The Child Thief 3: Thin Lines

by Bella Forrest

  I turned to stare out the window at where Abe was pointing, my heart hammering against my ribs. I’d forgotten about the drone.

  We’d just set off an explosion that had destroyed an entire tanker and possibly all three helicopters, not to mention a number of Authority agents. But we still weren’t safe from them.

  Outside the window, the drone was about fifty feet from our ship, no doubt taking pictures as quickly as it could—red and green lights on the lens blinking like eyeballs.

  43

  I yanked myself around and stared into the ship, trying desperately to think of what we could do about the small machine. We needed to get rid of it, ASAP, but how? What did we have in here…

  Then I saw them. The pieces of tech that we often seemed to forget about, mostly because we never took them out of the airship.

  The drones. Our drones. We had two of them.

  I darted toward them, trying to remember everything I’d ever learned about flying them. Marco was our best drone pilot, and after him came Abe and Ant, but Marco was currently missing in action, and the twins were both otherwise engaged.

  I’d trained on them, and I’d played a lot of video games that incorporated flying when I was younger. How much different could this be?

  I grabbed one of the drones, hit the power switch, snatched up the remote that went with it, and turned and ran for the side of the ship. There I threw the door open once again. I needed a good view of what I was about to do, and unless that drone had guns attached to it, I didn’t need to worry about bullets anymore.

  “Kory!” I shouted, calling out the name of the only other person not doing anything right now. “Grab my belt! Hold me!”

  The man came rushing to my side and snagged the back of my belt without asking, and I leaned out of the ship into the open air, threw the drone into the sky, and put my hands to the controls.

  It took me approximately 2.5 seconds to figure out what was what, and that watching the drone itself was way more important than watching the screen attached to the remote. The controls were simplistic, and the joystick and the crosshairs were all I needed to worry about for the moment. The drone was sensitive to my every move, and the fact that the remote was almost the same as every gaming console I’d ever seen made this a whole lot simpler.

  I got the drone steadied in the air, made sure it was facing the right way, and then sent it diving right toward the Authority’s drone. I had no idea what I was going to do, exactly, but it had to be something that would take that evil thing out of the sky. We couldn’t have it figuring out which direction we were going.

  The government’s drone, unfortunately, was far quicker and nimbler than ours. It zipped out of the way before my drone could even get there. Then it turned around to face my drone and started firing at it.

  Okay. Definitely guns on that thing, then. But they seemed to be smaller guns than normal, which meant that they might not be able to damage the ship itself.

  Unfortunately, they could damage my drone. I hit the controls and started moving the drone to the left and right, and up and down, trying to avoid the bullets the Authority’s machine was sending at mine.

  I realized that I was going to have a big problem here. I could just about keep from being shot out of the sky, but I couldn’t damage the other drone as long as I was on the defensive.

  I needed a big move. And I needed it quickly.

  I shoved the joystick up and sent the drone flying right for the Authority’s drone, bullets be damned. I saw one bullet hit, and then another, and my drone started to stutter a little, but it was still darting forward toward the other drone. I might not be able to hit it, but I was distracting it—and in the meantime, that battle was getting farther and farther behind us as our airship tore forward.

  If we could just get up into the clouds while the drone was distracted, maybe we could get away before it could track us.

  I’d barely finished the thought when Henry appeared at my side, the other drone in his hands.

  “What are we doing?” he asked.

  I gestured to the air battle with my chin. “Trying to get rid of the Authority drone,” I said. “And I’m not going to be able to do it by myself.” I glanced at the drone he held and wondered if we might be able to do it with two drones.

  Then I wondered if he even knew how to fly a drone. He’d grown up in an extremely poor household. They’d never had toys like that.

  “I’ve learned a lot since the last time you saw me, Robin,” he said grimly. He hurled his drone into the air and grabbed at the remote, his thumbs quickly working the controls to gain control of the aircraft. The controls weren’t complicated, though I couldn’t help but widen my eyes at his ballsy move. “What’s the plan?” he asked, his tone impressively calm. “Is there a plan?”

  I could have kissed him for being so quick to understand what I was doing. Of course, there wasn’t time. And when it came right down to it, he wasn’t the boy I wanted to be kissing.

  That said, I was willing to take my allies wherever I could get them.

  “I’ll be the decoy,” I said. “You be the bomber.”

  “All right.”

  He didn’t say anything else, but bent over the remote like he was flying through the air himself. I stopped paying attention to him, then, and returned my focus to my drone, which was having a hard time. Two more bullets had found it, and the engines felt like they were starting to go. The steering was getting more sluggish. It was lucky I wasn’t trying to avoid the bullets anymore, because I wouldn’t have been able to do it at this point.

  So instead, I just went full throttle right at the government’s aircraft. I couldn’t turn out of the way anymore, and the drone was already damaged beyond repair. Given the fact that we’d only ever used these drones for recon, we’d never bothered to arm them, so I didn’t have anything that could cause serious damage to the other drone.

  I didn’t have anything but the drone itself.

  “Mission Kamikaze,” I muttered. “It’s got to be done.”

  I heard Henry grunt next to me and spared the second it took to look up and see that his drone was now diving straight for the government drone as well. We were going to sandwich it between us. Or try to.

  No. We were going to do it, I thought, my breath coming faster as the drones grew closer. We were going to manage it! We were—

  A sharp explosion sounded as our drones hit the Authority’s weapon at the same time, and we both fell back, stuck between gasping and laughing at our success. I turned and threw my arms around him, my heart hammering away—and his answering—and gasped out a giggle.

  “YES!” I breathed. “That was perfect!” Then I turned toward the cockpit and shouted, “Nelson, we got rid of the drone, and I haven’t seen anything else on our tail. Get us up into those clouds right now!”

  I then dropped my arms from around Henry’s shoulders and turned… to see Jace staring at me, his face a blend of confusion, pride, and sorrow.

  All the elation drained from my body, and I swallowed hard. I hoped we got to the convent quickly, not only for Jackie’s sake, but also for mine. I needed to sort things out with Jace, regarding Henry. And I needed a quiet place to do it, rather than an airship that was currently in the midst of a dangerous escape from the government.

  The rest of the flight to the convent was smooth, but no less stressful. Kory, Jace, Henry, and I spent most of our time hanging out of the open doors, our eyes on the sky around us as we watched for drones, choppers, or other airships. Any sign that the Authority was either still after us or had tracked us via another drone. We didn’t see anything threatening, but that didn’t mean we stopped looking. Not by a long shot.

  What we did see were several towns that looked as though they’d been completely deserted—just like the part of Trenton we’d driven through a few days earlier.

  “Um, is anyone else seeing that?” Henry asked, his voice full of confusion. “What is that, some sort of exhibit or something? Why
would they build an entire city and then not have anything in it?”

  “Anyone else getting a sense of déjà vu?” Nelson murmured, gazing down at what appeared to be a ghost town below us. The entire place was empty, and though it had never been a large town to start with, it was absolutely devoid of action now. The houses were all quiet, the lights were all out, and there were cars stopped in the middle of the street, their doors still open.

  We were flying far above the town, trying to stay out of range of any drones, but even from up here I could see that nothing was moving.

  “What’s going on here?” I whispered to Jace, who had shown up at my side. Like Nelson had said, this wasn’t the first time we’d seen something like this. It was, however, the first time we’d had a bird’s-eye view of it. I’d just thought a neighborhood or two had been affected in Trenton.

  But this was an entire town. And that made it a lot scarier.

  “Who evacuates a whole town?” Jace replied in a low, equally disturbed tone. A deep line creased the skin between his eyebrows. “Why would they do that? Where are the people?” His gaze moved from one end of the town to the other, searching for any sign of life, and then he looked up at me. “Is the Authority… collecting people?”

  “Why would they do that?” I asked, mystified.

  When we passed over another such town, this one even more obviously deserted by the lack of light in the dusk, we asked each other the same questions—and gave each other the same answers.

  Where had the people gone? And why?

  And who was responsible for it? In this country, nothing happened without government approval, which led to the obvious conclusion that this was some sort of government action. But what would prompt them to evacuate entire towns? And where had they sent the people who’d once lived there?

  On the floor of the ship, Ant continued to hold Jackie, ignoring the rest of us as he spoke softly to her. I could hear her responding every so often, her voice nothing more than a croak. She was getting paler, and when I dropped down next to them, I could see that her eyes were also growing dull.

  “Jackie?” I asked softly. “How you holding up?”

  “How would you be?” she asked with a trace of her old snark. “I feel like I’m dying, and you guys keep insisting on moving me in the most dramatic fashion possible!”

  I let out a hoarse sob at that and put my hand on her arm.

  “We’re going to be there soon,” I murmured. “I promise. And then we won’t move you again until you’re good and ready. It’s a problem, you know. Without you awake and bossing us around, we don’t know what to do. We’re just running around like chickens with their heads cut off.”

  That earned a slight smile from the girl, and I felt a thrill of victory shoot through me. Surely if she was still able to be sassy with me, it meant there was hope.

  I just prayed we’d get to the convent before it was too late for her.

  “How much longer?” I shouted toward the front of the ship.

  We’d been in the air for over an hour now, including the time we’d taken to get rid of the drone and then up into the cloud cover. We had to be getting close. I could see the mountains rearing up all around us, and I knew for a fact that the convent was nestled among the foothills of those mountains.

  “I can actually see it!” Nelson called back. “It’s just in front of us!”

  I immediately left Jackie with Ant and darted to the front of the ship, my eyes hungry for the sight of the convent. The last time I’d been there, we’d been on personal business and I hadn’t really had time to look around. But now that it meant safety, I was anxious for a better view of the place.

  What I saw shocked me.

  I remembered the convent being busy, with nuns roaming about everywhere, children being housed in one entire section and schooled in another. And then of course there was the church, the gardens and kitchens, and the blocks where the nuns themselves had slept. There had been so many people that it had seemed like a small village unto itself, and I’d adored it.

  Now it looked totally empty. The light was fading, but I could still see the entire place laid out before me. No matter which courtyard or walkway I turned my eyes to… I saw nothing. There were still birds and what looked like cats and dogs roaming around in the open spaces, but there was a distinct lack of two-legged inhabitants.

  That was… odd. And worrisome. This place had been harboring fugitives, and the Mother Superior herself had indicated that they were both actively and passively fighting the government. They’d been willing to help Nathan with his goals, and they’d had several of his people already there, in hiding or helping.

  This had also been the place where we’d thought we were assured safety. Where were they? Had the Authority already been here?

  Oh God, were we too late?

  My stomach plummeted into my feet as I suddenly had visions of all those nuns—and the children—dead or in cells somewhere. I felt like I was going to be sick.

  “Jace?” I managed, motioning for him to come forward.

  He hurried back to my side and gazed out into the stillness.

  “Have you ever seen it this quiet?” I asked, a nameless fear gnawing at my heart. What was going on here?

  Jace’s face paled, and he shook his head, but then Nelson started lowering the ship, killing our ability to see over the convent’s walls.

  “I… I don’t know. But I know we’ve got to get out of the sky, and this is the only safe place,” he said, injecting confidence into his tone that I sensed he didn’t possess. He strode back toward one of the doors in the side of the ship. “I want to get out of here and find someone. Find my sister.”

  “It’s only safe if the Authority hasn’t found it,” I muttered to myself, giving voice to the worry growing in my stomach as I followed him. In my shock at seeing the place empty, I hadn’t even considered Rhea in my breakdown of the people we might have lost, and the idea that she could have been taken prisoner as well made me absolutely furious.

  And that anger was a welcome change from the fear I’d been feeling only moments before.

  The ship bumped as we touched the ground, and a moment later Nelson killed the engine.

  “Let’s go,” Jace said immediately.

  He threw the door open and jumped out, and I followed straight after him. When my feet hit the ground, I turned in a circle, gazing around cautiously and praying for some sign of life. Praying for the people who had been living here to come running out of some super-secret hiding place, laughing about how they’d fooled us.

  But there was no one.

  The place was completely deserted. So silent that I could hear the trill of birds settling in for the night for miles around us.

  And then, quite suddenly, Zion came striding out of the gates and straight for us.

  “Thank God you’re finally here,” he snapped. “I’ve been waiting for you for two days! I’ve got orders to take you in, immediately.”

  Ready for the next part of Robin and Jace’s story?

  Dear Reader,

  Thank you for reading Thin Lines!

  The next book in the series, Book 4, is called Little Lies, and it releases November 10th, 2018.

  I’m extremely excited to continue this journey with you, as we dive deeper into Nathan’s well-meaning, yet complex plan…

  Pre-order your copy now for convenience and have it delivered automatically to your reading device on release day!:

  If you’re in the US, tap here.

  UK: tap here.

  Australia: tap here.

  For any other country: tap here.

  I’ll see you there.

  Love,

  Bella x

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Read More by Bella Forrest

  THE CHILD THIEF

  The Child Thief (Book 1)

  Deep Shadows (Book 2)

  Thin Lines (Book 3)

  Little Lies (Book 4)

  THE GENDER GAME

  (Action-adventure/dystopian. Completed series.)

  The Gender Game (Book 1)

  The Gender Secret (Book 2)

  The Gender Lie (Book 3)

  The Gender War (Book 4)

  The Gender Fall (Book 5)

  The Gender Plan (Book 6)

  The Gender End (Book 7)

  THE GIRL WHO DARED TO THINK

  (Action-adventure/dystopian. Completed series.)

  The Girl Who Dared to Think (Book 1)

  The Girl Who Dared to Stand (Book 2)

  The Girl Who Dared to Descend (Book 3)

  The Girl Who Dared to Rise (Book 4)

  The Girl Who Dared to Lead (Book 5)

  The Girl Who Dared to Endure (Book 6)

  The Girl Who Dared to Fight (Book 7)

  HARLEY MERLIN

  (New fantasy/romance/supernatural series.)

  Harley Merlin and the Secret Coven (Book 1)

  Harley Merlin and the Mystery Twins (Book 2)

  HOTBLOODS

  (Supernatural romance. Completed series.)

  Hotbloods (Book 1)

  Coldbloods (Book 2)

  Renegades (Book 3)

  Venturers (Book 4)

  Traitors (Book 5)

  Allies (Book 6)

  Invaders (Book 7)

  Stargazers (Book 8)

  A SHADE OF VAMPIRE SERIES

  (Supernatural romance)

  Series 1: Derek & Sofia’s story

  A Shade of Vampire (Book 1)

  A Shade of Blood (Book 2)

  A Castle of Sand (Book 3)

  A Shadow of Light (Book 4)

  A Blaze of Sun (Book 5)