Swipe

heard footsteps at night, that I felt followed and watched . . . she was curious.” It was clear to Logan that Mr. Arbitor was curious as well. “Erin said it sounded like . . . she said it sounded like the work of a Markless named Peck.”
    Logan continued the story of the burning note that night, how everything had suddenly seemed so real and urgent, how Erin was afraid of involving DOME since their suspicions alone betrayed her first treasonous act with her father’s files.
    Logan described what had happened at the playground, how it was his suspicion that he would have been abducted that night, had it not been for Erin’s help. He described their visit to Slog Row, how they’d encountered the Dust without even knowing it, how the Dust responded by retreating to the stadium, how they only knew that much because of Erin’s ingenuity with the security cameras and the tracker. In all of it, Logan admitted, he had never once seen Peck. Had never once known where the boy had been. Everything was smoke and mirrors, and no matter what he or Erin or the Dust did, Peck was always one step ahead.
    He explained Erin’s trips to the stadium without him, that she had learned of another member of the Dust working silently at Spokie Middle, and how that member remained unidentified. He told how Erin had learned of the Dust’s plan to take Dane, and how that had convinced Logan to call DOME.
    “Did it not occur to you that Dane’s abduction might have been a trap?” Mr. Arbitor said. “A setup? For you?”
    “It did,” Logan admitted. “But if so, then it was also a trap. I don’t think it was just a trap. I think Peck wanted Dane for Peck’s own reasons.”
    “And what might those reasons be?”
    “I’m still trying to figure that out,” Logan said. “Your guess is as good as mine. Anyway, that’s why I called you, for reinforcements. I knew I might be a target too. I figured I needed your help.” Then Logan grew angry. “It hadn’t occurred to me that you might actually get in the way.”
    Mr. Arbitor frowned. “That was our error,” he admitted. “We underestimated Peck. We knew very little about the Dust.”
    “I would have stopped them,” Logan said, trying to contain his frustration. “Dane would have been saved.”
    “I have two hospitalized men who would beg to differ.”
    “Are they okay?”
    “Concussions. One with a cracked skull. It sounds worse than it is. They’ll be all right.”
    “I’m sorry,” Logan said.
    “If we’d have let you through those doors, it would have been you in the hospital.”
    Logan frowned. “I don’t think so.”
    “Oh yeah? You think you’re more equipped for hand-to-hand combat than my own men?”
    “No,” Logan said. “I think the Dust wouldn’t have hurt me like that.”
    Mr. Arbitor laughed. “The Dust has killed. The Dust has kidnapped. Under Peck’s orders, the Dust is planting the seeds of a rebellion. And you think they’d show mercy . . . to you?”
    Logan shrugged. The truth was that he did.
    “I don’t like you,” Mr. Arbitor said. “If I had my way, I’d lock you up the rest of your life for what you put my daughter through this month.” He paused. “But somehow, Logan Langly, . . . I’m afraid you’ve emerged as my top agent in this case.”
    Logan held his breath. This was going better than he had expected.
    “And right now, I need your help more than I need my revenge. So I’m going to make a deal with you.”
    Logan listened carefully.
    “If you help me apprehend Peck and the remaining members of the Dust, I will personally clear you of all wrongdoings and current charges against you.”
    “Can I have that in writing?” Logan asked.
    “No. But I am a man of my word.”
    “And what if I refuse?”
    “Then I will lock you up in this center, tonight. I will delay your trial indefinitely. With a couple of phone calls, I could make sure you never got one at all.”
    “In that case, I accept,” Logan said. “What do you want me to do?”
    “Get a good night’s sleep,” Mr. Arbitor said. “Tomorrow will be a long day.”
    2
    “Here, batter, batter, batter, swing , batter, batter, batter—” Eddie chased Tyler to the pitcher’s mound while Tyler threw one of a few baseballs he was holding toward Meg at first base.
    “Okay, but if you can’t hit me with the bat before Meg and I tag each base with these balls, then I get to have it, and it’s your turn to see if you can outrun me all the way to the