“Well, he’s right about that much,” Nelson grumbled. “He approached me with a bunch of hare-brained ideas that I didn’t have time for. What was I going to do with a program that could file everyone neatly into categories based on their past movements? We were trying to break into a warehouse without getting caught. I didn’t have time for his pet projects, and I told him so.”
“He showed them to me instead,” Gabby said. “Asked me to take them to Robin and have her show them to you.” She drew her shoulders up, though I could still see her lower lip trembling with emotion. “He called me a snotty-nosed kid and told me to get lost. That he didn’t have time for me now that we were at Edgewood.”
I pulled her against me, growling. “Gabby, you’re worth ten million of him, and don’t you ever forget it. How dare he hurt you like this. How dare he use you.”
I pushed her back and looked into her eyes, wishing with my entire heart that I could have saved her from experiencing this but knowing, too, that it was part of growing up.
“He’s not worth it,” I said, insistent. “Do you hear me? Don’t you dare waste one more second of emotion on him. I need you here, with me. We need you on our team. And I would rather have one of you than five million of him. Right?” I waited for her answer, but she just stared at me. “Right?” I asked again.
“Right,” she murmured.
“And you’re with us, right?” I asked.
“Right,” she said, more firmly this time.
“And we don’t have time to waste crying over boys who don’t matter and have funny hair.”
“We don’t have time to waste crying over boys who don’t matter and have funny hair,” she answered with a bit of a giggle, taking the tissue Jace handed her as he reappeared at my side.
“Then let’s go get some breakfast. I’m starving.”
I took her hand and started back down the hall toward the kitchen, two brokenhearted people in tow, biting my lip. Whatever Alexy had planned for us today, I hoped it included a lot of thinking. Because all four of us needed something to keep our minds off… things.
I definitely needed something to keep me from beating the crap out of Cloyd and Robert. In that order.
15
We were already seated at one of the kitchen’s smaller tables with several dishes in front of us when Alexy and Zion entered in search of their breakfast.
The way their eyes lit up made me realize they’d also been in search of us.
“Terrific,” Alexy said immediately. She looked around the table and started grabbing things from the various dishes. “Eat quick, guys. Corona wants you in the conference room, ASAP.”
“Just us?” I asked, surprised.
I glanced to my left and my right. Jace, Nelson, Gabby, and I were the only ones here. Which meant we were still missing Ant, Abe, and Kory from our group, as well as the many additional techs and operatives from OH+ that could have joined us. I was also having trouble understanding how Gabby’s family was letting her come along with us, given how protective they’d always seemed of her. Then again, they’d just been saved from the threat of the Burchard Regime by Little John, and Gabby’s involvement with our underground operations in the past. If Corona or Nathan had sent Alexy to explain to Gabby’s family that the reason they had safety was because Gabby was useful to Little John, I guessed it made sense. I also hoped they were proud of the girl, rather than disappointed or upset.
I didn’t feel completely comfortable about Gabby’s role in all this, given her age. But she’d already embroiled herself in our mission, come this far by choice, and I was hardly in a position to try to convince her otherwise. I was only on the cusp of adulthood myself, and it wasn't like she would accept no for an answer anyway. She was a stubborn thing, and could make up her own mind. More than that, she’d already proven herself to be competent, and Little John wasn’t the kind of organization to discriminate based on age. She deserved the chance to fight back against the government that had stripped her of a normal childhood just as much as any of us.
“I’ve been up to Kory’s room, and he’s on his way,” Zion answered gruffly. “Ant and Abe are… sitting this one out.”
I frowned. “I thought you needed as many people as you could get your hands on. And yet you’re already leaving people off the list?”
“We need people, yes,” Zion said, pouring himself a large glass of orange juice. “But capable people. People who have their eyes on the prize, not looking back at the hospital ward.”
I’d known we would have to sideline Ant along with Jackie, but I hadn’t considered leaving Abe behind as well.
When I said as much, it was Jace who answered.
“I think he’s right, Rob,” he said. “Ant and Abe are more than connected at the hip; they’re connected at the brain. You saw how Ant acted when Abe was in jail. You think Abe’s going to be much better if we leave Ant behind?”
I shook my head. It was a good point. We couldn’t afford to take Abe with us if he was going to be moping around. And we’d already been told that the rest of our team—Julia, Marco, Winter, and the techs we’d saved with them—were on different teams, having arrived at Edgewood and started their training before we did. We’d just have to move forward without them.
“Wait,” I said, realizing we’d skipped a step. Several steps. “Where are we even going? How are we talking about leaving team members behind when we haven’t been told what we’re doing?”
Kory appeared, dropped into the seat beside me, grabbed the entire bowl of oatmeal and started shoveling food into his mouth.
“From what I’ve seen of this organization, Robin, it seems to me it’s the sort of situation where we’re almost always told where we’re going after we’re already there,” he said around a mouthful. “When was the last time any of them answered a question in clear, succinct terms? Not sure you can expect much different, even now that we’re supposedly part of the team.”
He shot a pointed glance Zion’s way that belied the joking tone of his voice, and Zion narrowed his eyes at the criticism.
“It’s not our job to tell you anything,” he said. “It’s our job to make sure you’re in the conference room so Corona can tell you where you’re going next. And what you’re doing there.”
I cast a look in Alexy’s direction, silently asking if she was going to give us anything else, but she shook her head.
“He’s right, as much as I hate to admit it.” She must have seen the grin starting to form on Zion’s mouth, because she aimed a quick punch at his midsection, smiling when it connected and he oofed in surprise. “Don’t gloat, Zion, it’s not attractive on you.”
When she turned back to us, her face was serious again, her tone of voice intense. “I told you Corona had requested you guys specifically. That means she has plans for you. It also means I’m not going to be sneaking you any more information. She’ll tell you everything you need to know, and she’ll have my head on a platter if I ruin what she thinks of as her surprises. Don’t worry, if I know her the way I think I do, she’ll tell you more than strictly necessary. Certainly more than I can. She is, after all, the head of the operation. Eat up. You’re going to need your wits about you today, and plenty of energy.”
She jumped to her feet, grabbed two more pancakes, which she rolled into cylinders for eating, and then glanced at the rest of us, her face full of expectations.
“Well? Are you ready to go, or what?”
The rest of us shoved one more forkful of food into our mouths, then scrambled to our feet and filed out of the kitchen after her, Zion bringing up the rear. I had no idea what the rush was about, but I was willing to accept it if it meant we were going to get some of the answers I’d been waiting for.
The conference room, it turned out, was in the same wing of the Hall as the ballroom we’d been in for the party. It was about triple the size of the bedroom Nelson and I were sharing, and had a long table made of dark wood down the middle, with comfortable black chairs along the sides and at
the head and foot of the table. Nothing else stood out; this was a room meant for focus, rather than staring out of windows or admiring decorations.
Corona was already in the room, standing and facing away from the door. In front of her, I saw a list of names written on a large screen set into the wall, with a second list labeled “Locations.” The names were ours. The locations were places I’d never heard of before: Smalley. Asus. Gem.
We dropped into seats close to Corona’s end of the table, three of us on one side and three on the other, with Zion at the foot of the table on his own. I wasn’t surprised about that; he might have been part of our team before the jailbreak, but ever since, he’d been an outsider. Alexy had gone out of her way to ingratiate herself with our group and gain our confidence. Zion hadn’t even tried.
I was flanked by Gabby and Jace, and was sitting directly across from Nelson, who had Kory and Alexy on her left and right. She gave me one narrow-eyed look that gave me the distinct impression that she had particular questions she meant to ask here, and then turned her eyes expectantly to Corona.
I did the same, wishing I knew what to expect from this meeting and the woman leading it.
Corona turned to us slowly, the artificial light of the room catching the white streak in her hair and making it shine.
I caught my breath. I’d forgotten how stunning the woman was, and now that she was in a more secure situation, one where she wasn’t about to be arrested, she was even more stoic and self-contained. She was also sporting a black eye, the deep purple reaching over her cheekbone and to her temple, and a split lip. Neither had done anything to destroy the sense of self-confidence.
She gave us all a soft, enigmatic smile, followed by a rueful shrug. “I’m going to go ahead and start this meeting by answering what must be first and foremost in your minds,” she said. “Why didn’t I show up where and when I told you I would? The simple answer is that I was unavoidably detained by Authority soldiers, who had in fact sniffed out the exit point we were supposed to be using. Luckily, a Little John team had been sent out to locate us and bring us in, and they were watching the escape route. They were able to back me up and take me to safety. But thank God you weren’t with me, because it would have been a disaster.”
She looked around the table, meeting everyone’s eyes separately.
“And, yes, that left your group out in the cold once again. But I had faith you would find the motorcycles I left for you and use them to get to the convent. I knew Zion was there, waiting for you. You came through brilliantly, as I knew you would.”
She beamed for a moment, and I found myself smiling back, pleased beyond measure to have earned her pride. It had been an awfully long time since I’d wanted to please anyone. It was both strange and wonderful to feel that way again.
Corona’s smile disappeared a moment later, though, and she took a deep breath.
“I imagine your next question is going to be how the Authority knew where to find you when you did come to meet me. And believe me, I had that same question.” She nodded at our shocked expressions. “That’s right, I do know about that. In this organization, word gets around quickly. And you brought in an injured girl, which meant Jackie had to tell us how she managed to half crush herself between the time I last saw you and when Zion found you.”
“The Authority knew where we were going,” I said, remembering the feeling I had when I saw their van sliding around the corner and speeding at Jackie and me. Remembering too what had come after. The chase through the backyards, and Jackie crashing her bike. The Authority agent who had come barreling after us, and his gun.
My own gun leveled, the nose pointed at the spot between his eyes. My wrist going stiff, my finger on the trigger…
I shook myself and pulled my thoughts back to the meeting at hand.
“They knew what time. They knew the location. We were lucky they got there late.”
“Jackie told me,” Corona murmured, her gaze thoughtful. “And I’ve been through it a thousand times in my mind, trying to figure out how. They didn’t have my house bugged. There were no cameras in there aside from my own, that I know of, and I was very careful about how I gave you the information, so even if they’d had bugs or cameras, they wouldn’t have picked it up. The only possible answer is that they’d seen you leave on the motorcycles the day before, and had a perimeter set up around the city, watching for those same bikes to come back in. There is, of course, also the possibility that they used the satellites to keep an eye on you, although if they’d been doing that, they would also have known where you were hiding and followed you. The most logical conclusion, as far as I’m concerned, is that they were watching for the group of motorcycles.”
We’d thought something similar ourselves.
Corona waited for any further questions, then rested her gaze on me once again. “Unfortunately, I’m afraid your journey has just begun. Things have come to light that mean we can’t let you rest here for long. As Nathan’s already told you, we’re desperately short of people, and we have… things that need doing. Things I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you to do, even though you’re not ready yet.”
She tuned back to the screen and gestured to the writing there. “I know Alexy has already mentioned that you’ll start your training at the holding centers. You’ve been chosen because you have a basic understanding of how the Ministry works and what they do with the children they take. You certainly have experience with the Authority. And you know what it takes to get the children back.”
She made it sound as if they knew exactly what we’d been doing before we were part of OH+. Though, I wasn’t sure how. We’d always been careful to communicate about our missions on the encrypted app Nelson had personally built for us, rather than through the Operation Hood portal, and we’d never told anyone else what we were doing.
“Do you mean because we were the ones on the warehouse raid?” I asked, the question intentionally leading. “Because there were a lot more people involved there than just us. There were also a lot more people involved in the planning.”
Corona gave me the slightest of smiles. “I do not mean the warehouse raid. I mean your lives before you joined OH+.”
So, they’d definitely been tracking us before we joined OH+. But something told me they knew a lot more about what we’d been doing than we realized.
“We have one week to prepare,” Corona continued. “Vast things have been set into motion, though I’m not yet at liberty to tell you what they are, or why they matter to us. The most important information for your team is that you were brought in just in time to help with a crucial mission. We’re counting on you to support a group of higher-level operatives in their mission at a holding center. In preparation, I’ll be teaching you about the centers themselves and how they work.”
“Teaching us how they work?” Kory asked. “Aren’t they… you know, owned and operated by the Ministry? How do you know how they work? How would you even know what they look like?”
Corona gave him a sly grin. “There’s one near Edgewood, and I can show you both of those things. Would you like to see it?”
She was offering us the chance to see inside a holding center. To see the place where they took the babies before they were distributed to new homes. I would get to stand in the place that might very well have housed Hope at one point… A place with computers I might be able to use to access her records.
I would do anything in the world to see those records.
“Yes,” I murmured.
Corona let out a breath, as if she’d been worried the answer might be no, and nodded firmly. “Get back to your rooms, get anything you need for a day’s journey, and meet me at the front doors of the Hall in half an hour.”
With a wave of her hand, all the writing vanished from the screen, and a second later she disappeared through a door I hadn’t noticed, leaving us sitting there staring after her.
“Well, what are you guys waiting for?” Alexy asked. “You’ve go
t your first orders. Get to it!”
We rose in a jumble from the table and hurried toward the door, shoving through it one after the other to rush down the hall and up the stairs toward our rooms.
I was already making a list of things to ask Corona. The first was why the hell we were in such a big hurry. The second was what exactly we were meant to do in one of the Ministry’s holding centers, and how she thought we were going to get into one without getting caught.
The third, and the one at the forefront of my mind, was whether she was also able to get access to their computers. I’d started this entire journey with Hope in my mind, and I’d finally come back to her. And this time, there was a path laid out at my feet, a path that might help me find where she’d ended up—and bring her home.
16
Back in the rooms, we grabbed our bags and stuffed them full of whatever supplies we had—extra socks, underwear, and sweatshirts, though we didn’t know if we’d need any of that—and then stopped by the kitchens with the idea of grabbing some food. A premade pack was already waiting for each of us, filled with rations. According to the writing on the pale green bags, inside we would find a carefully chosen assortment of foods to provide us with optimal nourishment. Even the bag was useful; in an emergency, it could be torn into four sections and chewed like gum to provide salts, electrolytes, and vitamins for a physical boost.
I shook my head in astonishment as I tucked it into my pack. This kind of thing would have been really useful when we were on the run.
We rushed to the main door of the Hall, glanced at our watches, and realized we were ten minutes early.
Alexy was already there, and gave us a judgmental look when we came skidding up, nervous and out of breath.
“Already trying to kiss up, huh?” she asked, cocking an eyebrow. “Believe me when I say it won’t work. Corona hates kiss-ups almost as much as she hates slackers. I recommend you stay away from both labels. Just be normal and she’ll like you fine.”
The Child Thief 4: Little Lies Page 12