Thin Lines (The Child Thief #3)(50)

“So, what’s next?” I asked, knowing that it wasn’t later yet. We were still in the middle of survival mode. We didn’t have the choice of relaxing.

Jace gave me a nod. “I have some research I have to do. I have… a plan, but I need to know where we’re supposed to go to execute it. And in the meantime, there’s the timeline. I’m not sure how much longer we’re going to be able to count on safety up here. The sooner we know what we’re doing, the better.”

I nodded and fell into step next to him as he walked back toward the cave. The timeline. Right. As for safety…

That was also going to have to come soon, I suspected. Because until we were in a more secure position, with either Nathan or Little John, we couldn’t count on it.





20





We returned to the cave to find that the others had been discussing the very thing we were about to dive into—thanks, no doubt, to the fact that Ant and Abe had tipped them off. The moment we were past the fire, Nelson looked up at us from where she already had the papers with the timeline out of Jace’s bag and tidied into a stack.

“So, the timeline,” she said. “We agreed it’s the logical place to start, right?” She pulled out her phone and my tablet and gave me a grin. “And I figured that we would be doing some research. In which case, I’m going to commandeer this bigger, fancier device and leave all of you to your puny little phones.”

Jace put up a quick hand. “The timeline for you guys, yes,” he said. “But I have other research I need to do. And I’ll need a device. Since my phone is…” He gestured helplessly at the wreckage that was his phone, and Nelson nodded.

“Take mine,” she said, throwing it at him. “The combination is 137398. Just don’t send out any flirty texts or call any numbers you don’t think I’ll like. Remember, I’m watching.” She gave him a serious glare, and though I wasn’t quite sure what it was about, Jace chuckled and shook his head.

“I will treat it with the utmost respect,” he said solemnly. “And I’ll fully expect you to be watching over my shoulder.”

Then he reached down into the bag at his feet, grabbed the unlabeled address book he’d been so relieved to find in his apartment, and made his way back to the fire, his fingers already flipping through the pages, his face lowered over it, reading intently.

I watched him, still curious about why he was blocking us from whatever search he was doing, and wondered if it had anything to do with the plan B he’d started to tell us about in the cabin. The plan that I was sure he’d been referring to several times during the day, and that he’d stopped short of giving us any details about.

What was he hiding? And why was he hiding it? Given what I knew about the deeper layer of OH+—which I’d begun to refer to as the shadow side in my head—I was assuming it had something to do with Nathan and security. Perhaps even Little John, though I didn’t think Jace would know if that larger organization was connected, as it didn’t seem that he’d taken the step into Little John, himself. At least, not that he knew of.

None of which explained why he wasn’t telling us. We were his team—and we were the ones running for our lives from the Authority. If anyone had the right to know about a plan B, it was us.

I put it out of my mind and turned to my friends. Jace wasn’t the only one with a plan. Ours might not be a sure bet—in fact, it might be a long shot—but at least it was something.

I dropped down next to Nelson and eyed the stack of papers on the floor of the cave.

“Everything the Authority knows about Little John,” Ant said quietly. “Or at least, everything they thought they knew. Everything they thought important enough for a timeline… This is real live spy stuff. Right out of a novel.”

Jackie gave him a wry glance. “And if we don’t hurry up and start figuring it out, instead of sitting here staring at it like a bunch of idiots, we’re going to be the characters that end up going to jail for the rest of their lives in that novel,” she said. “Let’s get started.”

Her words spurred the rest of us to action, and within seconds, six pairs of hands were rifling through the stack of papers, grabbing as many as they could, and then starting to fit them together. It was like doing a puzzle, but along a single line—and one where the stakes were a lot higher than just a game you played on rainy afternoons.

We focused on the dates over anything else and moved the papers as necessary to put them in the right order. While we worked, I scanned the events, wondering what it was we were about to see. I’d looked at them when we were in that office, but I hadn’t committed many of them to memory. We’d had slightly bigger things to think about at the time. Like getting out of there with our lives intact. The one thing I remembered with clarity was the event that now caught my eye, right under my fingertips.

Warehouse raid, Belmore, it read. OH+ somehow involved here as well. Reverse hack, arrests made. Could they be part of Little J.O.H.N.?

That was the real question. Were we part of this Little J.O.H.N.? (And why did the Authority spell it with the periods? Was that Little John’s official preference? How would the Authority know something like that?)

But if we were part of Little John, why hadn’t we been told? Why hadn’t we been warned? And why hadn’t they taken us to their headquarters when they had us in their airship after the jailbreak?