Bridge squeezed Nathan’s hand. “I’ll do my best.”
I gasped quietly. Was Nathan . . . dying? After everything that we had been through, in the face of our final success, could we really be on the verge of losing our leader?
“Nathan,” I said gently as I approached.
“He’s weak, Robin,” Bridge said. “He needs time to—”
But Nathan put his hand up to stop Bridge, and I stepped forward to stand beside Nathan.
“Robin,” Nathan said breathily. “You did a great job back there.”
His eyes were closed, and his hands and face were ghostly white. Bridge had stripped off the top of his second-skin suit and fastened bandages over his left shoulder and around the top of his chest, but I could still see red beginning to seep through the top layers of the gauze. The bleeding hadn’t stopped. And maybe it wouldn’t, until there wasn’t enough left to flow out anymore.
“Oh, Nathan,” I said weakly, tears filling my eyes.
“We did it, Robin,” he responded softly. “Who cares about me? We did it for the whole country.”
“But I care about you,” I replied. I picked up his hand and squeezed it.
“Did you find her?” Nathan asked softly. “Your daughter?”
I smiled through my tears. “We did,” I answered. “She’s here. She’s back with me now.”
Nathan managed a small smile. “She’s a lucky girl,” he said, coughing slightly before he could finish, “to have a role model like you.”
I began to cry and pressed Nathan’s hand against my face.
Bridge stepped forward. “We need him to rest if he’s going to have any chance of making it back to the base,” he said delicately.
I nodded and squeezed Nathan’s hand once more before letting it go.
* * *
“More?” Hope asked in her squeaky child’s voice.
“Here you go,” Jace said with a smile as he handed Hope another freeze-dried ice cream bar from the rations stock. “You seem to be the only person who likes this stuff anyway.”
Hope smiled and took the sweet treat.
I watched them in enchantment. Hope had warmed so much to Jace over the hours of our flight. But she still seemed reticent to be too close to me, and once she had even run to Jace for shelter when I tried speaking to her.
So, as much as it hurt, I was trying to give her a wide berth while she interacted with Jace instead.
“She looks just like you,” Nelson said as she watched over my shoulder.
I nodded but couldn’t manage a smile.
“Just give it a little time,” Nelson went on.
“I know,” I replied. “It’s just hard. I never pictured our reunion being like this.” But then I realized what I was saying. “I’m sorry. I know that I’m lucky to even have a reunion. I don’t mean to sound ungrateful. We’ll get Rylo back soon, too. And maybe they’ll help each other feel more at ease.”
Nelson smiled, but I could see her sadness through it.
“I promise,” I went on. “We’ll get her. Little John may be done, but Team Hood never will be. Not until we’ve accomplished all of our missions.”
I put my arm around Nelson and pulled her close. She hugged me tightly back. I meant it about Team Hood. No matter what happened next, I would never abandon my friends to find their lost family members alone. I would be right there beside them until we found everyone we were looking for.
“Touchdown positions!” Alexy yelled abruptly from the controls. “I need all tech and flight members to the front!”
Nelson pulled away and grabbed my hands.
“I’m proud of you, Robin,” she said. And then she walked away to join her team at the front and assist with the landing.
Through the airship windshield, I could see that we were hovering above the armory base ledge again in the very early light of a new morning. I was relieved to see it, knowing that it had been at risk during our absence with Robert still inside. Piper said that Robert had stopped working with them after a change of heart, but I still intended to find him and hear the full truth.
Because, moral change or not, Robert was still complicit in the government’s murder of many Little John members. And he needed to face justice for those crimes.
And so did many others.
Bridge and the rest of the medics worked to ensure that Nathan’s stretcher was tightly fastened for landing while the other team members on the ship began to strap themselves in to the cabin seats.
“Come on, honey,” Jace said as he scooped Hope up in his arms. “Time to buckle in.”
I smiled as I watched them together and followed them to the seats. Jace gently sat her down and fastened her seatbelt before taking the seat on her left side. I hovered awkwardly over them, debating what to do next. There was an empty seat to Jace’s left, but there was also an empty seat on the other side of Hope. But I didn’t want to face the pain of scaring her again. I started to walk past the empty seat beside Hope until Jace stopped me.
“Try it,” he said.
I shook my head.
“You have to keep trying, Robin,” he said. “It’ll get better.”
I sighed and looked back at Hope. She was looking up at me with her big, light eyes. As I looked into them, I realized that I didn’t see fear . . . but I also didn’t see any tenderness. I was still just a stranger to her.
But I moved back a step and sat beside her anyway. She looked over at me curiously. I took a deep breath and held it, waiting for her to start to cry again or scramble away from me. But instead she was still and quiet. And after the longest few seconds of my life, she finally looked away from me without interest and began to fumble with the last bits of her ice cream bar again.
I breathed out in relief as Jace grinned hugely at me.
“See?” he said knowingly.
I smiled, even if I wasn’t feeling so sure. It wasn’t much. Hope had gone from being terrified of me to being able to withstand my presence. Still, it was a step in the right direction. And that was enough for now.
Hope looked momentarily concerned as the airship rocked on its axis during the landing, but soon we were back on solid ground at the armory base. The airship hatch popped open with a hiss, and the medic team immediately wheeled Nathan out. There were supplies and doctors inside the mountain doors. But Nathan had seemed much more concerned about getting to Corona and Aurora than any promise of salvation. I heard the loud sound of the base doors opening up in the rock as Nathan was wheeled out. Corona or Aurora must’ve been opening them from inside, aware of our return.
“Come on, Hope,” Jace said as he stood from his seat.
Hope crawled up into his arms, leaving wet chocolate marks on his shirt with her hands, but Jace simply smiled at the mess.
He was good with kids.
“Ready?” Jace asked me.
It was a tough question. Mostly because I didn’t know what I was supposed to be ready for. Was I ready to face a new world without Burchard’s regime in power? Was I ready to step out of the airship and say goodbye to Little John once and for all? Was I ready to introduce Hope to my mother and start our new family somewhere? Was I ready to put in the days, weeks, or months it would take to get Hope to start trusting me and seeing me as her mother?
But, looking at Jace and Hope together, I realized the answer to all of those questions was the same.
“Yes,” I replied simply. I was ready. And then I followed Jace off of the ship.
A crowd of Little John members had congregated outside of the base to meet us. Juno, like usual, spotted me immediately. It was the sharp-eyed love of a mother.
“Robin!” she yelled out as she ran to me. She embraced me with the force of a freight train. “Oh, it was all over the news! I saw that awful city and those awful buildings all go up in flames! I was so worried about you.”
I hugged her tightly back but then pulled away. “All over the news?” I repeated incredulously.
“There was a public
takeover of the station. A bunch of middle-class citizens forced out all of the government newscasters to get the real news on the air,” Juno replied. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
As the teams poured out of the airships there was a roar of applause from the people on base and from the teams themselves. I looked around madly, wondering what we were clapping for. But then it dawned on me that we were clapping for each other. We were clapping for ourselves. We were celebrating Nathan and Little John and all of our teams.
We were celebrating victory.
I didn’t know what would happen next. I didn’t know how Little John would disband and how, or if, any of us could return to normal lives. I didn’t know who was in power or what would happen to the government or even to Nathan. But I knew that we had done something great for our country. I knew that I had my daughter back. And everything else seemed like it would fall into place.
“Who’s this?” Juno suddenly asked, spotting Hope in Jace’s arms.
Hope smiled at Juno, shocking all of us.
“Mom,” I said proudly. “This is Hope. This is my daughter.”
39
Hope seemed content and comfortable with Juno, so I left the two of them together while the rest of Team Hood and I made our way through the crowd. We still had things to take care of.
Juno watched me go, Hope clinging to her neck, but for the first time she didn’t seem afraid to see me walk away. And at that point, it hit me on a personal level just how much the country was about to change. Chanley was no more. Preston Industries had been gravely wounded. And for the first time, I didn’t feel like I was being hunted by the government. But things didn’t feel entirely resolved. Even if Burchard’s regime was really destroyed, that just meant that now we were a leaderless nation, adrift in the tumult that we had caused. And that was a scary thought, especially given how reticent Nathan seemed to be about taking up a new leadership role.
Assuming he even lived.
I pushed the thoughts from my mind as we passed through the great mountain doors, following Bridge and the team of medics who had wheeled Nathan into the base. First things first.
While almost everyone in the base had made their way out to the ledge to greet the airships and celebrate together, a sizable team was still inside assisting Nathan. I assumed that it was made up of any doctors, nurses, and medics who were still with us after the attacks on Edgewood and Brightbirch. Corona and Aurora were also with them, looking concerned and frightened.
We watched from a distance to give them their space. I couldn’t even see Nathan through the frantic group. Orders were being shouted out—calling for IV towers, medicines I didn’t recognize, and gauze—and people were running around to fetch those things. I suddenly realized that, while the base had medical supplies, it wasn’t a hospital. If Nathan needed surgery or a blood transfusion, they probably wouldn’t be able to do that safely here.
“Do you think they’ll have to transfer him to a hospital?” Nelson asked, proving once again that we were usually thinking the same thing.
“I guess this is probably the first time in a long time that he might actually be safe in a public hospital,” Jace said.
It was an interesting thought. If Nathan had checked into a hospital just hours ago, he might’ve been at risk of being arrested. But now that Preston Industries and the Burchard regime were no longer calling the shots, Nathan didn’t have a target on his back anymore.
I just hoped that he’d live long enough to benefit from it.
“Where’s the escort ship?” Bridge called out from the medical group, looking toward the base doors.
Before I could turn to look myself, Zion’s voice called out.
“Make way! Clear a path!”
I turned to see that the mini-airship was flying into the base from outside with Alexy at its helm. Zion was walking on the ground beneath her, moving people out of her way to ensure she could get in safely.
She landed the airship neatly beside the medical team, and Nathan’s stretcher was quickly rolled inside by Bridge. A woman I assumed was a doctor followed them in. And then Corona boarded, hugging Aurora goodbye before she did. I was surprised to see that Aurora was staying behind.
The mini-airship raised from the ground again, turned on its axis to face the base doors, and then soared out of the base into the bright sky, gaining speed as it went. We all stood silently and watched it go. When I finally turned back to face the people in the base, I saw Aurora wipe tears away from her cheeks.
We had gotten Nathan out of Chanley and reunited him with Corona, like he wanted. Now all we could do was hope for the best.
Zion walked over to our group in the middle of the cavernous base after Alexy was gone. Aurora noticed us for the first time and walked over as well.
“Thank you for bringing him back to my mother,” she began. I could tell that she was putting great effort into keeping her voice from breaking.
“We owed it to him,” I replied.
“Where is he going?” Gabby asked. “To a hospital?”
Aurora nodded. “There’s a hospital just about ninety miles from here. My mother tried to beg him to go to a hospital closer to Chanley, instead of coming back here first, but he said he was coming back for her no matter what.”
Aurora wiped away more tears.
“He’s a fighter,” Jace said comfortingly. “And I know he’ll be fighting to stay with you and Corona.”
She smiled. “I know. He asked me to stay to look over things until Corona comes back. Although, I’m not really sure what to do first.”
“I have a suggestion,” I replied.
* * *
Robert hadn’t followed the rest of the Little John members out to the ledge to greet the ships. He was still sitting inside on a cot, his head in his hands. I was surprised to see him, having expected him to escape once he heard the news about our success in Chanley. He might’ve been a jerk and a traitor, but he wasn’t stupid. Surely he knew that we’d find out and come back for him.
So why hadn’t he run?
He looked up as we approached and then took a deep, nervous breath.
“I’ve been waiting for you guys to get back,” he said, his tone low and defeated.
“The only reason you’re still here is because you have nowhere to run,” Jace snapped at him. “Now that all your government friends are dead.”
Robert didn’t reply.
“This team has informed me that you are a traitor, having conspired with the enemy to attack Little John,” Aurora said, looking intently at Robert. “Do you deny it?”
Robert shook his head.
“Why?” I asked, unable to help myself. “Why did you do it? A lot of people—good people—died because of you. Why?”
I already knew that no answer would satisfy me. But I still wanted to know.
“Because I was angry . . . and jealous of the rest of you,” he said, looking down.
I balled my fists at my sides in anger and frustration. I wanted to give Robert the benefit of the doubt. After all, he had stopped working with Piper after Edgewood. Piper said so himself. So maybe there was some good in him somewhere. But so far, I couldn’t feel anything but rage. And Robert’s pathetic responses weren’t helping that.
“People died because you were jealous?” Ant said in disgust. “Jealous of what?”
Robert didn’t look up.
“In that case, we’ll be detaining you and trying you for your crimes,” Aurora said. “Just like we intend to do with anyone else guilty of the murders, thefts, and kidnappings that took place under our previous administration.”
Cloyd stepped forward with handcuffs, and Robert complied, putting his hands behind his back without a fuss or even a word. Cloyd pulled him up roughly. But before he was led away, I asked another question.
I had to know. How had this rude, unremarkable loner managed to cause so much destruction?
“How, Robert? How did you and Piper end up working together?”<
br />
Cloyd stopped and looked at me. “You can’t trust anything he’d say, Robin,” he said. “It’s not worth it.”
But I wasn’t convinced. Robert had stopped working with the government for some reason, and he at least appeared to be repentant now. Maybe he needed to clear his conscience as much as I needed to know what had happened. I tried to swallow down the anger and injustice I felt so that I could speak to Robert calmly. If I had learned anything from my brief sojourn into interrogations with poor Mica, it was the importance of empathy, even in the face of great wrongs.
Robert looked up at me for the first time, his eyes dull and listless. I spoke again, this time looking him in his eyes.
“We deserve to know.”
To my surprise, Robert took in a deep breath and then answered. “It started after Nathan didn’t choose me for his tech team and I got sent to the education team instead.”
“But you had Pandora’s Box even before that,” Gabby interjected. “So you must’ve been talking to Piper before we joined Little John.”
Robert looked at Gabby, his eyes flashing with just a hint of disdain before they glazed over with guilt. “I was, but I didn’t know what he wanted then. I thought he was trying to help us when he gave me the software.”
“You’re lying,” Jackie said.
“I swear!” Robert said, his voice straining. “I’m not trying to lie anymore. I’m guilty. I’m not denying that.”
Jackie looked at me in confusion. I knew she was thinking what I was. Could Robert be telling the truth? If so, what did it mean?
“He told me that Nathan was testing our group to see if we were worthy of Little John member status. He said the software would help us pass the test,” Robert went on.
I blinked in surprise. The software, once Gabby started using it, had helped Operation Hood get into Little John. But why did Piper want us there?
“Why did he reach out to you?” I asked.
Robert looked away, almost like he was embarrassed.
“The more you tell us, the more we might be able to help you,” Aurora added.
The Child Thief 6: Zero Hour Page 33