Thin Lines (The Child Thief #3)(96)

“There’s a zipper in the back,” I reminded Nelson, even though she had helped me out of my suit in the cave.

“I know, I know,” she said, scooting behind Jackie to get access to it.

She tugged at the zipper and then pulled it all the way down to Jackie’s lower back. I saw the suit go loose over her shoulders and reached up to pull it down her arms while Nelson supported her.

By the time we were done, she was left in nothing but a hot pink—and extremely lacy—bra. And over half of her torso was covered in deep purple bruising.

“Oh, man,” I breathed, horrified.

“I know,” a hoarse voice answered. “It hurts like you wouldn’t believe.”

I looked up, shocked, to see Jackie’s bloodshot eyes staring back at me, hazed over with pain. Though, her lips were curled up in what could have been the start of a smile.

“And don’t think I don’t realize that you guys just stripped me down to my bra in front of a bunch of boys. I’m going to remember that the next time you’re passed out.”

I would have laughed were it not for the dire state of her body.

“Shut up,” I said sharply. “If you distract me, this is going to hurt even worse.”



“How is she?” Jace asked quietly when Nelson and I returned to sit with the rest of the crew.

He had built a small fire and set up a shelter over it using one of my sheets as a blockade against jumping sparks, so it was throwing off a strange sort of only-on-the-ground glow, but it was warm, and the night had turned chilly.

“Not good,” I muttered. “She’s covered in bruises and says that everything inside her hurts. There’s internal damage—things that are perhaps broken, or at least shifted—and I suspect there’s also damage in her back. Definitely in one of her legs, too. And her torso is so purple that I can barely see the color her skin used to be.”

“Can you do anything for her?” Ant asked hoarsely.

I shook my head. “Nelson and I aren’t medics, and even if we were, we don’t have the sort of equipment we’d need. I have no clue where we’d even start. I’ve given her water and some Nurmeal, so at least she’s had some nutrition. She’s sleeping now, and we don’t want to move her again unless we have to.” I turned and fixed Jace with a stare. “But we need to get to a place where she can get medical attention. As soon as possible. She’s badly hurt, and I don’t know how much longer she’ll hang on.”

Jace returned the look and gave me a quick nod. “I’ve been thinking the same thing. And I know exactly the place. We should have thought of it right away. We should have headed there right away. I would bet good money that it’s where Corona was going to take us, if she’d made it to that meeting.”

Wait, what? I stared at him, my mouth falling open at this unlikely statement. What the heck was he talking about? He’d known where Corona was going to take us, and he was just now telling us?

“I didn’t think about it until we were on our way here,” he clarified, seeing the look I was giving him. “I was feeling a little bit sorry for myself, and wishing that there was someone else telling us what to do, someone who actually knew what they were doing, like a parent, or—”

“Where, Jace?” I snapped. “Enough with the vagueness! Where are we going and how are we getting there?”

“The convent. It’s the only option,” he said. “We should have been heading there right from the start, but we were so intent on figuring out who Little John was and where to find Corona that I didn’t think of it. It’s the perfect place. Out of the way, and under the Authority’s radar. They won’t even think to suspect that we went there. Plus, it has medical facilities. And I know they’ll take us in.”

The convent. Oh my God, we were so stupid for having forgotten it. It was perfect. I’d only been there once, when Jace took me to visit his sister, but he was right about them taking us in. The nuns there had been very clear regarding their thoughts on the government, and they seemed to extend help to rebels however they could.

But there was a big problem: the distance. It had been a four-hour journey from Trenton, and Jace and I had traveled by train for most of the trip, then taxi for the last hour of it.

The journey hadn’t been quick and was going to be nearly impossible without easy transportation. Our bikes didn’t count—not with Jackie in such bad shape. Plus, they left us too exposed. And the train was out, too, thanks to the Authority plastering our faces all over the place and labeling us terrorists. Taxis as well; we’d never know when or if a driver was going to turn us in and collect some sort of reward for handing over dangerous criminals.

Which meant we had to figure out another way. A way that would get us there quickly—and gently, for Jackie’s sake. And a way that would allow us to hide our movements from the Authority. Because the last thing we wanted to do was lead those soldiers right to the doors of a convent they would never have suspected otherwise.





38





“Um, so where is this convent, and why haven’t we heard of it before?” Nelson asked. “This seems like it should have been, oh, I don’t know, maybe first on your list, rather than an afterthought?!”