Among the Enemy

“Just a minute,” Mike told her. He drew Matthias over to the side and asked, “Tiddy took your I.D. car when he inducted you into the Population Police, didn’t he?”

'Uh, no,' Matthias said.

Mike rolled his eyes. 'That Tiddy. Great guy, of course, but he plays fast and loose with the rules. Can I have your I.D. now?'

Matthias had to dig down deep into his inner pocket to find the card. He handed it over to Mike a little nervously. When he'd taken it from the safe back in the cabin, he'd never pictured having to hand it over to a Population Police officer right in the midst of Population Police head^ quarters.

But Mike barely glanced at the card.

'I.D. pictures never do anyone justice, do they?' he asked, then carried it over to the woman at the counter.

Matthias couldn't even remember what the picture looked like. But he knew his birthday had just become January 2, his eyes had just become green when they were really more hazel, and his hometown had just become Terpsiko, a place he'd never been to and wouldn't be able to find on a map if his life depended on it Which it might someday.

Better look that one up, he told himself.

Mike came back from the counter.

'Okay, you're signed up for gun classes, stealth methods, undercover operations, and subduing enemies,' Mike said. 'Everything starts tomorrow.'

Matthias was so tired and worried and overwhelmed, he almost missed noticing the irony of the Population Police teaching him to operate undercover.

But of course he couldn't laugh without giving himself away.

Chapter Twenty

Mike took Matthias back to the cafeteria for dinner, which turned out to be another hugely filling affair. This time, though, Matthias couldn't sit anonymously at the back of the cafeteria. He sat with Mike and a large, rowdy group of Mike's friends. And it seemed like everyone in the room was watching him.

“Why are those women staring at me?” he finally got the courage to ask when there was a break in the group’s merriment.

This set everyone to laughing again.

'Don't you know how the ladies love a hero?' Mike asked. 'You know Tiddy and his big mouth. Before he left this afternoon, he told everyone in the building how you'd saved him from certain death.'

'Oh,' Matthias said.

'Wish Tiddy'd spread some stories about me,' one of the others said wistfully. He was a gaunt-faced boy with a crooked nose and a bad case of acne. He winked at the group of women, but they all turned away, making faces as if they'd smelled something horrid.

Mike and his friends laughed harder.

Matthias sat in the midst of all that hubbub feeling as if he'd been transported into an alien world. The bright, warm room full of delicious smells, abundant food, and riffs of laughter didn't seem real. Not when all the laugh' ing people worked for an agency trying to kill children. Not when Percy and Alia were still out there somewhere in the dark, cold night, probably still in pain.

That is, if they were still alive at all.

They're alive, he told himself fiercely. They've got to be.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Nina walk away from the serving counter across the room. The clock on the wall said six forty-five. He shoveled in the last few bites of his noodle casserole and stood up on legs so sore and tired, they barely held him.

'Hey, kid, you going over to introduce yourself to the ladies?' Mike teased.

'No, just to the bathroom,' Matthias said. 'Then I'm going to bed,' he added, in case it took a long time with Nina. He didn't want Mike and the others to become suspicious or to come in search of him.

The group whistled and made more wisecracks that Matthias didn't catch.

Matthias had to trace his way through twisty hallways to get to the silver bathroom Nina had described. Guards peered at him from nearly every doorway, but none of them stopped him. They all seemed to know who he was.

And they'll all remember seeing me come this way, Matthias thought anxiously, but there was nothing he could do about it.

He reached the bathroom a little early, stepped inside, and locked the door as Nina had instructed. That confused him — how was she supposed to get in if the door was locked? Was he supposed to open the door if he heard knocking? Would she dare to call out to him?

A few seconds later, Matthias understood. Nina came crawling out of a heat vent over the toilet.

'Not my favorite way to get around, but this is a good way to keep our movements secret,' Nina muttered as she climbed down over the toilet. She brushed dust from her brown braids and her uniform. 'Plus, Trey is so proud of himself for discovering the heat duct system, we use it sometimes just to humor him.'

Trey was another of their friends. Matthias felt his heart jump a little at the news that he had another ally at Population Police headquarters.

The bathroom was so tiny that Nina had to stand practically on top of Matthias. She surprised him by seizing him in her arms and giving him a big hug in greeting.

'It's so good to see you, Matthias,' Nina whispered. 'You'll be so much help here. Where are Percy and Alia stationed? I haven't seen them yet. When did you all join up? It'd be so nice to have Alia in the kitchen with me….'

'Percy and Alia didn't join with me,' Matthias whispered back. 'I don't know where they are.' Getting those words past the lump in his throat felt like swallowing stones.

'But how—?' Nina asked.

As quickly as he could, Matthias told Nina everything that had happened since the Population Police arrived at Niedler School. By the end, Nina had tears glistening in her eyes.

'Oh, Matthias, I'm so sorry,' she murmured.

'So can you and Trey and whoever else is here smuggle me out so I can go back and find them?' Matthias finished up in a rush. His hopes brimmed over.

But Nina frowned, the troubled look deepening in her eyes.

'Matthias, I don't know how we could do that. This place is like a fortress. Just arranging to meet you here in the bathroom was like planning an invasion. They watch me in the kitchen — they watch everyone. And there are so many guards….'

Matthias was so overwhelmed with disappointment, he could barely focus on Nina's words.

'Do you have a plan?' she asked. 'Do you know a way out? You and Percy and Alia were so good at getting us out of that Population Police prison.'

'That was Percy and Alia,' Matthias said bitterly. 'They're the clever ones.'

He sank down to the floor in despair. Nina bent over and huddled beside him.

'I'll try to think of something,' she said. 'You try too. And keep your eyes open.' She bit her lip. 'When we all joined up, we had so many ideas. We were going to tear the Population Police apart from inside. But it's been so hard— None of us could pick where they assigned us. All of us got such menial jobs. Trey scrubs out the garage when the Population Police mechanics are done working on their cars. I'm in the kitchen. Lee — remember Lee? — he shovels out the stall where the top officers have their own horses.'

'Trey could cut the brake lines on the Population Police cars,' Matthias said. 'Lee could make sure the horses buck everybody off. You could put poison in the food.'

Matthias felt evil just making those suggestions. Love your enemies and Killing is wrong echoed in his ears as if Samuel were right there crowded into that tiny