Sneak (Swipe Series)

come. On the other, the lake lay still with a quiet dawn glow. And in between, all across the underpass, a couple hundred Markless boys and girls and men and women curled themselves up on the hard ground and shivered so hard that their teeth chattered, even in their sleep. How many were dreaming of food they couldn’t eat or comforts they couldn’t have, of rights they weren’t given or futures they wouldn’t get? How many dreamed of friends and family taken from them these last few weeks . . . of homes they had lost . . . of loved ones they would never see again?
    And how many dreamed of Logan, the cause of all that? How many right now dreamed of the mystery kid fleeing DOME’s grasp, carelessly sealing the fate of countless Unmarked, throwing all of them under the bus for his own selfish plans?
    Half of them?
    All of them?
    Finally Logan gave up on any real rest and allowed himself to sit up. He rubbed his eyes and leaned back, propping himself up on his elbows. Andrew was there next to him, snoring just a little. And Bridget . . .
    Bridget was . . .
    “Where is she?” Logan whispered frantically, shaking Andrew awake.
    “Whadder you talkinbout?” Andrew slurred, rolling halfway over and squinting at Logan with dry eyes.
    “I watched Bridget fall asleep right there , Andrew. Now you tell me—where did she go?”
    “Wheredas she evergo?” Andrew said, and he waved his hand dismissively before pulling a blanket over his face. “She’ll be back inna morning.” Another breath and he was snoring again.
    Immediately Logan stood, heart pumping and mind racing.
    It was probably nothing, right? Probably nothing at all. Certainly nothing to be suspicious of . . . right?
    But the sky was blue at its horizon, and in the presunrise light Logan could see the whole huddle.
    There was no question about it.
    Bridget was gone.

TWO

WHERE ERIN
COMES IN
    1
    T HE SUN WASN’T EVEN UP, AND ALREADY ERIN was ready for school. She’d fed her iguana, she’d showered and dressed, she’d made herself breakfast . . . by the time her alarm went off, Erin had been sitting on the edge of her bed for thirty-five minutes. She’d watched the minutes turn thirty-five times.
    “Sleep well?” Mr. Arbitor asked when Erin emerged from her room.
    “Like a log,” Erin said.
    But this was a lie.
    Erin hadn’t slept well in a month.

    Life at Spokie Middle was quiet these days, dull and colorless. It didn’t help that the school had been built underground to save space among the too-cramped streets of the small, New Chicago suburb. But at least in the past, the school’s virtual “windows” had brought a little humor to the space. These days, students at Spokie Middle were simply too downcast to care. Erin would walk through the Beach Wing, where not a single classmate stood soaking up the artificial sun. She would sit through lunch in her corner of the cafeteria, counting stains on the laminate table under weak fluorescent light, not even looking at the hushed “mountain landscapes” all around her.
    In class, the teachers were somber, boring, apologetic, even, for continuing to teach under the circumstances. In every hallway, room, and stairwell, Erin could feel in her gut the low, trembling sadness given off by a student body still reeling from the one-two punch of losing Logan Langly so soon after losing Dane Harold.
    And still no one at Spokie Middle was hit harder than Erin. By the time news struck that Logan had gone missing, everyone in school knew that she and Logan had become something of a pair. So after one too many questions about where Erin thought Logan might be and whether or not she thought Logan might ever come back, Erin decided once and for all that she was done being friendly to these people—the whole lot of them—and after that she just sort of retreated into her own private world of anger and suffering.
    In economics class, Erin sat with her head on her desk, staring sideways at the empty seat where Logan would have been, just two rows from the front of the room. She sat that way the entire lesson, and no one said a word about it.

    Things were no easier on Hailey Phoenix. For years, Hailey had been friends with the missing boys, and just this fall, she’d been the source of a major falling-out between them. Now it seemed there wasn’t anything Hailey could do to avoid the gossip surrounding her, with some kids even wondering openly whether Hailey might have been responsible for Dane’s and