The Child Thief 2: Deep Shadows

by Bella Forrest

  “Just let me at it,” he grunted. “I’ll do it the old-fashioned way.”

  The old-fashioned way? I hid my surprised question, thinking that there must be more to my sometime crush than immediately met the eye, and leaned over his shoulder, watching tensely as he drew a set of thin metal tools from the pocket on his chest and went to work. He slid one of the rods into the large padlock on the crusty, dirty gate, wiggled it around a bit, and then seemed to find where it was supposed to fit. Holding it with his right hand, he gently slid the other rod in after it with his left, and began to… rotate it.

  I bit my lip, wondering exactly how long this was going to take. At this point we had to assume that we’d already been noticed by someone on the inside, either through the cameras or courtesy of an alarm on this door, which I absolutely prayed wouldn’t be triggered by a lockpick.

  I’d barely finished the thought when a sharp click sounded out from the padlock and echoed up and down the alley. I cringed, already hating how much noise we were making, and my cringe grew even more dramatic when Jace jumped to his feet and swung the gate open.

  “You really can pick locks,” I gasped, giving him a shocked look.

  He blushed. “My parents kept a bunch of locked boxes around the… home,” he murmured. “And when I was a kid I hadn’t liked not knowing what was going on. Whatever was in there, I’d figured it was important. If it was worth locking away, it was worth finding out about. So…” He ended on a wry look, and then ushered me abruptly toward the gate.

  I didn’t know how often they used this gate, but the screech it gave when I yanked it open farther made it sound like it hadn’t been used in years. If we hadn’t been caught before, we were going to get caught just because the Authority evidently didn’t believe in oiling their equipment consistently.

  Or maybe they kept it squeaky just to catch people who opened it unexpectedly.

  Regardless, once the gate was open, we were through it and rushing down a curved, dark tunnel. The air was tinged with a foul, rancid scent as our feet skimmed over the sticky floor toward whatever lay on the other side.

  “Robin, get Gabby on the comm,” Jace panted over his shoulder. “We have to assume that they’ve got us on camera by now, and we need to try and take control of the cameras ourselves.”

  I didn’t need a second reminder. Getting in had been the relatively easy part. The stuff that came next was going to be a lot trickier.

  I slapped my hand to the comm at my throat.

  “Gabby,” I breathed. “Gabby, are you there? We’re in. What have you got for us?”

  We hadn’t been able to find any blueprints for this building, but knew it would have security cameras—what government-owned property wouldn’t?—and had decided that they were our key here. Gabby, as our one and only tech, had been tasked with figuring out how, or even if, she could get into said cameras without causing any sort of disruption that would get her or us caught. She’d been relatively sure that she could do it using what she’d called a “piggybacking program,” but I also hadn’t heard from her much during the day—which had made all of us nervous. And when I had heard from her, there had been a lot of hedging about figuring things out.

  Very few solid answers.

  But we hadn’t had time to wait, given the deadline the Authority had imposed, so we’d gone right on with our planning, giving ourselves alternatives wherever we could manage it and hoping for the best.

  Our first job had been to get into the building. Mission accomplished. Now we just had to figure out how we were going to get through the rest of it. Without getting caught.

  “Are the cameras even going to be important?” Ant huffed. “I mean, we can’t exactly avoid being on their radar after this. It’s not like they’re going to miss the fact that we got in here and stole a bunch of our friends out from under their noses.”

  “While that’s true,” Jace breathed back, “I’d still rather have control of them ourselves. If we can manipulate the cameras to tell us where we’re going, we have a better chance of finding our way through this more quickly, and avoiding any soldiers coming after us.”

  Both were excellent points, and I slammed my hand up against my comm link again. “Gabby!” I whisper-shouted.

  But there was no answer to my call, and at that point I started to freak out. I could see the literal light at the end of the tunnel right in front of us, and we still didn’t have control of those cameras. We needed them as our eyes in the sky to tell us where we were supposed to go—and whom we were supposed to avoid.

  We had no idea where our friends were, and we did know that there were soldiers in the building. Without knowing where any of them were, though, this was going to get scary quick.

  “Gabby!” I hissed.

  “I got you, Robin,” Marco suddenly answered, and I heaved a sigh of relief.

  “Marco. Is your bird in the air?” I whispered.

  “Sure is,” he answered, and I felt the tension in my shoulders ease just an inch.

  Marco and Julia were on the south side of the compound, in the airship, waiting for us. They were our ride out of here, and they’d gone to the side opposite from the landing yard in the compound, just to try to avoid detection. Most importantly, Marco had also brought along one of Nelson’s drones, which was equipped with the X-ray technology we’d used on missions in the past. We’d brought it as a backup plan in case Gabby hadn’t been able to do what she’d said she could. And given the lack of answer from her, I was guessing that she might not be able to help us.

  She should have already been on the line, waiting. I didn’t know what had happened to her, and it concerned me. Though, I didn’t have the mental bandwidth to worry about it right now.

  I just thanked God we’d thought ahead and had a backup plan for getting into the place. Hopefully, the X-ray tech would give us an idea of what to do next.

  We slid to a stop at the farthest reaches of the tunnel, Jace’s toes brushing the spot where the light started. Beyond him, I could see what appeared to be the kitchen of the compound. It looked just like the kitchen in the factory where I worked: completely plain and entirely functional. Long sinks ran the length of the wall across from us, with an island in the middle of the room spanning the same distance. Pots and pans hung from a rack over the island, and I could see that the end wall to our right housed a number of ovens. The other end of the room was taken up by refrigerators and freezers.

  It was so incredibly normal that I just stared at it, gaping like a fish, for a moment. Then I snapped my mouth shut. Sure, of course they had kitchens. They had prisoners they had to feed. And, evidently, we’d just come right through their garbage chute.

  But even the kitchens could have soldiers in them. We had to know where those soldiers were.

  There was another long pause, and I was on the verge of contacting Marco again when he finally got back to us.

  “It’s not good, guys,” he said quickly. “I can’t see a damn thing. Looks like the Authority’s built the place with some sort of X-ray-proof tech, because all I see is a big black screen. This isn’t going to work. We need access to those cameras.”

  My heart sank, and I started wondering how the hell we were going to get back out of here. Because at this point it looked like this mission was a bust, and it wasn’t going to do our friends any good if we got ourselves killed or captured trying to save them.

  Then another thought hit me—that even if we did get out, we would be leaving our friends to their deaths. Because their executions were planned for tomorrow, and I didn’t think the Authority was going to give us a chance to negotiate an extension.

  Suddenly, there was a screech through the comm, and we all jumped and then dropped again, shocked. I hit the concrete of the tunnel on my knees and had a split second to register that these suits also seemed to come with some sort of shock absorber, because I hadn’t felt a thing. They definitely were better than the larger suits.

  Then a babbling voice cam
e spilling through the comm.

  “Oh my God, I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry,” the voice was saying. “I lost the link and I’ve been trying to get back into it and—”

  “Gabby!” I gasped. “Where the hell have you been, and what the hell are you talking about?”

  “Sorry, guys, I didn’t mean to leave you hanging, honest,” she said apologetically. “It was just that the thing I was trying to do—”

  “We don’t have time for a breakdown,” Jace cut in. “Do you have something for us or not? Because right now we’re basically sitting ducks, and I have never enjoyed that particular feeling.”

  There was a sniffling, and then: “No. I can’t get in. Their systems are way too secure, and I’m seeing traps all over the place. I can see them, but I can’t get around them—there are too many.”

  “What?” I breathed, fear pouring through my veins.

  We’d had two plans, and though neither had been good, they’d both failed spectacularly—at almost the same time.

  We were going to have to get out of here. Now.

  Jace, who had still been facing the kitchen, whirled around and stared at me. Then his eyes turned to something beyond my shoulder.

  I spun on my heel and stared in the same direction, and saw that he was looking past the rest of us, right at Zion.

  “What now?” Jace asked, staring at the slender man. “Is there a plan C that I don’t know about?”

  Zion gave him a look that was almost apologetic and nodded sharply. “There is,” he muttered. “But we were hoping we wouldn’t have to use it.”

  “Well, all signs are pointing to having to use it, I think,” Ant broke in. “What do we have to do and where do we have to do it?”

  Zion pressed his lips together, gave us each an individual stare, and then nodded again.

  “It’s going to be dangerous,” he said in a low tone. “But we’ve got to have those cameras, or we’re not going to know where the hell we’re going.” He thrust a hand into his pocket and pulled out what looked like a thumb drive.

  “What are you going to do, pull out a projector and use that to show us pictures of how to do it?” Ant snapped. “What’s that for?”

  Zion gave him a sharp look. “It houses a bug that will take down the security protocols currently protecting the camera system, and give Gabby free access to their cameras,” he said quickly. “She’ll be able to waltz right in, and they’ll never know she’s there. They won’t even know anything is wrong, as long as she doesn’t make any adjustments to the cameras.

  “But it means getting into their main system. Which means running to their main office as if we were running for our lives—which, by the way, we will be—and hiding from any soldiers we see on the way.”

  We gaped at him, speechless, and my mind worked rapidly through what he’d just said. He had a program on a stick that would allow Gabby entrance into the cameras, and he hadn’t told us? And we had to get to their main office to use it?

  How had he gotten hold of the program? Where had it come from, and why hadn’t he told us about it before?

  I seriously would have appreciated knowing that we had a third backup plan, and was just opening my mouth to start asking questions when he brought his hand down abruptly to demand silence.

  “We didn’t want to use it,” he said sharply, “because it comes with many risks. And it’s not exactly foolproof. We’ll be flying by the seat of our pants. But it seems we don’t have a choice. We have to get to the office where they’re monitoring the cameras, so that we have access to the system. Once I slide this into their USB drive, the program will run itself. Gabby, you’ll have to be on standby, because the moment it’s done, I’ll want you on those cameras, giving us our directions and telling us who to watch out for.” He took a deep breath and blew it out. “We figure we’ll have twenty minutes, thirty tops, to get this done. We’re not going to be able to count on hiding, so we have to get in, figure out where we’re going, and get back out again as quickly as possible. Anyone gets caught, we leave them behind. Got it?”

  My throat clamped up and my mouth dried out, every question I’d had flying right out of my head as we all nodded slowly.

  We had to get moving.

  We turned as one and leaned toward the kitchen, our eyes flitting over the walls and ceiling to find the cameras that we knew were there—and that we had to avoid, until we got that program running.

  33

  I stared at the large room ahead of me, looking first one way and then another, trying to figure out where the cameras were. The corners where the walls met the ceiling were the obvious answer, but no matter how hard or how long I stared at the cold white walls, I couldn’t see anything up there. No obvious camera heads, no telltale lenses embedded in the walls…

  “Could it be that there aren’t cameras in here?” I asked softly. “Maybe they don’t think the kitchen is worth recording?”

  Jace shook his head. “Doesn’t matter,” he said. “We don’t have time to stand around guessing about it.”

  “So what’s our next move?” Ant asked from just to my right. I glanced at him, but saw little more than a black silhouette where his face would have been.

  “I say we just get in there,” Zion replied. “Our only goal right now is finding the office the cameras feed to, because the quicker we do it, the quicker we can get to saving our friends and getting out of here.”

  I blew out a soft breath, letting my mind digest that for a moment. It made sense. We knew we’d been on camera for some time—there had been cameras in the alleyway, and for all we knew, we’d already set off a number of alarms.

  In fact, for all we knew, there were already soldiers on their way to capture us.

  “Then let’s get moving,” I breathed.

  Jace nodded once, sharply.

  “I’m in the lead,” he muttered. “Zion, you bring up the rear. We’re going to head for where I think the front of the compound is, because I’m guessing that of all places, the main entrance is where they’d keep their main security. Everyone keep their eyes open for soldiers and anything that could be a CCTV room. We’re sacrificing safety and subtlety for speed… Robin, you should be good at this part,” he added to me in an undertone.

  He ducked out of the tunnel with a grin before I could respond to that jab, and then I was rushing after him, the adrenaline of the moment giving my feet wings they hadn’t had since we were running from the Authority in the forest. I heard the others pounding after me, but didn’t bother to look back to see them.

  From this point on, we would be looking backward only to see if there were soldiers on our tail.

  We kept close to the counter in the middle of the kitchen, and Jace was making at least some attempt to duck down to stay even with it, but he was so tall that he was failing completely—though, I knew that it didn’t matter. There were six of us, wearing masks, running through the Authority’s compound, and we were coming in through the kitchen. It didn’t matter how much we tried to hide, because we were the definition of suspicious.

  I didn’t even try to duck. I just focused on keeping up with Jace and staying ahead of whoever was behind me as we dashed through the kitchen, following the counter to the other end of the room, where the refrigerators stood, and then toward the exit. There we halted and stood up against the wall, breathing quietly and listening for any footsteps.

  Jace inched toward the opening and slid his face slowly around the corner, looking left and right, and frowned a bit.

  Then, to my surprise, he pulled a small, circular gadget from his pocket.

  I leaned closer and saw… a compass. A real, live, old-fashioned compass, like you would have read about in the history books. I’d never even seen one in real life, because who needed them when we had that sort of tech on our phones? But of course Jace had one. Of course the caveman did.

  We knew that the main entrance to the building was just off the street, on the west side of the compound. If Jace was right abo
ut the security room being there, then that was where we were heading.

  Jace looked at his compass once more, while the rest of us bounced on our toes, anxious to get moving and counting the seconds. I was expecting a group of soldiers to come around the corner at any moment and was surprised that they hadn’t appeared yet, considering how long we’d been in the building.

  I wasn’t willing to count on that luck for much longer.

  Suddenly, Jace took off toward the right, leaving the rest of us to rush after him. I darted in his direction, lengthening my strides to keep up, and threw my gaze to the right and left as we ran. The hallway was a horrible plain white, with zero decoration, and the floors were just as bad. They were white tile and reminded me of some sort of asylum—though I guessed I shouldn’t have been surprised by that, given what the outside of the building looked like. We rushed by office after office, each with a window that looked out into the hall, but they all appeared fairly boring, holding one desk and one chair. Nothing that remotely resembled a security room or camera monitors.

  The hallway flew by, and within seconds we were at an intersection. I expected Jace to pause again here, but he seemed to have a sense of direction unlike anyone I’d ever met. He turned right again without pause—not even to listen for footsteps in the hall—and, after a quick glance to the left to make sure we had the hallway to ourselves, I ran after him, the rest of our team following closely at my heels. I could hear the person directly behind me huffing loudly, and sensed it was Jackie, but didn’t take the time to consider it too closely.

  Because there were cameras in this hallway, and it was the first time I’d really been able to see them since we’d set foot in the building. Right there, at the junction of wall and ceiling. They were relatively small but were a stark, evil black that stood out against the white walls.

  And as we continued to run, I noticed with a shiver that each began to stir in its axis, their little black bodies reminding me of snakeheads as they swiveled to follow us. They were tracking our progress.