The Child Thief 6: Zero Hour Read online

  Nelson looked out at his tent. “Maybe his good side only comes out under pressure,” she said.

  I couldn’t help but roll my eyes.

  “Well, what do you think happened?” Nelson countered.

  Just then, Gabby’s petite figured bounced toward us.

  “As glad as I was to see my family, I hope you guys knew enough to save me a spot in one of your tents,” she said with a smile. “I need a break already.”

  * * *

  The sun rose to the middle of the sky as the morning turned to afternoon, and the chill in the air was replaced with a gentle and comforting warmth. Somehow the food was even better in Brightbirch than it had been in Edgewood, and Team Hood was now contentedly lounging around after a big breakfast.

  But, sitting on the soft grass between our tents, I was feeling unbearably restless.

  A sense of casual relaxation had settled over all of us, but reality was sneaking back in. Nathan and Corona must’ve been in the administrative building consulting with Fiora, the Brightbirch base leader. Obviously, Nathan trusted the safety of this new base enough to bring us all here after a costly attack on Edgewood. But I didn’t feel safe in Brightbirch at all. Sure, it was picturesque and seemed remote and small. But there was a good chance that we had brought the enemy here with us. And, without a plan or any intel on the situation, I had no idea if efforts were even underway to root that person out.

  How could we know that the mole wasn’t in their tent at this very moment, sending Brightbirch’s coordinates to the government?

  I looked back out into the field at Robert’s tent.

  Suddenly, Nelson plopped down beside me. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you had a lot on your mind,” she quipped.

  “Doesn’t this feel unwise to you? Like we’re just waiting around for another attack?” I asked her.

  Nelson shrugged. “I get that. And yeah, I’ve been kind of uncomfortably checking the skies for airships.”

  I looked up into the clear sky. The projection defense over Edgewood had caused a strange, glittering appearance in the sky above us at all times. But I didn’t see that here. It didn’t seem like Brightbirch possessed nearly half the defenses that Edgewood had, possibly due to how spread out it was or the laid-back nature of its business, but the lack of obvious protection was only making me more nervous.

  “But I trust Nathan. And if he brought us here, it must’ve been for a good reason,” Nelson finished.

  “But what if that reason was desperation?” I rebutted. “What if we just needed fuel and had nowhere else to turn? And now we’re just gambling with our own base plus all of the people in this new one?”

  Nelson didn’t answer. Instead, she started anxiously tugging at the grass beneath us.

  I looked over at our team members sitting and enjoying a leisurely afternoon after a dangerous mission and horrible news from Edgewood. I didn’t want to take this moment away from them. They deserved the chance to sit and decompress a little. But I couldn’t sit still any longer. I didn’t want to sit around while we risked our safety and the safety of all of these people.

  We needed answers. We needed a plan.

  We needed Nathan.

  I stood, but as I started to walk away, a hand tugged at me. I turned to see Nelson.

  “I know where you’re going. And you know I’m going with you,” she said resolutely.

  5

  “Doesn’t this situation feel a little familiar to you?” Nelson asked.

  I sighed. It was starting to feel like Nelson and I were constantly chasing Nathan down for answers. That was one of the unfortunate parts about being a Little John member. Unless you were a team lead or a base leader, you couldn’t really expect a constant line of communication with Nathan. But I didn’t want to sit around and wait for news. Maybe it was because we had first known Nathan as an Operation Hood tech and not a shadowy anti-government billionaire in charge of a major operation, but I couldn’t help but feel like we had already been through enough to deserve answers.

  As we walked, however, I started wondering if that was true. I was shaken and concerned after the Helping Hands mission, losing Kory, and finding out about Edgewood. But did I really deserve answers any more quickly than the people who had been under fire in Edgewood themselves? If he did tell me something, could Nathan trust that I wouldn’t accidentally give it away to the wrong person? And was it right to barge in on him right after the huge losses of both an entire base and one of his oldest friends?

  My pace slowed the more I thought about it, and Nelson seemed to catch on to my hesitancy.

  “Maybe we could go visit the hospital first,” she offered gently.

  I looked up the narrow brick road to see the small hospital before us. Jace was probably still inside. I knew he’d be with his friends and the little family he had, saying their goodbyes to one of their own. I didn’t know whether he was done grieving in relative privacy with his family and his closest friends, or whether he was ready for visitors. But if he was, I wanted to offer him whatever support I could. And if he wasn’t ready yet, there was another person in that hospital who might’ve wanted to see me, too.

  Juno.

  I had so many questions for Juno. I could still see the faraway look of surprise and recognition in her eyes when my mask had finally disintegrated back on the airship as we escaped the Helping Hands compound. Maybe I imagined it, but maybe I didn’t. Maybe she recognized me.

  Maybe she was my mother.

  I turned back to Nelson. “That’s a good idea,” I said.

  Little John had just suffered possibly its worst loss ever, and Nathan was probably still grieving his personal losses as well. It wouldn’t be right to barge in now and expect special treatment. I had to trust that Nathan had our best interests in mind and would involve us when we needed to know more.

  Besides, if it took too long, I could always hunt him down another time.

  We turned off of the brick road toward the hospital.

  The building was bright and airy on the inside, lit by numerous windows. It was small and quaint, but that made sense. Judging from its layout and purpose, Brightbirch probably experienced fewer injuries from things like missions or combat. Patients here, as far as I could tell from seeing the base, were probably kids who had fallen out of trees playing or people who had been bucked off of horses.

  At any rate, they probably weren’t accustomed to the types of catastrophic injuries that the Edgewood members had come in with. Which made me suddenly very nervous about Juno. Had they even been able to stabilize her, if they weren’t used to those sorts of injuries? Had they had the right equipment, or supplies? Was she okay?

  The nurse at the front desk greeted us warmly.

  “You must be part of that new crowd,” he said with a smile. His voice had a pleasant twang to it, as if he should have been wearing a cowboy hat and not scrubs. “Who can I help you find?”

  “Well,” I started, “we’re actually here for a couple of people. A woman named Juno and a man named Kory.”

  The nurse’s eyes darkened.

  “The man came in deceased,” I added matter-of-factly. I didn’t want the nurse to think we didn’t know yet. And truthfully, I was also trying to prepare myself for that reality. Even if I hadn’t known Kory as well as I knew Nelson or Jackie or Ant and Abe, he still felt like family. And it was hard to accept that he was actually gone.

  Just saying those words brought hot tears up to the surface. I quickly wiped them away. I wanted to be a support for Jace at this time, and I couldn’t do that if I was breaking down right next to him.

  The nurse nodded and stood, gesturing for us to follow him.

  We entered a small elevator together, and to my surprise, the nurse pressed a button to take us into the basement. But after a quick downward trip, the doors opened, and I immediately understood why.

  We were in the morgue. It was darker and colder in the basement, and the smell in the air was discomfortingly
chemical. Formaldehyde.

  I realized suddenly that the nurse hadn’t told us whom we were seeing first. I expected Kory to be down here, surrounded by his friends, but what if Juno was down here too? A hard lump formed in my throat, and I tried unsuccessfully to swallow it down.

  The nurse walked us to a white door and then turned to face us.

  “He has some visitors currently, so I’d knock before going in,” he said in a soft tone.

  He. The word brought out a lot of emotions in me. Firstly, it was definitive proof that it was Kory who was behind this door, not Juno. So Juno might’ve survived. But secondly, hearing the nurse refer to Kory as if he were still alive made me feel desperately sad. Kory was still here with us, behind this door, but he was also gone forever. And it was hard to face that truth.

  “The woman is on the second floor. When you’re done here, take the elevator up, and the nurses upstairs will help guide you,” the nurse said. Then he nodded kindly, a hint of sympathy in his eyes, and walked back to the elevator, leaving Nelson and me alone in the hallway.

  “Do you think it’s okay for us to be here?” Nelson asked, fidgeting uncomfortably.

  I was wondering the same thing. “We’re here for Kory,” I said after a pause. Of course we would defer to Kory’s closest friends’ wishes, but I couldn’t imagine them barring us from saying our final goodbyes to a team member.

  I knocked gently but firmly, and waited. When Rhea opened the door, her face was tear-streaked, like I’d imagined it would be. But to my surprise, she was also smiling.

  “Robin,” she said warmly. Then her eyes drifted over to Nelson.

  “Oh, this is Nelson,” I said abruptly. “She’s on our team, too.”

  Rhea smiled at Nelson and then opened the door wider to let us both in. Inside, Jace, Cloyd, Denver, and Alf looked like they were in the middle of casual conversation. Jace was even laughing. But there were tears in every eye in the room. And between all of the friends, with his eyes closed as if he was just napping, lay Kory.

  Jace looked up at me when I entered the room and smiled broadly. He walked over to me and pulled me into a tight embrace.

  “Robin,” he said softly. “Thanks for coming.”

  “Of course,” I replied, tears beginning to form in my eyes.

  “You’re just in time to hear some more embarrassing stories about Jace and Kory getting into a fistfight once!” Denver yelled over the room.

  Alf and Rhea chuckled, but Cloyd’s smile seemed to have faded some at our arrival.

  I looked at Jace in surprise. “Fistfight?” I asked. It seemed like a weird thing to talk about at a time like this.

  Jace rolled his eyes. “We were eight! But Kory always swore he’d tell the story at my funeral someday, so we figured he’d want it in reverse too.”

  I smiled slightly. It was nice to think of Kory and Jace as little kids being kids. But the thought was permeated by a deep sense of loss.

  “Hey, Nelson,” Jace said as we walked farther into the room. He gave her a friendly hug and then shut the door behind us.

  The conversation had lulled a bit with our arrival, so I said the first thing I could think of.

  “I’m so sorry for your loss.”

  I immediately felt dumb for saying it. It seemed like such a trite thing to offer. But I didn’t have the words to properly communicate the sympathy I felt for this small band of survivors, or the pain I myself was feeling at Kory’s loss.

  Jace came up beside me and squeezed one of my shoulders. “Thank you, Robin,” he said. “I’m so glad that you came. Kory loved you.”

  The tears spilled over and down my cheeks, and Jace continued.

  “But being all together has helped us remember all the good times, too. And that’s how we did funerals back at home.”

  “A celebration of life,” Rhea added. “It’s what our parents would’ve wanted.”

  I smiled now through the tears. Kory’s death was a crushing blow, without a doubt. We had all been close to him, largely because of his magnetic personality and overwhelming good humor. And after our time together during the Helping Hands mission, I felt closer to Kory than I ever had. But this wasn’t just about loss and sadness and grief. And although the atmosphere in the room had surprised me at first, it made perfect sense now.

  All of us being here was also about coming together to remember a wonderful friend. Kory had been a funny, loving, vivacious person. And he always would be. Not even death could take that away.

  But even with that in mind, I never wanted to go through this with another team member. And I was worried that, if the mole was now in Brightbirch, I wouldn’t have a choice.

  I looked over at Nelson to see tears forming in her eyes as well.

  But then Cloyd cleared his throat and shifted in his seat. And he spoke the first words to me that he had in quite some time.

  “Thank you both for coming and showing your support. But if you don’t mind, we want to have a little privacy before we say goodbye to our friend.”

  His words made me feel like I’d had the breath knocked out of me. Even at a time like this, Cloyd’s dislike of me could rear its ugly head. Jace looked over at Cloyd sharply. He opened his mouth to speak, but I spoke first.

  “We’re grieving our friend, too,” I said strongly. But then I softened my tone. “But I know you guys were particularly close. I respect that. So please let us know if you need anything.”

  I had been shocked by Cloyd’s words, but I knew immediately that I didn’t want to make a difficult situation harder for Jace or his friends and sister. So it was better to just make our exit than to allow a fight to break out over our presence. As much as I wanted to tear into Cloyd, I knew that this wasn’t the time or place. Especially since I wanted to support Jace.

  Jace looked back at me with a mix of gratitude and sympathy, and I smiled gently in return. Nelson and I turned to make our exit, but Rhea stopped us at the door.

  “We’re going to have a traditional funeral for Kory, Robin. And he would want all of his team there,” she said. She glanced back purposefully at Cloyd, who somewhat abashedly looked down at his shoes.

  I reached out and grabbed Rhea’s hand, squeezing it.

  “We wouldn’t miss it,” I told her confidently. Cloyd would just have to deal with that.

  Nelson and I moved through the doorway, closed it softly behind us, and walked back to the elevator at the end of the hall before either of us said anything else.

  “What’s his problem?” Nelson asked as the elevator doors opened for us.

  I shrugged. “It wasn’t worth getting into it today,” I said. Whatever Cloyd’s problem was, we would hash that out later. Right now, it was time to focus on something else.

  I paused briefly before pushing the button for the second floor. Was I ready for this? I didn’t know whether Juno was my mother or not, but really, I was afraid of finding out either way. If she wasn’t my mother, it’d be a crushing disappointment. But all of the signs pointed to this woman actually being the one.

  So why was I so reluctant to get my hopes up?

  Then again, if she was my mother, was I ready to face that, either? What if Juno had never wanted me and didn’t care to see me again? What if she was disappointed with the person I had grown up to become?

  “Robin?” Nelson asked, interrupting my thoughts. “Is everything okay?”

  I snapped back to reality. My finger was hovering over the button for the second floor, but I hadn’t pushed it yet. With a quick exhale and a rush of courage, I pressed down, and the elevator started with a lurch.

  My heartbeat quickened as we moved up through the hospital building. This was it. It was time to find out whether Kory had died helping me save my mother . . . or a stranger.

  When the elevator doors opened, we saw the busier, brighter, above-ground portion of the hospital. There was a long hallway that curved in both directions around a small nurse’s station. A vase of colorful flowers sat perched on the co
unter by the nurses and computer monitors they worked on, while an old man ambled down the hall with his walker. A small family was entering a patient room together with a fruit basket. Another helpful nurse greeted us immediately.

  “Juno?” I asked.

  The nurse furrowed her brow.

  “A woman who came in with the Edgewood team. Gunshot wound,” I added. But my heart was sinking. If they didn’t know her by her name yet, then maybe she wasn’t speaking.

  “Ah,” the nurse said. Her smile didn’t fade, which gave me hope that the news wasn’t too bad. “She just had some medicine, so she’ll be asleep for a few hours, but you’re welcome to go in and see her for a few minutes.”

  I sighed and nodded in agreement. Guess I wouldn’t be finding out any big news today. Still, I was overwhelmed with relief that Juno had survived and was recovering.

  The nurse walked us down the bright hall back to a small, naturally lit room, the faint noises of hospital machinery echoing out into the hallway. As we approached and began to peek inside, the nurse smiled warmly again and gestured for us to go through the open door. Nelson and I stepped in slowly.

  Juno was lying back in her bed, in deep slumber. Her chest rose rhythmically under a small tangle of wires while a machine in the corner of the room beeped lazily. Her light brunette hair fell limply around her face and down to her shoulders. I was so grateful that she was alive and healthy, but for the first time I realized how gaunt she actually was. Her high cheekbones were prominent under the thin, pale skin of her face. And just over her hospital gown, you could see her delicate-looking collarbones.

  “She looks like you,” Nelson said.

  I turned back to look at her and forced a smile. I didn’t want to get my hopes up yet, but I thought I could see the resemblance, too. It was nice hearing it from someone else.

  I walked to the bed and stood over her briefly, taking in all of the resemblances that I thought I saw: the shape of our eyes, the thin bridge of our noses, and even the smallness of our ears. Who was this brave woman who had done so much to help me back in the detention center?