Sneak (Swipe Series)

him. But make no mistake. He can be broken. Do you understand?”
    “Yes, Advocate.”
    “Good.” The Advocate nodded. “Then be prepared.”
    6
    One minute was not enough time for Erin to explain everything. Not by a long shot. So she had to go right for the bull’s-eye.
    “I know,” Erin began. “I know about Acheron.”
    Peck rolled his eyes, unimpressed. “Congratulations,” he said. “That makes DOME only one step behind us this time. Probably a record for you hotshots.”
    “I’m not with DOME,” Erin said. “Can’t you understand that? Don’t you have any idea what I’ve sacrificed to help you beggars? What I’ve done to my family? My future?”
    “You have strange definitions for help and sacrifice . Unless, of course, you’re referring to how you helped DOME hunt us down and how you sacrificed the life of an innocent man,” Peck growled.
    “Please,” Erin said. She looked at Logan now. “You can’t. You can’t go in there.”
    Logan laughed, feeling all the loneliness he’d experienced without Erin fall away under the weight of his anger. “Why?” he said. “You’re gonna tell me it’s too dangerous? Two weeks ago you’re chasing me into a freezing river in the dead of night, leading the charge for my capture by the very people who created Acheron, shooting my guide and separating me from my friends . . . and now you wanna give me a speech on safety ?”
    “I’ve learned things, Logan. It’s not what you think in there, in Acheron. You can’t possibly succeed!”
    Logan scoffed. “Six weeks ago you didn’t even believe me when I swore to you Acheron was real. Now you’re trying to share your expertise with me? Me . The guy who escaped a DOME Center. You think I can’t break into a prison?”
    “ First of all, you escaped that Center because of me . Second of all, Logan—this place . . . no matter how dangerous you think it is . . . I swear to you, it’s worse.”
    “Oh yeah? And why is that? Because you’ve already turned us in? Because DOME is on the way? As usual? Thanks to you?”
    “No, you dimwit! Because Acheron is a military base !”
    Peck stepped forward now. “What are you saying, Erin? Are you saying Acheron isn’t a prison? That we’ve got this all wrong?”
    “I’m not saying that,” she said, still pinned against the wall by the rest of the Dust. “I’m saying it’s both. The prison is a training base.”
    “A training base for what?”
    “For IMPS.”
    “ Imps? Little demons?” Eddie laughed.
    “It’s an acronym, you idiot. The International Moderators of Peace. Cylis is using Lamson to build an army.”
    Logan sneered. “What would Cylis need an army for? He’s about to run the Global Union. Also known as the whole world . Why would the G.U. need an army when there’s no one left to fight?”
    “Because there is someone left to fight.”
    “Who?”
    Erin grimaced against Jo’s arm. “Us.”
    Peck was quickly losing patience. Her minute had elapsed. “Erin, how do you even know any of this?”
    “’Cause of Logan,” she said. “I studied his Pledge tape.”
    “You have access to that?” Shawn said enviously.
    “Of course not. I hacked into DOME’s system. Saw the Marker saying something that looked like ‘Acheron,’ so I followed the lead. And unlike for you beggars, when I follow a lead, it leads to actual information. So I kept digging, through DOME’s deepest channels. Eventually found my way to a document. And what that document explained . . .” Erin trailed off, shaking her head.
    “What?” Logan asked, egging her on.
    Erin sighed. “Deep down,” she said, “Cylis is a vicious, vindictive man. I can see that now. The idea of people anywhere, at any time, not pledging complete allegiance to him . . . it makes his blood boil. So he had Lamson build Acheron—and all the other places like it—to punish them.
    “But I think Cylis soon realized that punishment wasn’t going to be enough. Punish people . . . and they only resent you further.” She shook her head again. “But if you can break them . . . if you can bring them over to your side . . .” Erin shrugged. “Cylis may be vicious . . . but he’s also brilliant. So he made a brilliant decision. Who, in any country, is more loyal than a soldier? Throughout history, an army has been the very symbol of patriotic loyalty. To fight for your country, to die for your country . . . there is no greater commitment.
    “If Cylis could take those who had