The Child Thief 4: Little Lies

by Bella Forrest

  She gave us all a careful look. “The increase in activity suggests they’re moving toward some sort of crescendo. We need more information about what this end goal is if we’re going to stop them. And to get that information, we need access to their files. To their systems.”

  “The computer rooms,” Nelson said.

  Corona nodded. “The computer rooms. But before we can get into them, we need to know more about the layouts of the holding centers. If or when we infiltrate, we need to know exactly where we’re going so we can get in and out without leaving a trail, and do it quickly. This is why we’re taking the chance of going into Asus. It will give us a minor advantage for when we break into Smally.”

  “What’s so special about the Smally center?” I asked, seeing the name on the list on her screen. “Why would we need to break into it when you—”

  “Good questions,” she interjected. “But answers must come another time, I’m afraid. We have limited time and a long way to travel.” She glanced down at her watch. “We’ll meet at the front doors in half an hour. No need to change anything you did yesterday. You all did wonderfully at Gem, and we’ll be doing the same thing here. You’ll be posing as my personal assistants again. Observe as much as you can and commit it to memory. Let’s hope our trip to Asus will be as successful.”

  She nodded once, turned off the display screen as she passed it, and headed again for the door in the corner, the meeting evidently over. Everyone else began to stand and move to the main doors of the conference room, muttering among themselves, but I did as Corona had told us to: I observed. I stayed in my chair and watched her leave. I watched her open the door and slip into the room beyond.

  And this time, I saw that the room beyond wasn’t the ballroom, as I’d assumed. From what I could see, the room was lined with banks of monitors on the wall. A row of people, headsets on, fingers clattering over various switches and buttons, faced those monitors. Each of the monitors was labeled, and the screen showed footage I couldn’t quite make out. They looked for all the world like video feeds—but of what? Then, just before the door swung shut, I made out what one of the labels said.

  It said “Smally” in block capitals. Right next to it was one labeled “Asus.”

  They had direct feeds to the holding centers we were checking out. And, from what I could see, they had feeds to a lot of other places as well. More holding centers? Other Ministry buildings? Or were some cameras turned inward, watching the new recruits?

  The door to the monitor room clicked shut, blocking my view, but I couldn’t help feeling like I was still being watched.

  “Robin?” Jace was at the main doors, concern creasing his forehead. “You okay?”

  “Yeah,” I said, standing and moving to him. “Just seeing things a little differently.”

  He took my hand, eyes somber. “I know what you mean.”

  As we walked back to the rooms, I couldn’t help but replay what I’d seen.

  They were tracking something in there. And I wanted to get in, so I could start figuring out what the hell it was—and what was going on around here.

  We found flight suits and combat boots waiting for us when we returned to our rooms. I changed into mine, but kept a t-shirt and a set of leggings on underneath. While the suits were comfortable, I had a feeling we were going to be changing out of them again soon, and I’d rather not end up in my underwear in front of my whole team. Nelson and I then grabbed some notepads and pens, while Jace and Kory went to the kitchens to pick up everyone’s ration packs. We all convened at the front doors of the Hall twenty or so minutes after Corona had dismissed us.

  It wasn’t more than a few seconds before we started discussing the things we’d been thinking since Corona began giving us bits and pieces of information.

  “I know the numbers were shocking, but I can’t help but wonder how they have that information,” I said, keeping my voice low. “How would they know the number of kids being taken from their families, and who they’re being taken from?”

  “They might have access to some Ministry figures, but I doubt it,” Kory answered. “It’s not like that information is published in the local newspaper.”

  “It means they’re hooked into something, somewhere,” Jace answered. “They’ve got sources on the inside. It’s the only possible answer.”

  I frowned. Sources on the inside was a good thing. But Corona had said Little John still didn’t know what was going on, which meant those sources weren’t giving them nearly enough information.

  “And they were definitely more involved in the warehouse raid than they’ve told us,” Nelson continued. “The question is, why let us break into a warehouse where they already knew what was going on? Was that a Little John warehouse? If so, why did the auction site trace back to there? How did the Ministry know about it at all? And if it was a Ministry warehouse…”

  “Then how were we able to get into it in the first place?” I finished. “We’ve seen the sort of security the government uses, now. Hell, we’ve seen the sort of security forces they send out into the city on recon missions! No way we would have been able to break in if that was actually a Ministry building.”

  It was Gabby who spoke next. “Robin’s right, it couldn’t have been a Ministry building. But if it was a Little John building, why would they let us break into it? They knew we were planning to run a mission. They knew where we were going. At least three members of Little John were privy to that information.”

  Suddenly she cast a suspicious glance at Jace.

  “At least… three that we know of.”

  It wasn’t tough to guess her meaning, and the rest of us turned to him, also frowning. Jace had been in with Nathan from the start. He’d been part of the top level of consultants with Cloyd, Zion, and Alexy.

  And those three, it turned out now, were all part of Little John. Which meant Jace might be as well.

  He threw his hands up in a surrendering gesture and shook his head. “Not me,” he said. “Never in a million years would I have guessed about any of this. Plus, I’m terrible at keeping secrets. If I’d known about any of it, you would have had it out of me in no time. Which,” he said, a smile turning up the corner of his mouth, “might be why Nathan never told me.”

  I moved to stand next to him in solidarity, taking one of his hands. He was right. He was a terrible liar. And I believed he would have told us if he’d known. He believed in loyalty too much to have kept those secrets.

  The group didn’t seem convinced, though, and Nelson and Gabby were still frowning at him. He scowled back at them.

  “Nelson, don’t be so blind. If I’d known all of this was here, do you think I would have spent three days in the forest, terrified? Or do you think I would have been making for some sort of pick-up spot, or at least the convent?”

  She considered this, then tipped her head to the side and gave him the shade of a grin. “I suppose so,” she said. “But it would be a whole lot easier if you knew what was going on, so you could give us more information. Like whether Little John is above board in all of this, maybe even what they’re doing and how they’re planning to do it. Until we know their real motives, it’s going to be awfully hard to believe anything they tell us.”

  “Which is why I plan to tell you everything as soon as I can,” another voice cut in.

  We whirled around to find Corona standing behind us in a white business suit and broad-brimmed hat. She looked around at the group, one eyebrow cocked and her hands on her hips. “Are we ready? Everyone prepared?”

  At a few nods from our crew she headed through the door, her stiletto heels clicking coldly.

  We rushed after her, the combat boots squeaking across the marble floor as we fled out into the bright morning sunshine.

  She turned left this time, toward a mid-sized car waiting just outside with the engine running. The doors slid open without aid as we approached, and Corona, barely breaking stride, stepped straight in. We all followed, jostling one another a
s we tried to get in. Jace tucked me up against him and held me there while Nelson, Gabby, Kory, and Alexy managed to sort themselves out and get into the car. Jace slid in after them, sticking his hand out behind to guide me in, and a second later I found myself seated on a bench that ran the length of the car, staring across at Nelson.

  The car slid smoothly out into the street, and we were all quiet as we sped toward the airfield, our minds on the coming mission and the many questions tumbling through our brains.

  Questions that Corona seemed only halfway willing to answer. Though I hoped that would change once we were in the air and had more privacy.

  21

  The airship, its indigo-and-silver hull sleek in the morning sun, was already running and ready when we arrived at the airfield on the edge of the city. We exited the car and ran across the strip of tarmac toward the ship and the thin metal ladder that descended from the doors.

  I watched Corona swing up onto the ladder, confused about how she meant to climb the thing in the ridiculous hat she was wearing—along with the heels—but was surprised to see her accomplish it with more grace than I did a moment later, wearing my flight suit and boots.

  By the time I got into the ship, Jace putting a hand out from above me to pull me in, Corona was already strapped into one of the chairs bolted along the sides of the ship. She’d removed the hat and was patting at her hair, glancing up and down the passenger area as if she was searching for something. One of Savannah’s team, Ajax, approached her and handed her a comm device, which she inserted quickly into her ear, tapping the button to turn it on.

  “Thank you,” she said, then turned her attention toward the nose of the ship.

  A moment later, Ajax brought a case of comm devices to us as well, passing one to each of us.

  I watched him move soundlessly away as I slipped my comm into my ear.

  “Is everyone here?” Corona’s voice sounded through my ear canal, making me wince, and I reached up to quickly adjust the volume.

  “Here and accounted for, Captain,” a voice answered.

  I recognized the voice as belonging to Savannah, and looked around, wondering where she was.

  “I see Ajax back here with us,” Corona said. “Who’s your co-pilot?”

  “That would be me,” said Lux in her deep Southern accent. “And Rio is on surveillance.”

  “Got my eyes on the sky and everything under it, boss,” came his chipper voice over the comm.

  “I’m glad to hear it,” Corona responded. “How long are we expecting the trip to take?”

  “Two hours, unless we hit bad weather,” Lux answered. “Three if we have to go around any storms.”

  Corona’s lips grew thin, and she glanced at her watch, eyes narrowed. “Three hours will put us there rather late. We’ll just have to hope we don’t run into any storms. Let me know if you need anything else, please. I’m going to update Team Hood on the mission.”

  I smiled just a little at the reference to our old network.

  “Roger that,” Savannah said, switches clicking in the background. “We’re taking off now, and I’ll keep you posted about any bad weather up ahead.”

  The line in my ear went dead, and I felt the engines increasing their power around us, pushing us into the air.

  Alexy, who still had her comm on, muttered something derisive about pilots who couldn’t manage to avoid bad weather when we were in the middle of an important mission, and I cast her an amused glance.

  “Quick question,” Gabby asked. “Why do we need comm links? Aren’t we all going to be together, like last time? Also, won’t they notice that we have them?”

  Corona shook her head. “They will. But I’m posing as a wealthy donor with assistants, and it’s certainly not out of line for a person who has assistants to equip those assistants with communication devices. There’s no guarantee we’ll be able to stay together, and this is an important aspect of having a team. I’ve been able to set the tour up via one of our contacts there, a Little John operative who has managed to make her way into the holding center, but she’s one of only five operatives in the main operation of a center that employs one thousand people. At Gem we have fifty Little John operatives in a holding center that only employees two hundred. It was a more… secure situation. More people to run interference for us. At Asus, we run the risk of not only being questioned by genuine Ministry employees, but also of being separated. If that happens, we must be able to contact each other to coordinate our exit from the building.”

  “Well, that sounds like a terrific time,” Alexy muttered. “Whose bright idea was it to go into this place again?”

  “Mine,” Corona answered with a wry grin. “For reasons I’ve already explained, Alexy.” There was a warning in her tone, but it was an affectionate warning, and I got the definite idea this wasn’t the first time Corona and Alexy had had a conversation like this one.

  That did nothing to eliminate the ball of ice that had formed in my stomach at Corona’s succinct breakdown of the risks we were taking going into Asus.

  “Do we have a plan for what to do if we get separated?” I asked. “Actually, why would they separate us at all? If you’re posing as some big-time donor, won’t that mean they respect you? I mean, if you were donating to them, you’d probably stop doing so if they screwed something up, right? If they pissed you off by mistaking you for the enemy?”

  A nod from our fearless leader. “That’s true. But I’d rather be prepared for anything. Wouldn’t you?”

  I gave her that point. “So what are we supposed to be doing in there?”

  Corona turned and reached into the bag she’d brought with her. After a moment of rummaging, she brought out a large roll of paper, which she put on the floor of the ship. One quick shove at the roll sent it unfurling on the floor between the seats. We all unbuckled, safe now that the turbulence of takeoff had passed, and knelt around it, staring at what appeared to be a set of blueprints. Well, half a set of blueprints.

  Corona appeared opposite me on her knees, her hands running lovingly over the paper.

  “This is the best we could find in terms of the plans for the building,” she said quietly. “We got the best researchers we could find, and even they spent a long time getting these.”

  She paused to flash me a mischievous grin, and I grinned back, forgetting for a moment that we were talking about walking into a government building where we may or may not be identified as Little John operatives and as enemies of the state.

  Her next words reminded me swiftly, though.

  “Our job on this mission is to try to flesh out this map. We know there are computer rooms in this general area”—she brushed her hand over the center set of rooms—“and nurseries along the entire bottom floor of one of the wings.” She indicated one side of the building. “The rest of the compound is a mystery. What do they have in all those other rooms? And what is this building here?” She pointed to another building attached to the holding center by only one wall. “The city plans indicate it’s a hospital, but why would they put a public place so close to something so secretive? We suspect it’s another Authority or Ministry building labeled as a hospital on the city plans to keep people from getting too close.”

  She looked up, directly at me.

  “As I’ve told you, the larger holding centers are all built on the same set of plans. If we do our jobs, we’ll leave Asus knowing much more than we currently do about the design. If we do our jobs well, we’ll know enough to get into Smally and get what we need.”

  “And what do we need from Smally?” Jace asked suspiciously. “What’s so special about that holding center? And why the rush to get inside?”

  Corona considered him for a moment. “The rush, Jace, as I’ve said, is that the government is gaining speed with their actions. They’re becoming more and more aggressive, and they’re taking more and more children. They’re moving faster, and so must we. If we’re to fight back, truly fight back, it means we must be prepared when
they make their move.”

  “And how do you mean to do it?” I asked. “Say we believe you about the need to break into Smally on such a tight timeline. That doesn’t explain your method. We’ve seen the Ministry’s security, and the Authority’s defenses. Why do you think we can get past the defenses they’ll have set up at Smally?”

  “I can’t give you that information yet,” she answered evenly. “When the time comes, you’ll be told. Until then, I’m afraid you’re just going to have to take my word for it.”

  I was annoyed at the answer and was about to remind her of what she’d said regarding her teams having all the information available, when Nelson interrupted me.

  “It makes sense,” she said, putting a hand on my arm. “They don’t know us, not really. And whatever it is that’s going to happen, it’s going to include sensitive and dangerous information. Information that could get someone in trouble.” She turned fully toward me. “When we were running missions, we didn’t tell you what we were doing until we knew we could trust you. You can’t expect Little John to operate any differently.”

  I didn’t like it. I really didn’t like the many holes in the pieces of information Corona was giving us. But Nelson, and by extension Corona, was right.

  Still, it didn’t hurt to ask.

  “When will we get to know?” I asked, directing the question toward Corona. “When are you guys going to decide you trust us enough to share? Are we going to have to go through another one of your tests first? Two of them? Three, even?”

  Her face grew still, and she stared at me in a way that made me think she knew exactly what I was talking about.

  “That’s right,” I said. “You guys have got a lot of really good reasons for what happened after the jailbreak, for why we were left out there by ourselves. But that doesn’t mean I believe them. A lot of me believes you left us out there as a test, to see how we’d handle it. The same thing goes for the warehouse raid. And the jailbreak. You guys knew more than you told us, and you still let us go through with both those missions. Why? To test us? To see if we had what it took to become part of Little John?”