Sneak (Swipe Series)

the capital.”

    Logan and Hailey had never seen anything like it. They’d never even heard of anything like it.
    “Someone down here has to know about Acheron,” Hailey said excitedly. “They just have to!”
    “I don’t know,” Logan said. “But we’re certainly closer than we’ve ever been before.”
    Logan and Hailey walked wide-eyed around the space, through the rows marked carefully by tape sectioning off parts of the floor. This section for one huddle, that section for another . . .
    And yet something about the community was amiss. All around them, Hailey and Logan heard murmurs and whispers. Markless children ran by, adults pushed past, breaking the boundaries of the space that they themselves had set. Everyone was headed toward a corner of the room, just out of sight.
    What’s going on? Logan wondered. And he followed the flow.
    A crowd was gathered in a little alcove sectioned off by the tubes. As Logan neared it, he heard a voice ringing out across the space.
    It was a voice Logan knew.
    He pushed his way up toward the front of the crowd, just past the turbine, pulling Hailey by the hand through the assembly of Markless.
    There, in the middle, speaking on behalf of the huddle of Dust that stood behind him, was Peck.

NINE

BEACON’S SHADOW
    1
    F INALLY.
    The Dust was together again.
    “Leadership suits you,” Logan told Peck as the rest of the Dust gathered around. “Seems wherever you go, people can’t wait to follow.”
    “Let’s hope so.” Peck smiled. “Anyway, I’ve had a few days to get them riled up.”
    “Riled up?” Logan asked.
    The crowd had broken up after Logan’s and Hailey’s entrance—had cheered and whooped and hollered at the Dust’s reunion—but had tactfully respected their privacy after a few moments’ celebration.
    “They seemed to expect us,” Hailey said uneasily. “Peck . . . what have you told them?”
    Peck shrugged. “Everything. We knew you’d come. And even if you didn’t, we knew we’d need their help if we’re going to find Acheron. We can’t do it on our own.”
    “Tell me about it,” Logan replied. “Hailey and I have been trying all week. We’ve looked into everything we could find on every major building in City Center—there’s no sign at all of a prison.”
    Peck nodded. “So far, Markless here don’t know anything about it either. But I’ve told them our mission. And they’re willing to help.”
    “Peck wants a coordinated citywide search tomorrow,” Blake said. “Spent most of the evening rallying the troops down here.”
    “They’re on board,” Peck said. “They’re eager to help.”
    Logan was shocked. “That’s amazing, Peck! We’re really doing it!”
    Peck smiled. “We really are, my friend. We really are.” He put his hand on Logan’s shoulder. “Come. Let’s walk. This is your new home. And I’d like to show you around.”

    The Markless community inside that turbine room was everything Logan had come to appreciate about the underpass he’d found in New Chicago—except bigger, more organized, and more astounding. Peck led him around the space, explaining what he’d learned about it during his time there so far.
    “During the States War, when Beacon was first constructed, after the rupturing of the dam, this fission reactor was built to power what General Lamson knew would become his capital. It would remain the source of the city’s power for three years—right up until the war was won, when the United States became the American Union once and for all.
    “At that point,” Peck continued. “This reactor was shut down, its doors closed permanently.”
    “Why?” Logan asked. “Didn’t they still need the power?”
    “No,” Peck said. “They needed more . And so, right next to us, Lamson built a second reactor—a fusion reactor, capable of putting out far more energy than the defunct fission reactor we’re standing in now.”
    Logan and Peck walked to the old, abandoned fission control room, gazing through the pane of glass that separated them from the computer-automated clean room that ran the fusion reactor next door.
    “So why the sudden rise in energy consumption? Had Beacon really grown that much with the formation of the A.U.?”
    Peck shook his head. “No. That’s the whole point. It hadn’t.”
    “I don’t understand,” Logan said.
    “No one does.” But Peck smiled. “Except . . . I have a hunch.”
    Suddenly Logan’s eyes went wide with