Thin Lines (The Child Thief #3)(76)

Then Jackie coughed and pointed, and I saw what she was talking about. There, at the far end of the basement, was a ramp leading right up toward the ceiling. And at the top of it, a wide door attached to a motor.

“But how do we open it?” Abe asked, panicked.

I was about to shake my head when I saw something on the wall next to the ramp. I jumped off my bike and ran toward the wall to find that it was just… a button. In a pad. Embedded in the wall.

I turned and stared at Jace, my thoughts full of questions, and he nodded. “That’s got to be it,” he said firmly.

I whirled around, jammed my finger down on the button, and heard the door above me engage and then start rolling upward. It took me five seconds to get back to my bike, and ten seconds later we had the bikes started and were roaring up the ramp, through the door, and into the light of freedom.





29





None of us stopped when we hit what turned out to be another driveway at the back of the house. Instead, we tore out onto the street behind the houses, never pausing to look back, and raced up the street, Jace in the lead. He swerved right at the first corner and kept going, turning at random as we came to streets and racing through the development, the large, colorful houses flying by us in blurs of red and brown. I was ducked so low over the handlebars of my bike that I could feel the seat jamming into my belly, but I didn’t sit up. I didn’t slow down.

I prayed that those agents in that house were ignorant of what had just happened. I prayed that they’d been making enough noise that they didn’t hear our engines or the door we’d opened. But we couldn’t be sure of that. Not until we were far enough away to stop and determine whether we’d been followed.

Once we’d been driving for ten minutes, Jace pulled into a parking lot, coasted to where a row of trees would hide us from the main road, and killed his engine. The rest of us followed suit, and then sat there, breathing hard and taking our helmets off, then staring at each other.

“I swear, I’m starting to feel like we’re living in some sort of movie,” Nelson said, her voice hoarse with tension. “And not the good kind. The kind that you watch and think, ‘Man, I’m glad my life isn’t like that.’ Are we actually riding motorcycles that we just found in your contact’s basement? In what world does this happen?”

“In a world where we’re being chased by an authoritarian government that steals people’s babies and sells them, I guess,” I said, giving her a quick grin. Then I turned to Jace. “So, what’s the move, Captain?”

He glanced at the street behind us, his eyes intense. “I want to see if they’re following us,” he said quietly. “I can’t see how they would have missed us starting so many bikes in the basement of the house they were actively searching, and I don’t know how they would have missed seven motorcycles tearing up the street at high speeds. But I didn’t see any immediate response from them, and I’m figuring that if we’re lucky, we took enough turns and got out of there quickly enough that they might not know where to go, even if they saw us leave. It would have taken them some time to get back to the main driveway and get their vehicles started. If we’re lucky…”

At that point, we heard sirens in the distance, and all of us ducked. That sort of sound only came from one thing: government law enforcement cars.

“Either someone in this neighborhood has called the cops for some inane reason—maybe on us, come to think of it—or those agents did in fact see us, and now they’re giving chase,” Ant said shortly. “And I’m guessing, given our luck, that it’s the second of those two options.”

“I agree with you,” Jace said, leaning down and staring at the road. “The only question is whether they’ll come this way, or whether they’re just going to canvass the area randomly.”

“Either way, I don’t think we can afford to sit around and wait to see,” I said, my skin feeling itchy at the concept. I hated being a sitting duck. Now that we’d figured out how to take action, and I had the confidence of a gun at my hip, I was ready to run.

“I say we get the hell out of here. If they’re canvassing the neighborhood, they’re going to find this spot sooner or later. I don’t want to be sitting here when they do.”

Jace gave me a nod of acknowledgement, and that was good enough for me.

“Jackie?” I said, turning to her. “Can you get the map up to get us back to the forest, quickest way possible?”

She winked and took out her phone, typed for a second, and then held it up. “Got it,” she said, and held out her hand. “Ant, my comm, if you don’t mind.” He jerked it out of his pocket and tossed it to her, and a moment later she had it in her hand and was looking at the group. “Everyone with comm devices, turn them on. I’ll lead. The rest of you, don’t lose us.”

She popped the device back into her ear and hit the power switch, and I watched as Jace, Kory, and Abe turned theirs on as well. Jackie gave everyone a minute to get ready and get their helmets back on, and when she had nods from everyone, she turned the ignition on her bike again, hit the throttle, and roared off into the street.

The rest of us followed, my bike cruising just to the left of Jace’s, Nelson on my other side. Ant and Abe were right in front of us, and Kory rode behind us, so we’d have someone with a comm on if we got lost. I had my gun out still, and I knew Jace and Kory had theirs as well.