Thin Lines (The Child Thief #3)(15)

I had no idea how good that paperwork actually was, but I could guess what Jace was thinking right now: he didn’t want to put it to the test. Particularly not when we already knew we were in trouble and were with people whose IDs would reveal them to be recent Authority prison escapees.

“Okay,” Jace breathed. “We’re taking the first left we come across. There should be one relatively close, and with luck, it’ll take us around the enforcers. Assuming it’s not blocked off.”

Everyone picked up the pace and packed closer together, and a few seconds later we were veering left down the first side street. It was, miraculously, less crowded, and thankfully not yet blocked off by the enforcers.

Perhaps that ID check actually was random rather than set up specifically to sniff us out. If that was an important ID checkpoint, surely they would have gone to greater lengths to make sure that people actually went through it?

“All of this makes me feel extremely uncomfortable,” Ant muttered. “First the new rules for the people in the factory, and now ID checks in the middle of the day, in the middle of the street? Anyone else feel like something is off here?”

“Even if it is just a random check, we need to be off the street,” I agreed. It could be that we were just paranoid, but Ant was right. The hairs on my neck were standing up, and my gut was positive that the Authority was laying traps for us.

We strode quickly into an alley that broke off to the right, and began moving down it, traveling in a path roughly parallel to the main street, with openings every so often between buildings that gave us a clear view of what was going on in the larger avenue. I glanced down each one we passed, my eyes roving over everything I could see.

“Massive crowd out there now,” I said quietly, staring at what must have been close to five hundred people, based on the glimpses I caught through the small alleys. “They’re all stacked up in front of the enforcers. Looks like the officers aren’t letting anyone past without checking ID. Though, I don’t understand how they’re managing to control that entire crowd when there are only three of them.”

“Maybe there are more officers behind them and we just didn’t see them,” Jackie suggested. “Maybe they have an entire crew out there.”

I narrowed my eyes, trying to force them to focus faster as we dashed past another alleyway, but it was no good when I was only getting scattered glimpses. All I could see were citizens, now. People who looked as if they were on their way to or from the factories, given their dress.

That was odd, given that we were now in one of the wealthier neighborhoods. This shouldn’t have been a street that a lot of factory workers walked along. There wasn’t a direct route to any of the factories, and none of those people could afford to live in this area.

“They’re all factory workers,” I noted aloud. “Or at least, that’s what they look like. In the wrong neighborhood. Why would they even be here?”

“It’s definitely not on their route,” Jackie agreed. “They’d never be here, unless…”

“Unless they’d been brought here, or they’re being funneled through here for some reason,” I finished slowly. “But why?”

“We’re at the right building,” Jace grunted, slowing his pace at the next narrow alley before peeking cautiously down it toward the main street. He paused, then nodded once to himself. “This place only has a front door, so we’re going to have risk the crowds on the street to get to it. We go through this space between the buildings two by two to get out there, so that we have an easier time getting through them, and we keep our faces hidden as much as possible. When you get out of this alley, turn left and go up the first set of stairs on your left. Just shove past people and act like it’s any other day. And if you see any of the enforcers looking at you, duck down behind the wall that lines the staircase. The door code is 121381. Get in and get up the stairs to the second floor. First door on the right is the spot. Robin and I will be inside, waiting for you.”

He paused to glance at everyone else, and I looked as well, seeing that my friends all looked terrified, but also resolute. Whatever was going on out there with the enforcers, we needed to get into Alexy’s apartment to see whether she and Zion were there with an escape plan. If they weren’t, we were going to have much bigger problems than a handful of enforcers on the street.

Jace gave them all a nod and then strode right into the alley, toward the crowd of people and the enforcers that were stopping them. He didn’t hesitate or let his steps falter, and I fell in right behind him, matching my steps to his so that I could walk in his shadow without tripping him up. It didn’t take us long to get to the other end of the short walkway, where it opened up onto the larger avenue. There he did pause, long enough to murmur a quick plan.

“Same cover story goes, Robin. In case anyone stops us, you got knocked down by a cyclist and I’m taking you home. If anyone insists on seeing our IDs, you give them yours, and we say that I misplaced mine in the crowds while trying to get you out of the street after you got hit, but that I’ll be glad to put my thumb on their fingerprint scanner. Once I do that, we run. With any luck, the few seconds the enforcer will need to look at the scan will give us an opportunity to duck into the crowd.”

I gulped, realizing that it wasn’t actually much of a plan, and put a hand to my chest for the ID that I always kept on a lanyard around my neck. It was a weird thing to do, but we’d been taught at an early age that we always had to have it on us, with the penalty for losing it being so bad that no one ever talked about it. Jace saying that he didn’t have one was going to be horribly risky, but we just had to hope it didn’t come to that.