Among the Free

Chapter Twenty-Five

Then he heard someone swearing and screaming out, "What is the meaning of this?" he voice was coming from outside the room. Before he'd even quite registered the words, Luke's reflexes took over.

Hide! Hide! Hide! screamed in his brain, like an alarm system set at high alert. He thought about squeezing behind the mahogany desk, but it was in full sight of the door the angry person was about to walk through. Luke scurried to the darkest part of the room and weaseled his way in behind some of the signs leaning against the wall. The sign nearest him quivered and he got a horrifying vision in his mind: What if he knocked all the signs over and they crashed to the ground? He'd be discovered for sure. He reached up and steadied the sign, then yanked his hand down as bright light filled the entire room. Even from behind the thick layer of signs, Luke could see the shadow of dark shoes stomping into the room.

"Get me Melton," the voice was growling now.

The door slammed, and Luke jumped, his shock amplified because he knew the voice: It was Oscar's. Luke had heard that tone of cold anger many times.

"The point of putting the signs in here was that it was a secure, locked room," Oscar screamed. "That doesn't do any good if you leave the door hanging open!"

Oscar had to be speaking into a phone or a walkie-talkie, Luke thought, because only one set of footsteps had come into the room. Luke burrowed back tighter against the wall. There was no way he wanted Oscar to discover him now, not when Oscar was so furious.

The person Oscar was talking to must have protested, because Oscar was silent for a few seconds and then burst out, "Well, it was wide open when I got here!" Oscar seemed to be pacing, and when he got close to Luke's hiding place, Luke could hear bits and pieces of the other side of the conversation: ". . key didn't work so I had to… really I did shut… nothing was disturbed, was it? And…"

"No, no," Oscar said, sounding a little calmer. "Nothing's out of place, as far as I can tell, and nobody was in any of the surrounding rooms… I guess you're right; that's all anyone would think. And it looks like the security system is still working. Let's test the soundproof features, and then proceed with our plans if that's not broken. Who knows, maybe I can use this. Another bargaining tactic, you know?"

Oscar hung but kept pacing. Luke lay frozen behind the signs, his thoughts a panicky loop.

He'll find me. He'll get mad again. He'll blame me for the open door. He'll find me. .

But then Oscar moved away from Luke's hiding place and didn't come back. Luke heard the click of the door opening again, and more footsteps.

"Okay, we'll try it now. I can replace the lock later," another voice — Melton's? — said. "We won't have to move anything."

Luke could hear switches being flipped on and off, the door being opened and shut, Melton and Oscar walking in and out of the room, one of them murmuring, "Testing, testing, testing." Then Melton said, "You're good to go. Shall I bring him down?"

"Yeah. Sounds good. I'm just… I'll be ready." Did Oscar sound nervous? Luke wasn't sure what to make of that. In Luke's experience, Oscar never sounded nervous.

Luke's legs were going numb from being in the same position for so long. He dared to shift them ever so slightly, without rattling the propped^up signs. Now he had pins and needles pricking up and down his legs. But there was nothing he could do about that except wince and bite his lip and stay silent.

Luke heard more footsteps, but they stumbled, and there was an extra sound thrown in. The footsteps got closer — two pairs, Luke thought. And then they were close enough that Luke could recognize the extra sound: chains. Chains clanking and rattling and dragging on the floor.

Luke heard the door shut. The chains rattled and the chairs creaked as people sat down.

"I demand to be treated with more respect!" a haughty voice announced. "I am the supreme leader of the Population Police, I am in control of the entire country—"

"Not anymore." Oscar's voice, with a chuckle. "If you'll notice, you're sitting there in handcuffs and leg irons, and I am the one in charge."

"This is an indignity! This will not stand! Thousands of people are loyal to me — they'll come and rescue me; they'll restore me to my rightful position. And then you'll be—"

"They can't rescue you if they don't know where you are," Oscar said, his voice still light and amused. 'And have you forgotten? Thousands of people hate you too. Thousands would love to kill you, to pay you back for everything you and your Population Police have done to them. A lot of those people are out on the front lawn cele^ brating right now. Want me to take you out to them? Want me to just yell out a window, 'Hey everybody, Aldous Krakenaur's right here. Anybody feel like visiting?'"

Oscar was standing up, probably walking toward the door. Luke wondered if this was what Oscar had meant by holding a trial, judging the Population Police by basic human standards. Maybe he was going to let the crowd in, let them decide what Aldous Krakenaur deserved.

Luke heard the clank of chains.

"Please, I beg of you—"

Luke couldn't see what was happening, but he thought maybe Aldous Krakenaur had grabbed Oscar's hand to stop him. It was hard to hear over the rattling chains, and Krakenaur seemed to be whispering now. Luke heard the word "negotiate." He heard "negotiations" and "my loyal followers" and "loyal to you." But as hard as he listened, he couldn't make out a full sentence, a full thought.

"Well, yes, I suppose that could be arranged," Oscar said airily, as if he really didn't care. "With the code we talked about before—"

"Yes!" The way Krakenaur said that, Luke could picture him straining against his chains, still reaching out to Oscar. "They're true believers! They'd understand that!"

'And they would stay. . loyal?" Oscar asked.

"Oh, absolutely!" Krakenaur assured him. 'And then you could give me—"

"I'm giving you the opportunity to stay alive," Oscar interrupted harshly. "That's more than kind of me, I'd say."

"But after—"

"You've got no right to think about after. You should be thinking of new ways to be useful to me, so I don't decide to throw you out into the crowd," Oscar said. He paused craftily. "The door to this room has no lock — did anyone tell you that? It's one of those inconvenient little details that comes with taking over a building the previous occupants have left in bad shape. Just like taking over a government the previous leaders have left in bad shape… Maybe I should leave you in this room — blindfolded, handcuffed, chained to that chair. Maybe I should just leave everything to chance, to see if anyone happens to wander in here, happens to see you sitting there—"

"No!" The panic in Krakenaur's voice was almost palpable. "You need me! I can tell you where the extra food is stored! We have plenty of food!"

"That's a start," Oscar mused. "The rabble like food, all right. And they like me as long as I'm providing it. But I warn you — I want more than food. We'll just have to see if your promises pan out."

Luke heard Oscar's footsteps again, brisk this time. He stopped by the door and seemed to be shutting off the security system. Seconds later, Oscar opened the door and said, "Lock him up in the attic again, Melton. He's earned the chance to see another day. Get him to tell you where the food is, and have someone check it out. And then— come back and fix this lock!"

"Yes, sir," Melton said.

"Wait!" It was Krakenaur, pleading again. "You can't just—"

"I can do anything I want," Oscar snarled. 'And you can't do a thing about it!"

Oscar's footsteps pounded out the door, followed more slowly by Melton and Krakenaur with his rattling chains. Melton turned out the lights and shut the door firmly behind him, plunging the room into darkness once again.

Luke lay still, blinking furiously, trying to make out shadows and shapes in the relentless dark. Even after he was sure his eyes had adjusted, he could see nothing but an inky blackness: no light at all. He strained his ears, listening to make sure the footsteps were receding, but the room's soundproofing evidently worked in both directions.

I've got to get out of here before Melton comes back and fixes the lock, Luke thought. Before I'm locked in here forever-free and trapped, all at once.

He crawled out from behind the pile of signs, his arms stiff, h_1S legs' numbness giving away to pins and needles again. He tried to remember where each stack of signs had been, so he wouldn't knock anything down.

Nobody would hear you anyway, he assured himself, but there was a paranoid echo to that thought: If I left a mess they'd know someone had been here. Somehow they might be able to link it tome. .

So what? Why would anyone care? Oscar fought against the Population Police, just like I did.

Are you sure?

Luke stopped with that thought; he couldn't argue with himself and keep moving through the darkness at the same time. He inched forward, swinging his hands out in front of him. Finally his hand brushed a doorknob, and he grabbed onto it.

Go, quick, before Melton comes back! he ordered himself. But there was a competing fear keeping him from turning the doorknob: What if someone sees me coming out of this room? What if they report me to Oscar and he figures out I've been eaves^ dropping? Or-what if they think I've got something to do with all those horrid signs? What if they blame me?

Luke wished he had the courage to smash all the signs to bits before leaving the secret room. That's what Jen would have done. She would have smashed them and then waited until Melton came back just so she could tell him, I did this. I took care of that part of the Population Police's evil. Let me go talk to Oscar, so I can tell him what I did too. She wouldn't have stayed hidden while Oscar was talking to Aldous Krakenaur. She would have stalked out and declared, Listen, I've got a thing or two to tell Aldous, myself.

"I'm not you, Jen," Luke mumbled. But he managed to hold back the lesser of his fears and open the door.