Sneak (Swipe Series)

around there was always a next step. Visit Slog Row. Spy on the Fulmart. Sneak out to the baseball stadium. We were always thinking one move ahead in the chess match.” Erin sighed. “But I’m lookin’ at a checkmate here. I don’t know where Logan is. I don’t even know where he’s headed.” She petted Iggy for a moment, and he didn’t particularly seem to mind.
    “Well, sure, I know he’s trying to find his sister. But that’s a pipe dream, right? I mean, she’s dead. She has to be.”
    Erin looked at Iggy and narrowed her eyes, speaking slowly and thoughtfully. “Except . . . you don’t think that’s true, do you? You don’t think she is dead. But why don’t you think so, Iggy?” Erin frowned.
    “Because you know Logan. You know him too well to be fooled by the things you take for granted. And you know Logan wouldn’t go through all this trouble unless by now he had some type of evidence that truly convinced him.” Erin nodded slowly, looking up at the blank wall, staring at nothing. “That’s smart, Iggy. That’s very smart.
    “But when would he have gotten that evidence, little guy? He didn’t have it when we went for ice cream that night after he met Peck. So that means . . .”
    And it dawned on Erin, how dense she had been up until this moment. How blind.
    The Pledge , she thought. What if he really did learn something from that Marker after all ?
    It seemed impossible.
    But was it?
    Already Erin was at her desk, tablet computer in hand. She typed furiously at the screen.
    3
    Logan, Dane, and Hailey had been walking all evening, keeping to the signs on the River. Now that they’d found the path, it seemed every few miles was another symbol to guide them on their way.
    Carved onto rocks, laid on the ground with rope . . .
    But it was hard to get excited. The tension among the three of them was so thick it was almost visible. Dane hadn’t said a word in hours, and all morning he’d walked just a few too many steps behind.
    “Look,” Hailey said, pulling Dane aside while Logan pressed on ahead. “You need to get over this me-and-Logan thing. Because it doesn’t exist. All that stuff you thought was flirting back at Spokie this fall—I was spying on him, Dane. I had to get close enough to bring him to Peck. You should know that by now.”
    “You can say that all you want,” Dane said. “Just like you can say that this morning was—”
    “This morning was about saving Logan’s life! Hypothermia could have killed him, Dane. He was dying .”
    “Right. Exactly. You can say that and whatever else you feel like saying. But that doesn’t stop me from seeing it in your eyes when you look at him. You still like him, Hailey. You have since the fifth grade.”
    Hailey sighed, looking down at their feet. “I’m not going to stand here and deny it,” she said. “But Dane, whether or not you’re right—it’s not on my mind. It’s not what’s important here. You get that, right? That this is bigger than any of that?”
    “Yeah.” Dane nodded, sarcasm dripping from his voice. “I get it. Logan wants to go to Beacon. That’s certainly bigger than anything I happen to think or feel. Much bigger. You’re right.”
    “That’s not what I mean,” Hailey said.
    “Listen, just run off to him already, will you? I know that’s where you’d rather be, and I don’t need the company back here.”
    Hailey stared at him for a moment, hurt.
    “So . . . do you get that ?”
    “ Hey, guys! ” Logan called, off in the distance. “ Guys! You’ll never believe it! ”
    Hailey frowned. “Fine,” she said coolly. And the two of them ran to Logan.
    “Train tracks,” Logan said, pointing to the ground. They stretched out across the barren land as far as the eye could see in either direction. “These aren’t magnetrain rails either—look.” He knelt down. “It’s just an old-fashioned steel-and-wood track. And here—” Logan smiled widely now, his hand running over the cold metal. “Right where the path meets it. A lifesaver. Carved in the rail as clear as day.”
    “You don’t think . . . ,” Hailey said.
    “Yeah,” Logan said, sitting down happily to wait. “I do.”
    4
    The last time Erin hacked anything was during Logan’s Pledge— and she really outdid herself that time. Breaking into the DOME Center security system? Commandeering each Markscan throughout the building? Reprogramming the map? Planting a worm to attack the electrical board just as soon as anyone