Among the Enemy

Chapter Thirty-Six

At dusk the next day, Matthias took his basketball and stepped out of his room, latching the door firmly behind him. Nina's new instructions — which she'd passed to him at lunch — had reminded him to act carefree and playful; he just hoped he could keep his legs from shaking. Ever since he and Nina had been caught in the closet, he'd been imagining all the ways this plan could go wrong.

God? he prayed. Are you with me?

He strolled past all the guards in the hallway. One of them winked at him, and he didn't understand why. Was the guard trying to warn Matthias somehow? Did the guard know something that Matthias didn't? Or was the wink just because the guard had heard about Matthias being caught in a closet with a girl? People acted like that sometimes about boys and girls falling in love. Matthias didn't understand it. He didn't want to. Love made him think of the way Mr. Talbot had acted, saying good-bye to his wife when she'd gone to help Percy and Alia. Right at the end, Mr. Talbot had let his fingers linger on the side of the car, as if he couldn't bear to let her go. And then she hadn't come back….

Because I led her into danger. My fault, Matthias thought.

He couldn't think about that right now. Too distracting. He forced himself to walk down the stairs, out the front door, and several feet down the driveway. So far, so good. He positioned himself near the line of guards at the front gate and began bouncing the ball.

"Anyone want to play with me?" he asked.

Surely it didn't matter that his voice came out sound" ing so plaintive. Surely the guards would interpret that as his longing for Tiddy, not his fear of being caught in a subversive plot.

Several of the guards looked down at him and smiled indulgently. Matthias saw a few of them elbow one another.

"We're busy. Sorry," one of them said, not unkindly.

Matthias kept bouncing his ball. He'd actually never played with a basketball before; he'd never before touched one that wasn't crushed and tossed out in the trash. Matthias was surprised at how quickly this ball bounced back up, how hard it smacked his hand.

Just bouncing the ball's not good enough, he reminded himself.

"Watch this," he said, and tried to balance the ball on the tip of his finger. He was supposed to make the ball spin, but he couldn't even get it to wobble. It kept falling off and rolling down against the guards' feet. They kept gently kicking the ball back to Matthias. Then one of the guards picked it up.

"I'll show you how it's done," he said. He placed the ball on his finger and sent it whirling.

"Wow," Matthias breathed out, and his awe wasn't faked. How could anyone do that?

"Oh, that's nothing. You should see Chester from over in the control room," the guard said. "Hey, Jim, go tell Chester to come out here for a minute."

Another guard walked over to a booth right at the gateway. An unbelievably tall guard poked his head out of the booth's doorway.

"Yeah?" he said.

"The kid wants to see a basketball demonstration."

The tall guard — Chester — glanced down at some monitor in the control booth, then stepped out.

"I guess I could do a quick show," he said.

He leaned down and scooped up the ball. It seemed to jump from one hand to the other, now spinning, now running down Chester's arms and across his shoulders, now bouncing from back to front between his legs. Matthias watched, amazed, and cheered along with the other Population Police guards.

But Matthias kept only one eye on Chester's stunning show. He was also watching the control booth.

Nobody had stepped in to take Chester's place.

A few minutes later, Chester caught the ball behind his back on the toe of his shoe and took a huge bow. Then he tossed the ball toward Matthias.

"Okay, back to work," he said reluctantly.

Matthias fumbled trying to catch the ball. It rolled back toward Chester.

Just a few more seconds, Matthias thought. Show off just a little bit more.

But Chester kept walking toward the control booth.

Matthias leaned down to pick up the ball himself. He was glad he was facing the ground so he didn't have to keep the glee out of his expression when Chester cried out, "What? Our monitors are down! So's the electric fence!"

Other guards rushed in behind Chester. They were punching buttons, shouting into walkie-talkies. Matthias thought it was safe to wander over behind them and stand on tiptoe to get a glimpse of the defective monitors.

A walkie-talkie crackled.

"Found the problem. Some animal chewed through two wires back here. We'll have them fixed in a few minutes."

Matthias put his hands over his mouth and tried to look horrified, but he was hiding a grin. Alia had been the one who'd taught Nina that make-it-look-like-an-animal-chewed-the-wire trick.

It wasn't long before Chester's monitor screens flickered back to life. From his vantage point, Matthias could tell that the screens showed long stretches of the stone wall and electric fence that completely surrounded Population Police headquarters. He caught no glimpse of shadowy figures climbing through.

That means the others are out! he thought joyfully. Or. . maybe they couldn't make it in time and gave up.

He had no way of knowing which was true. All he could do was stick with his part of the plan.

The guards resumed their strict, straight-line formation. Matthias went back to bouncing his basketball. He made a few feeble attempts at some of Chester's tricks. The basketball refused to roll in a smooth line down Matthias's arms; it banged his shin rather than jumping smoothly under his leg.

"That toe trick looked cool," Matthias said.

He turned around, took a deep breath, and tossed the ball over his shoulder. He glanced back and saw the ball sail out into the open air, past the line of guards, past the control booth, past the gate. It hit the ground and started rolling, beyond the boundaries of Population Police headquarters.

"Oops," Matthias said. "I'll get that."

This was the decisive moment. If one of the guards said, No, you're not allowed, I'll get it, or No, too bad, your ball's gone for good, or 1 forbid you to go out there, then all would be lost and Matthias might be stuck at Population Police headquarters forever. The thought seemed more unbearable than ever. The very air around Matthias seemed to cage him — air that any minute might carry words to his ears that he desperately did not want to hear….

Nobody said anything.

Matthias trotted after his ball, past the guards, past the control booth, past the gate.

Nobody objected. He'd been set free by a child's toy.

When Matthias reached the place where the ball had come to rest against a tuft of frozen grass, he faked clumsiness, kicking the ball and sending it even farther beyond the gate. It rolled into thick woods that had sunk into near darkness now. Matthias could barely see, but that was good — the guards wouldn't be able to see him now either.

He peered around for a pinprick of light in the darkness—Oh, please, let the others be waiting—and there it was, a tiny red glow off to the right.

Matthias crashed through the woods, not worrying about the noise, just concentrating on speed. How long did he have before one of the guards came out looking for him?

He was closer to the red light now. It was coming from inside a long, dark car parked on a dirt road in the shadows. Matthias covered the last few yards in a mad rush. He yanked on the door handle of the car and dived through the opening.

"Go!" he burst out before he'd shut the door, before he'd seen who was holding the light, whom he'd landed next to.

"Sure thing," a voice drawled, and the car shot forward into the dark night.

Matthias jerked the door shut, and it dawned on him: He knew that voice. He looked over, squinting into the darkness. The driver was illuminated only in the glow from the dashboard, but Matthias recognized his face.

It was Mike.