Among the Enemy (8 page)

Okay, maybe Percy wouldn't be able to figure out that
much detail.
But if it were Percy looking for Alia and me, not the other way around,
Matthias thought,
he'd know enough to tell for sure if the Population Police had come back and discovered the secret room and the fake I.D.'s and his friends. . .. Oh, please, God, don't let it be the Population Police who found them.

Matthias gulped. "Let's go see if we can find any foot' prints," he told Mrs. Talbot.

She shrugged and followed him back up the ladder yet again. They closed the trapdoor behind them.

Dim light was filtering into the cabin from outdoors now. It only served to highlight the disarray. Mrs. Talbot stood at the splintered door and peeked outside.

"When it's dark out," she murmured, "I'm always terrified of what might be hiding in the shadows. But when the sun comes up, I wish for the darkness again to hide me."

Matthias brushed past her. It didn't do any good to speak of fear.

He took a few steps toward the road and then looked back. He'd left no footprints in the leaf-strewn, packed dirt. He shivered, but his chill had nothing to do with the brisk morning air.

Maybe whoever took Percy and Alia away was here yesterday when the ground thawed and then refroze,
he told himself.
So their footprints might still be there, encrusted in the ground, even though I can't see my own.

He peered around, his gaze taking in the sky and the woods as well as the ground.

And that was when he saw the man in the tree.

Chapter Fourteen

Really, Matthias could see only eyes and maybe a dark fcboot in the shadows of one of the trees across the road. But the eyes were focused precisely.

Watching Matthias.

Alia would have seen him before I did, before he saw her,
Matthias thought shakily.
She would have known not to step out of the cabin.

But Matthias didn't have Alia with him, and he barely knew what to do without her and Percy making decisions with him. At least the man wasn't doing anything but watching. He didn't swing down from the tree, didn't dash across the road to attack. Matthias dropped to the ground and pretended that he had to tie his shoe.

"Mrs. Talbot!" he hissed urgently, his head bent down so the man wouldn't be able to see his lips moving. "Stay in the cabin. Someone's watching."

She didn't answer, but she didn't step out of the cabin either.

Matthias took his time fiddling with his shoelaces. Surely the man knew that Matthias had seen him. Surely if the man was going to harm Matthias, he would have already done it.

Could he be. . .a helper?
Matthias wondered.
On our side?

He stood up, his heart thumping hard, a risky plan forming in his mind.

"Percy? Alia?" he called. 'Are you close by?"

He fixed his gaze on the eyes in the tree across the road. They bobbed up and down, once. Was that a nod? Did the man know what had happened to Matthias's friends? Had the man himself taken them?

'Are they safe?" Matthias called again, his voice hoarse.

Again, the eyes moved, in concert. Down, up, down, up. Dead brown leaves rustled around the eyes; Matthias saw a hand reach out and pull back. The man was holding up one finger. He put the finger against lips and a beard that appeared briefly in a gap in the leaves.

"You want me to be quiet?" Matthias asked.

Another nod.

The arm emerged from the branches once more. The man seemed to be waving at Matthias now—waving or trying to shove leaves out of his way.

Matthias didn't understand.

"What?" he half whispered. "Can't you just come down and tell me what—"

The finger went back to the lips, and Matthias broke off. The arm waved again and pointed off to the east.

Matthias went and stood in the middle of the road. He squinted straight down the road toward the rising sun but could see nothing unusual. He turned and walked toward the man's tree.

The man's waves became frantic now, and Matthias could understand this gesture. It meant:
Go back! Get away
from here!

"Well, all right, if that's how you want it," Matthias muttered. None of this made sense to him, but he obediently backed away from the man's tree. He considered going back into the cabin to confer with Mrs. Talbot, but he didn't want to let the man out of his sight. And he couldn't be sure the man was an ally; he didn't want to expose Mrs. Talbot to any danger. If he'd had Percy and Alia with him, the three of them could have made a split-second decision. Alone, Matthias could only stand in the middle of the road, his face scrunched up in bafflement, his feet turned halfway between coming and going.

So that's where Matthias was when the four Population Police officers burst out of the woods to the east.

Chapter Fifteen

Halt!" the lead officer yelled, even though Matthias I clearly wasn't moving. "Who are you? What are you doing here?"

Matthias gaped at them.
Look surprised but innocent,
he
told himself. He made himself blink once or twice, slowly. He let them march right up to him.

"I—," he started. "I was just—"

He had to work so hard to keep from glancing over at the man in the tree. He didn't want to give the man away.

"Just what?" the officer demanded. He stepped closer to Matthias and glared down his nose.

Then, before Matthias had a chance to answer, a flurry of gunshots rained down on the four Population Police officers. Three of them fell instantly, but the fourth, the one closest to Matthias, had time to pull a gun out of his shirt. He dived behind Mrs. Talbot's car and began returning fire.

And Matthias, standing by himself out in the open in the middle of the gun battle, suddenly understood. The man in the tree had been waiting to ambush the Population Police. He'd been trying to get Matthias out of the way so Matthias wouldn't get hurt too.

Matthias turned, ready to run back for the safety of the cabin. Then he froze. Mrs. Talbot was in the cabin. What if he led the Population Police right to her? What if the Population Police officer killed the man in the tree? What would happen to Percy and Alia then?

Matthias veered away from the cabin and slid down behind the front bumper of Mrs. Talbot's car. He slithered over to the Population Police officer.

"There are dozens of them!" he whispered in the officer's ear. "They're circling around behind us. Get in the car!"

The officer gave him a startled look, but when Matthias opened the car door, the officer slipped through it. Matthias shoved him on over to the passenger side and slid into the driver's seat.

The Population Police officer and the man in the tree were still shooting at each other. Matthias ducked down low, twisting wires together and praying. He'd seen other boys on the street hot-wire cars. He'd never actually done it himself before, but maybe, maybe ...

The engine roared to life, and Matthias stomped on the accelerator. He had to stretch his leg out as far as he could, and still his toes barely touched the pedal. But the car lurched forward. At the last minute, Matthias managed to swerve to miss the side of the cabin, and a few final bul-lets pinged off the back of the car.

And then they were out of range of the man in the tree.

The Population Police officer still kept his gun trained toward the woods. He fired over Matthias's head, shatter--ing the window. Shards of glass rained down on Matthias, but he only ducked down lower and pressed the accelerator harder. He heard an angry squawk off to the side, behind them.

"Oh," the officer muttered. "That one was just a bird."

The officer let his body sag back against the leather seat. Matthias could see the beads of sweat along his hairline.

"You ... saved ... my life," the officer whispered.

Matthias hadn't thought of it that way. He felt more like he'd been involved in a kidnapping. He kept his foot on the accelerator, putting even more distance between them and the cabin.

"That's ... not how it usually works," the officer said. He sounded dazed. "Population Police officers are supposed to fight to the death. Never give up."

"I don't see how it would have hurt the, uh, bad guys if you died," Matthias said, because he had to say something. It was strange talking to someone he might have wished dead a few minutes earlier.

The officer wiped the sweat off his face with the back of his hand.

"I could say I made an executive decision to go back for reinforcements," he mused. "Since there were so many
rebels." For a minute, Matthias feared that the officer was making fun of Matthias's lie:
There are dozens of them. ..
. But the officer's expression was serious. Matthias remembered how the bullets had seemed to come all at once.
Maybe there really were other men in other trees,
he thought.

"Let me drive now," the officer ordered.

Matthias took his foot off the accelerator. He had to slide practically his whole body down under the steering wheel to reach the brake. It was a good thing he hadn't needed to stop quickly.

The officer slid over into the driver's seat, and Matthias opened the door and circled around behind the battered car.

I could take off running into the woods now,
Matthias thought.
But would the officer chase me? Would I put Percy and Alia and Mrs. Talbot and the man in the tree in even more danger?

The officer still had his gun; he was watching Matthias in the rearview mirror. Matthias got back into the car on the passenger's side.

What will Mrs. Talbot do without her car?
he wondered.
Will she and the man in the tree find each other now that the Population Police are out of the way? What if the man in the tree was lying about Percy and Alia being safe?

Not knowing made Matthias ache all over.
Oh, God, protect Alia, oh, God, protect Percy
kept running through his
mind, to the same rhythm as the wheels.

The Population Police officer was still watching Matthias, glancing back and forth between Matthias and the road ahead.

"You know, you never did answer my questions," the officer said. He was going very fast now, much faster than Matthias would have dared to drive. He kept one hand on the steering wheel and one hand on his gun.

"Questions?" Matthias repeated.

"Why were you standing there in the middle of the road?"

"Oh, I was just passing by," Matthias said vaguely.

"Passing by? Out here in the middle of nowhere?"

Matthias heard the suspicion in the officer's voice; he saw the officer's blue eyes narrow and his mouth harden into a distrustful line. And Matthias couldn't help watch' ing the gun. The officer wasn't pointing it toward the woods anymore. He had the barrel turned almost casually toward Matthias.

The only thing Matthias could think of was the story Mrs. Talbot had concocted.

"I was on my way to join the Population Police," Matthias squeaked.

The officer laughed, giving off a great guffaw that seemed to roar through the entire car.

"You? What are you—six? Seven? Eight? Granted, I've been away from headquarters for a while, but last time I checked, we weren't signing up kindergartners."

Matthias drew himself up to his full height, which admittedly wasn't much.

"I'm thirteen," he said in what he hoped was a dignified voice. He didn't know why he picked that age—he didn't know if the Population Police were any more likely to accept thirteen-year-olds than eleven-year-olds, the age he'd given the last time anyone had asked, back at Niedler School. But he felt like he'd aged a lot in the last few days. He felt thirteen.