The Child Thief 4: Little Lies Read online

  “Why are we going this way?” I asked.

  “It’s faster,” Corona said, her heeled shoes making a sharper sound on the concrete than our rubber-soled boots.

  “I could have guessed that,” I said sharply. I almost immediately felt guilty for my tone. “I’m sorry,” I added. “The holding center… it was more difficult than I thought it would be.”

  Corona put a gentle hand on my arm as we walked, and nodded. “I understand,” she said quietly. “I’ve been in that position too, you know. I can sympathize with how you’re feeling right now. How you felt when you lost her.”

  It was the last thing I’d expected, given what I knew of Nathan’s and Corona’s lives. What could she know about having a baby taken away from her? That never happened to the richer class.

  Did it?

  Or could it have happened before she met Nathan? The question stayed with me, stuck in my fatigued brain, but my attention soon turned to our next task: a set of metal stairs up out of the tunnel, which continued straight on. Stepping through the door at the top, we found ourselves in the foyer of the Hall, coming out of a door in the corner I hadn’t noticed before.

  Corona looked around at our group, her face shifting between pride and weariness.

  “You did well,” she said finally. “Get upstairs and rest if you can. You’ve all earned it. There are intercoms in the rooms that connect to the kitchens, so you can have food made and delivered. I don’t expect to see any of you again tonight, but we have another mission to run in the morning, this time to a center I don’t know as well. Be ready to go at six. I need you as alert as you can be.”

  With a nod, she turned and walked away. None of us spoke to each other as we climbed the stairs and trudged down the hall, then split off into our rooms to wash the melting masks off our faces and fall into our beds, thankfully too exhausted for our thoughts to linger on what we’d seen today… and would see again tomorrow.

  19

  The next morning, Nelson and I walked out of our room yawning in unison, having already discussed the need for an immediate application of coffee, hash browns, and waffles, in that order.

  “I can’t believe we’re even having this conversation,” I mumbled. “Three days ago, we were drinking Nurmeal and calling ourselves lucky for having found a convenient copse of trees to hide in.”

  “You’re telling me,” she answered, and there was something in her voice that made me stop in the small cubby enclosing our door and turn to look at her.

  “You suspect something,” I said quietly.

  Nelson met my eyes. “I do. And I know from the look on your face that you’re thinking along the same lines I am. Look at this place. It’s richer than anything I’ve ever seen before. We’re talking about going down to the kitchens and eating as much as our stomachs can hold. Freshly brewed coffee, a mountain of fresh fruit, pancakes, milk, bread, cereal, anything we could possibly want, all of it free. All of it just… available. Who the hell is paying for it?”

  I pressed my lips together, not having an answer. Nathan had to have some money to have gotten Little John moving, but this?

  “Whatever the case, I have a feeling we’re going to be asked to do a whole lot more than just remember some facts about what we’ve seen in the holding centers,” Nelson went on. “This even feels bigger than trying to save stolen children. This feels like…”

  “Like an alternate version of society,” I finished. “Like a competing version of society.”

  Nelson was opening her mouth to respond, when a hand dropped down on my shoulder and spun me around.

  Henry stood in front of me, his face torn between frustrated and pleading. “Robin, I have to talk to you.”

  I stared at him. I hadn’t seen Henry for much of yesterday, mostly because I was on the road with Corona and the others, and Henry hadn’t been invited.

  Oh. Right.

  Henry hadn’t been invited. And while no one had bothered to ask me much about him yet, it was logical that someone had said something to him.

  “What is it?” I asked, feeling like I probably already knew the answer. “Spill it. We have places to go and breakfast to eat.”

  That earned me a small smile, and Henry launched into his story. “It was that quiet, scary guy. Zion? He got me into my room and started lobbing questions at me, quicker than I could answer. Who was I and how did I come to be here and how did I know you and did I have any history with the Ministry or the Authority or any other part of the Burchard Regime, that sort of thing. Even asked if I… if I still had feelings for you.”

  He met my eyes. “That was the only question I had trouble answering. Everything else was easy. I don’t have anything to do with the government, not since they took Hope. And of course I want to do anything I can to keep that from ever happening to anyone else. I literally sent my old life up in flames, for that very reason. At this point, I doubt I have an apartment to go home to.”

  I wanted to reach out and comfort him, but I stopped myself. Things were already too mixed up when it came to Henry.

  “You’re probably right,” I said quietly. “You helped us get away. I mean, I guess we could say that we kidnapped you and forced you into it, but…”

  “But the Burchard Regime isn’t likely to believe that,” he said, filling in the end of what I was thinking. “They’re far more likely to have labeled me a terrorist as well, just for being associated with you.” His grin lit up his face, changing everything, and he let out a little chuckle. “In that case, I guess what I told Zion is right. I don’t have anyplace to go back to. Which means if I’d been doubting my ability to fight the government before, I no longer have a choice.”

  Well, that was certainly one way to look at it.

  “And what did Zion say?” I asked. “What’s the problem, Henry? Did he kick you out or something?”

  Henry’s smile dimmed then, and he met my eyes again. “That was the part I wanted to talk to you about. He asked all those questions, grilled me like he was an enforcer, and then just sort of nodded and walked away. It was like…” He paused, his brow creasing as he tried to come up with the words to convey his thoughts. “It was like they already knew everything about me, and wanted to see if I would tell them the truth. But how would they even know who I was? No one has so much as asked my name.”

  I didn’t answer. We’d been here for two days. Little John had been busy.

  We made our way into the kitchen a short time later to find the rest of our group, including Ant and Abe, sitting at a long table together. The counter along the wall held pancakes, waffles, omelets, piles of buttery toast, biscuits and gravy, hash browns, and even a plate of pastries.

  Nelson and I made short work of the buffet, returning to our seats with plates piled high with food.

  “I never in a million years dreamed that you two could eat that much,” Ant said, eyeing our plates. “You’re so tiny.”

  “Hey, we had an action-packed day yesterday while you two were playing nursemaid,” Nelson said, pouring syrup over… well, everything on her plate. “Not everyone can sit around twiddling their thumbs.”

  Abe scowled, but before he could start anything I sidetracked him with questions about Jackie.

  It turned out the twins had been given special visiting privileges, which meant they’d spent much of the previous day in her room, entertaining her and looking after her, as Ant put it.

  “She’s doing better,” he told me. “She even yelled at us to get out of her room and give her some peace and quiet after about an hour.”

  I laughed at that. Jackie was not the model of patience. I could imagine her being at death’s doorstep and still taking the time to shout at Abe and Ant about making too much noise.

  Though, it sounded like she wasn’t at death’s doorstep. Which was a relief.

  Kory, Jace, Nelson, Alexy, and I finished our breakfast faster than the twins and Henry, leaving them to eat as we filed from the kitchen, biscuits and coffee mugs still in ou
r hands.

  We were halfway down the hall when we met Corona coming the other way in search of us. She was wearing brown leather brogues and a deep green, tailored pantsuit, her dark hair pinned up off her face and neck. She looked sharp and dangerous.

  “Excellent to see you up,” she said. “Come with me.”

  We followed her to the same room we’d met in before, only this time there were others in there, too. A team of people I didn’t know. There were only four of them, all dressed in the same black bodysuits I’d seen before on other Little John operatives.

  I wondered whether we were going to have to wear those at any point. I definitely didn’t have the hips for them.

  My team dropped into seats around the table, and Corona, now at the front of the room, circled the word “Asus” on the display screen, using an electronic stylus that left markings on the screen without using anything like ink. “Gem” had been crossed out, I saw—presumably because we’d already visited it.

  “This morning we’re visiting another holding center,” she said without preamble. “This one is farther away, so we’re taking an airship instead of a van. Team Savannah will be acting as our chauffeurs.”

  She looked quickly at the strangers, apparently Team Savannah, in the room. One of the girls nodded. She had dark hair shaved close to her scalp and gray eyes that stood out against the rich tan of her skin. Her features had a vulpine twist, which made her look capable and dangerous. She looked exactly like I would have imagined a spy would look, and that thought made me immediately like her.

  The girl turned in her seat to eye our team. “I’m Savannah,” she said in a voice as sharp and pointed as her nose. “I’m head of this team. We’ve been with Little John for a year, all of us. This… this isn’t our first time going into the holding centers.”

  The stutter in her voice, that little flash of fallibility at the mention of the holding centers, made me less intimidated by her. Either she’d had a child taken herself, or hated the centers just because they existed. Either way, I sympathized.

  Savannah gestured to the rest of her team, naming them as she pointed to them. “Ajax. Lux. Rio.”

  I let my eyes run over the rest of the team, marking them in my memory in case I ever needed to spot them in a crowd. Ajax was tall, lean, and had a dangerous grace, his quiet intimidation made all the more striking by the stark paleness of his skin and hair. His eyebrows and eyelashes were nearly invisible, and his white hair hung in a single thick braid down his back like an icicle. He was like a ghost.

  Lux, on the other hand, was a short and stocky girl, packed with muscle, with very blue eyes and very red hair. Everything about her made me think of summer days in the woods. Well, summer days and forest fires.

  Rio was a boy of about my age and height with pale ginger hair and a set of buck teeth that were oddly charming in his freckled face.

  I stared at them for a moment longer than I should have, until I started drawing their eyes, and then gave them each a nod. Our first real Little John team members. Our first allies.

  I jotted them down as new members of our family, as well.

  “We’re trained pilots and computer techs,” Savannah said, “and our specialty is the airship you guys are taking today. If you need getaway drivers, we’re your people.”

  I frowned and glanced at Jace to see him returning the look. Getaway drivers? We hadn’t needed anything like that yesterday.

  “Why will we need getaway drivers?” I asked. “What are we doing, Corona?”

  “And what am I, chopped liver?” Alexy demanded on top of my question. “You know how good I am in an airship. Why am I not piloting, here?”

  Corona shot Alexy a fond glance. “You, Alexy, aren’t piloting the ship because I know your history. I’ve seen you in the holding centers before. I know how it affects you. I don’t want to be on any ship you’re flying after that, and I suspect you wouldn’t want to be flying one, either.”

  She quirked an eyebrow, waiting.

  Alexy nodded grudgingly. “Fair.”

  I looked at Corona with renewed respect, to find her giving me a harder look.

  “As to why we need getaway drivers, Robin, today will be… slightly more complex than yesterday. The Asus holding center is farther away from Edgewood, which means we won’t be able to don our disguises until we’re on our way. Doing the printing here would run the risk of our faces melting while we were still in the holding center.”

  “Do you have a portable version of the printer?” I asked.

  Corona smirked. “The printer itself is portable. We only have the one, so we made sure it could travel with us if we needed it.”

  “And what else?” I asked. “Surely having our faces melting off isn’t a good enough reason to need getaway drivers. I’m sure you could still drive just fine.”

  Another long look, and then: “Asus is larger than Gem, and we don’t have as many operatives inside. We run the risk of being discovered because there won’t be as many people running interference. If that happens, we’ll need to get out of there more quickly than even I could manage.”

  There was a quirk of her lips, an acknowledgement of her driving habits, but I couldn’t return the smile.

  “If we don’t have as many operatives inside of it, why are we going?” I asked quietly. “Don’t you have other holding centers where you have more operatives planted? Wouldn’t that be safer?”

  “The holding centers come in two basic formats. There are small ones, like Gem, that hold only one to two thousand children,” she said, in a statement that seemed to have nothing to do with my question.

  “Only two thousand,” Nelson breathed, to my left.

  Corona shot her a look as she continued. “The larger centers can hold up to five thousand children at full capacity.”

  My stomach dropped into my feet and then kept on going, straight through the floor. “Five thousand?”

  Corona took a deep breath and nodded. “Of course, they rarely have a full house, given how quickly they move the children through. But there are fifteen of those in the nation… that we know of. Which tells you, I would hope, that their CRAS program is much bigger than you’d ever imagined. And handling more children than you’d ever thought.”

  One look at our faces must have told her that we were well and truly shocked, but she continued without pause. “I expect you also saw yesterday that they have children who are much older than the ages they claim to take. We need to know why they have older children and why they’re taking so many children, at all. We need to know what they’re doing with them. All those questions might affect what we’ve set as our ultimate mission.” Then, in another abrupt change of subject, she said, “Yes, Asus is a dangerous target, but it’s the closest large-scale holding center available to us.”

  “And why do we need to get into a large-scale holding center?” Jace asked.

  Corona met his gaze and gave him a soft smile. “Jace. You know Nathan and I never do anything without reason. All of the large holding centers are built on the same set of plans, which makes them twin to each other. We need to know the layout because Asus mirrors the holding center you and your team will be breaking into next week.”

  20

  The room exploded with sound, everyone on my team shouting questions as fast as we could think of them.

  “What do you mean, breaking into?” Jace snapped, getting to his feet so suddenly his chair toppled over.

  “Thousands of children?” I asked. “And we’re just supposed to break in there like it’s nothing?”

  “Why are we breaking in?” Kory added. “What do you expect us to do? Sneak the kids to safety?”

  It was Nelson who finally brought silence. “What exactly are you trying to do here, Corona?” she asked. “What’s your plan, and what’s it got to do with those kids? With any of the kids, for that matter?”

  Alexy began studying her nails like she’d never seen them before. Savannah and her team were looking away,
up at the walls, and even down at their shoes. Anywhere but at us.

  Either they already knew the answers to those questions… or they’d never been brave enough to ask.

  “I’m fairly sure you don’t expect answers to all your questions, Nelson, because you must realize I can’t give you that sort of information,” Corona said, her voice even. She sounded as if we were discussing something as harmless as whether we would rather have strawberries or cherries on our cheesecake after dinner.

  Jace set his seat upright again, dropping into it tensely as Corona continued speaking.

  “Still, I’ll tell you as much as I can. Nathan disagrees with me on this point, but I believe it’s important for our teams to have as much information as possible when they go on a mission. Knowledge makes everyone safer when you’re confronted with danger or unforeseen circumstances. Like a snare protocol in a place you never expected to find one. Or Authority soldiers in a place you believed belonged to someone else.”

  My breath caught in my throat. “You’re talking about the warehouse,” I said. “Little John did know about it. There’s a reason you were on the timeline we found in the Authority compound. Are you planning to share that with us?”

  She tipped her head back and forth. “I can tell you the site you found was, and still is, incredibly important to the Ministry. I can tell you Little John had found the site as well, and hacked it. The Ministry and the Authority were reacting to Little John that night. Not you. Your team was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

  She put a hand up to stall my questions. “The important thing for you to understand is the bigger picture. The Ministry is stealing children from nearly half of the lower-class families, and they’re starting to reach even farther than that. Many couples who should have been safe based on the algorithms the Ministry has published are instead being robbed of their babies. Even more disconcerting is that they’re starting to take toddlers, even pre-pubescents. We’ve seen children in their teens taken from their homes, and it’s happening more and more often. But why? Are there truly so many wealthy families wanting to adopt them?”