“We will find the children,” Girard promised, “and bring them back to you.” He asked for details of the children - names and ages - and received replies from around the room. Hallie kept a mental tally going. Five children. Three girls, two boys. Aged between seven and thirteen. When he’d got as much information as possible, Girard got up from the bench and Hallie followed. He hadn’t consulted her, but he didn’t need to. Kidnapping children was not something either of them would ignore.
“Is there another way out of this building?” Hallie asked. She didn’t have any hesitation about disabling the guards at the front door, other than it would cause noise and draw attention. It would be better to leave quietly. Such a large building should have at least one other exit, and if some of the residents of New Hope had been sneaking food in, she doubted they had come to the front door.
“Couple of ways, yes,” Donall answered, tilting his head as he looked between her and Girard. “You’re really going to look for our children?”
“We really are,” Hallie confirmed.
“Alright, then,” Donall said, and his shoulders straightened for the first time since Hallie had seen him. He gave Girard and Hallie directions to get out of the building, keeping his voice low as if he was worried about being overheard. As Donall talked, Hallie could understand his caution. The builders who’d crafted the town hall had added a secret exit that only they knew about, and had managed to keep it hidden from Nicholas.
“But how can you find the children?” Sylvie wanted to know as Hallie and Girard were preparing to leave. “I mean, you don’t know the town?”
“It’s alright. Girard can find anything,” Hallie promised her and saw that dangerous bit of hope light up on Sylvie’s face again before she followed Girard out of one of the secret exits of the building, wondering just what more awful things they would learn before the day was done.
Chapter seventeen
HallieandGirardleftthrough a narrow door cleverly concealed in a store room at the very back of the building, finding themselves in a narrow, shadowed alleyway between the town hall and the next building along. Hallie had a moment’s shock. She’d expected to walk into daylight, but the sky overhead was shadowed, almost fully into the night. Between her and Girard’s encounter with Nicholas and the gunners, and then sitting with the Reunion settlers, she hadn’t realised so much time had passed. Peering around the corner of the town hall building she could tell that the square was empty, and from what she could see, all the businesses were now closed for the day. There were no street lights, of course, but the same was true of most of low city. The sky overhead was still heavy with cloud, with just enough moonlight getting through to let her see where she was going.
“I didn’t realise it was so late. Or is it getting dark early again?” Hallie asked Girard.
“A bit of both, I think. The storm has passed here but that cloud is not helping.” He sent her a sideways glance. “It’s been a long day.”
“That it has,” she agreed, and was about to assure him that she was fine and would manage whatever came next. But she wasn’t sure of that herself. Tiredness was making her whole body heavy. She had worked longer hours in low city, though, and was used to pushing through the exhaustion. And they had a mission that couldn’t wait. “Are the children all in one place, or scattered?” she asked.
“I’m just getting this direction for the moment,” he answered, and headed off with brisk strides, moving with the quiet self-assurance of someone who was perfectly entitled to be out on the street in this town after dark. Hallie tried to match his confidence as they headed along a street of small, lopsided cottages on long, narrow plots of land, with more evidence of vegetable gardens. She wished the light was better so she could see more detail. Looking ahead, Hallie could see the dark shapes of what seemed to be taller buildings towards the end of the street, which she thought might be closer to the shore.
“Separating the families was smart,” she commented. “Barbaric, but smart. And Nicholas has managed to get a tight grip on this place, even if Rhodda and Donall don’t want to have him in charge. He strikes me as someone who got into a lot of trouble before he got here.” She shook her head. “I wish we had net access. I’m betting that Nicholas Rigg would show up on a search.”
“I think you’re right. Putting his face together with his name jogged a memory for me,” Girard said. “Some notice or other from a while back. We’d only get information about non-hochlenconvicts or suspects if they were particularly violent or dangerous.”
So Nicholas had been troublesome enough to attract the attention of thehochlenauthorities, Hallie thought. It didn’t surprise her. It also resolved that nagging question as to why Nicholas would have allowed someone else to contact the Conclave. She couldn’t imagine him giving up that kind of power easily. But if his name was known to the Conclave, he’d probably wanted to avoid notice. Which made her wonder if he’d somehow managed to escape his imprisonment, or get free before facing trial.
“What would happen if the Conclave found an escaped convict on Paradise?” she asked Girard.
“I think it would depend on what they had been convicted of,” he answered, tone thoughtful. “For more serious crimes, I assume that the Conclave would want the person brought back to their custody.”
“So, they would send a team to the island? Fetch the person back?” Hallie asked, a light shiver running over her skin. The way that the common folk of low city talked about Paradise, it seemed like a place where nohochlenever went, where humans would be completely safe, free to mingle with their own kind and make their own lives. She was quite sure it had never occurred to any of them that the elite would simply send a team to drag them back. But only for the more serious criminals, she thought, sarcasm edging her mental voice. Those who had committed crimes against the elite or otherwise behaved badly enough to come to the attention of thehochlen. No ordinary criminals. After all, the elite had a reputation to uphold and wouldn’t want it getting out that people could just escape their authority by reaching Paradise.
“I think so. But I’m not aware that it’s ever happened before,” Girard said.
“What about someone like Findo Trask?” Hallie asked, remembering her coffee meeting with the director and the unwelcome news he’d given her.
“I doubt he’d come here,” Girard said, glancing across at her, face shadowed in the fading light. “He’sveondken, after all. He’d be about as welcome here as we are. But, yes, I would think that the director would send a team after him. He killed one of us, after all.”
From the way he spoke, Hallie could tell he was including her in the wordus. Hallie found herself torn. On the one hand, she liked the idea that Girard thought of her as his equal. On the other hand, a lifetime of distrust and dislike of thehochlenand everything they stood for had her rebelling internally at the idea she was now considered one of them. But she was, she reminded herself. She didn’t get a choice about it. She’d been outed, quite thoroughly, as one of the elite, and Cotovatre’s heir. Even as her anger spiked, she remembered the regret in Cotovatre’s face and voice as her ancestor had apologised for blurting out Hallie’s true nature and standing. Cotovatre had spoken nothing but the truth and, as much as it bothered Hallie to have her life up-ended again, she couldn’t argue with the truth.
“They are in this building up ahead,” Girard said quietly, snapping her attention back to the here and now.
It looked like a one-storey warehouse, with bare planks for walls and doors and sheet metal forming a pitched roof. There was nothing remarkable about it, but if Girard said that the children were there, Hallie believed him.
“There’s no guard outside,” Hallie said, surprised. She would have thought someone as ruthless as Nicholas would have made sure to keep watch on the children at all times.
“That is strange,” Girard agreed. “Maybe they’re inside with the children.” That would make sense, Hallie thought, if Nicholas wanted to keep his activities hidden from general view.
Girard reached for his gun and made a low sound of irritation when his hand met an empty holster. “We need to get our weapons back at some point.”
“Agreed.” Hallie might not like guns, but she liked the idea of someone else having her weapon even less.
“Ready?” Girard asked.
