Free An Hour of Need by Bella Forrest Page B

neutralizer.”
    “Right,” I said, nodding slowly. I hadn’t thought about it like that.
    We fell quiet, each of us sinking into our thoughts. The noises of the hunters demolishing the jungle echoed up from beneath us.
    If these trees were the answer, we couldn’t have the IBSI felling them like this. I had no idea how widespread they were in Aviary. For all we knew, they might even be a rare species. If the hunters continued to work at this pace… How much longer would we have?
    I exchanged an anxious glance with my father and mother.
    “While Ibrahim is gone,” my father said, addressing the group, “we have got to stop them from wiping out these trees.”

Grace
    “ W e should damage their machinery ,” my father proposed.
    “Or,” Lucas posed, “we could fetch more recruits from The Shade and launch an all-out attack on them, Woodlands-style.”
    My father and grandfather looked hesitant.
    “First of all,” my father replied, “that sort of attack would destroy a lot of these trees—we’re talking about dragons’ fire here, Lucas,” he reminded his uncle. “Secondly, a heavy-handed attack would likely send the hunters into a panic. Once alerted to our presence, they could start destroying the rest of the trees at a much more rapid pace. Maybe even bomb the whole area.”
    “But I wonder why they haven’t done that already,” my mother said.
    “Well, they are clearly keeping aside a stock of these trees for themselves. But if worse came to worst, I imagine they would forfeit the option to collect more and instead just destroy everything here…. If we discreetly got to their machinery, for example later tonight after they have all finished work, that would definitely slow them down. I’m guessing it would take them a while to gather enough machines again to continue at their current pace. We’d be buying ourselves some time. And as long as they didn’t see us here, they wouldn’t suspect us. Nobody would know what had happened.”
    “I agree,” Derek said. “We need to tread carefully here. Very carefully.”
    “I wonder if any of the hunters working here might have the recipe for the antidote,” Xavier proposed. “I wonder if any of them have been told what they’re doing here, or whether they’re just blindly following their authorities.”
    The same question had arisen in my mind too. Something told me they were simply obedient workers who had been fed some other reason for why they needed to fell the trees. I doubted very much that Atticus had allowed the antidote recipe to be made common knowledge within his organization. I figured that most IBSI members were probably not even aware of an antidote. As Mr. Munston had told me back in Chicago headquarters, FOEBA was classified information.
    “I doubt it,” I said.
    “Though anything’s possible,” my father went on. “After we have messed with their machinery tonight—and checked for any explosives in their possession—Lucas and I could spy on their camp and see if we can overhear anything relevant.”
    “All right,” Derek said. “Then we will wait until tonight.”

    * * *
    M y father and Lucas left us temporarily to search for somewhere more comfortable, sheltered and away from creepy crawlies where we could pass the time.
    When they returned from their exploration, they shared the same expression of awe.
    “What is it?” my mother asked.
    “We’ve located a dry cave that’s fairly out-of-the-way, in one of the large mountains to the north,” my father said. “But that’s not all we found. We discovered where the IBSI’s men are staying—and it’s not in those little caravans we saw earlier. Those are just for toilets and refreshments.”
    “Well, where?” Derek asked tensely.
    “They’re staying in old Aviary city,” my father replied, his eyes shining with wonder, as though his mind was still there. “Where Arron used to live.” Where my father had been kept as a newborn…
    “Much of it is still