Among the Enemy

'So they took two injured children and dozens of fake I.D.'s,' Mrs. Talbot said. 'Hmm.'

'What?' Matthias asked. 'What do you think hap^ pened?'

'I don't know,' Mrs. Talbot said. She gave him a shaky smile. 'Got any guesses?'

Matthias wished he were as smart as Percy. Percy would have been able to look at the clues they had and come up with a solid answer: Oh, yes, they left with a man in a gray hat, and the serial number on his I.D. card ends in two-three, and we'll find them if we travel north by northeast for forty-five minutes.

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!'