Among the Enemy

Chapter Fourteen

Really, Matthias could see only eyes and maybe a dark fcboot in the shadows of one of the trees across the road. But the eyes were focused precisely.

Watching Matthias.

Alia would have seen him before I did, before he saw her, Matthias thought shakily. She would have known not to step out of the cabin.

But Matthias didn't have Alia with him, and he barely knew what to do without her and Percy making decisions with him. At least the man wasn't doing anything but watching. He didn't swing down from the tree, didn't dash across the road to attack. Matthias dropped to the ground and pretended that he had to tie his shoe.

"Mrs. Talbot!" he hissed urgently, his head bent down so the man wouldn't be able to see his lips moving. "Stay in the cabin. Someone's watching."

She didn't answer, but she didn't step out of the cabin either.

Matthias took his time fiddling with his shoelaces. Surely the man knew that Matthias had seen him. Surely if the man was going to harm Matthias, he would have already done it.

Could he be. .a helper? Matthias wondered. On our side?

He stood up, his heart thumping hard, a risky plan forming in his mind.

"Percy? Alia?" he called. 'Are you close by?"

He fixed his gaze on the eyes in the tree across the road. They bobbed up and down, once. Was that a nod? Did the man know what had happened to Matthias's friends? Had the man himself taken them?

'Are they safe?" Matthias called again, his voice hoarse.

Again, the eyes moved, in concert. Down, up, down, up. Dead brown leaves rustled around the eyes; Matthias saw a hand reach out and pull back. The man was holding up one finger. He put the finger against lips and a beard that appeared briefly in a gap in the leaves.

"You want me to be quiet?" Matthias asked.

Another nod.

The arm emerged from the branches once more. The man seemed to be waving at Matthias now — waving or trying to shove leaves out of his way.

Matthias didn't understand.

"What?" he half whispered. "Can't you just come down and tell me what—"

The finger went back to the lips, and Matthias broke off. The arm waved again and pointed off to the east.

Matthias went and stood in the middle of the road. He squinted straight down the road toward the rising sun but could see nothing unusual. He turned and walked toward the man's tree.

The man's waves became frantic now, and Matthias could understand this gesture. It meant: Go back! Get away from here!

"Well, all right, if that's how you want it," Matthias muttered. None of this made sense to him, but he obediently backed away from the man's tree. He considered going back into the cabin to confer with Mrs. Talbot, but he didn't want to let the man out of his sight. And he couldn't be sure the man was an ally; he didn't want to expose Mrs. Talbot to any danger. If he'd had Percy and Alia with him, the three of them could have made a split-second decision. Alone, Matthias could only stand in the middle of the road, his face scrunched up in bafflement, his feet turned halfway between coming and going.

So that's where Matthias was when the four Population Police officers burst out of the woods to the east.