The Child Thief 2: Deep Shadows

by Bella Forrest

  “Gab, it’s Robin,” I said when she answered.

  She snorted in response.

  “I know it’s you, dummy. I can see your name right here on my screen. You sound like an old person.”

  I pressed my lips together, reminded myself that she was only sixteen, and let it go. “I’d like to go over your plan before you get started. Are you in a place where you can talk?” I was worried that she might be sitting near her parents or something, and didn’t want to get her in trouble. In fact, I wondered how she’d been avoiding the notice of her parents. Weren’t they confused about the fact that she’d been holed up in her room for the last day or so?

  I could hear the grin in her voice when she replied.

  “Don’t worry about it, Robin. I’ve told everyone that I’m working on a big extra-credit activity for one of the online seminars I’m taking on computers and that they’re not to bother me. The last thing I need is my dad banging on the door when I’m right about to hack into something sensitive, am I right?”

  I laughed gently, then motioned to Ant and Jackie to come near.

  “I’m going to put you on speaker so that we can flesh out this plan a little bit, okay?” I hit the speaker button and held the phone out in front of me. “Ant and Jackie are here, and we have questions we want to ask you.”

  I could hear her shuffling some papers around, banging something against her desk (her knee?), and a muffled exclamation, and then she said, “Okay, I’m ready. Shoot.”

  “First off,” I said. “Let’s go over your plan for using the traffic cams. Are you sure you can do it safely?”

  “Absolutely,” she replied. “I was doing some casual reading last night, and officially, those cams are for public use. They were put up for the government to be able to track people and as an aid to law enforcement, but a few years back the public was given access to them as well. At least, they were in theory. The idea was that public citizens should be allowed to use them to go back to the site of a crash and collect a license plate number or see themselves running a red light. That sort of thing.”

  That seemed easier than I’d anticipated.

  “So, you can just sign in to them? No hacking required?” I asked hopefully. “That sounds safer.”

  I cast a glance at Ant and Jackie. They nodded, but seemed confused by the simplicity of it.

  “Sounds too easy to me,” Jackie said. “If that’s the law, how come we’ve never heard about it?”

  “Maybe because we don’t have cars,” Ant suggested.

  “She’s not wrong,” Gabby said. “It’s on the books as a law, but it’s never actually taken hold. Currently, there is no way to sign up for the system. I don’t know if they changed their minds about starting the program or what. Either way, it never went public, but the point remains that it wasn’t designed as a high-security system, because it doesn’t hold any really dangerous information. I was following a chat thread last night, and they were saying that of all the government’s programs, that one is the easiest to access. Because who would want to? It’s not exactly exciting stuff, after all. Watching cars drive around? Bo-ring.”

  “You’re sure you can get in there without triggering anything?” I asked.

  “Positive. I still have Pandora up and running on my computer. I can’t see why they would have set traps in that sort of program, but I’ll be able to see them a mile away if they did.”

  “Okay, but there’s a bigger problem, isn’t there?” Jackie remembered suddenly. “The Ministry, or the Authority, or whoever, had airships the night of the raid. We might have heard trucks later, but we don’t know if they belonged to the government at all. I’m guessing they took our friends by air rather than by road. Which would make traffic cams pretty useless, wouldn’t it? If they weren’t moved by vehicle?”

  “Actually, I think it’ll make it easier. Like, a lot easier,” Gabby replied.

  “How?” I asked, marveling again at how she seemed to be several steps ahead of us.

  “Because the cams don’t just show the roads,” Gabby replied. “They show the entire horizon. It would show an airship. And airships are a lot less common in the middle of a city than a car. They tend to stay near airfields that are outside the cities, where there’s space for them. If we see an airship landing in any city, it’s going to tell us where we need to be. That will be our X marking the spot. I’m guessing that the only people who are allowed to land an airship in the city are members of the government. They’re making the rules, after all.”

  I lifted my eyes just as Jace strode back toward us, his face thunderous. I gave him a questioning look, but he shook his head slightly—and whatever it was, I didn’t have time to think about it right now.

  “So, you don’t even really have to look for people,” I said to Gabby. “Just a completely obvious airship landing in the middle of the city.”

  “Precisely,” she said. “It makes things a lot easier.”

  “How do you know it’ll even be in this city?” Ant asked suddenly. “The government has access to all the cities in the country. What if they were taken somewhere else?”

  I shook my head.

  “Same reason we think that Nathan started doing his recruiting here, rather than anywhere else. This is the most populated area for miles. It’s where everything happens—where the largest of the factories are. It makes the most sense for the government to have big operations here, too. They must, so they can keep an eye on things. If they had the choice of taking prisoners to someplace close versus someplace far away…” I let my voice trail off, wondering whether I was looking too hard for the simple answer, but Gabby was quick to concede.

  “I agree with Robin,” she said. “That’s where I’m going to need you guys on the ground. I can hack into the traffic cams from my computer, no problem, but I need blueprints and city plans to make it easier. Searching for those on the Internet will probably get me flagged as a terrorist or something. I need you guys to get to libraries there. Every library should have city plans on file. They might not have blueprints of the buildings themselves, because that would be a pretty weird thing to keep lying around, but they’ll definitely have large-scale plans of the cities, in terms of all the buildings in the city. Start with where you are, and if you don’t find anything, go to the next-biggest city, and so on.”

  I exchanged glances with Jace, frowning.

  “What exactly are we looking for, Gab?” I asked, not seeing the connection. “Give me details. As specific as you can get.”

  “Any large building that’s attached to a large yard,” she explained. “If we’re looking for a jail, even a secret jail, it’ll be a part of a compound. If they’re using airships, which we know they are, it will also have to have a spot big enough to include a landing area. I can look at traffic cams until I’m blue in the face, but it will go a whole lot quicker if I actually know where I’m supposed to be looking. Find me compounds, and I’ll tell you whether you’ve found the spot or not. From there…”

  “From there, we can figure out how we’re going to get in,” Jace finished. He gave her a nod that she couldn’t see, and turned to the rest of us.

  We didn’t need any further encouragement, and I told Gabby we’d be in touch before muttering a quick goodbye and hanging up.

  We had work to do.

  The four of us shot toward the closest train station. The library for our city was in the central square, and the train would get us there fastest. I just hoped that Gabby’s guesswork was correct, that the government flew airships into the city at will, and that we’d find the Authority compound here, rather than anywhere else. It made sense to expect it to be here, but if it wasn’t and we had to go elsewhere, we had a very long day ahead of us.

  When I turned my head to shout to the rest of the group that we were leaving, I realized they were already gone. Everyone had the same thought—the sooner we got to work, the sooner we could move forward.

  It took us ten minutes to get to the cit
y square on the train, and during the ride Jace filled us in on what we’d missed while speaking with Gabby.

  “Zion has called another meeting tonight at six, at the Roundhouse,” he said. “Publicly it’s for dinner, and I’m sure we’ll all need the sustenance. Privately, we’re supposed to have our various research and collection responsibilities finished by that time so that we can report back on what we have.”

  I cringed and looked at my watch. It was already ten, and we were potentially looking at a day of lots of travel. Dinner and check-in at six didn’t give us much time.

  “I guess that means we’re really hoping that we find the right place in this city, rather than another,” Ant said quietly.

  “It would certainly make things easier. There’s also…” he started, but then he stopped and gave me a look. “Well, I think for now, all we really need to focus on is getting this done. Robin, you have any idea what Gabby is doing while we’re searching on this end?”

  I glanced at my phone, where the text from her showed, and nodded.

  “She’s going to get to work on investigating how to get into the traffic cam system. I don’t plan on touching base with her again until after we get to the library. With luck, we’ll get in there, find the records, and give her some quick answers. If that happens, I don’t want to have to sit around waiting while she sorts through a bunch of coding, trying to find a hole, or however it is you hack a camera system.”

  Jackie snorted.

  “Because in this city, sitting around in the library not doing anything is going to be just as suspicious as running around on the street screaming that it’s going to start raining pigs soon.”

  “Well,” I said, narrowing my eyes at her, “maybe not quite the same thing. But yeah. The less time we have to spend in one place, researching how to break into a government compound, the better. I don’t want any more eyes on us than I feel we’ve already got.”

  “Seems like a solid plan,” Jace concurred. I felt a surge of relief at his words. I hadn’t realized I had been second-guessing myself, but it was a solid plan. I’d finally come up with a good idea.

  With luck, this one wouldn’t end up getting someone else killed or captured by a government agency.

  When the train came to a slow, gliding stop, the conductor announced that we were at the city square. We rose as naturally as we could and stretched.

  Just another day, just another day, I repeated to myself. We’re just a group of friends going to the library. On a day when we should be at work. A day when we’ve just used one of our last approved sick days.

  A day when I was sure people were going to start getting suspicious of us. At least none of us worked at the same place, which should alleviate some of the suspicion.

  As it was, I’d had a time explaining to my supervisor that morning why I was still so sick that I couldn’t get to work. I didn’t really want to go back to the factory, but I knew how dangerous it was to be standing out in this manner. The sooner we could get this whole thing done and finished up and go back to our normal lives, the better.

  I scoffed at the thought.

  Go back to our normal lives. Yeah, right. The chances of that happening were slim to none.

  Jace slid up to my side as we walked and brushed against me. “You’re doing that thing where your face changes so quickly that I can hardly keep track of the expressions,” he commented. “What’s up?”

  I sighed.

  “Just thinking about how futile it is to consider anything going back to normal after this. Everything has changed. I don’t think we can ever be normal people again, not with what we know and not with what we’re about to do.”

  He tossed me a grin.

  “I don’t think many of us were normal to start with. After all, we’re the ones who sought out a website that was going to give us some way to fight against the government. Now we’re doing just that.”

  I returned his smile, but there was an element of sorrow in it.

  “I know. I guess I just didn’t expect it to get so serious so quickly. And I guess…” I paused, wondering if I actually wanted to admit it, but then pushed on. “I guess I’m scared that it has.”

  He threw an arm around my shoulders in a gesture that could have been that of a comrade, but there was more to it than that. A lot more. I nestled into the warm, solid feel of him, remembering how nice it is to be able to lean on someone bigger and stronger than you, from time to time.

  “Don’t worry, Rob, I’m not going to let anything happen to you. And that’s a promise,” he whispered. “I don’t know what we’re going to be up against on Friday, but I have no intention of failing—or of losing you in the process.”

  A thrill of warmth sped right from my flaming cheeks down to my stomach, and then to my toes, and I sighed in relief. It wasn’t exactly a guarantee, because he wasn’t in a position to guarantee anything, but the thought that anyone cared that much about me warmed me in ways I couldn’t even describe.

  Still, I also had my friends to worry about.

  I turned my thoughts toward the large, old-fashioned building in front of us and tried to will the plans we needed into existence inside that space. The library was reminiscent of another generation. It was very large, but also looked like it had been more carefully crafted than modern buildings. Constructed of large blocks of concrete, it featured tall stone pillars at the front and a long veranda stretching along the first floor. There was a stately and dignified feeling about it, as if the building were aware it stored important items and took that responsibility very seriously.

  Ant and Jackie made their way up the steps, Jace and I following close behind, and I didn’t know about anyone else, but every step felt like it came with a weight of heavy burden. I’d expected to be doing something more action-oriented today, but this was one of the most important tasks for the group. We were about to be looking at plans that might tell us the exact location of our people.

  Jackie was the smallest and sweetest-looking of the four of us, so we’d decided on the train that she would be our public representative. When we got inside, she marched up to the receptionist and waited patiently for the woman to finish her phone call. Once the librarian hung up, Jackie looked at her, smiling shyly.

  “Excuse me, I’m doing a project for a class I’m taking on urban planning. I’ve heard that all libraries have large prints of city plans. Is that true?”

  I held my breath. This was the moment of truth, as Ant was so fond of saying.

  To my surprise, the librarian looked like she’d just been given the best gift anyone had ever given her, and beamed at us.

  “Why, yes, that is true,” she said, her voice crackling slightly. “Are you looking for any particular city?”

  Jackie started slightly, clearly as surprised as I was by the response, but regained her composure quickly.

  “Does this library have plans for more than one city? Maybe all the cities around here?”

  I waited anxiously for the answer. If all the city plans were here…

  The librarian shook her head.

  “I’m afraid not,” she said apologetically. “All city libraries only have the plans for their own city. I was merely going to direct you to another library if you were particularly interested in someplace else.”

  I saw Jackie’s shoulders droop, but she soldiered gamely on with the act.

  “All the cities around here,” she said. “I want to search them all. So I guess I’ll have to go to the other libraries for that, huh?”

  The librarian nodded, then pointed farther into the building.

  “Our city plans and blueprints are back that way,” she said. “You’ll see a room right at the end of the walkway, against the right-hand wall. There are shelves full of plans and blueprints, each labeled by year and range. If you need any help, please do let me know.”

  Jackie nodded and turned to us, and we all began walking in the direction the librarian had indicated, doing our best to walk naturally ra
ther than dashing—which, I suspected, was what we all wanted to do. The minute we saw the room in question, however, our steps quickened, and once we were through the door, it was chaos. Jace quickly shut the door, and we found ourselves alone in a windowless room.

  Or perhaps we weren’t as alone as we’d hoped.

  One quick glance along the ceiling and into the corners showed that we were accompanied by a camera.

  “Dammit,” I breathed. I put a hand on Jace’s arm, pushed him up against the wall, and moved closer to him, not wanting anyone who might be listening to overhear me.

  “What is it?” he asked, confused.

  “Camera, in the corner just opposite the door,” I said quietly, leaning right up to his face so that our cheeks were almost touching. It was horribly distracting, but the fact that we might be on film was even worse.

  “Dammit,” he echoed.

  Jackie and Ant, who had ventured to the other side of the room, noticed that we had stopped moving at that point and turned around.

  “Oh my God, are you guys really making out right now?” Jackie asked loudly. “You didn’t get enough of that last night?”

  I whirled on her, my expression murderous.

  Then I paused.

  What exactly were we going to do? If anyone was watching, it would look strange if we abruptly decided to leave the room again when we’d just arrived. But if we stayed, and that camera had a sound recorder as well, it meant we also had to watch what we said.

  I needed to let both Ant and Jackie know—in a way that didn’t attract attention.

  Luckily, I had everyone’s phone numbers programmed on my phone. I set up a group text that included Gabby, and quickly punched a message in.

  Camera, corner, just up and to your left. Mouths shut. We have to do this search like we’re really searching for some school assignment. No one says anything about the government or the Compliance Authority.

  I hit send and watched as the text went out to my friends. They glanced at it, and I noted with relief that they didn’t look at the camera.

  “So, I guess we have to get to searching for Mrs. Dunkin’s stupid project, right?” Jackie said, looking at me expectantly.