Among the Enemy (20 page)

"You were recovering from life-threatening injuries," Mike said.

'And now I'm recovered," Mr. Talbot said simply. "It's time to get back to work."

"Good,"
Mike said. "I'm glad to hear it."

The two of them shook hands as if they were making a solemn agreement. Matthias knew he'd just witnessed something important, but he was too caught up in his own dilemma to take much note of it.

"I never want to leave Percy and Alia again," he said. "If I go anywhere to fight the Population Police again, I'd want them to go with me."

Mr. Talbot frowned.

"They're little children, Matthias," he said quietly. "And they've already been through a lot."

Matthias wanted to ask,
What about me? Haven't I been through a lot? Aren't I a child too?
But the words died in his
throat. He wasn't like Percy and Alia anymore. He'd crossed some line when he was apart from them. In the beginning, he'd been desperate to get back to them because he was lost without them; he didn't know who he was if he wasn't part of their cozy threesome. But now he knew just what Mr. Talbot meant. Percy and Alia were so young, so innocent—all he wanted to do was protect them.

"I'm thirteen," he choked out. "They're six and nine."

The ages were arbitrary numbers, little more than guesses. And claiming to be thirteen had been a stretch back in November when Tiddy had asked his age. But it sounded right now.

Mr. Talbot nodded solemnly.

"Yes," he said. "Thirteen is very different from six and nine."

"So then—," Mike said, as if expecting Matthias to announce eternal devotion to the cause now that he understood about Percy and Alia. Mike even had his hand half thrust out, as if he was ready to shake Matthias's hand too.

But Matthias was thinking about how hard it was to do anything good in a country run by the Population Police. He thought about how many times he'd messed up, hurt' ing innocent children, endangering Percy and Alia, risking Nina's life when he protested her plan.

Oh, Samuel,
he thought.
When you said to stay out ofpoli^ tics, you meant that it's easier to make sure you're doing good when you stay completely away from evil. You were a holy man. But even you had to go out into the world. You couldn't stand by when the Population Police were killing children.

Then he thought about how even Mike, who was work' ing for a good cause, had forgotten about the guard left behind in the warehouse and had kind of hoped that the commander would be killed.

Can I keep working with someone like that?
Matthias
thought. But he'd been the one who'd saved the guard. What if he hadn't been there?

Matthias sighed.

"I can't leave Percy and Alia now," he said. "Not when I just got here. But later on, if you need me ..."

Mike nodded and clapped his hand on Matthias's shoulder.

"We'll need you," Mike said. "We'll need everyone who's capable of helping."

Matthias swallowed hard.

"Would I have to go back to Population Police headquarters?" he asked.

"I don't know," Mike said. "We need to figure out our next plan."

Matthias opened his mouth—then shut it again. He couldn't know exactly what he was signing on to. He couldn't know what choices he'd face, what agonizing options he'd have to decide between. But he knew he was doing the right thing.

Mr. Talbot put his hand on Matthias's other shoulder then and gave it a gentle squeeze. The three of them— Mike, Mr. Talbot, and Matthias—were linked in a little circle around the kitchen table, as if they were holding some sacred ceremony. But Matthias knew the circle of people working for good extended far beyond that kitchen table: to Nina, Trey, Lee and all the "others" she'd men-tioned back at Population Police headquarters, to Mr. Hendricks and Mrs. Talbot elsewhere in the house, maybe even to Percy and Alia someday if the fight continued that long.

Matthias thought about what Mike had said most people would do if they'd been in Matthias's place at Population Police headquarters; he thought about the frightened people who'd taken their food back to the Population Police after the warehouse was destroyed. Most people, he realized, could see only the Population Police's power. But he knew the force for good was even stronger.

Even if I have to go back to Population Police headquarters,
he thought,
even if I have to live among the enemy for years and years and years
—
even then, I will never be alone.

He reached up and put one arm around Mike's shoulder and one arm around Mr. Talbot's, and that was like his part of the ceremony, his sacred pact.

We will keep fighting this evil,
he was saying.

We
will win.

Table of Contents

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Chapter Thirty

Chapter Thirty-Five

Chapter Thirty-Seven