He gave me a sharp glance, as if I’d just asked a question he hadn’t been prepared for, and pressed his lips together. “That, my dear, is a question for another time. Right now, I suggest you and Jace find your rooms and try to get some rest. After, of course, you’ve spent an hour dissecting everything we’ve told you tonight, trying to figure out what it could mean.”
He swept his hand forward. Following his gesture, I was surprised to see we were at the back of the Hall, at a small red door. Through the window in the door, I could see the kitchen where I’d eaten every morning since we arrived, and beyond that, the hallway which led to the foyer.
Turning back to him, I opened my mouth for one last question, but received a palm-out gesture from the man. He had his hand up to his ear, I saw, and I realized with a jolt that he’d probably been wearing a comm link the entire time, receiving updates and information from someone in another control room somewhere else.
He twitched one eyebrow at whatever he heard, then turned to Corona with a tense expression on his face.
It was she who answered my questioning look. “No more questions tonight,” she said firmly. “I know you must have about a million more of them, but I’m afraid they’re going to have to wait. For now…” She exchanged a long, searching glance with Nathan, and nodded. “Nathan and I have things we must see to. And you have beds to take advantage of. In the morning, we’ll be taking your entire team for a tour of the school. Be ready at eight.”
They turned as one and headed for a second door I hadn’t noticed—a stark black one at the bottom of a set of stairs that looked as though it led into a basement room in the Hall.
A moment later they were slipping through it, leaving Jace and me alone on the sidewalk.
30
The next morning at breakfast, Jace and I spent nearly an hour recounting our adventure of the previous night. The twins, Kory, Nelson, Alexy, and Gabby listened in awe as we told them about the control room and the school Nathan and Corona had taken us to, as well as what Corona had said about Edgewood’s past.
I spotted Henry a little farther down the table, eating with a few people from the OH+ team I didn’t know, and thought about inviting him to join us, but decided against it. He seemed to be doing okay, talking and joking as he ate. He would want to know about the school, I thought, and what it might have meant for Hope and me, but was it worth telling him that much when I couldn’t give him any further information? He hadn’t been tossed out yet, but Corona also hadn’t brought him into any of our missions.
He still wasn’t approved. So, I still needed to keep secrets from him. I decided to err on the side of caution and turned back to the people I could tell the truth to.
“I can’t believe you guys left me out,” Alexy huffed, deftly slicing a peach in half. She pulled the pit free, throwing it at us before taking a bite of the fruit. “I give you tips about the cameras and then you don’t even invite me?” she continued, mouth full.
“It’s not like we knew what was going to happen,” I told her, wiping the peach juice from Jace’s arm where the pit had hit. “And you know better than to think we’d willingly take you into a dangerous situation. We were breaking into a room we knew we weren’t supposed to be in. We didn’t exactly expect to get off scot-free.”
She set her chin at a stubborn angle and lifted one brow in a way that told me quite clearly she didn’t consider those to be adequate excuses.
I waved her off. Alexy could pout as much as she wanted to; it didn’t change my opinion of what I’d done. Instead of responding, I continued breaking down what we’d learned during our midnight escapade.
“You were right when you guessed Nathan was a millionaire,” I told Gabby, giving her a warm glance. “He told us as much last night. Apparently, his eyes were opened to the struggles of the poor when he met and fell in love with Corona. She’s from a lower-class background herself. She’s the one who started showing him how the poorer class lives.”
“What else?” Nelson asked, spearing the last piece of fried tomato on her plate like she had a vendetta against it. “He say anything about what he’s planning on doing with this little revolution of his?”
“I didn’t have a chance to ask about it,” I replied. “He did talk like there were multiple versions of the upper class, though. Like multiple upper classes or layers of rich. You grew up in the middle class, Nelson; did you ever hear about that?”
She gave me a level look which said I really should have known better. “Since when do you think the middle class has any access to the upper class? You grew up rich; did you ever hear anything about multiple versions of rich people?”
She was right, and I rifled through my memories, looking for anything that might have indicated a class higher than us, but came up short. Could the Sylvones have been part of that higher level of wealth?
What would it mean if they were?
“It was a pretty isolated living experience,” I said. “Everyone I knew was just like us. We all had the same stuff. Went to the same places. Lived the same lives. I don’t remember any mention or existence of another layer of the wealthy class, either above or below us.”
“Maybe the richer classes are like everyone else, and don’t mix,” Ant mumbled, mouth stuffed with what looked like an entire pancake.
“That’s a good point,” I answered, wrinkling my nose with distaste. “Please tell me you’re going to find some manners before Jackie is out of the hospital? For our sake as much as hers. When will she be released, anyway?”
My question surprised Ant, and he spent so long working the pancake around to get it down his throat that Abe finally answered.
“The medical staff said it should only be a couple more days. Her insides are healing, and they did some blood transfusions on her. Pumping her full of someone else’s blood is incredibly creepy if you ask me, but she’s got her spark back. Spent a lot of yesterday shouting at us about not having brought something for her to do.”
I smirked. “Sounds like Jackie.”
“She’s pretty upset you’re doing stuff without her,” he added in a warning tone.
“Tell her she can join the club,” Alexy interrupted.
“Doc says we’re lucky we got her here when we did,” Ant added, subdued. “Says she’s lucky she didn’t die on the way in.”
I could see the shadows in his eyes and knew he would have blamed himself if she had died. I understood. I would have done the same.
“Oh, stop moping, you two,” Nelson snapped. “Jackie knew the risk and chose this life anyway. That girl doesn’t know how to sit down and keep her mouth shut and her hands to herself, which is exactly why she was with us in the first place. She’s going to be fine, and that’s all that matters. Now, what else did Nathan say?”
Jace and I had already told the rest of the team the little Nathan had said about training and education, and though we now prodded at Alexy to fill in the blanks, she just shook her head.
“His story to tell,” she said. “He’s as proud as a new father of what they’re doing here, and he’ll be ecstatic to have a fresh audience. Besides, I don’t owe you anything. You guys left me in my room last night, bored out of my head, while you were off having an adventure.”
At that moment, Zion, whom I hadn’t seen in days except in passing, strolled into the kitchen, for once not wearing his usual black uniform. Instead he was in faded jeans and a soft green sweatshirt, both riddled with holes and frayed threads from constant wear.
“You all ready?” he asked, grabbing an apple from the sideboard and tossing it from hand to hand. “I hear you’re getting a tour of the school today. Best job in Edgewood.”
He grinned, his teeth shockingly white, and I realized this was the first time I’d ever seen him smile like that. Sure, I’d seen him smile, but never with the absolute abandon he was demonstrating right now.
I stared at him. “You… You like kids?”
He chuckled and took a juicy bite of the apple. �
��Robin, everyone likes kids. Besides, the school is the brightest place in the whole city. And it reminds me of when I was young.”
When he was young? I put my fork down slowly.
“You were one of the kids Nathan saved,” I said, not posing it as a question but a statement.
It made sense. The fierce loyalty. The unquestioning adherence to Nathan’s plan. The important position in the organization. Zion must have been brought in early on in Little John’s existence, given Zion’s age, but the timing would match up.
At that, the grin was back on his face, larger than ever. “I was. Parents died when I was thirteen, and there was nowhere else for me to go once they were gone. I was old enough to know what the Ministry did, old enough to realize they wouldn’t want me. I was skinny and angry and had weak lungs. Already had a record with the local enforcers. There was no way the Ministry was going to rehome me… and even if they’d offered, I would have turned them down.”
“Because it’s such a choice?” Ant asked.
Zion shrugged. “It was for me. I knew I didn’t want to go to them. So, I started living on the streets with some other kids my age. We got by, but it was hard. Never enough to eat. Always cold in the winter, hot in the summer. Always on the run from the enforcers. Then Nathan found us and took us to another Little John camp. Gave us beds. Gave us plenty of food. Gave us medical care. Taught us to read. Gave us things we’d never had before. Treated us like we were actually worth something.”
His voice grew so quiet on the last part I had to lean forward to hear it.
He looked up, saw us all staring at him, wide-eyed, and smiled again.
“Hey, you guys are heading into the inner circle of Little John. I can finally reveal the fact that I do indeed have a heart.”
“It comes as a shock to everyone, don’t worry,” Alexy said, her voice cutting but her eyes soft.
Zion took a mock swipe at the shaved side of her head, then looked back to us. “Anyway, I’ve been on his team ever since. Expect you will be, too, once you see why he’s doing what he’s doing.” He clapped his hands to cut through the chatter from the other tables. “All right, Team Hood. Let’s go.”
He turned without waiting and left the kitchen. In a flurry of movement, everyone jumped up to follow, hurrying through the door toward the foyer. As we all left, I glanced back, seeing Henry still sitting at one of the tables. He gave me a slight wave. I didn’t have time to return it before I was out the door.
By the time we caught up with Zion, he was already at the doors of the Hall, barely pausing to see if we were coming. We all fell into small groups behind him, and then filed out the door.
With Zion as our guide to the school, I had a chance to point out to Nelson the older layers of the city I’d seen on our midnight adventure. I also started noticing other things. The dirt from the people who lived here. The scuffmarks on the concrete. It wasn’t as new and shiny as I’d originally thought. Just brighter than anything I’d seen in the outside world.
“Genius,” she said. “Pure genius. They didn’t build an entire new campus. They adopted one and altered it.”
“Which makes the cover story watertight,” I agreed. “It was a factory before, so they only need to maintain the registration.”
“How many of these do you suppose they have?” she asked.
I paused. I hadn’t thought of that. “Alexy?”
She dropped back to draw even with Nelson and me, her face expectant. “You finally decided it was time to apologize for last night?” she asked.
I shook my head. “How many cities like this does Little John have?”
She was quiet for a moment, thinking, and then said, “I think five, but I’m not sure. Why?”
Nelson and I shared a long, wondering glance, and neither of us answered Alexy. Five cities. It looked like this city could hold quite a few people. Maybe up to five thousand. And if this was a smaller city where they brought new recruits, rather than one where people lived on a full-time basis, the other cities might be a lot bigger.
Little John, it seemed, was a much larger operation than we’d assumed. I’d thought Operation Hood was big with its five hundred members. But Little John’s member list might run into the tens of thousands. This was an organization that had been active for longer than most of us had been alive.
We weren’t finding our way into a new organization. We were finding our way into a fully formed movement. One that was on the verge of something big.
After a few more minutes of walking, Zion drew to a stop and made a grand flourish, and I saw we’d reached the school.
Today there were children in the front yard, playing on the seesaw, riding the small carousel, and playing hopscotch. A couple of them looked like they were playing a very short-handed version of basketball, with only about five people.
It wasn’t like I recognized anyone, but there was definitely a larger range of diversity in this schoolyard than any I’d seen growing up. There was a scattering of blonds and redheads on the playground, though noticeably more brunettes, while other kids ranged in color from a light tan, similar to Henry, all the way down to the deepest brown, like Zion. Several kids whirled around the yard in brightly colored wheelchairs. One of the girls playing basketball, scoring point after point, was missing her right arm below the elbow. Two older kids, perhaps fourteen or fifteen, sat together in a corner, books open on their laps, having what seemed to be a fierce discussion with only their hands.
It could just be an anomaly. It could be coincidence. But given what Nathan had said about the Ministry deciding on who should be adopted through CRAS and who should be sentenced to living on the streets, I wasn’t surprised to see so many disabled children. My heart did feel like it grew about ten sizes at the idea that Nathan had brought them all here, regardless of what life had handed them.
He’d brought them here because he believed that everyone belonged. That everyone had a right to change the world.
Over in the corner of the yard, several adults were supervising an enclosed soft play area. Inside, infants and toddlers crawled and scampered around, their giggles and shrieks cutting at my heart.
I wondered, suddenly, what color hair Hope would have now. My own was a sort of ashy blondish brown, and my eyes were light hazel. Henry’s hair and eyes were brown.
We had no idea how she had developed. What if, for some reason, the Ministry decided she wasn’t worth keeping? What if—
A hand grabbed mine and squeezed, and I looked up, yanked out of my spiraling thoughts.
Jace put his other hand to my face. “What’s going on in there?”
“I… I…” I stared up at him, wondering how to put my terror into words. I’d always hated the thought of Hope being put into another family, but what if there was something worse than that? What if kids who weren’t wanted for whatever reason were just thrown away? I wasn’t sure Jace would understand the sudden fear rushing through my blood at the thought, so I shook my head. “I’m just thinking about how awful it all is,” I said. “The kids.”
He gave me a look which suggested he knew there was more to it than that, but just pressed a quick kiss to my hair and didn’t ask anything further.
Nathan and Corona came out of the school then, accompanied by a man I’d never seen before. He had a soft waterfall of curly black hair to his shoulders and a handsome face so perfectly balanced and proportioned it seemed unreal. As he smiled a dazzling greeting, it took up nearly the entire bottom half of his face. He looked like he had twice as many teeth as any normal human being.
He put his hand out to Jace the moment they got to the gate, grinning like he was greeting an old friend.
“You must be Jace,” he said. “I’ve heard an awful lot about you. I’m Piper. Pied Piper when I’m in a portal, but just Piper to my friends.”
He flashed another blinding smile.
“Jace. Jace Huxley,” Jace said, shaking the hand he’d been offered and frowning slightly. “I don’t thin
k I’ve ever seen you in any of the portals.”
Piper shrugged good-naturedly. “Can’t meet everyone, right? There are so many out there now.”
He turned to me, and I took his hand. “Robin,” I said, stiffly. “RobinHood21.”
“Well now,” he said, clasping my hand between both of his. “I have both heard great things about you and seen them in action myself. You were the one to suggest the warehouse raid in the OH+ portal, I believe?”
I nodded warily, glad when he moved on to Ant and Abe. There was something off about him. Maybe, I thought, he was too good-looking. Like a doll brought to life or a computer animation.
The other girls, however, were eating it up. Nelson had an enormous grin on her face, and Gabby was blushing so much I thought she might pass out. Alexy, who must have met the guy before, given the fact that they were both in Little John, was gazing at him with something akin to hero worship.
Maybe I was wired wrong, I thought, but I definitely didn’t get that feeling when I looked at him.
“Piper oversees our school programs,” Nathan said, coming up behind him and throwing an affectionate arm around the other man’s shoulders. “He’s helped me build Little John from the ground up and knows almost as much as I do about it. If you ever have any questions, particularly about the schools or any kids you might have brought in, he’s the one to ask. If Corona and I aren’t around, Piper can give you a good idea of what you need to know, or at least tell you where to find us. Consider him our lieutenant.”
I gazed doubtfully from one to the other, wondering what Piper’s background was. He’d known Nathan since before Little John, suggesting they’d run in privileged circles together at one point.
Maybe that was what was off about him. The upper class believed in making themselves as beautiful as possible by any means necessary, be they chemical, surgical, or otherwise. Perhaps Piper had had that sort of work done before he joined Little John. It would explain the face. And the sense of strangeness.
The Child Thief 4: Little Lies Page 23
