“But we won’t let that happen, right?” I asked.
He turned and looked at me. “We won’t let that happen,” he repeated firmly.
I wasn’t sure exactly which parts he was agreeing with me on.
I spotted the first agents as we were traveling under the marble arch into Chanley’s walled-off government district, away from the residential areas and Chanley’s citizens. They were standing on the wall above us that connected to the arch. They were also armed. I knew Nathan saw them, too, but he didn’t even look up. I couldn’t help but stare as we walked beneath them, though. They didn’t have their weapons trained on us, but they had obviously been expecting us, because they watched us closely as we passed. I could only see them by the light of the moon, since the pollution around Chanley hid the stars, but I had a feeling that they could see us perfectly through night-technology lenses.
Nathan continued on, looking entirely unafraid, and I tried to match his long, confident strides. We began to pass the smaller government buildings that bordered the humongous capitol building itself, and on every building, in sniper positions, I could see the fuzzy outlines of additional agents.
“Just scare tactics,” Nathan said quietly. “We’re too valuable to kill yet.”
Or one of us is, I thought anxiously.
We kept walking past the courtyard entrance that was supposed to host Aurora’s public execution. I had to strain my eyes to stay on the cobblestone sidewalks. Chanley was eerily still and quiet as we walked, as if there was no one there except for us and the agents who had their rifles trained on us. But I didn’t know if that was just due to the hour of the day or if Chanley’s money problems had cost them more labor than just their military.
We approached the steep stone stairs of the capitol building quickly. I thought that maybe the guns being aimed at us had us subconsciously quickening our pace. There were even more agents stationed at the base and the top of the stairs, a lot more than I had anticipated. Every agent was armed, and probably ready to shoot us down at a moment’s notice. As we began the long ascent up the stairs, my scalp went prickly with anxiety. Despite Nathan’s best efforts to calm me, I felt certain that I could be disposed of at any second, leaving Mavis with one less problem.
Was that why she had insisted on Nathan bringing me? So that she could make sure I wouldn’t be a threat to her possession of Hope—now or in the future? My breath began to feel ragged.
“Almost there, Robin,” Nathan said quietly to assure me. “You’re doing great.”
I took a deep breath as we finally reached the top of the stairs and were faced with the huge, open doors of the capitol building.
“To the right,” an agent said gruffly as we passed him.
We walked into the capitol building to see a humongous domed ceiling above us. Burchard’s seal was emblazoned on the floor of the building, having replaced the flag-and-eagle emblem of previous presidents. Our boots tapped against the rich marble floor as we turned right to walk down a long corridor. It was obvious where we were supposed to go; one door in the hall was open and spilling golden light out onto the marble.
That must’ve been Mavis’s office. And we were walking right in—and probably right into some kind of trap.
Our footsteps gave us away before we could even look into the office. Or, I realized, the agent’s reports about our whereabouts in Chanley did. Either way, a voice called out to us when we were still a few doors down.
“Come in,” the cheerful female voice said.
Something about that false cheerfulness made my stomach flip. Mavis was trying to fool us and downplay her hand, just like Nathan said.
We entered the office and were greeted with the sight of Mavis sitting behind her desk. I recognized it immediately as the same desk we had seen in the video projection she sent. She didn’t look up to greet us, instead continuing to type on her computer while we hovered in the doorway.
“Please,” she continued, still not looking up, “have a seat.”
I looked warily over at Nathan. He nodded, and we walked forward to the two seats positioned before Mavis’s desk.
Mavis continued to type without another word, never looking up at us. It was an obvious power play. She wanted us to know that she wasn’t afraid of us, and also that she didn’t respect us. I felt similarly. I might have been afraid, but not of Mavis.
In fact, I hated her. It took everything in me not to leap across the desk at her. I had worried for the past two years that when I found Hope’s adoptive parents, I would feel hesitancy. Maybe they’d be nice people who were good to my daughter and made her feel secure and loved and happy. But Mavis . . . I didn’t think there was any way she could give my daughter the kind of love Hope deserved.
As far as I was concerned, Mavis was a monster.
“Perhaps we should get on with it,” Nathan finally said after several more long seconds of listening to Mavis type.
Mavis paused and finally looked up.
“In time,” she said with a fake smile. “First I want to have your statement prepared and ready to sign.”
She had the plump, cheerful face of a grandmother. She was older than I thought she would be and heavily made up in a way that was probably meant to hide her true age. But her fake smile and twinkling eyes had malice and manipulation behind them, and it made her seem cruel and terrible.
She looked only at Nathan, never casting me a glance.
“You’d think I’d be the one to prepare my own statement,” Nathan said without missing a beat.
“Yes, well, we aren’t big fans of the statements you’ve made in the past,” Mavis went on, turning back to her computer to type more. “So this time I think it’s best if we are in control of that.”
“And what will I be saying in this signed statement?” Nathan queried.
Mavis spent a few more seconds typing and then made a big show of finishing her document, looking it over with a proud smile. Finally, she answered.
“You’ll tell the public what they’re dying to hear,” she said, looking back up at him. “That we have come to an accord. Little John will renounce its slanderous publications because the regime has kindly offered to forgive you and allow you back into the fold.”
“So you’ll hire me, then,” Nathan replied. “Is that what you’re saying?”
“Even the best regimes need counsel from time to time,” Mavis said matter-of-factly. “We will agree to reconsider some of our policies that denigrate the poorest in our country, with your wise counsel. And you will tell the public that you have faith in the regime and that peace can and should return.”
“Why would I say that?” Nathan asked.
Mavis’s eyes flashed with aggression for the first time since she had begun.
“Because you don’t want to see this country slip into a prolonged and very violent civil war, of course,” she said threateningly.
I sat still and quiet in my seat and listened. What else could I do? Mavis wasn’t even acknowledging my presence.
“Last I checked, you didn’t have much of a military,” Nathan replied.
“A temporary problem, as you know,” Mavis shot back quickly.
“This regime severed all its diplomatic ties when it refused to pay back its loans after the Crisis, so I’m not sure how Burchard plans on borrowing any more money,” Nathan said.
“There are quite a few very wealthy individuals in this nation who won’t want to see it fall into ruin,” Mavis said. “It’s only a matter of time before investors are procured.”
I looked anxiously at Nathan. She was probably right. The regime had been pandering to the ultra-rich for decades, and they were likely to sink some of their money back into it if it meant continued prosperity and stability. Little John only had a small window of opportunity before that happened.
“Time is short,” Nathan quipped.
Mavis’s eyes narrowed, but then she flashed a bright, fake smile.
“It would be very wise for y
ou to accept our generous offer,” she continued.
“And what would truly change for the country?” Nathan countered. “What will Burchard do to rectify his wrongs against the stolen children and the poor of this nation, not to mention the lobotomized?”
His voice was rising in a way that signaled his distrust.
“Perhaps a moderate pay raise for factory workers. An end to Operation Guidance, since you don’t seem to be a fan of it,” Mavis answered.
Was Mavis really offering these things? Or was this part of her trap? And would Nathan actually be willing to sign a statement that kept Burchard in power? My head spun with the possibilities and confusion of it all. But then I realized that Mavis had left something very important out of the conversation.
“And the CRAS?” I asked. It was the first time I had felt enough confidence to say anything.
Mavis turned on me quickly with fire in her eyes.
“Why would we do away with a program that does so much good for our nation?” she asked. “So your kind can continue to breed like rats and then raise your street urchins up in ignorance and poverty? Is that what you want, Robin?”
I was taken aback by her sudden venom, and sat dumbly, trying to think of a reply.
“The dissolution of the CRAS would be a necessary part of any successful negotiation,” Nathan added.
Mavis kept her cold eyes on me for a few seconds longer, but then turned back to Nathan.
“It would take time and planning to do that, Nathan,” she replied. “We have no way to safely pull all of those children out of holding centers and place them back with their biological families. And no guarantee that their families would be able to provide for them. It’s just not wise. That will have to wait for another day, but I’m sure we could consider it in the future.”
“I won’t sign anything that I don’t completely agree with,” Nathan finished.
There was a long, uncomfortable pause after his final statement, and I fidgeted nervously with my hands in my lap, waiting for Mavis to continue. After a while, she smiled her usual, malevolent smile.
“You know, he told me you weren’t a man who would be willing to compromise,” Mavis said. “But I thought that perhaps you could be reasoned with. My mistake.”
I narrowed my eyes, and then Nathan asked the question I had been wondering.
“Who told you?”
The door slammed shut behind us, and a tall figure stepped out. Nathan and I turned quickly to look, but we were too late. There was a flash, the horrible pop of gunfire, and then Nathan fell out of his chair.
“Nathan!” I screamed, dropping down beside him.
The bullet had hit his second-skin suit at the shoulder, but a thick, dark red stain began to spread over his clothes, and I realized that it had been penetrated.
I turned to look back at the figure who had been hiding behind the door. He sauntered over to us, his smile just as bright and fake as it had always been, and stood right in front of Nathan. My breath caught in shock and disbelief.
Nathan looked up, and his eyes flashed with painful recognition.
“Piper,” he sputtered.
Piper squatted down, his gun trained on Nathan’s chest, and quickly removed our guns from our holsters. Then he tossed them over toward Mavis and stood up again to hover ominously over us.
“Good to see you again, old friend,” he said with a smirk.
36
Nathan’s breathing sounded ragged and labored as he lay in my arms, blood spreading out from his wound at an alarming rate. I knew he was dying, but I didn’t know what to do about it.
And I didn’t know what was going to happen to me, either. I thought Nathan had been important for Mavis’s plans, but maybe they had been planning on killing him all along if he didn’t agree to their demands.
The problem was, he’d also been my security blanket. Without him, would they just kill me now and be done with it?
Suddenly the comm link began to scream in my ear.
“Robin! Robin, what’s going on in there?” Sy shouted.
Piper turned his attention to me. “Tell them everything is fine. Be a good girl. I’d hate to have to put another bullet into your boss for a stupid decision on the part of one of his lackeys.”
I stared at Piper, feeling a hot hatred bubble up inside me and begin to overwhelm the shock and confusion I had been feeling at his sudden resurrection.
Piper stared back with his plastic smile and too-white teeth. “Go on.”
“We’re . . . fine,” I spat out, talking to Sy through the comm. “Stand down.”
Piper stuck out his pale hand and flexed his fingers all at once, indicating that he wanted me to hand him my comm.
I hesitated. This was our last line of communication with Little John. Without them, I didn’t know if the explosives would detonate or not. But I did know it would mean no one would know what was happening.
But I didn’t have time to argue. Piper saw my reticence and pressed the barrel of his gun to Nathan’s temple to speed me along. I quickly removed my comm and handed it to him. Piper grabbed Nathan’s comm himself.
“Piper,” Nathan struggled to say, “I thought—”
“Yeah, yeah,” Piper callously interrupted. “You thought I was dead. Of course you did. You thought exactly what I wanted you to think, for once.”
“But why?” Nathan panted.
His chest was rising and falling unevenly and too quickly, and I was worried about how much longer he would survive. What would I do when he died?
What would they do to me?
Piper shook his head in disgust, his handsome but disingenuous face displaying a look of pure contempt.
“You would wonder that, wouldn’t you?” Piper shot back. “You never did have any idea what your business partners were thinking or how they felt about your doings. And you didn’t care. You were only concerned with yourself and your opinions. You couldn’t even see the tides turning right under your nose.”
Nathan shook his head in wordless confusion, and Piper suddenly squatted back down to loom menacingly over him.
“Did you ever think to ask me whether or not this was what I wanted?” Piper spat angrily at Nathan. “Did it ever occur to you that maybe we didn’t all want to become public enemies?”
“Why didn’t you . . . say something?” Nathan struggled to say. His words were punctuated by long, rasping breaths.
“I did!” Piper yelled back. “You just weren’t listening. You met some beautiful poor girl, and suddenly you were in love with her, her lost kid, and her cause. You took our successful business and our government contact that we had built together, and you sent it up in flames by yourself. And you call me a traitor? You betrayed us, Nathan!”
I struggled to keep up with their conversation. I knew that Piper and Nathan had been business partners even before Little John began, but I thought that Piper had helped Nathan defect from the government. Had he truly been reticent, and had Nathan overlooked it? Had Piper ever been loyal to Little John? Or had he always been biding his time like this, ready to betray Nathan at the first chance?
“But how?” Nathan asked. “The video message, the Brightbirch attack . . .”
“Of course I couldn’t do it alone,” Piper teased.
“Robert,” I said aloud. I thought back to the argument we’d overheard between Piper and Robert. That hadn’t been about Robert’s bad behavior at all, like he claimed. It was about Piper telling him to lay low and stop being so obvious.
Piper smiled. “You were always a perceptive one, weren’t you? I knew that from the time of the executive interrogations. Nathan should’ve listened to you more often. But now you know what Nathan’s pride and arrogance can do.”
The executives. I suddenly thought back to Mica and her team and remembered that it had been Piper who was supposed to give them safe passage back into the real world.
“What did you do to the Smally executives?” I asked anxiously.
Pi
per flashed his dazzling smile. “What a good leader is supposed to do with traitors. Something Nathan apparently couldn’t accomplish.”
Hot tears filled my eyes, and my fists clenched.
“You promised them safety! You promised me!” I screamed.
“And now you can see what those promises were worth,” Piper continued, his smile unwavering. “Yes, if I recall correctly, that stupid, traitorous executive that you successfully interrogated said the same thing before we shot her. She said that you had promised her safety. How disappointed in your promises she was, Robin, and how disillusioned. Right before she died.”
I lunged at Piper, unable to contain my rage. He quickly turned his gun from Nathan to me.
“Careful, Robin,” he warned. “Nathan might be doomed, but you still have a chance to make it out of this alive. I wouldn’t screw it up if I were you.”
“What are you talking about?” I asked angrily.
“Well, someone has to sign this statement, don’t they?” Mavis said from behind her desk. “Of course, since my original offer was rejected, we’ll have to modify it slightly. Take out the pay raise for those factory degenerates. Take out the part about ending Operation Guidance. And obviously, we won’t be needing any counsel from some idiot kid concerning our other policies. But, thankfully for you, you still have the opportunity to renounce the lies your press put out and your terrorist organization as a whole.”
“Why would I do that?” I countered with my eyes narrowed.
“Because it’s the only way we’ll let you live, silly girl,” Mavis replied with a smile. “And your friends. Do you really think they’ll be safe and protected once Nathan is gone? They’ll be a pack of frightened rabbits, Robin, and we will hunt them down like dogs. One by one.”
“They still have leaders. They still have weapons. You can’t defeat them all,” I replied defiantly. I felt confident that Corona had the strength and resolve to take up Nathan’s mantle if we didn’t make it out of here alive. And the armory base was impressively stocked.
“Who are those leaders, Robin?” Piper shot back. “Nathan’s other base leaders are business people. They have no military expertise. They can’t wage a war. And do you really think Corona will risk her daughter’s safety in a prolonged battle after she just got her back?”
The Child Thief 6: Zero Hour Page 30