Nina looked Mr. Hendricks over carefully. Despite the white hair, he was hardly old and decrepit. She even suspected the wheelchair was just a fake, meant to deceive her into thinking she could overpower him easily. Probably he was as strong and muscular as Lee and Trey. Probably…
Nina's glance reached Mr. Hendricks's feet — or rather, the empty space where his feet should have been. He didn't have any feet.
But he would call for help. He'd have a search party ready in a matter of minutes.
'Well?' Mr. Hendricks said.
Nina sprang up from the couch, grabbed the back of the wheelchair, and dumped it forward, spilling Mr. Hendricks to the floor. She dashed out the living room door, out the front door, down the front steps. She worried about running into Lee and Trey — where were their 'posts,' by the garden? — but her feet flew so quickly, everything was a blur. She couldn't watch for them or anyone else.
Before she knew it, she was crashing into the woods, toward the glade where she'd left the others waiting for food.
'Percy! Matthias! Alia!' she called. 'I have to warn you. . ' The words wouldn't come quickly enough between her gasps for air.
Alia popped out from behind a tree.
'Nina!' she scolded. 'You're making too much noise. Someone will hear you!'
'It… doesn't… matter,' she panted. She stopped running, caught her breath. She saw that Matthias and Percy were staring out at her from the shadows behind a bush. 'They caught me. I escaped again, but they'll probably be looking for me soon. I had to warn you. . ' She took another deep breath. Her brain still felt starved for oxygen. 'This isn't a safe place anymore. You'll have to go somewhere else. But you can. You guys are smart.'
'Nina,' Alia protested. 'Come with us, then—'
'No,' Nina said. 'I'd be… dangerous to you. They know to look for me now. I probably don't have much time. But»«e >*»._.
I wanted to tell you… the hating man. In prison. He put me in your cell to betray you. He wanted me to tell him all your secrets. And I might have. If we hadn't escaped, I—' 'But you didn't,' Matthias said. 'You didn't tell the Population Police anything.'
'I wanted to,' Nina said. 'Jason betrayed me, and I wanted to hurt someone else. And I wanted to save my life. . '
'It's all right,' Alia said, stepping closer. 'And I don't blame you for never trusting me,' Nina continued. 'I wasn't trustworthy. Even that first night in the woods, when I was supposed to be sitting sentry, I fell asleep.' It was such a relief to confess that, even that. 'I never really trusted you, either. The last time I had friends, they didn't help me at all when I was arrested. So I thought…'
Nina was crying. Between being caught and running away — and, probably, because of having nothing to eat in days but vegetables — she felt dizzy and light-headed. But it was important for her to tell the others everything. All her stories spilled out. Probably the others could make no sense of what she said. Tales of playing dolls with Aunty Zenka were all mixed up with tales of meeting the Hendricks School boys in the woods with Sally and Bonner.
'I want you to know my real name, too,' Nina said. 'It's Elodie. When you remember me, remember Elodie.' The woods were dark when Nina finished talking. She was just lucky she hadn't been found immediately. She couldn't see the others' faces, couldn't tell what they thought of her stream of words. But for practically the first time since she'd been arrested, Nina was sure she'd done the exact right thing. The others were going to be safe now. And she'd told them the truth.
'You should go now,' she said. 'Oh — here.' She pulled the grungy food bag from around her neck and handed it to Alia. 'There's not much in it because. . well, something's better than nothing, isn't it?'
The tears flowed down her face. She reached down and drew Alia into a hug. Percy and Matthias stepped forward, too, and threw their arms around both girls. All four kids stood together, swaying slightly, holding one another up.
Nina had her eyes shut, squeezing out the tears. But through her tears she suddenly saw a glimmer of light off to the right. She pulled away from the hug, stared off toward a flashlight bobbing in the woods. Then she saw other flashlights, circling closer and closer.
'They're looking for me!' she hissed. 'Go on! Hide somewhere far away from me.'
Nina didn't have time to make sure that the others had moved out of sight. For, seconds later, a flashlight shone right in her face and a booming voice cried out, 'Nina Idi! Fancy meeting you here!'
It was the hating man.
Terrified, Nina turned to run. But something clawed at her arm, something held on to her leg. She tumbled forward, sprawled across the ground.
'Let go of me!' she roared, though it must have been a vine tangled around her ankle, must have been a branch scratching against her arm. Nina tried to scramble up, but it was too late. The flashlight shone in her eyes; when the hating man's voice came again, it was practically in her ear.
'Nina, Nina, Nina,' he said. 'It's all over now.'
Nina struggled to sit up. It was Percy who was holding onto her arm, Matthias who was holding onto her leg.
They had betrayed her, too. They were turning her in to the hating man.
Alia stepped up beside the boys, smiling at Nina. Nina's eyes swam with tears. Not Alia, too. Nina couldn't take the thought that Alia had betrayed her as well.
'No,' Nina moaned. Then she screamed, 'No!'
Nina didn't care who heard. Behind the hating man she could see the shapes of perhaps a dozen people, all with flashlights shining right at her. Their faces were completely in shadow, impossible to make out.
Alia leaned into the circle of light with Nina.
'You're safe now,' she said happily. 'You passed the test.'
Nina shook her head violently, not wanting to believe the evidence in front of her eyes.
'Alia, run,' Nina whispered. She wasn't sure which she wanted more — for the little girl to be safe, or for Alia merely to prove that she was scared, too, and hadn't helped betraying Nina. Alia didn't move. Nina hoped she just hadn't heard. 'Alia, you have to escape. That man is from the Population Police. He's the hating man!'
'No, he's not,' a familiar voice called out from the shad-ows. 'He only pretends to work for the Population Police. He's Mr. Talbot. Jen Talbot's dad.' Lee Grant stepped forward and bent down beside Nina. 'Remember who Jen Talbot is?'
'Of course I do,' Nina snapped. 'She's the hero for the cause of third children everywhere. Jason used to tell us about her all the time. But…'
She wondered suddenly if that was a lie, too, if there'd never been a Jen Talbot, or if she hadn't been a hero. Dazedly Nina looked around at the faces circling her. Everyone came forward, crowding close. Percy and Matthias lifted Nina up to see, instead of holding her back. Lee and Trey and a few other Hendricks School boys stood in a clump off to the right.
The hating man — Mr. Talbot? — cleared his throat.
'It's true, what Lee said,' he began. 'I am a double agent working for the Population Police, but only in order to double-cross them. Back in the spring I faced a dilemma. A boy at Hendricks School for Boys told the Population Police he knew of several shadow children at the school who were using fake identities and pretending to be legitimate. If this boy managed to convince the Population Police that he was telling the truth, I knew several children would die. Thanks to young Lee Grant over there, as well as some quick-thinking administrators, we managed to foil his plan.
