Sneak (Swipe Series)

do.”
    “Hey, you the kids they’re callin’ ‘the Dust’?” some teenage boy asked, barging through the control room door.
    “Yeah. That’s us,” Peck replied.
    The boy nodded once. “You’re the tightwads tryin’ to break into Acheron, right?”
    “That’s right . . . ,” Logan said. “But we’re trying to find it first.”
    “Hey, yeah, right on,” the boy said. “That’s exactly what I thought. Exactly!”
    Blake eyed the boy. “Why? What’s it to you?”
    “Well, I just might have someone for you kids . . . someone I think you might like to meet.”
    “Oh yeah? Why’s that?”
    The boy shrugged, smirking just a little now. “Because this someone—she might just know the way in.”
    The Dust eyed the boy suspiciously, but Logan lit up, trusting and eager to follow. “Where is she? Is she here?”
    “Oh, she’s here,” the boy said.
    And Logan leaped to his feet. “Then take us! Can you take us to her?”
    The boy frowned now, nodding his head slowly. “I think that just might be possible,” he said. “Just might.” He winked. “For the right price.”

    It took Hailey’s foxhole radio to seal the deal. The boy wouldn’t settle for anything less. But they were on their way, the Dust marching straight toward the girl who’d take them to Acheron.
    They made it all the way to the vents at the edge of the community before they saw her. The girl they’d been taken to see, waiting patiently, half in shadow, just inside the alcove of the steam vents in the corner.
    “Took you long enough,” Erin said. She saw Logan and smiled wide.
    4
    From there, things went not at all as Erin had planned.
    She’d expected a hug, at least, from the friend she’d gone through so much to find.
    She’d expected some small window of time, some grace period at least, to explain herself before the Dust all turned a cold shoulder.
    In her heart, she’d expected Logan to be as happy to see her as she was to see him.
    But Erin didn’t get any of that.
    Instead, the Dust pounced.
    “ Who are you? ” Blake demanded, pushing the boy up against the wall. “ Who sent you? DOME? Huh? That it? ”
    “DOME? No!” the boy cried, suddenly very much out of his element. “Dude, I’m just the Tech Wiz! Shawn! I’m a Markless— like you!”
    “ Spill it ,” Blake roared at Erin. “Who is this guy? If he won’t tell me, you will!”
    Shawn was scared now, yelling at Erin, “ Dude, Erin, you said this was cool! You said these guys were your friends!”
    “They are my friends,” Erin grunted. It took Jo and Tyler and Eddie together to pin her down. “They just don’t know it yet.”
    But Peck was already stepping back. “Fellow Unmarked,” he called. “We have an emergency on our hands! It has come to our attention that DOME—”
    “Stop him— stop him !” Erin pleaded to Logan. “Or he’ll botch this whole thing!”
    Logan stood, bewildered, between Peck and Erin, caught right in the middle of his two friends.
    But something about the look in Erin’s eyes told him to give her a chance. A small one, at least.
    “Peck,” he said, resting a hand on his shoulder. “Let’s hold off. Just for one minute, okay?”
    So Peck cut short his announcement. He turned to Logan. Then he looked to Erin, fuming. “You have one minute.”
    5
    “Listen to me. Listen to me now.” The Advocate towered over the young Coordinator.
    “I am listening, ma’am.”
    “Cheswick’s call confirms it: DOME’s security has been compromised. We must assume the boy knows everything. He will make it this far. Now it is just a matter of time.”
    “But . . . Advocate . . . even with this security breach . . . is that really plausible? No one has ever made it this far. People have tried, but . . .”
    The Advocate brushed a chin-length wisp of hair from her face, revealing briefly the Mark on her forehead. She closed her light-blue eyes. She sighed. “All the same. I believe this one will. And when he does—”
    “But—”
    “ Listen to me. When he does . . . you must let him in. Do you understand?”
    “No. No, ma’am. I’m sorry . . . I don’t. Why? Why not simply capture him?”
    “He is crafty, this boy. DOME has learned that much. We strike when the time is right, or we risk missing our opportunity altogether. Are you following me now?”
    “But . . . Advocate . . . why not simply capture him on sight?”
    “This boy’s resolve is unique, Coordinator. It will take a specific approach to break