The Child Thief Read online

  He stopped outside a snack stall. “Thirsty?” he asked me in a low tone.

  “I’m okay,” I replied. “Thanks.”

  He bought himself a bottle of water, and we continued walking, with me trying to focus better on the task at hand. But even after roaming through the mall’s second floor, nothing was sticking out at me. I suggested we do a check of the third and final floor, and he nodded in agreement.

  As we ascended the last set of escalators, I was beginning to think that the topic of his sister issues was past us, but then he cleared his throat again and said out of the blue, “I was out collecting firewood.”

  I paused to look at him, raising my eyebrows, and saw that his expression had taken on a distant quality, his eyes fixed on the floor in front of us, yet far away. It made me sense that whatever he was about to tell me was for catharsis, and I needed to just stay quiet. So I pressed my lips together and continued scanning the shopfronts, albeit absentmindedly.

  “My sister was with me,” he went on after a moment. “She and our two dogs. We were out in the woods around the back of our mountain, gathering timber I had chopped the previous night. She was sitting on a fallen tree, talking to me about the dinner she was going to help my mother cook that evening, when we heard the sound of sharp popping.

  “I was initially afraid that it was some kind of severe rockslide near our settlement. I caught my sister’s hand and ran with her out of the forest, and onto a cliff that overlooked our home. That was when I realized it was gunshots.” He paused, his chest heaving out. “Our people had been trying to fight off what they’d thought was an invasion, but stood no chance. Anyone who tried to resist was mowed down. I covered my sister’s eyes, not wanting her to watch. And then I picked her up and ran back into the forest. I told her to wait in the hollow of a tree with the dogs and promised I would bring back our brother and parents. She was shaking when I left her, but I told myself she would be okay. I told myself that, somehow, we would all be okay. That this couldn’t actually be happening. Our friends and family couldn’t be dying.

  “My brain went into a haze of panic. All I remember of that climb down to the caves was the fervent hope that I would find my family alive. But by the time I made it down there, the gunfire had stopped, and anyone left in the caves was on their back, still.

  “There wasn’t time to identify bodies. I had to run to escape the patrol. So I fled back up the mountain, gathered my sister and dogs, and hoped my parents had somehow managed to escape. But we stumbled upon the survivors an hour later, and they weren’t among them.

  “And my sister was never the same after that. It was the hour she locked herself up and threw away the key. She wouldn’t talk to me for weeks, hardly even acknowledged my presence, despite my begging her to. Barely even blinked when we had to leave our dogs behind. And when she was taken in by the group that’s looking after her now, she didn’t say goodbye. I had already lost her.

  “And then, last Sunday when I visited her, something snapped in her and she finally spoke to me. Slapped me across the face and told me it was my fault. That I shouldn’t have come back without them. That I should have tried harder. That I lied to her. I guess in a way she’s right. I shouldn’t have promised her the unpromisable.”

  He trailed off, resuming his focus on the stores around us and leaving me to process his words. I felt his pain almost as if it were my own, imagining what the last several months must have been like for him. Forced to flee the only home he’d ever known and adjust to the strangeness of mainstream society, while trying to cope with the deaths of his parents and older brother, then being ignored and attacked by the only family member he had left. His own sister.

  “I’m sorry,” he said after a moment, his voice stronger, shaking his head as if he’d just snapped out of a daze. “I’m not sure why I told you all that… I guess I haven’t talked about it in a while.”

  I breathed in, trying to steady my own voice. “Hux, you feel free to talk to me anytime you want, okay?”

  “Okay.” He gave me a smile, then turned his eyes ahead with a sigh. “Anyway, as brutal as last Sunday was, I’m actually hoping it’s a step forward. I feel like the boil has started to burst, and if I can get her to keep talking, she’ll come around. She doesn’t really blame me; I know it. She loves me, and I just need to get her to remember that.”

  “So you’re going to go visit her again this Sunday?” I asked, once again wondering where she actually was.

  He nodded firmly. “She told her guardians that she doesn’t want me to come, but I’m going to. I’ve got to fix her. And besides, it’s her birthday.”

  “Right, of course.” I nodded, feeling the urge to give his shoulder a reassuring squeeze. To offer him at least some of the support he’d lacked for so long. But then I reminded myself that he probably hadn’t told me any of this to earn my pity, and I wasn’t sure if he’d interpret the gesture as that. He’d just let this out to get it off his chest. So I kept both hands to myself, and mentally gave him a little hug.

  “Also,” he added after a pause, giving me a sidelong glance, “I have to go there anyway on business. Her group is one that’s on my trusted list, and I need to talk to them regarding Nathan’s new initiative. So if you aren’t fed up with me by the weekend, you can see where she’s staying. It’s the same place where Noreen and Davine’s women and children take refuge.”

  My eyebrows shot up into my hairline. “Oh! Wow. I can really come to see it?” I was extremely curious as to how those mothers and children were able to stay in the country without being found out—had been ever since I visited Noreen and Davine’s little grotto— because once I got my own child back, I would be faced with the exact same issue. I wanted to be aware of all the options available to me before taking the last resort and fleeing the country.

  He nodded, giving me a canny look. “Yes.”

  And then I blinked. “Wait. I thought you said you couldn’t share that info with me?”

  “Technically I don’t have permission to talk about it, per the usual protocol: the location is strictly on a need-to-know basis. But if you come with me on Sunday, it’ll be a bona fide visit, and you’ll find out for yourself.”

  “Then I would love to come!” I gushed. “What time are you leaving and what’s the meeting spot?” Not that I had any plans for Sunday, anyway.

  He chuckled. “I’ll send you the details nearer the time.”

  “Okay. Thanks!”

  We both then returned to the matter at hand, as we were beginning to attract stares from security personnel due to the way we were hovering around the shop windows. As I continued searching for a gift, however, more than ever, all the options felt lame. Now that Hux had given me all of this background around her, I wanted to find something deep and meaningful and heartfelt. Something that might, somehow, help the girl warm to Hux.

  And I just didn’t think I was going to find that here.

  We reached the final stretch of shops, and I was about to admit defeat when I spotted something… interesting. It was a narrow stall, tucked right at the end of the walkway, and contained raw materials—reams of fabric and balls of wool. As I approached the counter, I also noticed mending equipment. Needles and multicolored thread, scissors and tape measures. They even had knitting supplies.

  My eyes lit up. “Hey, Hux. Come over here!” I called to him, as I realized he’d gotten distracted by a sock stall farther up. If he had even remotely been considering socks, he had definitely been right to ask for my help.

  He approached and frowned as he laid eyes on the materials.

  “I bet I could make your sis something cool with a few items from here,” I said, eyeing the prices.

  Hux froze. “You… You’d be willing to do that?” he asked, his eyebrows shooting up.

  I smiled at his surprise. “Sure. You could just purchase the materials, which should come to less than ten dollars. Not too bad, right?” I didn’t know what I was going to make yet, but I was prett
y sure I could come up with something cool once I had some basic materials together.

  He shook his head, still looking slightly dazed at my offer. “No. Not too bad at all.”

  I turned to the woman behind the table and ordered what I needed, stuffing each item into my backpack as she handed it to me. After Hux paid up, we stepped back from the stall.

  “That’s… really great of you, Robin,” he said, finding his voice again as he gazed down at me. “It means a hell of a lot to me.”

  I shrugged. “It will be a fun personal project for me, honestly. It’s been a while since I’ve done anything creative, and I doubt it’ll take much time. So don’t sweat it. The only thing is, I might have a few questions for you, once I get home and do some brainstorming for the design. Nothing identifiable. Just a tad personal, so I can make the gift as good as it can be.”

  “Sure,” he said, his face lighting up.

  His tension seemed to ebb away as we made our way back down the mall’s levels toward the exit, and though we fell into another silence, it was the comfortable type, unlike earlier. I could practically feel the warmth emanating from him. He really did seem touched by my offer, which made me happy. God knew we all needed a little compassion in our lives now and then.

  We walked back out through the revolving door, and then Hux turned to face me, his honey-brown eyes still shiny with gratitude. He was presumably about to suggest we head our separate ways when another idea hit me. One so obvious I couldn’t believe it hadn’t occurred to me right away.

  “Hey, while we’re on the subject of needles and thread,” I said, before he could speak. I quirked an eyebrow. “My offer still stands for that sew job.”

  A slow grin stretched his lips. Then he shoved his hands into his pockets and rocked back on his heels, feigning consideration. “Well, technically it wouldn’t be professional of me to accept the offer, given that I am”—he coughed—“your colleague, as well as, technically, your team leader. But then again, I suppose I’ve already screwed my professionalism by telling you my whole life story. So heck, why not give you my pants?”

  I laughed. “And a shirt.”

  He nodded. “And a shirt. We’ll see how you do with those first.” To my surprise, he shrugged off his backpack and pulled out a spare pair of pants and a shirt right then and there.

  “Whoa. Had you already been planning to accept my offer today, or what?”

  He gave me a wry look. “Nope. I just had a spare set of clothes in there because I wasn’t sure where I’d be sleeping tonight, and since we finished earlier than I expected, I’ve decided I won’t need them.”

  I grinned. “A likely story,” I said, taking them from him and stuffing them into my bag.

  He gave a little shrug. “It’s true.”

  “Anyway, I’ll get to work on them once I’m home, and hopefully you can feel like a new man by Sunday.”

  “I’ve given you a lot of homework.”

  “Ah, that’s okay. I can make time at the edges of the day. I’ll get your sister’s present finished as soon as possible, too. Definitely by Saturday.”

  “Thanks again, Robin,” he said with a genuine smile.

  He held out a hand, and I took it. Our handshake seemed to become more of a squeeze than a shake, and I wasn’t sure if it was just my imagination, but it also seemed to last a moment longer than required.

  When we stepped back, we gave each other a final smile.

  “So I’m guessing there’ll be another message from you in my inbox tomorrow morning about our next adventure?” I asked.

  He grinned. “You can count on it.”

  15

  Thanks to a road accident, I ended up stuck in a load of unexpected traffic, and it took me way longer to get home than it should have. It was 10:53 p.m. by the time I walked through my cabin’s front door, but oddly, despite the day having been long and laborious, I wasn’t feeling tired.

  I couldn’t stay up too late, of course, or I wouldn’t be able to function properly tomorrow, but I could give myself another hour or so. I was eager to check in with the new portal, and then at least make a start on Hux’s clothes. I was guessing that job was going to end up taking less time than his sister’s gift, so I wanted to get it out of the way first.

  I grabbed a glass of water and a bottle of Nurmeal (I was becoming a bit time-strapped these days) and then sat down at my dining table, pulled out my tablet, and logged in to the new portal.

  The first thing I did was check to see how much the members list had grown, and my, had it. It was more than double the size it was yesterday, with over fifty members. It made me wonder how many other admins were out there, recruiting people. I didn’t remember Hux mentioning an exact number, but there were definitely more new members than we could take credit for.

  I was pleased to see that among the new members were Gabby’s family, and that “GabbySails” herself was there.

  I clicked on the forum to find it thrumming with activity. Half a dozen new threads had been posted, and the “stunt” thread was busier than ever. Like yesterday, though, after browsing through several pages filled with comments, I began to feel overwhelmed by all the different streams of consciousness. (There also seemed to be quite a bit more arguing going on, though I realized after a minute that was mostly Gabby’s family amongst themselves.) And it once again made me impatient for Monday. Four more days.

  I exited the portal because hanging around the threads wasn’t going to be very productive until then, and my time was limited tonight. Especially as I suddenly remembered that I also needed to talk to Nelson. I picked up my phone and dialed her number, and was glad when she answered after a couple of rings. I filled her in on how my day had gone, as well as my initial thoughts on the new portal. She agreed with basically everything I said and told me she had already spoken with multiple admins, who assured her that Monday would bring the features we needed. We were just dealing with an early bird version of the portal right now, as I’d suspected.

  After wrapping up my conversation with her and saying goodnight, I decided to allot the rest of the evening to my long-lost hobby.

  I cleared the table to make room for Hux’s pants and shirt, and spread them out over it. Then I fished out the sewing equipment from my backpack and started examining the seams of the clothing. As it turned out, it was a surprisingly simple job. The clothes were an extra-large size as they were, but I guessed he had bought them from some sort of specialized store, because they had also been designed to be adjustable—to accommodate people of even larger sizes, with some easy alterations. He probably just hadn’t realized it, or even if he had, hadn’t known what to do about it.

  There was extra fabric tucked up around the seams, though, which made it easy for me to do an extension job. I didn’t have his exact measurements, but I was pretty good at eyeballing things, and by the time I’d finished with both the pants and the shirt, I was confident that he would be a much happier man in them.

  The work took me less than an hour for both items, and I was rather pleased with myself, now having some time before sleep to think about his sister’s gift.

  I decided that a change of scenery was in order, and relocated to my bed, carrying with me what I needed and plopping it down on the mattress. I slipped beneath the sheets and pulled the materials toward me. Like I said, my nanny Sarah had taught me how to create wonderful things with cloth, and I wasn’t lying when I told Hux that I was looking forward to the creative challenge. It had been a long time since I’d had a chance to put my skills to use, and doing so brought about fond memories of her, and the way she’d shaped my childhood.

  But I had to admit that this was an extra tricky task, given the tension between Hux and his sister. It wasn’t a matter of simply creating something pretty. I wanted to try to create something that would help bridge the gap, somehow. Something that would resonate emotionally. Remind her that he was her loving brother and would probably sacrifice the world for her. But how was I going to
do that, exactly? I still wasn’t sure.

  I closed my eyes for a minute, thinking, and then quickly fetched a small pad of paper and a pen from the living room. Returning to my bed, I started to sketch out ideas, but ultimately stalled, and realized that I wasn’t going to get much further without some extra help from Hux.

  I glanced at the time on my phone. 11:46 p.m. He’d said that after midnight he turned grumpy… so maybe he was still awake? I decided to send a text, just in case, as that was less intrusive than a call, and likely to get a quicker response than an OH message.

  “Hey, you asleep yet?” I typed, then pressed send.

  I waited, staring at the screen, then smiled when his response came back.

  “Apparently not… But you’re in dangerous territory.”

  My thumbs worked quickly. “I’m working on the gift. Had a few quick questions.”

  “Go ahead. :)”

  “What’s her favorite animal?”

  “Brown bear.”

  “And does she have a favorite tree/plant?”

  “Probably quakies.”

  I frowned. “Quakies?”

  “A type of thin tree with yellow-orange leaves.”

  “Okay. And favorite place?”

  “The lake... It was bordered by lavender bushes.”

  I paused at that additional bit of information. Interesting. I had lavender bushes growing just near my cabin.

  “Ok, thanks,” I typed back. “Think that’s all I need for now.”

  “That wasn’t too imposing.”

  I grinned. “Glad you think so.”

  Though I hadn’t asked much, the information he’d given me had actually helped a lot. My brain was starting to buzz with ideas, and I felt a rush of excitement as one in particular came to the forefront.