Sneak (Swipe Series)

don’t take care.
    “DOME hasn’t cracked our code yet and they don’t know our routes, but DOME does know of the River. And they’ll do anything to stop it.”
    “So, what?” Logan asked. “In the morning we’re just supposed to head out onto the River and hope to find some signs? Hope we don’t get caught? Hope it takes us to Beacon?”
    “That’s about right,” Papa said. “Though you left out some steps.” He laughed. “Most of them, in fact. Starting tomorrow, you kids are gonna walk, run, swim, crawl . . . this River’s full of surprises. Don’t think you’ll spend the whole time on foot. Because you won’t.”
    “What does that mean?” Peck asked.
    Mama shrugged. “I wish we could tell you. But we only know our leg of the trip. Anything beyond it, we’d be guessing.”
    “Wait a minute,” Logan said. “ Your leg of the trip?”
    “Oh, did we forget to mention?” Papa smiled. “Mama and I . . . we’re captains.”
    “You?” Peck said.
    Mama laughed. “Well, how do you think we got supplies for the Fulmart all those years? You think everything in there was pre-Unity?”
    Papa stood now. “But enough planning. Tomorrow we head east. There’s an anchor at the southern tip of Lake Michigan, and another captain not far beyond that. I have a raft for us on the stream out in the woods. We’ll be able to take it most of the way.”
    Mama smiled. “You’re in good hands, kids. This part of the River is ours; Papa could get you there with his eyes closed.”

    When Logan and Peck left the farmhouse, Peck walked past the trees strung up with antennae. On one of them, a boat was carved in the side. On another, an anchor. He hadn’t noticed them before.
    Papa chuckled from the farmhouse’s doorway. “Good eye,” he said. “Now you’re getting the hang of it.”
    Peck sighed. “I’d better be. After tomorrow, these little drawings are all we get.”
    “Ah! Not quite,” Papa said, stepping off the porch. “There’s one more trick I have to show you.” And Papa swung his foot out in front of him, making a long arc in the dirt. “Any time in your travels, if you want to find a fisher among the people you’re talking to, you just do this, real casual-like.”
    “Okay. What’s it mean?”
    “Nothing on its own. That’s the whole point. Just a fidgety leg and an arc in the dirt. Not even DOME would bat an eye. But if you’re face-to-face with a fisher . . .” Papa carved a second arc in the dirt now, overlapping it with the first at one end. “They’ll do the same. And do you see it?” He pointed down.

    “A fisher will always have a fish.”
    “There’s just one problem,” Logan said. “There’s still no way the Dust is gonna agree to come with us.”
    “Don’t worry about that,” Peck said, erasing the lines of the fish with his foot. “I’m telling you, they’ll come around.” Then he smiled and turned to walk back to the barn.
    Logan hurried to follow.
    5
    Erin rode the elevator to the top of DOME’s New Chicago headquarters, known throughout Spokie as “the Umbrella.” It was nighttime, but the doors opened to a full and bustling space.
    The main floor of the headquarters was one big room, fifty stories up. It was glass on all sides, including the floor, with desks circling around the building’s tall, central spire. Right now, hundreds of DOME agents shuffled about, preparing reports, analyzing holograms, sorting documents on each desk’s touch screen.
    Mr. Arbitor stepped out of the crowd with a large cup of steaming nanocoffee and handed it to his daughter.
    “It’s not fresh,” he warned.
    Erin sipped it anyway. It was bitter and stale and her nose crinkled when she tasted it, but nanocoffee never went cold, and the warmth helped after so many hours of following Hailey in the woods.
    “Come,” Mr. Arbitor said. “Time for an update.”
    The two of them walked to the outermost ring of desks. Mr. Arbitor swiped his Mark to unlock his tabletop, and he began pulling up documents for Erin to see.
    “At twenty-two hundred hours, two of our men approached the underpass in New Chicago’s Ruined Sector, where Logan Langly was identified. According to plan, our informant led Logan away from the group, leaving him vulnerable and alone.”
    Mr. Arbitor pulled up a series of night-vision stills and video feeds so Erin could see what he was talking about.
    “At twenty-three hundred hours, Hailey Phoenix arrived at the scene, thanks to your good