Among the Betrayed

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

The four of them decided, after much debate, to wait before they unlocked all the doors and slipped out of the prison.

"If someone got poisoned, everything will be topsyturvy for a while," Percy said. "We* should probably wait until the middle of the night."

"But the hating man — that's the guy who was interrogating me — he said no one would come to put me in the cell until eight A.M. That's, uh, ten hours away. We can get a long way away from the prison if they don't discover us missing for ten hours."

"An hour," Matthias said, as though the decision was his and his alone. "We'll wait an hour. That'll give the guards time to settle down. And" — he glanced back at the door to the jail cell—"in case someone comes to check, the three of us ought to go back in there for now."

Nina could tell from his face — and Alia's and Percy's— how much they all hated that idea. With freedom only an hour away, going back into the jail cell seemed like an unbearable punishment. Just peering into the dark beyond the door made Nina shiver. She was glad she, at least, got to stay in the hall under the glow of a lightbulb, even a weak one.

"Lock us in," Percy said quietly.

The three kids stepped over the threshold of the cell and pulled the door shut. Nina turned the key in the lock. The bolt slid into place with a permanent-sounding thud.

Not me, Nina thought.

I wouldn't have gone back in there. I couldn't have.

If it'd been her, she would have taken her chances, ready to risk losing all possibility of escape just to avoid sitting in the dark, damp, miserable cell for one more hour. But none of the others had murmured so much as a word of protest.

Nina spent the next hour pacing — from the door of the jail cell to the metal door that led out to the stairs, and back again. Again and again and again. It would have made sense to conserve her energy, to save her muscles and her shoe leather for the hours of walking that lay ahead. But Nina couldn't sit still, couldn't rest for a second. When she felt sure that an hour had passed, she knocked at the door of the jail cell.

"Now?" she called through the wood.

"Not yet," Matthias's muffled voice came back.

Nina paced some more. She sat down and looked through her food bag. (She kept her back toward the metal door, figuring she'd have to hide everything quickly if she heard anyone opening the door from the other side.) The biscuits were crumbled now, the apples were bruised, the oranges were starting to go soft. Was this really enough food for all four of them?

You can still leave without the others, an evil voice whispered in her head.

It's not too late to change your mind.

No, Nina told herself firmly. She went back and knocked on the wood door again.

"Nobody's come," she said. "Nobody's going to come. It's time to go."

"Okay," one of the boys answered. She couldn't even tell which one.

She unlocked the door, and the others came out. They looked calm and unworried, as if they were off to a picnic, instead of escaping from the Population Police. Nina began trying keys in the outer door again.

"Can I?" Percy asked.

Nina hesitated. She'd been so worried about getting the others to trust her, she hadn't even thought that she might not be able to trust them. What if Percy grabbed the keys, pushed Nina back, escaped without her?

He was a nine-year-old kid. Nina handed the key ring over. Percy looked at the keyhole, sorted through the keys, then held up a dull silver one.

"Try this one next," he said.

Nina stabbed it into the hole. It fit. The lock clicked and the door gave way. The stairs lay right ahead of them, deserted and dim.

"Should one of us go up to make sure it's safe?" Nina whispered.

"Me," Alia said.

Nina waited for one of the boys to say, "Oh, no, not you." How could they send the youngest out first? But no one said anything, so Nina didn't, either. Alia tiptoed for-ward, as graceful and silent as the cats Nina had seen on TV. When Alia got to the top, she turned around, waved back at them, and mouthed the words, 'All clear." Percy and Matthias stepped forward, and Nina followed.

"She's done that before," Nina whispered. "She's used to being the lookout."

"Shh," Matthias said over his shoulder.

By the time they reached the door to the officers' suite, Nina was convinced she was hanging out with a bunch of professional thieves. Maybe she was. What did she know about the other three kids, anyway?

I knew they were going to die if I didn't help them, Nina told herself.

That's what matters.

And anyhow, it was wonderful to have Percy, at every door, select the exact right key, without any hesitation, any noisy fumbling. It was wonderful to have Alia slipping forward, always watching, always ready to warn them. Nina felt safer with the other kids.

But at the door to the officers' suite Matthias held Nina back.

"Isn't there another way out?" he asked.

"Not that I know of," she answered. "Why?"

He pointed to gray wires running along the doorframe, so thin and nondescript Nina would never have noticed them on her own.

"Security system," Matthias muttered.

Panic welled in Nina's chest. How could they turn back now, when they were so close?

But how could they get past a security system?