Among the Brave

steadying his voice. “Why do you reckon Luke would want to go back there?”

“I don’t know,” Trey said. “He wouldn’t. We’d just come from there.”

And we’d seen people die there. We didn’t know if we could trust anyone there, Trey thought, but didn’t say.

“The chauffeur was badl” Smits said, his voice edging into hysteria. “What if he hurts Lee? What if he took him away to kill him?”

“Calm down,” Trey said, trying to quell his own panic as much as Smits’s. “We don’t know anything about the chauffeur’s intentions. If the chauffeur was going to hurt Lee or the others, he could have done it before he brought all of us here.”

“You were in the car then,” Smits said, pouting. “You were helping protect us.”

Trey was so stunned by Smits’s interpretation that he couldn’t speak.

Protecting you? He wanted to say. I was more terrified than anyone. During the whole trip from the Grants’ house to the Talbots Trey had buried his nose in the Grants’ financial records. All those numbers had seemed like Trey’s only lifeline to sanity. Had Smits actually been fooled into thinking that Trey wasn’t drowning in fear? That Trey might actually have been capable of taking care of someone else?

Had the chauffeur been fooled?

Mark narrowed his eyes and peered at Trey. Mark didn’t look like he thought Trey would be much of a bodyguard.

“Seems like, if this driver was a good guy, if he had good reasons for taking my brother away, he wouldn’t have left you behind,” Mark said slowly.

Yes, Trey thought. Exactly. He liked Mark a little better for saying that

“And the chauffeur went away before all the men in uniforms showed up,” Trey said. “So he wasn’t scared about his own safety. He left me behind on purpose.” It hurt just to speak those words, but Trey forced them out It was like he actually had some hope that Mark could help.

“So this dangerous man took Luke away and left you behind, and we don’t know why,” Mark said. He kicked the toe of his boot at the packed-dirt floor of the barn. “And did you hear that the Population Police are in control of everything now? Mother and Dad are inside listening to the radio right now, shaking in their shoes, scared to death. It’s like the whole world’s ending, but it hasn’t quite ended yet way out here. And what they’re most scared of is that something bad’s going to happen to Luke, and Trey won’t even know.” He kicked the dirt once more, then looked up. “Let’s go get him.”

“Huh?” Trey said. He’d gotten lost in Mark’s reasoning after that first kick in the dirt

“You heard me,” Mark said. “I said let’s go get him. We’ll go to the Grants’ house and bring Luke back and everything will be okay.”

Trey’s jaw dropped in disbelief. He’d always thought Lee was insanely brave. Now he knew Lee’s brother was even crazier.

“We don’t have to go anywhere,” Trey finally managed to say. “We can call. We can call the Grants’ house, or call Mr. Hendricks back at the school — Mr. Hendricks can get Lee from the Grants’ house, if we just call…”

He really meant that Mark could call. Mark or his parents. Trey was feeling better now, at the thought that somebody else could take care of everything and he wouldn’t have to. This was a good plan. But Mark was shaking his head.

“The Population Police shut down all the phone lines in the country yesterday — security reasons, Trey said. And now they’ve shut off the electricity…. What if Trey come and take away our gasoline next? We can’t just sit around waiting. We’ve got to go rescue Luke.”

He sounded almost happy at the thought that it would take more than a phone call to find his brother.

“We don’t know for sure where he is,” Trey protested. He was suddenly desperate to avoid being roped into Mark’s dangerous plan. “For all we know, the chauffeur might have lied about going back to the Grants’ house. Trying to find Lee would be like… like looking for a needle in a haystack.” He thought Mark might appreciate the agricultural analogy. But it didn’t go far enough. He remembered what Mrs. Talbot had said about roadblocks and house-to-house searches. “No — now that the Population Police are in charge, it’d be like looking for a needle in a burning haystack.”

“Oh, I’ve done that,” Mark said airily. “It’s a game we used to play, after we got rid of all our livestock and didn’t need our hay no more. You throw a match into the haystack, give the fire a three-second head start, and begin looking. You can find the needle every time if you work quick”.

Trey couldn’t do anything but stare at the other boy Mark wasn’t just crazily brave — he was stark, raving mad. Trey thought Longingly of his cozy cupboard hiding place back in the Talbots’ kitchen. He could be back there in a matter of minutes. He certainly wasn’t spending any more time hanging around this lunatic.

But Smits stepped forward.

“You’ll help Mark, won’t you, Trey?” he said. “If the two of you work together, I know you can get to Lee. You’ll rescue him, won’t you?”

It’s impossible, Trey thought It’s ridiculous to risk two more lives when we’ve got no chance of success. This is insanity. It’s a suicide mission! He thought about how deluded Smits was, thinking Trey had ever been able to protect anybody, thinking Trey might be able to take care of somebody else, instead of needing somebody to take care of him.

That one time I saved Lee’s life, it was a fluke, you know? he wanted to scream at Smits. I can’t do anything. I’m a coward!

But what he said to Smits was: “Yes.”

Chapter Ten

“Okay. Ready to go?” Mark asked. “Now?” Trey squeaked. He wanted more ceremony somehow — a commissioning service, perhaps, or an anointing of the heroes, like he’d read about in books. Some acknowledgment that brave men (okay — boys) were about to head into danger.

Or maybe he just wanted a delay. A chance to change his mind.

“What — you want to wait until the Population Police make it a crime to go anywhere? Of course now!” Mark said.

Trey could feel Smits’s eyes on him.

“P-papers,” Trey managed to stammer. “We’ve got to take the papers from the Talbots’ house first”.

He didn’t know why that seemed so important suddenly, except that he’d brought papers to the Talbots’ and it didn’t seem right to leave them behind.

“The Talbots? Trey’re the ones in the big house over there?” Mark asked, pointing.

Trey felt so disoriented that he barely could have identified up from down, but he nodded.

Mark shrugged. “Always wanted to see inside one of those monster houses,” he said.

And Trey was glad, because he wasn’t sure he could muster enough courage to go back into the Talbots’ house alone, then Leave again, if he was also supposed to be gathering courage to go rescue Lee.

Mark extinguished the lantern, and Trey stepped from the dark of the barn into the dark of the night. Mark led the way, holding branches back so Trey had a clear path. They were halfway to the Talbots’ house before Trey realized Smits hadn’t followed.

“Shouldn’t we wait for Smits — I mean, Peter?” Trey asked.

“I sent him to bed,” Mark said. “He’s just a little kid.”

He’s a Baron, Trey thought He’s used to other people doing his dirty work for him.

What if Trey adopted that attitude? What if he just sent Mark out alone to rescue Lee?

It was a tempting thought.

Trey reached the door of the Talbots’ house, and Mark hesitated for the first time.

“They don’t have any of those fancy alarms on this, do they?” he asked.