“I don’t know,” I said, shaking my head.
“Preparing for takeoff!” Alexy shouted.
“We’ve got one minute until we’re going to be in an airship battle!” Nathan called out. “Airships approaching on radar!”
The airship rocked as it began to rise into the air. I gripped my armrests tightly again. I just wanted to get as far away from Preston Industries, and from the sight of my adoptive father in that conference room, as possible.
“All engines go!” Alexy yelled again.
And then the airship was flying through the air and back to Brightbirch.
* * *
We touched down in Brightbirch that evening without any more drama.
“Guess we lost them,” Nelson mused.
I nodded, though I wasn’t feeling so sure. It made me suspicious that enemy airships had been only “two minutes” away, according to Nathan, and seemingly hadn’t spotted us. But I trusted the tech and flight teams and knew that they had entered a convoluted flight path back for us, since it had taken much longer to get back than it had to get to Preston Industries originally.
Which had given me that much more time to think about my adoptive father.
Every time I closed my eyes, I saw his look of recognition morph into anger all over again. He had seen me and recognized exactly who I was right before I killed him. And that was a difficult thing to come to terms with. I felt like I had done the right thing, not only for Little John and our missions, but for the country as a whole. But I had once loved that man as a father, and I had loved his other adopted children and his wife.
And I had just caused all of them great pain. Even if I had done it for the betterment of millions, it still felt like a cruelty to those few who had known and loved him.
We disembarked quickly and were soon all out on the tarmac. Outside, it was a cool and dry evening, and the sky was streaked with the orange-and-purple colors of another beautiful sunset.
“Meet in the admin building now!” Nathan yelled out over us.
I couldn’t tell from the tone of his voice whether or not he was pleased with how the Preston Industries attack had gone.
I walked beside the rest of Team Hood as we stepped off of the black asphalt of the tarmac and onto the grass of Brightbirch that led to the brick road I was so accustomed to.
“What do you think this meeting is going to be about?” Alf asked of no one in particular as we walked.
“Probably going over the attack,” Cloyd answered.
“And maybe planning the next one,” Zion interrupted as he walked past us. And then, over his shoulder, he called back, “Nice flying, Jace. And nice shot, Robin.”
“Yeah, nice shot,” Alexy said as she followed Zion past us. “But maybe next time you could do it without the extra flair?”
She winked at me and smiled as she said it, but I knew that turning the stealth mode off had caused undue stress for the team back on the ground. It had put a pause on the original shot and shaved valuable seconds off of our escape. Which, even if we had gotten away okay, I realized was still dangerous.
“What does she mean by that?” Gabby asked.
“I turned off the stealth,” I replied. “I couldn’t ambush those people like that. I wanted them to see what was happening.”
“Oh,” Gabby replied softly as she looked away.
We hit Brightbirch’s main street and kept walking toward Fiora’s office. It was only when we made it to the admin building and began to walk up its creaking stairs to the second floor that I realized how tired I was. I wanted to get back to camp already. But I was also anxious to hear what Nathan thought of our latest mission firsthand.
Nathan came into the room behind the rest of us. Fiora, Corona, and Aurora were already at the head of the desk, and Nathan walked up to take his usual place beside them.
“Team,” he began, “Preston Industries has been terribly wounded, if not altogether destroyed, and that should mean that Burchard will be extremely vulnerable. We need to act fast.”
That was all he had time to say. After he finished his last sentence, a massive noise sounded that physically rocked our building. Nathan was thrown to the ground, and the rest of us, who were sitting, only barely managed to keep seated.
In the immediate aftermath of the explosion, the silence was almost unbearable. I looked around madly to see what had happened. An airship fuel tank bursting? The explosives left on the tarmac going off?
What could have possibly caused an explosion of that magnitude?
Nathan’s eyes looked wild and alert. He leapt to his feet and took off down the stairs without a word.
“Stay seated, teams!” Fiora called out to us.
I was already halfway down the stairs as she was saying it.
“Robin!” Jace called out after me.
By the time Nathan tore out of the front door, I was already hot on his heels.
“What was it?” I asked as we got outside.
Nathan didn’t answer. He didn’t have to. One of the greenhouses was alight with fire. People were streaming out of their houses and the hospital to see what was happening. I knew the same would be happening back at the tents. Suddenly, alarms began to sound throughout Brightbirch, shrill and urgent. A great plume of smoke was rising from the greenhouse into the purple sky. And, with horror, I realized that Nathan was staring at the source of the flames.
Half a dozen dark airships were hovering over the city.
Brightbirch was under attack.
31
The realization that we were being attacked may have dawned on me slowly, but the government was working fast. Another blast of cannon fire sent a second greenhouse up in flames.
Nathan turned around quickly and saw me. But I wasn’t the person he was looking for.
“Robin, get to the airships for evacuation,” he shouted as he ran back up the stairs past me. I knew he was going back for Corona and Aurora.
Jace and the rest of Team Hood were making their way down the stairs as Nathan was rushing past them.
“It’s an attack,” Nelson said breathlessly as she looked into the sky.
“We’ve got to get to the ships,” I said.
Before we had time to move, the rest of the teams, including Nathan and his family, were on their way back down the stairs, coming right at us.
“Medics to the hospital! Aid the wounded! Tech and flight teams, get to the airships and ready them for base evacuation! Combat teams to the armory to arm yourselves!” Nathan shouted.
Zion and Cloyd turned to run with the rest of the combat team to the armory in the airship hangar. Alexy and Rio and the flight teams followed them quickly.
“Let’s move, tech teams! This is not a drill!” Sy yelled.
Nelson and Gabby turned to look at us fearfully.
“Be safe,” I managed before they too had turned and were running with their team to the airships.
“Let’s go, medics!” Bridge cried, rallying his team.
They were turning to race off for the hospital when Bridge noticed that I was among them.
“Robin, no,” he said firmly.
“I have to get my mother,” I protested.
Another explosion shook the ground beneath us. I wasn’t leaving Juno, and we didn’t have much time.
“You’ll only be in the way!” Bridge shouted back. Then, seeing the distress in my eyes, he lowered his voice. “My team is trained for hospital evacuations. You have to trust us.”
And then he took off with the rest of the medics, leaving behind Team Hood, Nathan, Corona, Aurora, and Fiora.
“Nathan, get as many of my people out with you as you can,” Fiora said urgently. “Please.”
Nathan looked back at her desperately, and I got the sense that some revelation was being wordlessly shared between the two of them. But then she was running back to her office, and Nathan turned to face us.
“Brightbirch’s defenses have failed, and if we don’t get to those airships quic
kly, then they’re going to be government target practice,” he said firmly. “I need you to get back to the camps and tell them where to go. Can you do that?”
I wanted to know more. How had the defenses failed? What were those defenses? But the airships were breaking formation above and around us, spreading out to cover more ground. Nathan was right: we wouldn’t have long. If the government started firing down on the airships, then all would be lost. There would be time to ask questions later.
I nodded and started to run. We had to get back to the camps to spread the word. Everyone needed to get to the airships.
Jace ran up beside me, and I could hear Ant, Abe, Denver, Alf, and Jackie running behind us.
“Robin, we’ll be too slow even if we run as fast as we can the whole way,” Jace yelled. “And we’re about to have company.”
He pointed at an airship, and I turned to see that it was dropping a ladder. It looked like the government wasn’t just destroying everything in its path. They were also coming down in person—presumably to try to capture us alive.
And we couldn’t let that happen. But I didn’t see what Jace was getting at.
“What choice do we have?” I asked. I was already struggling to keep up the pace, even though we still had the better part of a mile left to run.
Jace ran off the brick road.
“Jace!” I yelled after him. But then I saw where he was going.
The grazing fields.
“Just like Nelson said,” Jace shouted over his shoulder. “They’re combat trained.”
I looked into the field to see a dozen horses gathered at the wooden fence near the road. They were trotting and whinnying to get out of their enclosure.
Jace approached the fence and began to kick at one of the wooden fenceposts. His huge stature and work boots made short work of it, breaking it in half in just a few kicks. Then he used his hands to tear down the connecting pieces until there was a sizable opening in the fence. Big enough for the horses to get through.
“If you know how to ride, jump on. If not, go tell the Brightbirch citizens where to go!” he yelled. And as a roan stallion galloped through the opening, he wrapped his hands into its mane and launched himself up onto its back. The horse and its rider turned to head toward the camps.
The golden mare came trotting out next, and I mimicked Jace’s moves until I was up on her broad back. I didn’t even have to think about it. We didn’t have the luxury of second-guessing plans at that point. The survival of hundreds of innocent people depended on us getting to the camps and telling them the plan.
“Come on!” I yelled at the rest of the team.
Jackie looked at me like I was insane as I kicked the mare, urging her to catch up with Jace. Crazy or not, it was the fastest way to get to the camps. As we took off, I turned around to see the rest of the team making their way to the Brightbirch houses.
I could barely hear the pounding of hoofbeats on the brick over the cacophony of noise that was rising up all around us. People were running down the brick road, both toward and away from the tarmac, as they struggled to find shelter from the airship fire. The Brightbirch alarms were still blaring, and the airships were now spaced out over the base, with one hovering ominously over the camp.
Jace dug his heels into his horse’s sides, and the animal shot forward. I knew why he was hurrying, as it was the same reason I had tried to follow Bridge.
Rhea. This was the second base attack that she had been in, and Jace was worried that her luck would run out.
I was worried about Juno for similar reasons.
Jace galloped his horse wildly through the people and tents as he headed toward the schoolchildren’s section.
“Move!” he shouted as he weaved around to avoid colliding with panicked people. “Get to the tarmac! Get out of the way!”
People, as well as loose cows and horses, were running all around in search of an escape route, and I noticed that some of them were heading into the woods for shelter. Anyone who went into the woods could be left behind and captured or killed after evacuation, and the thought terrified me.
“Get to the tarmac for evacuation!” I yelled to the people around me as I followed Jace.
We quickly reached the corner of the tents that housed younger kids and schoolteachers.
“Rhea!” Jace shouted desperately.
I looked behind me to see that no government airships had made it to the tarmac yet, probably because the base was so spread out, and the ships seemed to be targeting the crowds and buildings instead. The flight and tech teams likely had Little John’s airships readied for takeoff already.
If we could just get the passengers there in time.
“Rhea!” Jace shouted again.
“Jace!” a small, scared voice answered. Rhea ran out of one of the tents and up to Jace. “Jace, I’m scared!”
Jace reached down, and Rhea grabbed hold of his arms so he could pull her up and onto the stallion.
“Spread out and share the message!” I shouted.
I galloped away to another corner of the camp and heard Jace yelling behind me.
“Get to the tarmac! We have to get to the ships!”
I was desperate to keep the panicked people from running into the woods. A government airship was already poised over the birch trees there, and I knew that those people would be lost to Little John if they didn’t come with us to the tarmac.
As the crowd began to get the message and turn and head away from the woods, I noticed that the sudden surge of people heading in one direction was bound to attract attention. The airships had been firing down on a base that was a mess of swarming people heading in all different directions. But as soon as they became a huge crowd of people all pointed toward the same end of the base, the government was going to notice and start trying to head us off.
And that wasn’t our only problem.
A ladder was dropping from the airship closest to the camp. This time, I could see agents actually dropping down from it. And, in horror, I realized that they were going to come down right behind Jace and Rhea.
“Move!” Jace was screaming at people around him as they ran to the brick road while trying to shield their heads. “We have to get out of here!”
“Jace!” I screamed, trying to get his attention.
But it was too late. An agent fired at Jace and Rhea, striking their horse in its flank. The horse whirled and then buckled, flopping to the ground and tossing its riders in the dirt before stumbling back upright and dashing away trailing dark blood.
“Jace!” Rhea cried out in terror from the ground.
She looked unhurt but stunned. Jace, on the other hand, had been momentarily disoriented enough for an agent to leap on top of him.
I dug my heels in and raced my mare toward him. He was on the ground as the agent attempted to handcuff him, and if they got those cuffs on him, then I wouldn’t be able to get them off again, even if we could get away from the agent. I couldn’t let that happen.
But I got to him just as another agent was arriving, this time for Rhea. Rhea kicked and thrashed as the agent wrestled her onto her stomach to cuff her as well.
I leapt off of the mare and made a beeline for Jace. I kicked the agent wrestling with him in the head, but he grabbed my other leg and pulled it out from under me, dropping me to the ground.
“Robin, help Rhea!” Jace shouted when he saw me. He was underneath the agent, but he also looked stronger and larger than his counterpart. If getting pushed to the ground had knocked the wind out of him and given the agent the upper hand, the agent was going to be in trouble once Jace regained his strength. I didn’t want to leave him, but I knew that Rhea needed help more than he did.
“Get off of me!” Rhea was screaming at the agent as he pulled her hands back behind her.
I looked around wildly. I couldn’t overpower the agent, and I didn’t have a weapon on me, so I was going to have to improvise. I looked down to see a firepit beneath us. Picking up a heavy and mo
stly unburnt birch log, I raised it over my head.
The log came down with a solid thud on the agent’s head, and he toppled over. Rhea looked at me in fear, with a twinge of appreciation.
I whipped around but saw that Jace had already overpowered the agent he was grappling with. He brought his fist down just once, hard, on the agent’s temple, and then the agent lay still on the ground. Jace grabbed the agent’s gun and then jumped up and raced over to Rhea and me.
“Rhea!” he cried out in relief. “Are you okay?”
“I’m okay,” she managed.
“We have to keep going!” I said, reaching down to grab the other weapon.
The crowd of Edgewood citizens was making its way to the tarmac as quickly as it could, but agents were still dropping down all around us. I jumped back up on my horse. I paused, feeling panic take over when I realized that we couldn’t all ride one horse to the tarmac together. Then I noticed a few of the other horses from the paddock running amid the crowd, and Jace raced over to one and leapt on.
He galloped back to us, stopping to pull Rhea up and onto the horse with him.
“Ride fast,” Jace yelled. “And shoot at anyone who gets too close.”
He kicked his horse, urging it toward the tarmac, moving in the same direction as the rest of the crowd.
I was about to follow when a blast of airship cannon fire sent me flying off of my horse.
All I could hear in the immediate aftermath of the explosion was the ringing in my own ears. My vision was blurred, and my head felt foggy as I opened my eyes and tried to understand what had just happened. Before I could think, an agent was on my back and pulling my wrists around to cuff me.
There was no fight in me. I could barely breathe or think after hitting the ground so hard. I could feel the cold steel of the cuffs beginning to press into my flesh as the agent fought to get them on, but I could barely struggle against him. Suddenly, though, the pressure on my back was lifted away, and with great difficulty I turned to the side to see what had happened.
It was Henry. He had knocked out the agent who was cuffing me, and now he was extending his hand to lift me up off the ground.
The Child Thief 6: Zero Hour Page 26