Thin Lines (The Child Thief #3)(74)

Of course they would have, the other voice in my head said. They’re searching the entire place. Whatever they think Corona has done, they’re serious about finding her and no doubt punishing her for it.

In that case, I replied rationally, wouldn’t the fact that the lights were off mean that they’d already searched in here? Because I didn’t think they were here anymore.

Maybe they haven’t searched yet. Or maybe there’s someone in here, just waiting for you to step out of that bin, the horrible voice replied.

I froze at that thought, every muscle tensed against the idea that there might be someone in the room with me. Someone with a gun, who had orders to shoot first and ask questions later.

But surely if there had been anyone in here, they would have seen me fall and be dashing toward the laundry bin right now, gun out and ready to shoot. I brought my own gun up higher in front of my face at the thought, pointed outward, and waited a few more seconds.

No one appeared.

Rolling gently to my side, I managed to get my knees under me, and into a crouched, turtle-like position, then paused again. Still no movement outside the bin, at least nothing that I could hear. I breathed out through my mouth, preparing myself, then popped up to a kneeling position and scanned the entire room, my gun held up and pointing outward from me as I looked. I spun first one way and then the other, my breathing coming in gasps now, and strained my eyes, trying to see into the shadowy corners of the room.

But I didn’t see anything. And I would have, if there was anyone in there, because the room was completely empty, save for the bin in which I was sitting, and a stackable washer/dryer set. Strange, I thought randomly. This house was so enormous that I’d expected at least a full-sized washer and dryer. Not that I’d been thinking about it, but now that I looked at them…

Then again, all signs pointed to Corona having lived here by herself. Perhaps she didn’t need much in the way of space when it came to washing and drying. At the thought, the mystery around her deepened, but I put it to the side for after we got out of this mess.

Life-saving efforts first. Escape second. Solving of mysteries could wait until we were miles from this place.

I climbed out of the bin and dropped to my feet on the plain concrete floor. No fancy decorations in here. This room was purely utilitarian, which meant there was nowhere to hide if anyone came in.

I turned and hissed up the chute, “Jackie! I’m all clear down here, but I don’t know how much longer we’ll be safe. Just drop the last five feet or so. There’s a laundry bin down here to land in.”

I quickly adjusted the laundry bin so it was directly under the chute again, and three seconds later Jackie fell out of the ceiling and landed with a soft thump in the laundry. I reached in to help her out, anxious to get her out of the way before the next body came, and then helped Ant once he appeared, with Jackie’s assistance. We went through the same process four more times, and within a minute my entire crew was standing in the laundry room with me. Jace and Kory both had their guns out, and the three of us moved toward the door, motioning for the others to stay behind.

I didn’t have my second-skin suit on anymore, and Kory had never had one, but we were the people with the guns, which meant we went first.

Jace, who did still have his second-skin suit on, took the lead. He crept up to the door and pulled it open a couple of inches—just far enough to slide his hand and the ever-present hand mirror through the space so he could look around. He stared at it for several seconds, the muscles in his arm telling me that he was turning it, and a second later, he nodded.

“This room isn’t attached to the kitchen, but I can see the kitchen to the right,” he whispered. “This opens up into a hallway, and I can’t see what’s on the other side. Where are the agents now? Has anyone been listening?”

We hadn’t, but we all grew immediately still, tuning our ears to the sound of other people in the house.

For a moment everything was still, and then a crash sounded directly above us, so loud that we all jumped and ducked, thinking the ceiling was coming down. Nothing further happened, though, and it quickly became obvious that most of the soldiers had moved upstairs.

“They’re on the second floor,” I hissed. “And that means they’ve probably left guards at the doors, so with luck we won’t have to pass any. There are four floors in this place, and if they keep moving upward, that gives us a bit of time to get to the kitchen, find the basement, and figure out what the hell we’re supposed to do from there.”

I was about to step out into the hallway when Jace put a sudden hand on my arm and yanked me back.

“As long as they didn’t leave anyone in the kitchen to keep an eye on things,” he whispered cautiously. “We can’t be sure that all of them went upstairs, or even that they’re only at the doors. We can hope. But hope isn’t going to do us a lot of good if we end up rushing into a room where Authority soldiers are keeping watch. I go first.”

I bit my lip and nodded, grateful again to have him along. I’d evidently become the person who rushed right into danger without thinking about it enough, thanks to my overwhelming need to get out of here quickly. The idea that there were soldiers upstairs who would shoot us on sight was completely overshadowing what I’d always thought of as my more practical nature.

Though, I was starting to realize that maybe my nature had never been all that practical in the first place. The last two weeks had showed me that I was more impulsive than I’d admitted. But right now, I needed to be smart and play it safe.