someone who pretends to be a friend and then betrays. He probably had as good as killed four boys whose only crime was existing. Jason deserved to die.
But Luke couldn’t kill him.
Luke was desperately trying to get his paralyzed brain to come up with another option, when the portable phone rang. The noise echoed in the stairwell as shrilly as a hundred roosters, all crowing at once. It sounded loud enough to wake the dead, not to mention the merely unconscious. Luke grabbed the phone, just to shut it up. It kept ringing. Luke stared at it stupidly. He’d never actually touched a phone before tonight. Didn’t they stop ringing when you picked them up? He punched buttons on the phone at random. Finally, miraculously, the noise stopped.
Luke let out a sigh of relief Why had the phone rung in the first place? Jason had been using it. Then when Luke pulled it away and stomped on it, that must have worked like hanging it up. But for it to start ringing again— Someone was calling Jason.
Fearfully, Luke put the phone to his ear. “Hello?” he whispered.
He had a sudden moment of hope. Maybe he’d misunderstood. Maybe Jason hadn’t said that he worked for the Population Police, but that the exnays didn’t trust him because they thought he might work for the Population Police. Or that the exnays didn’t trust anyone, because of the Population Police. Maybe the person on the other end of the line was a good guy, working for the cause, worried that something had happened to poor, noble, misunderstood Jason.
“Hello?” Luke whispered again.
“Don’t you ever pull that kind of a stunt on me again!” The angry voice on the other end came through the phone as forcefully as a tornado. “You hang up on the Population Police, you’re a dead man. We’ll kill you even before we kill those four exnays you just turned in.”
Luke’s hope dissolved. He struggled to keep his mind from dissolving, too. Think, think. . He’d heard Jen’s dad fool the Population Police once. Mr. Talbot had lied so smoothly that even Luke, who knew the truth, was practically convinced.
Luke put his hand over his mouth. He had to make the man on the other end of the line think he was Jason.
“I’m sorry,” Luke muttered. “It was a mistake. I accidentally. dropped the phone and it shut off by itself.” With a little help from Luke’s foot.
“What? I can’t hear you!’ the man yelled.
“It’s a bad connection,” Luke said, speaking louder. He’d heard Mother and Dad say that all the time. He hoped portable phones could have bad connections, too. “I said I was sorry. I dropped the phone by mistake. I didn’t hang up on you. Why would I hang up on you when I’m trying to convince you to give me more time?”
‘Whatever,” the man growled. Luke could tell: The man didn’t care what had happened. He just wanted Jason to groveL And Luke had done it for hint Luke was good at groveling.
“Here’s how it is,” the man continued. ‘We’ll give you another day. Then that’s it. And, Jason? You get those other boys or else. We’ve got a quota to fill, you know.”
The phone clicked. Luke realized the man on the other end had hung up.
Luke had fooled him. And he’d bought some time. He had another day.
Or until Jason woke up.
Twenty Nine
Luke slid his hands under Jason’s armpits and began dragging him down the stairs. Down was easier than up. And if Jason woke up and started screaming, he’d be less likely to wake somebody if he and Luke were on the first floor.
Of course, if Jason woke up and attacked Luke, there was also less chance Luke could get help on the first floor.
Luke made himself concentrate on pulling the bigger boy Jason’s feet slipped down the first step and hit hard. Jason moaned but didn’t open his eyes.
That thought made Luke sweat. But he pulled harder, and got Jason all the way to the bottom of the steps withOut waking him up.
Next, Luke dragged Jason down the hall. A right turn, a left turn, a right turn. Jason was heavy, and Luke’s arms ached. His head ached, too, from trying to plan. He found the door he’d been looking for and forced himself to knock.
“Yes?” a sleepy voice responded.
Luke grimaced. He’d been half-hoping this idea would fail.
“Nurse!” he called out. “It’s my — my friend. He’s sick.”
How could he have called Jason a friend?
Oh, well. He had a lot more lies ahead of him.
The door eased open. The nurse stood there in a ruffled dressing gown.
“Oh, my,” she said dimly when she’d taken in the sight of Jason slumped on the floor. Luke tried to hold him up the way a concerned friend would, but it was hard. Luke would have enjoyed dropping him.
“He passed out,” Luke said needlessly. “He was having a — a seizure, ranting and raving. He was. . telling lies. Making up stories.” That should help if Jason came to. ~I think it’s called delirium, what he had. I think staying unconscious is the best thing for him. Can you give him something that will keep him asleep?”
“Oh, my,” the nurse repeated, frowning. “Usually, in these circumstances, we want to revive the patient.”
It wasn’t fair. Now the nurse seemed to know what she was talking about
“Help me get him inside,” she ordered Luke.
The nurse took Jason’s legs, and Luke lifted. The strain on his muscles was terrible. Luke was panting by the time they got Jason to a bed in the nurse’s office. She immediately began looking him over.
“Did he hit his head?” she asked Luke as she felt Jason’s scalp.
Panic bubbled up in Luke’s stomach.
“May-Maybe,” he said. “He was, um, thrashing around a lot. In his sleep.”
“I thought he was ranting and raving,” the nurse said, fixing Luke with an unexpectedly sharp stare. “Was he doing that in his sleep, too?”
Luke gulped.
“No. He was thrashing about, and then he woke up, and acted delirious. And then he had a seizure and went unconscious. I think It happened really fast. It was really scary.
Luke got another idea.
“You know, you should really strap him down in bed, so if he wakes up and starts acting weird again, he won’t hurt himself”
“Thanks for the medical advice,” the nurse said. She lifted one of Jason’s eyelids and shone a flashlight into his eye. Luke held his breath. If Jason woke up now, he could tell the nurse anything he wanted, and she’d believe him. Jason was a much better liar than Luke. Jason’s lips moved. Had he mumbled something that the nurse could hear but Luke couldn’t? Luke tried to quell his panic. He watched with relief as Jason’s eye rolled blindly back in his head. The nurse gently placed the eyelid back against the eye. Jason didn’t move.
The nurse sat down at a desk and took up a pen.
“Now. What’s your friend’s name?” she asked.
“Ja — I mean, Scott Renault,” Luke said.
The nurse peered at him doubtfully.
“And your name is—” “Lee Grant,” Luke mumbled.
The nurse was watching him carefully. Too carefully.
