The Child Thief 4: Little Lies

by Bella Forrest

  Jace, however, just smiled. “I respect Robin. So, I respect her friends. That’s good enough for me.” He mimicked her raised eyebrow and dropped the smile. “Is my judgment good enough for you?”

  There was a loaded silence for far too long, until Ant gave an exaggerated cough.

  “You were saying there was other stuff in here? Are you going to show us?”

  Alexy tore her gaze from Jace and gave Ant a smile I thought was part frustration and part gratitude. “That’s why I brought you here, isn’t it? Come on.”

  I paused before following her, trying to catch Jace’s eye in thanks. He’d gone out of his way to help Henry, and me, and I didn’t want him to think I hadn’t noticed. But instead of looking at me or even pausing, he swept past to follow Alexy as if I wasn’t there.

  I watched his back, frustrated. The sooner I could get him into a corner and talk this thing through with him, the better. I hated this stiffness between us.

  Alexy made an abrupt turn to the left, and I darted after them. When I caught up, the woman was making her way into the first room, gesturing for us to stand next to her.

  “Every room is divided into what you might call genres,” she said. “Various offensive and defensive components. There are long-range weapons, short-range weapons, stealth equipment, uniforms, tech gadgets ranging from useful to deadly, and body armor. This one is the armor room.”

  I drew close enough to see and caught my breath. Displayed on the wall was one of the second-skin suits we’d been wearing during the jailbreak, its fine chainmail-like surface gleaming under the lights. Next to it was an exo-suit like the ones we’d worn during the raid on the warehouse.

  Farther down the wall there was a cape that must have some sort of wonderful ability, various versions of matte black armor, a full suit made of clear material and riddled with brightly colored wires, and a set of hefty-looking gauntlets, which, according to Alexy, expelled an electrical shield from each palm measuring three feet in width. There was more, so much more, but I couldn’t keep all the different forms and functions in my head, eventually letting it all wash over me in a flurry of words.

  “Why is there only one of each?” I asked, confused. “Are these demo models or something?”

  “Every room in here is like a page from a catalogue,” Alexy answered. “This is where you come to pick what you need. The warehouse is under the building.”

  My eyes moved back to the suits I’d seen before, and I did some rapid calculations. “When you and Zion said you got those second-skin suits from a contact in the military…”

  “We did,” she said immediately. “Those suits do come from the military. And one of our contacts did get them for us. It’s just that he got them about two years ago, and got a set number of them, which live in our warehouse. At least, they did,” she finished, shooting a glance at me. “After what you guys did, and the number you lost, we’ll have to see if we can get replacements.”

  I guiltily remembered the second-skin suit I’d left in the cave and wondered whether the Authority soldiers had found it, and if so, what repercussions that might have.

  “And the exo-suits?” I asked. “Same with them? Got them from a contact?”

  Alexy gave me a narrow-eyed look and nodded. “Except those are more widely available,” she said. “The second-skin suits are more like top-secret tech from the military. The exo-suits are used mostly for construction. We got those on the black market. Easier. Fewer strings attached.”

  I returned her narrow-eyed expression, wondering at the coincidence of those suits appearing here as well, but finally nodded. It made sense that they were more commonly available, since the construction industry was bound to have less stringent security, and that Little John had just straight up purchased them.

  “What else is there?” Nelson asked.

  I turned to her and could see she was drinking it all in, mentally cataloging everything we saw. If I knew her, she was already making a list of things we needed if and when we ever went back out on our own and started doing missions again.

  Those suits really would have come in handy when we ran into adoptive parents who had guns. And dogs.

  Alexy curtailed our tour of the Armory after about half an hour, during which time we saw everything from standard-issue handguns to grenade launchers and flamethrowers to a set of boots that could let you run on water. Some, Alexy said, they’d stolen right from the government itself, while some were created by the engineers and designers over in the Toy Shop.

  The place truly was a treasure trove of weapons and defensive measures, and by the time we were done, I was starting to understand how Alexy and Zion had come up with things so easily whenever we needed them.

  One of the questions I couldn’t get an answer to was whether Nathan had purchased them all himself or with money from someone else. But with the number of military pieces in there, I was starting to believe Little John extended a lot farther than we’d realized. Nathan and Corona hadn’t just networked with civilians. They’d somehow gone all the way to the top.

  Alexy took us to the developmental engineering building next, which everyone apparently called the Toy Shop, and there we saw a couple of people in the process of working on a few of the items we’d seen in the Armory.

  “Making it ourselves is still a work in progress for some things,” she said, all of us watching an older man with silver-streaked black hair explore the innards of a gadget with miniscule tools. “But it’s a lot cheaper, not to mention safer, to build stuff than to buy it, so we do it when we can.”

  She ushered us out of there a moment later, saying something about going to the disguises building, and soon we were back out on the sidewalk and heading for another of the townhouses.

  The Theater, as she called it, contained enough clothes, wigs, prosthetics, and make-up to put Zion’s homemade disguise shop to shame. By far the most fascinating piece of tech in there was a printer that could print a mask directly onto your face to make sure it moved with your real features.

  “This is what we use when we have to do anything delicate,” Alexy noted, watching the printer at work on a man who was getting ready to go on a mission.

  How he was managing to stand still with the laser of the printer running over his face, building a mask over his skin, I didn’t know, but he looked like this was old news, a set of ear buds jammed in his ears.

  “How would anything move with your features?” Ant asked, fascinated.

  I wondered if he was thinking of getting a mask to differentiate his face from his brother’s. It would be a lot more efficient than wearing that stringy mustache they’d once tried.

  “It’s a special rubber polymer,” Alexy replied. “I don’t know much more about it than that. But the fact that it’s printed right onto your face means it follows all the right lines, and it’s flexible enough to bend when you smile, move when you lift an eyebrow, and so on. The only downside is they don’t last very long before they start to break down. It’s nearly led to some very dangerous situations, let me tell you.”

  I wanted to ask more questions, but Alexy was already hustling us along to the garage she simply called the Rides, where we saw everything from skateboards to huge tanks, and then to an unnamed warehouse on the edge of town filled with hundreds of variations of Alexy’s own black suit.

  I didn’t know why there had to be so many of them, and I hoped like crazy I’d never have to put one on. Alexy might wear it like a rock star, but it was definitely not my style.

  We realized then we’d been on the tour for over three hours, and decided we’d had enough. It was time for some actual resting to happen.

  “Are you guys hungry?” Alexy asked, turning big, exaggerated eyes on us. Eyes that indicated she was hungry and hoped we’d give her an excuse.

  “I could eat,” Ant mumbled.

  Abe, Jace, and Kory followed up with quick agreements, and Nelson, Henry, and I nodded. It had been an awfully long time since breakfast, and thou
gh I was anxious to find my way into a bed and enjoy some crisp, clean sheets, my stomach had been complaining for hours. I needed food and sleep, in that order.

  Maybe then I’d actually be able to start digesting all the information Alexy had given us today.

  9

  By the time Nelson and I made it back to our room, I could barely keep my eyes open. I was fuller than I’d been in a long, long time, courtesy of the magnificent chefs in the Hall’s kitchens, and so exhausted I was fairly certain I would sleep for the entirety of tomorrow.

  I hadn’t seen Gabby again since our reunion, and everyone else had been satisfied with silence as we waded through the plethora of food offered to us at dinner, so I’d at least been saved from too much conversation. Although a part of me thought it would be the ideal time to start sorting through all the things Alexy had told me and that I’d seen since we’d arrived, exhaustion overrode logic, and I’d gratefully let my brain relax into somnolence, keeping enough control only to continue eating and then steer my feet back to our room.

  Of course, the moment my head touched my pillow, my brain decided to start feeding me all the information I’d heard today, and the many ways it might mean danger to my friends and me. There were still so many questions that hadn’t been answered yet, despite my careful inquiries, and Zion had opened up more holes with his vague, evasive statements. Alexy might have been trying to help by giving us the information she had, but none of that felt like it was the end of the story either. Instead, it felt like she’d maybe only given us the first level. And knowing we’d only seen the tip of the iceberg had a way of making me even more wary than I’d been before.

  I tossed and turned for at least half an hour before Nelson started grumbling about it.

  “Jeez, could you think any louder?” she asked gruffly from the bed on the other side of the room. “I thought you were exhausted. You barely said anything during dinner.”

  I cringed a little. I knew she had to be exhausted; it had been even longer since she’d been in a safe bed.

  “Sorry… I didn’t mean to keep you up.” I paused. “I’m just worried about how much we still don’t know,” I said honestly. “It feels like we’re jumping into the deep end when we’re not even sure how to swim.”

  She sighed, and I heard the rustling of sheets as she shifted onto her back. “I know what you mean. But I also know that we’ll be better swimmers tomorrow if we’ve slept.”

  I repressed the snarky answer that jumped immediately to my lips. Then I got up, grabbed one of the wonderfully soft sweatshirts, and slipped it over the pajama set I’d also found in the closet.

  With another murmured apology for having kept her up, I made my way to the door and stepped out into the hall. If I was going to think, I might as well do it out here, where I wouldn’t keep anyone else awake. Maybe I’d even take a walk. We hadn’t really explored the Hall yet, and ever since I’d come to the realization that walking helped Jace think, I’d been thinking about trying it for myself.

  I was already finding it surprisingly successful.

  The hallway was dim, as I’d expected, with lights only running along the floor, and I paused for a moment to let my eyes adjust. We’d left the bathroom light of the suite on, Nelson and I agreeing we didn’t want to be in the utter darkness, but the softer light out here made everything seem foggy and indistinct.

  I was turning to my right and looking down the hall, wondering what lay at the end of it, when a hand came down on my shoulder from behind.

  I yelped and jumped, about to kick backward and start screaming bloody murder, when a hand came down over my mouth, cutting off my air, and an arm pulled me back against a very large and well-muscled body.

  That was it; I was officially in trouble. I was going to be killed, right here in the hallway of the Little John Hall, with all of my friends sleeping in the rooms around me. How horribly ironic.

  “Stop kicking, for God’s sake, it’s just me!” Jace hissed in my ear.

  Every ounce of protest seeped from my body, and I sagged toward the ground, too relieved to even stand.

  Jace felt me relax, and he relaxed as well. He made sure I was standing on my own, then the hand dropped away from my mouth and the arm disappeared from my waist.

  “What are you doing? Trying to give me a heart attack?” I asked, whipping around to face him.

  Despite the gloom, I could see the gleam of his teeth.

  “I was just thinking the same thing of you,” he said, his grin coming across in his voice. “I thought I’d have the hallway to myself at this time of night, given how tired everyone is, and then I turn around and you’re right on top of me. I almost screamed myself before I realized it would be smarter to keep you from screaming.”

  I finally laughed, the situation so ridiculous I couldn’t help it.

  “Guess we’ve become too accustomed to people trying to kill us, huh?” I said ruefully.

  We both backed up against the wall as if we’d already agreed to it and slid down into sitting positions, leaning up against the strength of the building. Jace let out a hefty sigh, and I turned to glance at him. Down here, where the lights ran along the baseboard, I could see the amusement fading from his face.

  “What are you thinking?” I asked cautiously. I’d finally gotten some alone time with him, and I knew exactly what I needed to do. Assuming he was in the mood to talk.

  “I’m just thinking that this is all so much, so quickly, I guess,” Jace replied. “One minute we’re out in the forest on our own, wondering if Little John is even an option or has as much power as we thought they had, and the next we’re being paraded into this insane city where they seem to have everything anyone could ever wish for.” He paused, either thinking or just overwhelmed at the idea. “I mean, I had clothes my size in my closet, like they’d been expecting me. It’s… kind of creepy.”

  “It’s definitely a big change,” I agreed, relieved that he was talking. His voice was a monotone, removed from the affection I was used to, but it was a start. “I knew Nathan had access to money. I mean, he must have, right, with all the things he was doing. But this”—I looked up to where I knew the ceiling curved into ornate crown molding and tasteful chandeliers—“is a lot bigger than I imagined it would be.”

  “And far better funded than it should be,” Jace said. “Let’s start with the disguise they have on this place. How does that thing even work? And how could they afford it? This city is built more solidly than most of the cities we’ve seen outside. As for all the toys they have, they might get a lot of those on loan, but a lot of them must be purchased.”

  “So where are they getting the money for it all?” I asked, finishing his thought.

  It wasn’t difficult to realize Nathan couldn’t be affording it on his own. What we’d seen around us would have taken government-level wealth. I’d already been thinking as much myself, and hearing someone else talking about it made me realize I hadn’t been overreacting with my suspicion.

  “You’re thinking there’s more to this than we realize,” I said.

  He huffed out a breath. “You don’t think the same? Surely you can tell as well as I can that Zion and even Alexy are still keeping secrets from us.”

  “I thought of it in terms of icebergs,” I said. “We’ve seen the tip. We have no idea how much is left under the surface.”

  “That’s what I’m thinking,” he murmured. “And that’s what worries me.”

  He reached out and took my hand absently, as if he needed some sort of anchor to the earth, and I gladly tangled my fingers with his, enjoying the warmth of them—and the fact that he was touching me at all.

  They were strong fingers, calloused by a lifetime of hard work, and his hand had to be about double the size of mine. The feel of it closing around my smaller hand made me feel safe in a way I couldn’t quite explain. It made me feel as if everything would be okay. No matter how many questions or worries we had right now, we were going to be together in this new
place, just like we’d been together up to this point.

  I leaned my head tentatively on his shoulder and breathed out some of the stress I hadn’t realized I was holding on to, when he relaxed into me.

  “Do you think we’re still in trouble?” I asked hesitantly. “I feel safe here, but with all the things we still don’t know…” I let the question trail off, not really sure how I wanted to end it.

  “Not trouble, necessarily,” he replied. “I’ve never known Nathan to be reckless with his people, and we know now that he counts us as his. I just think that whatever they’re doing… it’s not what we think they’re doing. And that it’s bigger than we ever dreamed of.”

  “And bigger means more dangerous,” I muttered.

  “Naturally.” He withdrew his hand from mine and arranged his arm around my shoulders, drawing me close and tucking my head against his chest. “I just wish I knew more of what was going on.”

  “You and me both.” I sighed, and a span of silence fell between us.

  “We also need to talk about your friend Henry,” Jace said suddenly, his voice rumbling under my ear. “And how he fits into all of this.”

  I tensed at the words, but nodded firmly. “We do,” I said. As uncomfortable as the subject was, nothing was more uncomfortable than a moody Jace.

  I tried to sit up straighter so I could look him in the eye, but he squeezed me tightly, tugging me back down.

  “Huh, wha—”

  “But not tonight,” he finished sleepily, pulling me to his chest. “Tonight, I just want to hold on to you and pretend everything is okay. That we don’t have a care in the world. Is that all right with you?”

  I bit my lip, half in frustration and half in amusement. We really needed to talk about this, but the conversation wouldn’t be very productive if he was going into hibernation mode.

  “You really are a bear, you know that?” I grumbled, nestling myself against him.