The Child Thief 6: Zero Hour

by Forrest, Bella

  Nelson looked at me warily. Suddenly I was very grateful that I had said my goodbyes to Juno early, in case it had been my last chance.

  “There are some details that are better kept secret until the last minute,” Nathan said with a grin, “but the details of our next mission are best shared now.”

  He stepped around the desk as he usually did so that he could stand in front of us unobstructed.

  “Thanks to Aurora, we know exactly where the meeting will take place. Preston Industries’ headquarters are big. There will be several interconnected buildings, many stories, and more offices and conference rooms than you could count. There are tens of thousands of people who will be sitting in that building, doing everything from scrubbing toilets to signing the checks that go straight to Burchard,” Nathan went on. “But we don’t want to kill them all. We only want to take out the people who are working directly with the regime. And because of Aurora, we can minimize the damage and attack the top of the west tower only, right where we know their conference room is.”

  “How?” I asked.

  “With firepower,” Nathan replied. He turned and looked to the small team of strangers I had noticed when I entered. One of them, a tall man with a shaved head and an eye patch, grinned mischievously at Nathan.

  “I don’t understand,” I continued.

  “Some of you may have noticed that our base leaders are no longer here. The other bases are large and just as important as this one, and those leaders needed to be with their teams to provide support and leadership,” Nathan said. “But that doesn’t mean we can’t share some resources with each other. And our most valuable resources are our teams. We happen to have gotten the explosives team on loan from another base for this particular mission.”

  The explosives team nodded and smiled out at the rest of us.

  “So it’s just us against the regime?” Luka asked.

  Nathan shook his head. “Little John is one unified whole. They will all be with us in individual ways throughout this mission and our final attack on Chanley. But we can’t have too many airships arriving at Preston Industries, or we will draw unwanted attention. This is a stealth mission. That’s why we’re just borrowing one of their teams for now.”

  “I’m guessing explosives play a big part in our attack, then?” Bridge asked.

  Nathan nodded. “In our attacks, yes. Starting with Preston Industries.”

  I wrinkled my nose. I could see how explosives would be necessary for attacking a city as large and corrupt as Chanley, but how would we “minimize the damage” and avoid killing innocent workers if we were using explosives for the Preston Industries attack?

  Nathan continued before I could ask.

  “Which is why we need a specialized team for this type of delicate work. Some explosives make a big mess, but some are more precise. We’re not in the business of killing innocent people,” Nathan said. “That’s what the regime does, and we’re not like the regime.”

  “So we’ll just take out that one little room,” the man with the eye patch from the explosives team interrupted.

  “This is Pyro,” Nathan said, gesturing at the man. “Explosives team lead.”

  “Pyro? That’s fitting! Did your mother give you that name?” Ant quipped.

  Gabby elbowed him hard in the ribs.

  “Just a nickname,” Pyro replied good-naturedly. “But I can prove how fitting it is.”

  “So how do we get the explosives into the room with the executives? Is someone going on ahead to plant them there?” Rio asked.

  “No, we’d never get in undetected. We’ll have to shoot the explosives in,” Pyro replied.

  “But won’t we risk killing innocent people if we have to shoot explosives into the building?” I asked. “We’d never be able to get close enough in the airship to shoot accurately.”

  “We’ll get closer in the mini-airship. Much better aim, too,” Nathan said.

  I looked anxiously at Jace. Would they be asking him to fly again?

  “Will this be another small-team mission?” Cloyd asked.

  “We’ll need a lot of backup, but yes,” Nathan replied. “The explosives mission itself will fall on a smaller team.”

  I was used to the small-team missions, having been on several myself. But I didn’t know anything about explosives, which gave me the impression that I wouldn’t be on the small team this time.

  “Then what happens?” Nelson asked. “If everything goes right and this mission is a success, what happens next?”

  “Then we attack Chanley,” Nathan replied. “Then we go after a regime that has no money, no diplomatic ties, and no support from its own constituency. We gather all of our powers together, and we take them out once and for all.”

  The room was silent.

  “But,” Nelson continued, “then what?”

  Finally, someone had said it. Nathan was moving quickly through his final plan to unseat Burchard. But so far there had been no talk about what was supposed to happen if the Burchard regime actually fell.

  What would we do then, in a country with no wealth at its base and no government or leader?

  “That’s a question for another time,” Nathan answered. “I understand the concern, but for now our mission is to remove a dictator. It’s not time yet to plan the next move.”

  Then when would it be time? Only after Burchard was gone? It didn’t seem right to me. Especially when the answer was right in front of us.

  “You should lead,” I said.

  Nathan turned to look at me. He stared for long seconds, until the silence in the room was deafening.

  “I’m not a politician,” he replied.

  “We don’t need more politicians,” I said emphatically. “We need a leader.”

  “Robin’s right,” Jace said suddenly. “If this works—attacking the mega-conglomerate and spreading the news of the regime—then people are going to look up to you and see you as their leader.”

  “They’d follow you,” Alexy said.

  And then the room was full of noise as the team members began to speak on Nathan’s behalf and cheer. People applauded and whistled. They were smiling and calling Nathan’s name.

  But the room became quiet again when Corona stepped forward.

  I watched her take her long, graceful strides to the front of the desk and stand beside her husband.

  “They’re right, Nathan,” she said softly. “I know you’ve thought about it and decided against it, but I think you should lead. It suits you.”

  She grabbed his hand and held it. Aurora stepped forward next and placed her hand on Nathan’s shoulder. Nathan looked up and between the two women, seeming to be turning the notion over in his head uncomfortably.

  “I know that this country is full of wiser people than me, including some in this very room. When the UNA is again a democracy, we will hold elections,” he said. “So that we can make sure the right person is leading us.”

  And then he pulled his hand away and turned back to face the rest of us.

  “It’s time to leave for the mission,” he said simply.

  29

  The flight to Preston Industries was shorter than I imagined it would be. Or maybe time just felt like it was moving faster as Little John picked up its pace. At any rate, it was still nightfall by the time that we landed. And now we were roaming around the airship somewhat aimlessly while we awaited further orders from Nathan.

  We had taken all the teams and the mini-airship on one large airship. Now we were hiding in a wooded area a few miles away from the corporate headquarters of a massive conglomerate of businesses that had been funding Burchard’s regime since it was only an election campaign. In the morning, a team would leave on the mini-airship with the hopes of ending the regime’s funding for good.

  But we still didn’t know who exactly was on that team or what the rest of us would be doing.

  “So, Pyro,” Ant began, “what’s your story?”

  I was glad that Ant had ask
ed. We had all been making small talk for the last hour or so as Nathan worked with the tech and flight teams to chart a new and unexpected flight path back to Brightbirch after the mission, but Pyro was an intriguing stranger among us, and I wanted to know more about him. He had a chaotic, unhinged energy about him, like he was a lit powder keg himself. His movements were sharp and quick, like a bird’s, and his one good eye darted about the room ceaselessly while we talked.

  “Same as most of yours, I imagine,” he answered. His voice was raspy, and he spoke quickly, like there wasn’t enough time to get it all out. “Got snatched from my parents young and never quite forgave Burchard for it. So now I’m here to make him answer for his crimes.”

  “How’d you get into explosives?” I asked.

  Pyro stared at me for a while in a way that made me wonder if he had been offended by the question somehow. But then he simply pulled his sleeve back to reveal an arm pitted with deep, rolling scars—telltale signs of an old burn. It looked like his whole arm had been badly burned. To my surprise, Pyro was looking down at his arm with a grin.

  “My adoptive parents’ house burned down when I was small. They grabbed the paintings, and my mom grabbed her fur coats, but they left me. I made it out on my own, but not without a few marks,” he said. “I was terrified of fire for a long time. The fear almost made me crazy. But that’s the thing about fears. You can be victim to them forever, or you can face them and take control. I faced mine. Being a little crazy helped.”

  “Is that what happened to your eye, too?” Jackie asked.

  Surprisingly, Pyro chuckled and quickly pulled his sleeve back down. “No, I still had two eyes after the fire. But there’s a learning curve when you start getting into explosives. I figured that out the hard way.”

  Jackie winced.

  “Sorry to hear that about your adoptive parents,” I said. It was the part of the story that I could relate most to.

  Pyro shrugged. “If it hadn’t happened, I wouldn’t be here today. I wouldn’t be the explosives team lead. In the end it was all worth it.”

  I respected his answer. That was how I felt about the Sylvones. But I pushed my adoptive parents back out of my mind as soon as the thought occurred to me. I didn’t want to think about them right now, especially not when there was a chance I was about to run into my adoptive father.

  In a very unpleasant way.

  Nelson, Gabby, and Jace walked over then, and I took that to mean that the tech and flight teams were no longer busy. I turned around and saw that Nathan was still speaking to Sy at the front of the ship.

  “Are we about to get some final orders?” I asked Nelson.

  “He said we’d be retiring for the evening soon, so I imagine we will,” she replied.

  “Yeah, I’d like to know what I’m supposed to be doing here,” Abe said.

  “Well, Nelson and I already have our assignments,” Gabby said. “Watching the radar for incoming airships. And the medic teams are also staying behind to prepare for any injuries.”

  “What about the combat teams?” I asked. “Are they going?”

  “I think we’re just here in case things get messy,” Cloyd replied. “This mission is about pilots and explosives.”

  “Teams!” Nathan suddenly called out.

  We all stood quickly and headed to the middle of the airship, where Nathan was standing.

  “Our mission team will set off in the morning to attack the executive leadership summit shortly after it begins. The mini-airship doesn’t hold many people,” he continued. “So we’ll have to select a small and elite team that will travel from our landing spot to the building itself.”

  The room was quiet until Nathan continued.

  “But first for our main teams. Combat,” Nathan said.

  Zion straightened up, and his team stared ahead at Nathan, ready for their orders.

  “There’s a chance that the government will get to us before we can take off,” Nathan said. “Hopefully you’ll just be twiddling your thumbs on this mission, but if our mini-airship team gets captured then you’ll be there and armed to help them fight their way out.”

  Zion nodded.

  “Medic team,” Nathan went on.

  Bridge nodded in acknowledgement while his team stood behind him.

  “Same thing goes for you. Hopefully we won’t need you. But if there are injuries, we have you on board to assist,” Nathan said.

  That left only the tech and flight teams.

  “Sy’s team will be in charge of coordinates and airship cannons if it comes to an air battle. And flight team, I’ll let you guess what you’ll be doing,” Nathan joked.

  A few people in the crowd laughed nervously.

  “That leaves our mission team appointments,” Nathan continued.

  The room fell under a tense silence again as we waited to hear who would actually be taking the mini-airship to Preston Industries.

  “Pyro, I’ll need you aboard for your explosives expertise. You’ll be loading the airship cannons before the ship takes off. And I’ll want you with the team as counsel,” he said.

  Pyro nodded respectfully in recognition of his position, but his eye was twinkling in a way that revealed his excitement.

  “Jace and Rio, you’ll be on my controls,” Nathan went on.

  I inhaled deeply and glanced over at Jace. He looked stoic and prepared, but I was feeling anxious and unsure. It never got easier knowing that Jace was putting himself in danger on the front line, even if I knew it was a necessary evil.

  After all, the mini-airship might be invisible, but it was going to be stuffed full of explosives and hovering within range of a malevolent mega-conglomerate. That was dangerous enough, even if it couldn’t be seen.

  “We’ll need one person on our cannons. Since our pilots will have their hands full, and our explosives lead . . .” Nathan trailed off.

  “Doesn’t have the best aim,” Pyro joked, pointing at his eye patch.

  Nathan smiled and nodded. “And I think that additional person is an obvious choice, after her heroic efforts in Chanley.”

  The airship crew all turned to look at me. But I held my breath and waited for Nathan to confirm it.

  “Robin,” he finished.

  I exhaled. I’d had a feeling that it was coming.

  I looked around at Jace, Rio, and Pyro. We were a small crew from different teams and with different talents. And I trusted them. But I was still afraid.

  It was a paradoxical situation. With every mission I went on, I risked losing my life without ever getting my daughter back. But if I didn’t go on missions, I might not ever get her back anyway. Or if I did, we might not have anywhere to go in Burchard’s UNA.

  So I didn’t really have a choice.

  “Get some sleep,” Nathan said. “All teams will be needed tomorrow to support our mission team. And our mission team will need all of the help they can get. The future of the nation depends on us.”

  I furrowed my brow at his continuing lack of details. If we were going to keep risking our lives based on his plans, it would’ve been nice to at least know what those plans were.

  * * *

  “Robin?”

  I opened my eyes groggily to see Jace’s handsome face hovering over mine.

  I sat up in my sleeping bag in the airship cabin and looked around to see that no one else was awake yet. I had drifted off fitfully after Nathan adjourned our meeting, trying to get enough rest for our attack the next morning. But it felt like I had just fallen asleep when Jace woke me.

  “Jace, what’s wrong?” I asked sleepily, trying to conjure up some energy.

  “Everyone is going to be awake in a couple of minutes,” Jace said. “I set my alarm early so I could talk to you before everyone else woke up.”

  “What is it?” I asked.

  He grabbed my hand and kissed it gently. Then he slipped something onto my finger.

  “I know I didn’t give you a proper proposal before,” he said as he adjusted to
a kneeling position beside me. “So I want to do it now, while I still have the chance.”

  “Jace?” I asked in confusion. I looked down to see a braided loop of twine on my ring finger. My eyes went wide as I recognized what was happening.

  “Robin, if we survive this, will you marry me?” he asked.

  I sat in shock for a moment and looked at his sweet face as he knelt beside me. His eyes were so full of hope and an adorable anxiety that I knew was related to my answer. I wanted to stay in that moment forever, but I remembered that soon everyone else would be waking up. So I spoke without even thinking about it. I had known my answer since shortly after I met Jace.

  I had wanted this since then.

  “Yes,” I said. “Yes, of course I’ll marry you.”

  And then, just as dozens of phone alarms began to blare, I wrapped my arms around him. He pulled me up as he kissed me deeply. I didn’t care who saw or what they’d say. I just wanted to be with Jace and to tell everyone that I was his and he was mine now.

  Ant woke up and looked over at us.

  “Isn’t it a little early to be that in love?” he joked sleepily.

  Jace and I laughed and hugged. But we didn’t have the time to focus on ourselves then. Because if the alarms were all going off for people to wake up, that meant that it was almost time to leave for Preston Industries.

  “Pyro, load the cannons,” Nathan said as he walked into the main cabin from his office. “The meeting will be commencing soon, and we want to catch them before they separate for a break.”

  Pyro stood up from folding his sleeping bag and stepped outside of the airship. I gathered then that they had hidden the explosives outside for the night to prevent any kind of mishap. Which made me a bit nervous about the stability of the stuff. Was it going to go off unexpectedly in the mini-airship?

  “The rest of the mission team, if you could gather with me before you set off,” Nathan went on.

  Rio, Jace, and I walked over to join Nathan where he stood at the front of the airship.