Sneak (Swipe Series)

“at how little I have to lose.”
    The girl stared at him, frowning, and he stared back. Then she knelt down, and she laid her trash can lid on the ground. She had a small bundle slung on her back, and she untied it and opened it, spreading out its contents on the ground. “Hungry?”
    Logan didn’t quite know how to answer that. He hadn’t had a real meal since his birthday breakfast almost a month ago. Anything he’d eaten since, he’d found discarded among garbage or growing in the woods. In the moment, out of pride, he intended to shrug the girl’s question away, to reinforce his status as the Lone Wolf Markless, able to fend for himself. But the thought of food sent a lurching wave through his system, and Logan must have grimaced.
    “Here,” she said, holding out a stack of crackers. “Take ’em. I have lots.”
    Logan could see that she didn’t, that there was almost nothing there. “I can’t take your food,” he said. But Logan was smiling for the first time in so long that it made his face feel strange.
    “Well, I don’t want them back.” The girl shrugged. And she pressed every last cracker she had into his hands.
    Immediately, he was eating them, eating so fast that he choked a little and coughed out a cloud of pieces, the mouthful falling to the ground. At once he dropped down to scrape them up, crumbs and dirt and lint all mingling together, sticking to his fingers, and Logan licked all of it off, not caring what parts were crackers and what parts weren’t. His eyes watered from the quick intake, and he coughed a few more times before he could speak. But when he did, it was with contentment and relief, a dry, grateful whisper. “Thank you,” he said. “That’s the most I’ve eaten in . . .” But he honestly didn’t know, and he knew better than to remind himself.
    “I’m Bridget,” the girl said, putting out her Unmarked hand and letting it hang there for several moments.
    Finally, Logan nodded. But he didn’t take her hand. He didn’t say a word.
    “You may be Unmarked.” She laughed. “But you aren’t one of us.”
    “What makes you say that?” Logan asked.
    “Because you still won’t trust me.”
    “You just attacked me!”
    “Well, sure, when I thought you were some bigwig,” she said, as though it were nothing. “When I thought you were a mogul. Doesn’t mean you have to hold it over me forever.”
    Logan frowned. The fact was, he didn’t trust anyone anymore. But he couldn’t go into all that now. “You just don’t need to know my name, is all,” he said, and he rubbed his elbow to drive the point home.
    “Fine,” Bridget said. A strange expression flashed again across her face, but it was gone before Logan could decipher it. “Even if you are set on going downtown, though, you’re not gonna get there tonight. So the way I see it, you have two options. The first is that you stay with our huddle and get a good night’s sleep. Andrew’s down there by the trash cans, and he has an extra blanket you can use.”
    Logan frowned.
    “What? Are you scared of him , too? Listen. You’ve got a friend now with me around, and I’m not going anywhere. I’ll be here all night, and I’ll be here when you wake up. If anyone gives you trouble . . .” Bridget swung her trash can lid like a shield and smiled.
    “Thanks,” Logan said. “I think.” He nodded, unable to look at her through some combination of humility and paranoia. “But what’s ‘option two’?”
    “Option two is that you run off and freeze to death, and I get to say I told you so.”
    “Excuse me?” Logan said.
    But Bridget only winked, and she walked off toward the huddle in the distance, laughing to herself all the way.
    3
    “The underpass is ours,” Andrew said as Logan wrapped a blanket around himself. “It’s decent shelter from the worst of the weather, and if you can manage to climb up to the highway, the road makes for a good lookout. Hey, Ron, you up there? ” Andrew called abruptly.
    “All clear!” a voice floated down.
    “Why not keep to the buildings?” Logan asked. “Doesn’t look like anyone’s claimed them.”
    “Can’t risk it,” Andrew said. “Not since DOME started clamping down. They’ve already chased us out of New Chicago’s main streets, and you’d better believe they’re looking for an excuse to follow us out here and arrest us once and for all. Couple of squatting charges would give it to ’em—it’s illegal to stay in a building that