And then a resolve began to steal over him. No matter what, he wouldn’t go back into hiding. Surely he could do something, secretly, as part of the underground resistance to the Government. Mr. Talbot had hinted before at the existence of secret workers for the cause. Luke wasn’t sure if any of them had legal identities or not. He remembered three kids he’d met through his friend Nina — Percy, Matthias, and Alia. They’d once been involved in making fake I.D.’s. He wasn’t sure what they were doing now, but maybe he could help them.
Luke’s plans were vague and shadowy at best, but they made him feel better. He wasn’t a Baron like the Grants, he wasn’t legal like the Grants, he wasn’t even an adult. But that didn’t mean he had to roll over and play dead when they said to. That didn’t mean he didn’t have any choices. All he had to do was get in touch with Mr. Talbot, secretly. Mr. Talbot could protect him from the Grants’ schemes.
CHAPTER 23
Comforted by his plans, Luke had fallen back to sleep when someone began shaking his shoulders once again.
“Wake up!” a gruff voice whispered.
It was Oscar this time. Luke actually had the nerve to say, “We’re home now. How can Smits be homesick?”
“Shh,” Oscar said. “Follow me.”
Mystified, Luke obeyed. But Oscar didn’t lead Luke next door to Smits’s room. He guided Luke on a convoluted path through the entire house. Only when they stood before a dark door did Luke realize: Oscar had led him back to the secret office.
“Wh—,” Luke began.
“Shh!” Oscar said again, urgently.
He didn’t look around the way Mr. Grant had, only jammed a key in the lock. The door swung open and Oscar yanked Luke inside. Oscar seemed to be pressing buttons the same way Mr. Grant had. The lights came on once again and, Luke noticed this time, the doorknob vanished. Somehow the door seemed to have turned into a smooth wall.
“How — how did you know about this room?” Luke asked.
“Lee told me,” Oscar said. “Lee gave me a key.”
Lee. Luke gulped.
“I’m Lee,” he said without much conviction. “I never said a word to you about, um, our house. I’ve never given you anything.”
Oscar gave Luke a look that almost seemed compassionate.
“We’re in a soundproof room,” he said. “We both know the truth. There’s no need for lies here.”
Stunned, Luke sank into a chair, the same one he’d sat in with the Grants.
“Don’t worry,” Oscar said. “I’m on your side. We’re fighting for the same cause.—'
“How do I know that?” Luke asked. “Why should I trust you?”
To his surprise, Oscar laughed. “Tough little brat, aren’t you? Not like that namby-pamby rich boy I’m supposed to be guarding all the time. You’re not really a Baron, are you? Let me guess.” Oscar narrowed his eyes, staring directly at Luke. “You grew up poor, I bet Really, really poor. Like me. I just don’t know how
Luke didn’t tell him. He stared straight back at Oscar.
Defiantly. But he felt as though Oscar had seen past the fancy silk Baron pajamas, monogrammed with Lee Grant’s initials. Somehow Oscar knew that Luke was nobody — and not really brave, not really confident, not really rich.
Oscar shrugged, as if he hadn’t really expected Luke to tell him anything. Or as if he didn’t need to know more about Luke.
“I’m going to tell you a story,” Oscar said softly “Then you’ll know why you should trust me. I’m sure you’ll appreciate hearing the truth.”
Oscar sat down opposite Luke. Oscar was wearing sweatpants and a T-shirt that emphasized his bulging biceps, but somehow he didn’t seem like a muscle-bound bodyguard anymore. He looked downright thoughtful, squinting seriously at Luke.
“The Government wants people to think that everyone’s in favor of our current dictator — I mean,
“Yes,” Luke whispered. He was still stunned by Oscar’s transformation. Oscar wasn’t the proper, rule- obsessed servant anymore. Even his voice sounded rougher.
“When something’s unfair,” Oscar said, “anyone with any gumption is going to fight it. Right?”
Luke nodded. He wanted to say, “Look, I struck a blow against the Government myself. I turned in an informer for the Population Police.” He wanted to impress this new Oscar, suddenly.
But he wasn’t sure Oscar would be impressed by anything Luke had done.
“I was eight when I put my first pipe bomb in a Baron’s mailbox,” Oscar said. “By the time I was twelve, I was stealing Barons’ cars. Not for my own benefit — no way! My buddies and me, we’d push those cars into the river. Can you imagine the kind of splash a limo makes? And how the police flock to the shore? We were risking our lives for the cause.”
Luke swallowed hard.
“So then Barons moved farther and farther out from the big cities,” Oscar said. “They all got security fences, security guards. They went crying to the Government, ‘Boo-hoo-hoo. Those vandals are out of control.’ And the Government listened to them. They passed new laws — did you know that it’s a bigger crime to destroy a Baron’s property than to kill an ordinary person? It’s true.” Oscar lowered his voice, as if confiding a great secret in Luke. “And meanwhile, ordinary people are starving in the streets….”
“That’s not fair,” Luke said in a small voice.
Oscar stood up and started to pace. “That’s right, it’s not fair. That’s why we’re doing something about it.”
“We are?” Luke asked. He wondered if Oscar was going to say anything about the unfair Population Law, which forced third children into hiding. That was something else the Government had done wrong. Did Oscar know about those kids, who had even more reason than Oscar to hate the Government? Did Oscar care?
Oscar paused in his pacing and gave Luke a glance that made Luke feel about as big as an insect And as easily squashed.
“I’ve been working for the underground resistance for years,” Oscar said. “Our sole goal is to overthrow the Government and the Barons, and to reestablish justice. Equity for all, that’s our motto.” Oscar rested his hands on the back of the chair he’d been sitting in. Luke could tell that Oscar only needed to flex a muscle or two and he could have torn the chair to shreds. But Oscar wasn’t moving. He was watching Luke.
“You and I both know,” Oscar said, “it’s treason even to say that I oppose the Government. If you reported me, I’d deny everything. And there’d be no evidence to link me to any plots.”
Luke could tell Oscar was waiting for Luke now, waiting for some sort of cue to go on.
“I won’t report you,” Luke said. “Why would I do that?” “Good,” Oscar said. “We understand each other.”
He sat down again and seemed to relax back into his story. “I’ll admit,” he said. “I was nothing but a two-bit punk in the beginning. I was poor, uneducated — how could I be anything else? But then my friends and me, we got hooked up with some other rebels. Eggheads, we called them. They thought about stuff like political philosophy. Who needs it? But they had the money to do real damage. They taught us about having more of an impact than blowing up a few mailboxes, ruining a few cars, when the Barons could always buy new. They taught us about being subtle. They even trained some of us as accountants, computer experts, electricians, all the trades. So we could create even more problems for the Government and the Barons.”
