Sneak (Swipe Series)

blame myself.”
    “Mr. Cheswick, I’m really close to a breakthrough here. I just need a little more time—”
    But Michael flicked at the glass of the tabletop before Mr. Arbitor could finish, and a virtual document slid across the screen of the table’s surface. It came to a stop in front of Mr. Arbitor, and he read it, disbelieving, mouthing the words to himself as he did.
    “Transfer? You’re transferring me back . . . already?”
    “It’s been three months,” Michael said. “In that time we’ve had kidnappings, we’ve had DOME equipment stolen from right under our noses, we’ve had an escape from the Pledging Center, and we’ve come no closer to catching any of our prime suspects among the Dust.” He laughed under his breath. “In fact, Charles, our prime suspect list has managed to grow .
    “Three months is enough time. It’s enough time to know when you’ve made a mistake as big as this.”
    Mr. Arbitor looked again at the document in front of him.
    “I didn’t call you in here for an update, Charles. I called you in here for your swipe.” He held his hand out, expectantly. “Please, if you would. Just swipe right there on the line. The sooner you do, the sooner we can put this big, failed experiment behind us. And the sooner I can forget about the whole miserly thing.”
    5
    Logan woke up with the sun on his face. He was lying up to his neck in a tunnel carved into a mound of snow, his fleece blanket wrapped around him, and he was shivering.
    “Lips are still blue,” a voice whispered above him. “Not a good sign.” It was Dane. Logan squinted up at him, into the sun.
    “Well, look who’s awake,” Hailey said.
    “Where are we?” Logan asked. His head ached violently, and immediately he felt himself fighting back a powerful wave of nausea.
    “Still in the woods, a few miles downstream from the farm, I’d guess.” Hailey was whispering. “We should keep moving now that you’re awake. There’re sure to be DOME agents around here looking for us.”
    “Where’s everyone else?” Logan asked.
    Hailey looked at Dane uneasily, then back at Logan. “We don’t know,” she said.
    “You don’t know ?”
    “We never found the raft. It looks like . . . like they left without us. It was lucky enough that Dane and I found you.”
    Dane nodded. “You were stuck on a log in the stream. Just lying there unconscious when we swam by. You’d’ve died, dude.”
    “And DOME never caught up with us?”
    “Well . . . we don’t know for sure about the rest. But no, they didn’t get near the three of us. I guess the agents weren’t too keen on jumping in the stream after us, and there was no way they could keep up on foot.”
    “They’re out here, though, right now,” Logan half asked and half stated. He rubbed his eyes. Blurry vision. Headache. Another wave of nausea.
    “Most definitely.”
    “Then let’s go,” Logan said. But as soon as he stood up, he regretted it. Outside the shelter of the tunnel, the wind cooled his still-wet clothes, and immediately he was overcome with a paralyzing shiver. Hailey stepped forward and touched his neck.
    “He’s freezing,” she told Dane.
    “I can see that.”
    “Logan, how do you feel?” Hailey asked.
    As if in response, Logan suddenly lurched forward and fell to his knees, resting his hands on the ground and propping himself up, but just barely. “Not great,” he said. “Sick, I think. I’ll be fine in a minute.”
    But the expression on Hailey’s face said otherwise. “Logan,” she said. “I’m not sure you will . . .”
    “What are you talking about?”
    “You have hypothermia, Logan.”
    Logan squinted at her, confused.
    “We’re losing him,” Hailey said to Dane. Then she took Logan by the shoulders and began quickly rubbing his arms. “Logan, you were in the water a long time last night. When we dragged you out, you were unconscious. You’ve been in those wet clothes all night. Your body’s past the point of being able to keep itself warm.”
    “That’s okay,” Logan said, closing his eyes. “I don’t mind.”
    Without another word, Hailey took Logan’s wet jacket and sweater off and wrapped the fleece blanket tightly around him. She led Logan back to the enclosed space of the snow tunnel, putting her arms around him and shielding him from the wind.
    “He needs help,” she told Dane, already sensing how uncomfortable this made him. “I don’t like it any more than you do. Just . . . be useful,