Among the Enemy

Chapter Thirty-Four

No!" Matthias wailed at Nina. This time they were hiding in a closet just inside the cafeteria in the middle of the night. With his elbow jammed into a stack of dishtowels and his feet planted in a scrub bucket, Matthias knew he was going to have a hard time getting Nina to take him seriously. He tried anyway.

"This was my idea! I don't want to be just a… a decoy!" "Shh," Nina said. "Someone's going to hear you." She shook her head and pulled the door completely shut. Now they were in total darkness. Nina bent over and whispered directly into Matthias's ear. "You can't just think about what yew want. Everybody notices you, because of Tiddy. If you disappeared, it'd make a big stir. Besides, if your plan works, we need you to keep eavesdropping on the com' mander's office."

Matthias imagined his future as Nina saw it: He'd lie on his bed for the rest of his life listening to the bug from the commander's office. No — eventually the commander would expect Matthias to start attending the meetings. Eventually Matthias would have to start acting like a true member of the Population Police. Start hurting people, killing people — joining in their evil.

He'd have to do that, or the rest of his life would not be very long.

"Nina, I can't go on eavesdropping," Matthias whispered back, his words sinking into the darkness. He wished he and Nina were in full sunshine; he thought that maybe if she could see his face, she'd understand that he wasn't just being selfish by wanting to get away from Population Police headquarters. "Give the tape recorder and headphones to someone else — anyone in the building should be able to pick up the signals."

"Without getting caught?" Nina challenged.

Matthias shrugged helplessly, forgetting Nina couldn't see him. He'd gotten distracted from what he really wanted to say.

"Nina, you knew Percy and Alia," he began. "You know what great friends they were. You know they never had the chance to eat all the food they ever wanted, to wear nice clothes, to be treated like… like some sort of precious toy. Like I'm being treated now. But they didn't ever have to act like an evil man is their best friend, either, or pretend to be grieving for a killer. Remember how nice Alia always was to you when Percy and I still weren't sure we could trust you? She wasn't pretending. She really liked you, and she always wanted to believe that people are good, underneath it all."

Matthias stopped because the words were getting caught in his throat. There was a silence, and he was afraid that Nina hadn't even heard him.

Then, "What's that got to do with your role in the plan?" Nina asked. She sounded like she was trying to stay harsh and businesslike, but she had a catch in her voice.

"Nothing. Everything," Matthias said. "It may not make sense to you, but I have to do this. For Percy and Alia." And Samuel, he thought. And Mrs. Talbot. And the seventeen rebels I saw the Population Police kill. His memory stretched back even further. Maybe he needed to do this for two other people as well — a man and a woman who'd been so terri' fied of the Population Police's power that they'd left their baby on a doorstep in a dark alley.

"I think—," Nina began, and Matthias could tell her answer was going to be no. She had to have everything making sense; she wouldn't let his emotions overrule her carefully plotted reasons.

And then suddenly the closet door whipped open, and two Population Police guards were shining flashlights right at them.