Among the Imposters

Thirty Two

A woman’s sleepy voice answered.

“Is Mr. Talbot there?” Luke asked. “I need Mr. Talbot.”

“It’s three in the morning!” the woman hissed.

“Please,” Luke begged. “It’s an emergency. I’m a friend of—” He barely managed to stop himself from saying, “Jen’s.” Mr. Talbot’s phone was probably bugged by the Population Police. Maybe the school’s phone was now, too. Luke didn’t know But he tried again. “Mr. Talbot is a friend of my parents’s”.

There was only dead air in response. Then a man’s voice, just as sleepy as the woman’s.

“Hello?”

It was Mr. Talbot.

Luke wanted to spill out everything, from his first confusing day at Hendricks, to Jason’s treachery, to the oddness of the file Luke still held on his lap. If only he could explain all his problems, surely Mr. Talbot could solve them all. But Luke had to choose his words carefully.

“You told me to blend in,” he accused, hoping Mr. Talbot would remember. “I can’t. You have to come get me.” And four other boys, he added silently, as if Mr. Talbot were actually capable of telepathy. If only Luke could just say, flat out, “You need to get four more fake I.D.’s for these friends of mine. And you’ll need to protect their families, too.” But Luke couldn’t think of any code that would clue in Mr. Talbot, without clueing in the Population Police as well.

“Now, now,” Mr. Talbot said calmly, sounding like an elderly uncle dispensing wisdom. “Surely school isn’t that bad. You need to give it more of a chance. Is this finals week or something?”

Luke couldn’t tell whether Mr. Talbot really didn’t understand, or whether he was acting for the sake of the bug.

“That’s not the problem!” Luke almost screamed. “It’s— it’s like a problem I had before.”

“Yes, problems do seem to repeat themselves,” Mr. Talbot said, still sounding untroubled. “Usually, there’s some root cause. You need to attack that first.”

Was Mr. Talbot speaking in code? Luke hoped so.

“It’s all very well to say that,” he protested. “But the problems are multiplying. There are four others, now, I have to think about And they can’t wait until the, um, root cause is fixed. This is an emergency. You have to help.”

Luke was proud of himself. He couldn’t be any clearer than that, not using a potentially bugged phone. Surely Mr. Talbot would understand.

“You children can be so melodramatic,” Mr. Talbot said irritably. Now he sounded like a man ripped from sleep at three in the morning for no good reason. “I have every confidence that you can deal with your problems by yourself. Now. Good night.”

“Please!” Luke pleaded.

But Mr. Talbot had hung up.