Among the Enemy

covering her hair and a sanitary mask covering her nose and mouth, but there was something oddly familiar about her brown eyes. She looked like… No, she was—

'Nina?' Matthias whispered.

Chapter Eighteen

The serving girl scowled at Matthias and shook her head — just once, forbiddingly.

'Keep it moving,' she said in a harsh tone that didn't disguise the familiar voice.

Matthias wanted to scream out, Nina! What are you doing here? and Please, can you help me get back to Percy and Alia? But he said nothing, only picked up his tray and walked away. He aimed for a table on the far side of the room, where he could sit alone with his back toward the wall.

Where he could watch Nina.

Nina had escaped from Population Police prison with him and Percy and Alia months ago. She'd started at Niedler School when they did but had been called away in early October. Mr. Hendricks needed her help, she'd told them, sounding a little self-important What was she doing working for the Population Police now? Had Matthias and his friends come to the wrong conclusion about her loyalties— had she been on the Population Police's side all along?

Matthias remembered he was wearing a Population Police uniform himself. What if she'd met a fate similar to his, where she'd had to pretend to be on the Population Police's side to protect somebody else?

Then Matthias remembered something Mrs. Talbot had said in the car, in the dark on the way to the cabin: 'I believe it's your generation that will win the cause,' she'd said, and she hadn't meant the same 'cause' that Tiddy talked about, of making sure the numbers of people alive matched up with the amount of food available. She'd been talking about being free, about getting a government that didn't kill its people, didn't consider third children illegal. And she'd mentioned kids joining the Population Police to fight it from the inside….

Matthias wished fervently that he hadn't dozed off dur^ ing Mrs. Talbot's story.

As Matthias watched, Nina scooped up cup after cup of fruit. She seemed to be talking to some of the Population Police officers who came through the line. Maybe even flirting.

Would she do that if she were an undercover agent? Matthias wondered.

Wondering about Nina made Matthias's head ache. He spooned soup up to his mouth and bit off hunks of his rolls, but he barely tasted any of it.

Then, just as he was scraping the bottom of his soup bowl, Nina walked out from behind the serving counter. She carried a dishrag in her hand and began casually wiping the tables where people had already finished eating. Matthias's heart started pounding. Should he move over toward one of the tables where she was working?

She came to him instead.

'Act like you don't know me,' she whispered, pushing the dishcloth around on a section of table near him. 'Don't even look at me.'

Matthias peered down into his soup bowl and said nothing. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Nina pretending to scrub and scrub at some nonexistent stain on the table. She had her back toward the rest of the cafeteria, so no one else could see her talking.

'Go into the front bathroom at seven o'clock tonight. Lock the door.'

'Front bathroom? Where's that?' Matthias couldn't help asking. But he had his head bent over, pretending to drink milk from a straw, so he didn't think anyone would notice.

'It's the one closest to the front door,' Nina said. 'It has silver wallpaper.'

And then she moved on to another table.

Chapter Nineteen

Matthias might have sat there all day staring after I Nina — or, rather, staring after her while pretending to only be staring off into space. But a few minutes later, an officer in a black uniform pulled up a chair across from him.

'You done eating yet, kid?' the officer asked. 'Tiddy told me to watch over you while he's away. I'm Mike.'

'Uh, hi,' Matthias said. 'I was, um, just finishing up.' He took the last bite of fruit cocktail and studied Mike while he chewed. Mike was younger and thinner than Tiddy, but he had a similarly friendly manner.

How come none of the Population Police I saw before today ever seemed friendly? Matthias wondered.

He'd never saved a Population Police officer's life before today. He'd never worn a Population Police uniform himself before today.

'We've got an action-packed afternoon ahead of us,' Mike said.

Mike's 'action' turned out to be mostly a tour of the headquarters and its grounds, but that did, indeed, take hours. Headquarters was a massive building, four stories high and spread out over what seemed to be several acres. The grounds around it seemed more extensive than the city Matthias had grown up in.

'This used to be where some rich guy lived, until the Population Police took over. Can you believe it?' Mike asked as they putt^putted around the property on a golf cart. He got a wistful look on his face. 'They say when we get rid of all the rebels — well, not that we're supposed to admit there are rebels, but you know — they say when there's peace, all the top Population Police officers will get houses like this, all their own.'

'Really?' Matthias said, thinking, How do you mean, 'get rid of all the rebels'? What about children staying with rebels?

'Has Tiddy left for the, uh, dangerous sectors yet?' he asked anxiously.

Mike misunderstood Matthias's anxiety.

'Don't worry about Tiddy,' he said. 'That guy always comes out on top.' Mike shook his head admiringly.

Matthias wanted to say, No, no, it's the rebels I'm worried about. What's going to happen to them? But was he just con^ cerned about the rebels? It seemed strange to save somebody's life, then root against him in a battle. Why had he saved Tiddy' s life, anyway? Looking back, Matthias had trouble understanding why he'd stopped the shoot' out by rescuing a Population Police officer. Why hadn't Matthias just hopped in the car and driven away alone, leaving Tiddy out in the open? Helping the man in the tree to kill him?

Tiddy would have just gone in the cabin to hide. And then Mrs. Talbot would have been in even greater danger.

But it was more than that. It had to do with Samuel telling him, over and over again, 'Killing is wrong.' Even in the split second he'd had to make a decision back by the cabin, Matthias hadn't wanted to be an accomplice to any more murder. As much as he hated the Population Police, it had bothered him to see the three officers with Tiddy fall down dead.

, 'Love your enemies,' Samuel had also said. ' So was it okay that Matthias wanted Uddy and the.Irebels to survive?

Matthias closed his eyes wearily, too confused and worried to fake interest in formal gardens anymore.

'Getting tired?' Mike said sympathetically. 'You've probably seen enough for one day. We'll just go back and get you signed up for the classes Tiddy says you need to take.' He drove the golf cart back to the main building, dead leaves crunching under the tires.

Signing up for classes turned out to be a long, drawn-out affair.

'We don't have any record in our files of a Roger Symmes,' the woman behind the counter in the training room told Mike.