Among the Free

talked about before—'

'Yes!' The way Krakenaur said that, Luke could picture him straining against his chains, still reaching out to Oscar. 'They're true believers! They'd understand that!'

'And they would stay. . loyal?' Oscar asked.

'Oh, absolutely!' Krakenaur assured him. 'And then you could give me—'

'I'm giving you the opportunity to stay alive,' Oscar interrupted harshly. 'That's more than kind of me, I'd say.'

'But after—'

'You've got no right to think about after. You should be thinking of new ways to be useful to me, so I don't decide to throw you out into the crowd,' Oscar said. He paused craftily. 'The door to this room has no lock — did anyone tell you that? It's one of those inconvenient little details that comes with taking over a building the previous occupants have left in bad shape. Just like taking over a government the previous leaders have left in bad shape… Maybe I should leave you in this room — blindfolded, handcuffed, chained to that chair. Maybe I should just leave everything to chance, to see if anyone happens to wander in here, happens to see you sitting there—'

'No!' The panic in Krakenaur's voice was almost palpable. 'You need me! I can tell you where the extra food is stored! We have plenty of food!'

'That's a start,' Oscar mused. 'The rabble like food, all right. And they like me as long as I'm providing it. But I warn you — I want more than food. We'll just have to see if your promises pan out.'

Luke heard Oscar's footsteps again, brisk this time. He stopped by the door and seemed to be shutting off the security system. Seconds later, Oscar opened the door and said, 'Lock him up in the attic again, Melton. He's earned the chance to see another day. Get him to tell you where the food is, and have someone check it out. And then— come back and fix this lock!'

'Yes, sir,' Melton said.

'Wait!' It was Krakenaur, pleading again. 'You can't just—'

'I can do anything I want,' Oscar snarled. 'And you can't do a thing about it!'

Oscar's footsteps pounded out the door, followed more slowly by Melton and Krakenaur with his rattling chains. Melton turned out the lights and shut the door firmly behind him, plunging the room into darkness once again.

Luke lay still, blinking furiously, trying to make out shadows and shapes in the relentless dark. Even after he was sure his eyes had adjusted, he could see nothing but an inky blackness: no light at all. He strained his ears, listening to make sure the footsteps were receding, but the room's soundproofing evidently worked in both directions.

I've got to get out of here before Melton comes back and fixes the lock, Luke thought. Before I'm locked in here forever-free and trapped, all at once.

He crawled out from behind the pile of signs, his arms stiff, h_1S legs' numbness giving away to pins and needles again. He tried to remember where each stack of signs had been, so he wouldn't knock anything down.

Nobody would hear you anyway, he assured himself, but there was a paranoid echo to that thought: If I left a mess they'd know someone had been here. Somehow they might be able to link it tome. .

So what? Why would anyone care? Oscar fought against the Population Police, just like I did.

Are you sure?

Luke stopped with that thought; he couldn't argue with himself and keep moving through the darkness at the same time. He inched forward, swinging his hands out in front of him. Finally his hand brushed a doorknob, and he grabbed onto it.

Go, quick, before Melton comes back! he ordered himself. But there was a competing fear keeping him from turning the doorknob: What if someone sees me coming out of this room? What if they report me to Oscar and he figures out I've been eaves^ dropping? Or-what if they think I've got something to do with all those horrid signs? What if they blame me?

Luke wished he had the courage to smash all the signs to bits before leaving the secret room. That's what Jen would have done. She would have smashed them and then waited until Melton came back just so she could tell him, I did this. I took care of that part of the Population Police's evil. Let me go talk to Oscar, so I can tell him what I did too. She wouldn't have stayed hidden while Oscar was talking to Aldous Krakenaur. She would have stalked out and declared, Listen, I've got a thing or two to tell Aldous, myself.

'I'm not you, Jen,' Luke mumbled. But he managed to hold back the lesser of his fears and open the door.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Nobody stood on the other side. Luke glanced around once, then opened the nearest window and slipped out, pulling the window shut behind him. Standing safely on the ground, hidden by a row of tall bushes, Luke began to feel foolish. If nobody was guarding the unlocked room, nobody would have cared that he'd been in there. He could have walked out the front door of the building and nobody would have even noticed.

Luke fought his way out through the screen of bushes, emerging into sunlight and the same carefree, party atmosphere he'd seen the night before. People were dancing and singing again: 'No more Poppies… all the food we want…' The crowd had evidently made up new words to the theme song since the last time Luke had heard it.

Nothing about the scene around him gave off even the slightest hint of danger or intrigue, but Luke's heart was still beating hard.

Oscar definitely seemed upset that the door to the secret room didn't lock, Luke reminded himself.

Stubbornly, Luke circled around to the back of the building again. A girl carrying a plate of biscuits opened the door for him.

'Want one? We've got plenty to share,' she told him, grinning.

'No, thanks. Not now,' he muttered. He walked on through the dining room, where a huge crowd was singing as they crammed food into their mouths:

No more Poppies
All the food we want
We eat by day
We eat by night
This is
The greatest life!

From the other side of the dining room, Luke tried to retrace his steps through the maze of hallways, trying to follow the same path he'd used before to reach the secret room. Once again, the hallways and the rooms he passed were deserted.

See? he told himself. You just overreacted after seeing those signs. Oscar was only worried about the lock because he wanted to have a private meeting with Aldous Krakenaur. And he had to meet with him because. . because Krakenaur knows things that Oscar needs. Like information about where all the food is stored.

Luke rounded the last corner before the hallway that led to the secret room. And then he stopped.

A man was leaning casually against the wall, turning the pages of a newspaper.

'Oh, hey, I wouldn't go that way if I were you,' he said, straightening up a little. 'They found some