fog and I could barely see the mirror on the opposite wall. I stepped through the mist, eyes half closed with the deep fatigue that had eased over me along with the hot water, and reached out to wipe away the moisture from the mirror.

  Most of the glass fogged up again, but the spot where my face was stayed clear, my features floating in a misty backdrop. Mousy blond hair in thick, wet ropes across my shoulders and back, and hazel eyes. Same exact features as the last time I’d looked in a mirror, and the time before that, and the time before that… and yet the eyes had changed. Once again, I was looking in the mirror and seeing a different version of myself, a version the world around me had altered. It had happened before; I saw myself change when Hope was stolen from me. All the light had disappeared and I was left clawing out a meager existence, more out of force of habit than force of will. I’d been stuck on a path I’d had no way of escaping. I’d felt as though I had no power to make decisions for myself.

  Now, I was different. I knew there was something I could do, because I was doing it. This time, the change was a change for good.

  An abrupt banging on the door made me jump, and I grabbed for the towel, which had dropped on the floor.

  “Yes?” I asked, my voice shaking slightly.

  “Robin, are you done with crying in the shower or whatever it is you’re doing in there? We’re going to have to meet Alexy soon, and I’d like to be showered as well, if you don’t mind.”

  I could hear the laughter in Nelson’s voice at her words, so I knew she wasn’t too miffed, but she was right. If I was going to change the world, I needed to be dressed.

  I just hoped Nathan had plans. More than that, I hoped there was a place for me in them. Now that I knew there was a way to fight the government, I didn’t think I’d ever be able to go back to not fighting for what was right.

  8

  When our group arrived at the foyer, we were all showered and dressed in clean clothes we’d found in our rooms. Nothing too fancy, but comfortable: black trousers in a fabric similar to denim, white tops in either a t-shirt, tank top, or button-up style, and pale blue zip-up jackets made of the softest material I’d ever felt. I’d had to put my dirty boots back on, but at least there had been clean socks and underwear, including a white stretch-fabric sports bra that was the coziest thing I’d worn in years.

  Our little group all looked much cleaner, but we were also starting to drag. For Jace, Ant, Abe, Nelson, Kory, and me, it had been an exhausting week. I was sure I wasn’t the only one who wished we could have stayed in our rooms to sleep. Whatever it was Alexy wanted to show us, it couldn’t possibly be that important.

  The look on her face when we arrived changed my mind about that, however, because she looked an awful lot like a little kid about to start unwrapping Christmas presents. She’d had a shower as well, and had changed clothes, switching out her customary black jumpsuit for faded blue jeans and a loose purple t-shirt.

  She grabbed me by the hand.

  “I’ve got orders to get you acquainted with the city,” she said. “The sooner the better. I hope you’re ready.”

  “Ready for what, exactly?” Ant asked. “And where’s Jackie? When are we going to see her again? When are we going to get an update?” He stepped closer to Alexy, looming over her, his fear making him brutish.

  I gulped. While I wanted to see Jackie just as badly as Ant did, I was willing to be reasonable about it. He was starting to look distinctly unreasonable.

  “I was actually on the phone with the medics not too long ago,” Alexy assured him. “They
told me Jackie’s doing better. She has some extensive internal bruising. Before you ask, no, it’s not the same as bleeding. It’s also less serious, thank goodness. Given what she told me about what happened,”—she shot me a wide-eyed look of respect—“I have to say I’m shocked it wasn’t worse.”

  I bit my lip, remembering what had happened on that street. The Authority pulling up in their van. The chase. The soldier with the gun—and my finger on the trigger.

  I hadn’t dealt with it yet. I had put it in a box in my brain and shoved it into a corner. But that box was starting to leak something dark and sour, and I knew I was going to have to deal with it soon. But not yet.

  “Yeah, well,” Ant said, relaxing slightly. “She’s a badass.”

  Alexy smiled. “She is indeed. Now, the good news is it’s not life threatening. The bad news is she has to spend quite some time in the hospital while it heals up.”

  “How long?” Ant asked, his voice cracking.

  “Until she’s not at risk of permanent damage,” Alexy replied firmly. She put a hand on his arm. “I promise I’ll get her back to you as soon as I can.”

  She looked up at him, hoping he’d see reason, and I put a hand on his other arm, trying to help.

  “Ant, she’s in the best possible place,” I said. “She’s getting care we can’t give her, and that sounds to me like a positive diagnosis. Nothing broken, nothing life threatening. And she’ll be home as soon as it’s safe?” I finished, looking pointedly at Alexy and receiving a nod of confirmation.

  I didn’t like having Jackie stuck in a hospital, and I didn’t like that we weren’t allowed to visit her. But I had to start trusting sometime, if for no other reason than to reassure Ant. We couldn’t afford for him to go rogue on us. I could just imagine the twins running some midnight rescue mission that ended up getting Jackie hurt and us kicked out.

  “So, a tour, huh?” Jace asked, breaking the awkward silence that had descended over the group.

  Alexy jumped back to her old form, eyes bright. “Yes, a tour. There are a lot of important things here in Edgewood, and Nathan wants you to be familiar with them all. It should show you what the organization can do, as well as give you a glimpse of what you’ll be doing.”

  Getting a glimpse of what we’d be doing, eh? Suddenly the idea of a tour became a whole lot more interesting, and the whole team perked up, a little buzz of conversation running between people, tiredness forgotten as we followed Alexy back out into the sunlight.

  We paused a moment so our eyes could adjust to the bright sunlight that had broken through the earlier cloud cover, and then had about twelve seconds to take in the red brick path leading to the Hall, flanked by two neatly kept lawns, before Alexy was moving to the right, pointing at the city in various directions.

  “First place we’re going is the weapons depo, although everyone calls it the Armory,” she chirped. “Then I’ll take you to the Toy Shop, aka the engineering workshops, and then we’re going to the—”

  “Alexy,” I interrupted. This was an overwhelming way to do a tour, and none of us were at our sharpest. “How about you tone it down just a bit and keep in mind that we’ve all had kind of a rough week or two, eh?”

  She gave me a somewhat bashful look. “Good point,” she replied, looking from my face to Ant’s, then Jace’s, and then Abe’s. “Sorry. I’m just so excited to finally get to tell you guys about all this stuff. Come on, this way. We’re still going to the Armory first.”

  She turned and pushed forward, and I lengthened my stride to catch up with her.

  “Exactly how long have you been keeping these secrets?” I asked. It seemed like a safe enough place to start. Surely that couldn’t be top-secret information.

  She shrugged. “Five years. I wasn’t part of Nathan’s first wave, but I’ve been here long enough to know my way around.”

  “And that would make you…”

  “Twenty-five years old,” she said with a grin. “I’m not ancient, if that’s what you’re wondering. I just joined up early. Did the military for two years, got kicked out when I had my own personal run-in with the Ministry, and then Nathan took me under his wing a few months later.” Her face went stoic for a moment. “Saved my life.”

  It was clear she didn’t want to say any more about it, so I turned my attention to the street we were on, which was bordered by a series of beautiful townhouses, each of them painted a different combination of colors. They looked like jellybeans.

  “This is the way to the Armory?” I asked, surprised. “So far away from the Hall? They don’t keep all the bases of operation together?”

  “Nope. They’re spread out in this residential and retail area.”

  I looked closer and saw that yes, the buildings were interrupted by the occasional small shop, each a single story, each painted in riotous colors. In some places, the shops were the first floor, with what looked like residences on the second, third, and fourth floors, all of it flowing together seamlessly.

  That much I’d seen before in Trenton and the other cities. Heck, Nelson’s office had been above a grocery store. I’d just never seen them existing with such easy grace. I didn’t know what it was about these buildings, but everything seemed like it somehow worked together for the greater good.

  “Why don’t they keep them together?” I asked. “Surely it would be easier for everyone if they were all in one place.”

  “For that very reason,” she said, waving to two men walking down the opposite side of the street who, despite their casual clothes, were obviously military from their posture. “If anyone invaded the city, as unlikely as that is, they would be looking for everything in the wrong place. Buildings that look important and are all grouped together are easy to pick out and way too easy to target. So, Corona made it a point to keep them hidden. Here we are.”

  She trotted up a set of stairs toward the front door of one of the townhouses I’d been admiring. There she pressed a button by the door and leaned toward the box over it.

  “Alexy Zane, 53876, Eagle status,” she said sharply.

  There was a burst of static from the box, and then a male voice. “Roger that. What’s up, Lex?”

  The voice had a soft, slow drawl to it, seeming to run like toffee out of the little box’s crackly speaker.

  Alexy blushed and snapped, “Jonathan, I’ve told you not to call me that when we’re working.”

  “But I know how much you like it,” the voice, Jonathan, said, a hint of laughter evident.

  Alexy growled in frustration. “Look, I have some new recruits here and I want to show them the Armory. Can you be professional for more than thirty seconds?”

  “My record is twenty-five,” he said, still in that rich drawl, “but I’ll go for a new personal best for you… Lex.”

  “Oh, you and I are going to have a serious talk,” she responded between gritted teeth, but he had already disconnected.

  I wondered who this Jonathan person was—and how long he’d known Alexy—and then followed her through the opening door of the building.

  “This is the weapons building,” she said grandly as we entered, having recovered some of her poise. “This is where… well, where we keep the weapons, shockingly.”

  I looked up and to the sides, seeing what looked like a museum around us. This wasn’t what I’d been expecting.

  Instead, it looked very much like we’d just walked into a government-issued building. The walls were a polite beige, the carpet a smart dark green, the people going about their business all in light brown uniforms, though those looked more like regular old pants and button-up shirts than anything else. To the right, a set of stairs curled upward, plaster crown molding softening the sharp, clean lines of the layout.

  The ground floor, as far as I could see, was divided into several equal-sized rooms, each of them separated from the central atrium by clear walls made either of glass or plastic. Whatever it was, I could see how thick the panes were from where I was standing, each one easi
ly six inches in depth.

  Abe stopped next to me and looked to the left and right, eyeing what must have been at least twenty rooms. “How many weapons do you guys need?”

  “Well, we have a pretty broad definition of ‘weapons,’ I guess,” Alexy said, her tone indicating she rather agreed with the question. “It’s not just weapons in here. More like… anything we might need in a fight.”

  “And who are you planning to fight?” Henry suddenly asked.

  Alexy cocked her head as if noticing him for the first time.

  “Ah, the new guy. Zion muttered something about you on the airship. Who are you again?” she asked. Although her tone was casual and almost flirty, I saw it for what it was: a question with no right answer.

  “Um, I’m Henry. Robin’s… friend,” he stuttered, evidently having come to the same conclusion.

  He glanced at me, his eyes holding both a plea for help and a bit of panic.

  Not that there was anything I could do. Besides, they’d seen him on the ship. I’d seen them see him, and Zion had chosen not to do anything about it. If they hadn’t wanted him, they wouldn’t have allowed him to come with us.

  To my surprise, it was Jace who spoke up. “He’s an old friend of Robin’s. He actually saved our lives, at great risk to himself and the destruction of his previous life,” he said in a low tone. “I don’t know him myself, but he hasn’t given us any reason to distrust him. You said you needed new recruits? Well, he’s a new recruit. One who wants to fight for your organization.”

  Alexy gave Jace a long, considering look, then lifted one eyebrow. “An old friend of Robin’s? And yet you’re the one defending him? That strikes me as odd.”

  I felt a stab of irritation. Alexy had never been subtle, and we’d experienced her snide jabs at our relationship before. But her comment was a little too barbed for me to brush off.