Among the Enemy

Chapter Nineteen

Matthias might have sat there all day staring after I Nina — or, rather, staring after her while pretending to only be staring off into space. But a few minutes later, an officer in a black uniform pulled up a chair across from him.

"You done eating yet, kid?" the officer asked. "Tiddy told me to watch over you while he's away. I'm Mike."

"Uh, hi," Matthias said. "I was, um, just finishing up." He took the last bite of fruit cocktail and studied Mike while he chewed. Mike was younger and thinner than Tiddy, but he had a similarly friendly manner.

How come none of the Population Police I saw before today ever seemed friendly? Matthias wondered.

He'd never saved a Population Police officer's life before today. He'd never worn a Population Police uniform himself before today.

"We've got an action-packed afternoon ahead of us," Mike said.

Mike's "action" turned out to be mostly a tour of the headquarters and its grounds, but that did, indeed, take hours. Headquarters was a massive building, four stories high and spread out over what seemed to be several acres. The grounds around it seemed more extensive than the city Matthias had grown up in.

"This used to be where some rich guy lived, until the Population Police took over. Can you believe it?" Mike asked as they putt^putted around the property on a golf cart. He got a wistful look on his face. "They say when we get rid of all the rebels — well, not that we're supposed to admit there are rebels, but you know — they say when there's peace, all the top Population Police officers will get houses like this, all their own."

"Really?" Matthias said, thinking, How do you mean, "get rid of all the rebels"? What about children staying with rebels?

"Has Tiddy left for the, uh, dangerous sectors yet?" he asked anxiously.

Mike misunderstood Matthias's anxiety.

"Don't worry about Tiddy," he said. "That guy always comes out on top." Mike shook his head admiringly.

Matthias wanted to say, No, no, it's the rebels I'm worried about. What's going to happen to them? But was he just con^ cerned about the rebels? It seemed strange to save somebody's life, then root against him in a battle. Why had he saved Tiddy" s life, anyway? Looking back, Matthias had trouble understanding why he'd stopped the shoot' out by rescuing a Population Police officer. Why hadn't Matthias just hopped in the car and driven away alone, leaving Tiddy out in the open? Helping the man in the tree to kill him?

Tiddy would have just gone in the cabin to hide. And then Mrs. Talbot would have been in even greater danger.

But it was more than that. It had to do with Samuel telling him, over and over again, "Killing is wrong." Even in the split second he'd had to make a decision back by the cabin, Matthias hadn't wanted to be an accomplice to any more murder. As much as he hated the Population Police, it had bothered him to see the three officers with Tiddy fall down dead.

, "Love your enemies," Samuel had also said. ' So was it okay that Matthias wanted Uddy and the.Irebels to survive?

Matthias closed his eyes wearily, too confused and worried to fake interest in formal gardens anymore.

"Getting tired?" Mike said sympathetically. "You've probably seen enough for one day. We'll just go back and get you signed up for the classes Tiddy says you need to take." He drove the golf cart back to the main building, dead leaves crunching under the tires.

Signing up for classes turned out to be a long, drawn-out affair.

"We don't have any record in our files of a Roger Symmes," the woman behind the counter in the training room told Mike.

“Just a minute,” Mike told her. He drew Matthias over to the side and asked, “Tiddy took your I.D. car when he inducted you into the Population Police, didn’t he?”

"Uh, no," Matthias said.

Mike rolled his eyes. "That Tiddy. Great guy, of course, but he plays fast and loose with the rules. Can I have your I.D. now?"

Matthias had to dig down deep into his inner pocket to find the card. He handed it over to Mike a little nervously. When he'd taken it from the safe back in the cabin, he'd never pictured having to hand it over to a Population Police officer right in the midst of Population Police head^ quarters.

But Mike barely glanced at the card.

"I.D. pictures never do anyone justice, do they?" he asked, then carried it over to the woman at the counter.

Matthias couldn't even remember what the picture looked like. But he knew his birthday had just become January 2, his eyes had just become green when they were really more hazel, and his hometown had just become Terpsiko, a place he'd never been to and wouldn't be able to find on a map if his life depended on it Which it might someday.

Better look that one up, he told himself.

Mike came back from the counter.

"Okay, you're signed up for gun classes, stealth methods, undercover operations, and subduing enemies," Mike said. "Everything starts tomorrow."

Matthias was so tired and worried and overwhelmed, he almost missed noticing the irony of the Population Police teaching him to operate undercover.

But of course he couldn't laugh without giving himself away.