I smiled and rolled my eyes. Rhea was shaping up to be a troublemaker. But she definitely had a good cause. Jace briefly looked like he was about to reprimand her, but then I caught his eye and shook my head slightly. Don’t spoil the moment, I tried to communicate with my eyes. She’s just excited to see you.
Luckily, he seemed to catch on.
“One dinner,” he repeated paternally.
“Why don’t you guys get some food?” I suggested. “We can talk about mission stuff later, Jace.”
He nodded and smiled at me, then draped one of his strong, heavy arms over Rhea’s shoulders and walked her to the buffet line. As they walked away, Rhea cast a smile back at me. I warmly returned the gesture. I didn’t mind not being able to discuss the upcoming mission with Jace right away if it meant he was going to get some one-on-one time with his sister.
Besides, I could still gab about it with the rest of Team Hood.
“Robin,” a small voice sounded from behind me. I turned around with a faint smile still on my face. But when I saw who had been speaking, it quickly melted away.
“Henry,” I said in surprise.
He looked uncomfortable to be standing in front of me. I noticed that his usually tan skin was an even deeper shade, likely the result of working outside in the bright sun for a few days. His deep brown eyes looked pained.
“Can I talk to you for a moment?” he asked.
Not now, I wanted to say. I wasn’t ready to have this conversation now. Not right after we had just almost been captured by agents in Millville and were now facing down the prospect of allowing two of our team members to be captured and taken into custody in a new mission. I had too much on my mind to deal with this right now.
Nelson, Gabby, and Jackie were looking at me over Henry’s shoulder, and I knew they wanted confirmation that I was okay and didn’t need any assistance. So I nodded at the group and then turned my attention back to Henry.
“Sure, Henry,” I said, trying not to sound as worried as I felt. I knew I didn’t really have a choice. Henry had taken the initiative to approach me, and I needed to at least give him the time to say what he needed to say—no matter how much I didn’t want to deal with it right now.
And even if I had no idea what I’d say back.
We walked together to a corner of the dining hall, Henry nervously fiddling with his hands. When we were far enough away from the other diners, he turned to face me.
“Robin,” he began, “I wanted to apologize to you.”
I felt a weight lift from my shoulders. It was a relief to know that we weren’t about to get into another public argument. And it was nice to hear an apology after what he had said to me before. His words had cut me deeper than I wanted to admit.
“It’s okay,” I said quickly, shaking my head. “I understand.”
“No, Robin,” he continued, taking me by surprise. “I mean I’m sorry for everything. For getting you kicked out of your home. For letting my parents convince us that we had no other option than giving Hope up. For walking out on you when you needed me most.”
Henry’s eyes were glistening with tears. It was the first time he had ever apologized for how we handled Hope being taken by the CRAS. I had begged him to help me hide her, to flee with us so that we could keep her, but he’d refused—on his parents’ advice—and hearing him acknowledge that now made tears spring to my eyes.
“And now I’m sorry for how I treated you when you tried to tell me about Hope,” he finished.
“Henry, don’t ever be sorry for giving me Hope,” I told him firmly. “And I don’t blame you or your parents for the decision we made not to try to conceal her. We were young and scared.”
Henry took a deep breath and looked down to hide his tears. I stepped closer to him and grabbed his hands.
“And I understand why you got so upset. I want to go find her, too. I just want to make sure we do it the right way,” I added.
He looked up to meet my gaze, his eyes swimming in a haze of tears, and smiled at me. I was struck by how much he still resembled the nervous young boy who had held my hand as I learned about the hardships of the real world for the first time. I squeezed his hands tightly and then let go.
“Do you have any plans to do that yet?” he asked.
“No, but I promise you’ll know as soon as I do,” I answered, wishing I had better news on that front.
Henry nodded understandingly.
“I’m going to get back to my friends,” I told him softly.
But as I turned to leave, his hand shot out and grabbed mine again. I turned to look back at him.
“Robin, please. Just promise me this,” Henry said.
I stared at him expectantly. Promise him what?
“Promise me you’ll let me be involved when you go to find her,” he said.
I felt crestfallen. It was a huge thing to promise, and I didn’t know if it was the smartest choice. Henry was Hope’s father, but he was also brash and impulsive and stubborn. And I didn’t even know if I had the option of inviting him on a mission like that if Nathan was going to be sponsoring the recapture operations. Still, Henry’s sad countenance triggered something in me. He deserved to be involved just as much as I did. And I knew that he would do his best to bring her home.
“I promise that I’ll do whatever I can to involve you,” I said.
Henry exhaled and smiled in relief. Then he released my hand, and I turned to walk back to my table.
I wasn’t sure if I had made the right choice. But it seemed like the more people who could help bring Hope home, the better.
“Everything okay?” Jackie asked in a concerned voice when I approached the Team Hood table.
“Yeah, it’s better now,” I replied.
I sat beside my team and allowed myself to take a few deep breaths, knowing that we were about to start discussing the upcoming mission. How could we not? It was the biggest news we had received in a long time. But I didn’t know yet how to feel about it. I was terrified of being turned over to Helping Hands custody, but at the same time I knew I had to go.
Because it might lead me to my parents.
“I’m going to volunteer,” Nelson said definitively.
“But you’re on the tech team,” Jackie replied. “And Nathan said himself that this is going to be a big mission with lots of teams involved. He’s going to need you on base. I think I should go.”
Ant shook his head firmly. “You barely survived your last outing. You need more time to recuperate. But Abe and I are expendable.”
“Well, I don’t know about expendable,” Abe added. “But we are definitely the prime choice, since we’re in sync with each other. We’re just a good team in general.”
Zion, Alexy, and Kory sat down to join the discussion, and Alexy rolled her eyes and laughed aloud at Abe’s statement.
“You guys would stick out like a couple of identical sore thumbs,” she said. “Zion and I are going to volunteer.”
“Aren’t you guys on the combat and flight teams?” Nelson countered.
I looked down at the table absentmindedly. There was no use saying it and subjecting myself to the scrutiny, but I already knew I was going to volunteer. I knew everyone else was volunteering because the mission was dangerous and we all wanted to spare our friends a horrible fate. But I needed to go for an even more personal reason. If another roundup of factory workers was planned, there was a good chance that those workers would be taken to wherever Juno and Culver had ended up. And there was a chance they would still be there. I wasn’t going to miss out on the opportunity to see that place for myself. Maybe find out what had happened to them.
I looked over to see Jace and Rhea rising from their seats at a table nearby. Jace met my gaze, and they began to walk over to us.
“Jace! Tell these guys that you and I should be the ones going on the mission,” Kory said as Jace approached our table.
Jace smiled. “He’s right, everyone. We’d be the smartest match.”
“No matter who goes, they’re going to be suspicious,” Nelson added suddenly. “None of us have working identities. And don’t you think if people are being pushed to register that they’re probably also getting their identities checked?”
The mood over the table turned tense and ominous. How was Nathan going to address that little issue? We could wear disguises, sure. But if my identity was scanned, I’d be outed as a terrorist immediately.
“Well, I assume we’ll get more of those details tomorrow,” Jace said in a reassuring tone. “In the meantime, I’ve got to walk Rhea back to her school before she gets in trouble.”
“Can I walk with you guys?” I asked, standing suddenly. Hearing the table argue about who was going to volunteer wasn’t a particularly productive way to spend my evening. And I kind of wanted to get away from it.
Rhea smiled at me. “I’d love it if you came, Robin,” she said in her sweet, high-pitched voice.
“I’ll see you guys later tonight,” I said knowingly to the table before walking away. If anything in Edgewood was a certainty, it was that Team Hood would always find a way to congregate late into the night, and probably in my room.
I strolled out of the dining room after Jace and Rhea and followed them into the cooler evening air outside of the dorm building.
“How are classes going, Rhea?” I asked as we started walking toward the school buildings.
Rhea shrugged. “I’m doing okay in history and science and math. But I’m not very good at English.”
“Well, I can understand you when you speak, so that’s probably enough,” Jace quipped.
Rhea playfully punched him in the shoulder.
“Do you get to choose any of your classes?” I probed further.
“Yeah, we can choose different paths. I was really into the tech path until they brought this new teacher on. Now learning about coding isn’t as fun,” Rhea replied.
“I know the feeling. I was so in love with art classes when I was a kid. Until one rude teacher told me I painted like a chimp,” I said, trying to suppress a giggle.
Rhea laughed openly. “A chimp?” she repeated, her voice rising.
“Yeah, maybe I wasn’t meant to be an artist after all,” I said with a laugh.
Jace looked between Rhea and me with a huge grin on his face, like he was enjoying watching us interact.
By the time we got to the tall school building, the sun was starting to set, and Jace started walking right up to the front door.
“Jace!” Rhea hissed.
He turned around to see her ducking down at the side of the building.
“I’ll get in trouble if they see me go back in! I was supposed to be in the cafeteria for dinner, remember?”
It didn’t seem odd to me that someone as severe and focused on appearances as Piper would run the schoolhouse so strictly. After all, he hadn’t allowed Rhea out yet—even to see her own brother.
Jace pressed his lips together in displeasure, but then walked down off the school steps and came back to us. “Well, what do we do then?” he asked.
“There’s a window into the girls’ bathroom,” Rhea said, pointing toward the back of the building. “It’s how I snuck out. With your help I can probably jump up and crawl back through.”
Jace looked at me like he wanted guidance.
“Of course we’ll help,” I said decisively.
I didn’t want to encourage Rhea’s sneaky behavior, but I couldn’t blame her for wanting to spend some time with her brother.
“But just this once,” I added. I winked at Rhea, and she smiled back while Jace nodded in agreement.
We walked around the building on a stone path, past trellises heavy with English ivy, and looked up at the windows along the back of the school.
“That one!” Rhea said, pointing to a small window about nine feet off the ground.
“You jumped out of that?” I asked incredulously.
“It’s easier to crawl out of it by yourself than it is to crawl into,” Rhea replied. “Jace, put me on your shoulders!”
She climbed up onto Jace’s broad shoulders, Jace swaying under her, and then slowly and carefully stood up while he braced her legs. I watched with bated breath as they teetered together to the window. Rhea balanced herself carefully, and then pushed the window up and stuck her head inside.
“Is it clear?” Jace asked, holding tight to her ankles.
“All clear,” Rhea whispered back. “And shhh! You’re going to get us caught.”
She shimmied into the window. It was a small clearing, but she was able to get her thin frame through relatively easily. Once she made it all the way in and off of Jace’s shoulders, she poked her head back out to say goodbye.
“No more sneaking out!” Jace said.
Rhea rolled her eyes and then waved goodbye to us. Then she was back through the window and gone.
Jace and I began our walk to the front of the building again. It was a perfect evening to walk along the main street together on our way back to the dorms. The light was dimming beautifully, leaving a colorful smear of pink and purple across the sky, and the temperature was cool and pleasant. And Jace seemed to be in particularly high spirits after his dinner with Rhea.
But as we rounded the back of the schoolhouse, he stopped and looked at me.
“What?” I asked.
He quickly put his finger to his lips, telling me to be quiet. Then he looked toward the side of the building.
A window was cracked and, from inside, I began to hear the sound of raised voices. Angry voices. It sounded like an argument was going on. And the voices were… familiar.
Jace beckoned for me to draw nearer to him as he crept closer to the window, straining to hear. Jace definitely wasn’t one for eavesdropping at the best of times, but we had just snuck his sister back into this building. Maybe he wanted to make sure she hadn’t been caught. I snuck toward the window to listen.
“You could start by being less careless!” a male voice said.
I knew that voice. And when I peeked cautiously into the window from the bottom corner, my suspicions were confirmed.
Piper.
“It’s not fair, is all,” another male voice replied. I couldn’t see the face of the second man who was speaking, since he was seated with his back turned to us, and though his voice was familiar to me as well, I couldn’t put a face to it.
“Don’t you think you’re a little old to still believe anything in life is supposed to be fair?” Piper retorted in an angry, belittling tone.
“You’re acting like I have nothing to offer,” the other man complained from his seat.
“You haven’t shown that you do,” Piper replied.
“Then obviously you’re not looking!”
Piper took a few sure steps toward the seated man, quickly drew his hand back, and smack!
The sound of Piper’s hand slapping hard against the man’s face rang in my ears, and my heart skipped a beat. I had never seen that type of behavior from an Edgewood leader before, especially not from Nathan’s third in command after Corona. Did Nathan know about this type of corporal punishment? Did he approve of it?
The second man stood quickly and began to walk toward the door and away from Piper. But then, as if he was slowly thinking better of it, he stopped before he could exit.
“No one speaks to me like that,” Piper said.
And then the second man turned slowly and nodded in defeat, and I gasped.
It was Robert.
23
I slid down the side of the building to avoid being seen.
Robert. Why was Robert arguing with Piper like that? What had they been talking about? And why was Piper worked up enough that he was physically attacking someone else?
Jace’s eyes were wide as we both crouched down under the window and shared a look o
f confusion. He jerked his head toward the main street soundlessly. It was obvious what he meant. We needed to get out of there before someone spotted us.
We crawled to the front of the school building and then stood and walked briskly back to the street, waiting until we were safely away from the school before either of us spoke.
“That was Robert, right?” Jace finally asked as we passed the surveillance building.
I nodded, deep in thought.
“Okay, that’s what I thought. Though, it was hard to tell after Piper rearranged his face like that,” Jace added.
I managed a chuckle, but it didn’t actually seem very funny to me. Robert was a huge jerk, sure, but what could he have done to elicit that type of reaction from Piper? Was he always so quick to anger? If he could treat an Edgewood team member that way, how did he treat our enemies?
I thought anxiously back to Mica and the other execs. Piper had promised me that they were being well taken care of. So had Nathan and Corona. But the Piper I had just seen wasn’t patient or even-keeled. He was impassioned and brutish.
“Why was Robert even in there?” I asked.
Robert was a tech guy, but I realized suddenly that he hadn’t been part of the tech team that we saw working on Artemis that morning. In fact, I hadn’t seen him working on Nathan’s tech teams at all. Why?
“Maybe they convinced him to take an etiquette class,” Jace joked.
I forced a smile in return, but I was having a hard time seeing any humor in the situation. What we had just seen wasn’t sitting well with me.
We entered the dorm building, and I peeked into the dining hall as we passed by.
“You already know where they are,” Jace teased.
I did. I knew if Team Hood wasn’t in the dining hall, they were in the room I shared with Nelson. Waiting for Jace and me.
Sure enough, our room was so full of people that I accidentally bumped Kory with the door when I tried to enter.
“Sorry,” I said, squeezing past him and into the room.
“Geez, Jace. Is your girlfriend always so aggressive?” Kory asked with a grin.
I blushed. I knew it was apparent to everyone that Jace and I were more than friends at that point, but we hadn’t exactly started using those terms yet.
The Child Thief 5: Ghost Towns Page 22