Sneak (31 page)

American Union once and for all.

“At that point,” Peck continued. “This reactor was shut down,

its doors closed permanently.”

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“Why?” Logan asked. “Didn’t they still need the power?”

“No,” Peck said. “They needed
more
. And so, right next to us, Lamson built a second reactor—a
fusion
reactor, capable of putting out
far
more energy than the defunct fission reactor we’re standing in now.”

Logan and Peck walked to the old, abandoned fission control

room, gazing through the pane of glass that separated them from the computer-automated clean room that ran the fusion reactor

next door.

“So why the sudden rise in energy consumption? Had Beacon

really grown that much with the formation of the A.U.?”

Peck shook his head. “No. That’s the whole point. It hadn’t.”

“I don’t understand,” Logan said.

“No one does.” But Peck smiled. “Except . . . I have a hunch.”

Suddenly Logan’s eyes went wide with understanding.

“Acheron,” he said. “Lamson needed the extra power for

Acheron!”

Peck nodded. “Bingo.”

The two of them walked back from the control room into the

main area filled with the Markless community.

“There are many huddles in this space, Logan. Many people,

each with fascinating stories of where they came from and how

they got here.” Peck stopped and looked Logan in the eyes. “They all want to help you find your sister. We’re in this together. And check this out”—Peck pointed toward an area across the room—

“That quadrant you see there? That’s a Markless school,” Peck said.

“School?”

“You bet. They’ve started their own.” Peck chuckled, looking

down at his feet, hands resting behind his back. “I’ve insisted the Dust begin attending first thing. Rusty, Tyler, Eddie, Meg—they
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all begin tomorrow. Even Blake will be taking some classes here and there, part-time.”

“I bet they were thrilled about that,” Logan said, shaking his head and feeling rather sorry for whoever would become Tyler and Eddie’s new teacher.

And now Peck grinned. “When this thing with Lily is over . . .

if we make it out alive . . . I’d like you to join that school too.”

Logan laughed. “Really?” he said.

“Really.

“It’s a deal.” Logan nodded. And they shook on it.

“I noticed the book you’re carrying in your pocket,” Peck said.

“So I figure you’ll be interested in that area over there too.”

“What is it?” Logan asked.

“A church.”

“A . . .”

“Church.” Peck laughed. “Don’t look so surprised. You do

realize there was a time when every community had one, right?”

“I guess so . . . ,” Logan said.

“I mean, not since the Inclusion, of course. ‘No god above

Cylis’—that’s the whole point. But underground . . . underground is a different story.”

“Isn’t that still kinda dangerous, though?” Logan asked, fingering the tattered old cover and the whisper-thin pages of the book in his pocket. “I mean, it’s one thing to have a Christian book lying around, but to actually get caught with a real, Christian church down here—”

Peck’s laugher interrupted him. “
A
Christian book? Logan, that’s not
a
Christian book you’re holding. That’s
the
Christian book. It’s the
Bible
—”

“Well, I know it’s the—”

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“The entire religion is based on it! It’s all in there—the whole history of God and His promises to His followers.

“There is a God, Logan—just one—and all of this is part of

His plan. He loves us. He wants a lot better for us than this. And all of those promises are in the Bible. Promises you can depend on.” Peck’s face was growing animated now. “It seriously doesn’t get more Christian than that.”

Logan laughed. “You’ve thought a lot about this.”

“Oh, please—my life’s work is thinking about things DOME

doesn’t want me thinking about. I’ve been reading that book for years! I’ll tell you all I know, and I bet there are Markless down here who know a lot more about it than me.”

“So, what, then? Now that we’re here, we’re gonna start

going to church? As if we’re not taking enough risks these days already?”

Peck clapped Logan on the back. “Believe me, Logan. It’d be

hard for you or me to be in more trouble with Lamson and Cylis than we already are. We might as well do what we want.”

“I guess that’s true,” Logan said.

“Just look around. It may not seem like it, but this space

you’re seeing—it’s
freedom
. Concrete walls and all.” He nodded.

“You can think, believe, and speak just as you choose.”

“It’s a growing thing, then, isn’t it?” Logan said. “This

Christian movement.”

Peck frowned. “Look. Everyone has his own reason for going

Markless. Plenty of people down here laugh at the Christians. But there’s a good bit of us who take this stuff very seriously. Just like they used to, pre-Unity.”

Logan nodded. He was a little nervous, even now, just

hearing these words—religion, church, God . . . he couldn’t

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remember a time when they weren’t taboo. But it was nice to see Peck so excited. And it was nice, finally, to feel part of a community again.

“Then there’s the library, of course, along that wall,” Peck

continued. “The barter market in the middle. Food, clothing—

you name it, they got it.

“There’s a jazz band, if you can believe it, over by the ventila-tion ducts.” Peck pointed. “Over here is the exercise station. They have weights, courts for ball games, a lane for racing . . .”

And Logan couldn’t help but laugh. “We’re really gonna be set

down here, aren’t we?” he said. “Once Lily is with us. We’ll really have everything we need.”

Peck smiled, but something about it was a little sad. “Maybe,”

he said. And then he nodded. “Yeah. Maybe that’s true.”

2

It was a dreary day back in New Chicago. The underpass was cold and wet with a wintry rain. Two weeks had passed since Logan had been chased off by DOME, and the huddle as a whole was in high spirits. Nearly everyone had moved into the abandoned buildings along the sidewalk by the underpass, brushing off rubble from old beds, sweeping the floors clean of broken plaster and glass, making real homes for themselves.

And it was all thanks to Andrew. His deal with DOME had

granted the entire huddle immunity, and as long as its members agreed to stay within the Ruined Sector, they could now do nearly anything they wanted.

No one but Andrew had known the terms of his deal with

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DOME. Everyone had come to assume that Andrew was simply

a masterful negotiator. And no one had questioned why he’d

been given the largest, nicest brownstone still standing along the lake front.

It was only Bridget who held out, who had remained in her

old spot by a pillar of the overpass. She alone knew the full story of Andrew selling out a fellow Markless. And so she stayed put, reading the books in her library and listening to her shortwave radio alone.

“Sitting out here in the cold won’t bring him back,” Andrew

said, walking up to her.

Bridget looked up, resting the book she had been reading on

her lap.

“And it’s certainly not proving anything to me. My conscience

is free and clear.”

“I’m glad,” Bridget said. “You know, if you were anyone else,

I might actually take this opportunity to suggest that maybe,
just
maybe
, you should try
for
once
to treat others the way you would have them treat you.” She stared at him. “But honestly, right now, you’re not worth the effort.” And she looked back down at her book.

“Listen,” Andrew said. “That guy was the worst kind of skin-

flint out there. I’ve seen the type. He thinks he’s bigger than the system. He thinks the rules don’t apply to him. He expects others to fall in line and pay the price for his actions.

“Now, maybe those cute little freckles of his were enough to

sucker you into forgetting all that—but the tightwad got what

was coming to him. He’d asked for it. And after everything he put us through? All this immunity is the least he could have done for us. We were
owed
it. And it doesn’t do anyone any good for you to reject it like this.”

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Andrew paused, waiting for Bridget to respond. She didn’t.

“Please, Bridget. It’s raining. You’re gonna catch pneumonia.”

More silence.

“You done?” she asked.

Andrew sighed.

“Logan didn’t get us into this mess, Andrew. DOME did.

And Logan’s the first person I’ve ever met—the
first
one—who’s decided to stand up to them. Who’s trying to do something about it. Sure, Peck’s been goin’ around for years, pullin’ kids out and protecting flunkees. But even he never had the guts to stand his ground and fight.

“Logan is different. He’s onto something bigger than you or

me or any of this. If you can’t see that, then there’s nothing for us to talk about.” Bridget turned her back to Andrew. He slinked away. And she went back to listening to the faint, comforting chatter of the shortwave radio beside her.

3

The next day, Logan and Peck and the rest of the Dust were brain-storming next steps, and for the first time in weeks, they were actually looking forward to them.

“What do you think she’ll be like now? Think she’ll be the

same?” Hailey asked.

“I don’t know,” Logan said. “She’ll be eighteen. Last time I saw her was on her thirteenth birthday. A lot can happen in five years, I guess.”

“Sure.”

“But she used to be . . . well . . . she was always very quiet.

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She was smart, much smarter than me, though she didn’t brag

about it. Never showed off. She has brown hair, or at least she did, and it’s shoulder length, or at least it was . . . and she was athletic.

Tall.” Logan laughed. “I wonder if she’s still taller than me.”

“Think you’ll recognize her?” Hailey asked hesitantly.

“Yeah.” Logan smiled. “I do.”

“Hey, you the kids they’re callin’ ‘the Dust’?” some teenage

boy asked, barging through the control room door.

“Yeah. That’s us,” Peck replied.

The boy nodded once. “You’re the tightwads tryin’ to break

into Acheron, right?”

“That’s right . . . ,” Logan said. “But we’re trying to find it first.”

“Hey, yeah, right on,” the boy said. “That’s exactly what I

thought. Exactly!”

Blake eyed the boy. “Why? What’s it to you?”

“Well, I just might have someone for you kids . . . someone I

think you might like to meet.”

“Oh yeah? Why’s that?”

The boy shrugged, smirking just a little now. “Because this

someone—she might just know the way in.”

The Dust eyed the boy suspiciously, but Logan lit up, trusting and eager to follow. “Where is she? Is she here?”

“Oh, she’s here,” the boy said.

And Logan leaped to his feet. “Then take us! Can you take us

to her?”

The boy frowned now, nodding his head slowly. “I think that

just might be possible,” he said. “Just might.” He winked. “For the right price.”

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It took Hailey’s foxhole radio to seal the deal. The boy wouldn’t settle for anything less. But they were on their way, the Dust marching straight toward the girl who’d take them to Acheron.

They made it all the way to the vents at the edge of the com-

munity before they saw her. The girl they’d been taken to see, waiting patiently, half in shadow, just inside the alcove of the steam vents in the corner.

“Took you long enough,” Erin said. She saw Logan and smiled

wide.

4

From there, things went not at all as Erin had planned.

She’d expected a hug, at least, from the friend she’d gone

through so much to find.

She’d expected some small window of time, some grace

period at least, to explain herself before the Dust all turned a cold shoulder.

In her heart, she’d expected Logan to be as happy to see her

as she was to see him.

But Erin didn’t get any of that.

Instead, the Dust pounced.

“
Who
are you?
” Blake demanded, pushing the boy up against the wall. “
Who
sent
you? DOME? Huh? That it?
”

“DOME? No!” the boy cried, suddenly very much out of his

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element. “Dude, I’m just the Tech Wiz! Shawn! I’m a Markless—

like you!”

“
Spill
it
,” Blake roared at Erin. “Who is this guy? If he won’t tell me, you will!”

Shawn was scared now, yelling at Erin, “
Dude, Erin, you said this
was cool!
You said these guys were your friends!”

“They are my friends,” Erin grunted. It took Jo and Tyler and

Eddie together to pin her down. “They just don’t know it yet.”

But Peck was already stepping back. “Fellow Unmarked,” he

called. “We have an emergency on our hands! It has come to our attention that DOME—”