Sneak (Swipe Series)

worse than where they were now. It happened every time.
    Every time, that is, except with Eddie and Jo. The two of them managed to raise a stink with each successive group ever since Logan crossed the sign-in desk. Because it was the deal they had made: to stay right there, ready to spring to action at a moment’s notice, the instant Logan and Lily reappeared, to clear the way among the dozens of guards, to create the diversion necessary for Lily to make her escape through the air duct.
    Nothing about the plan was foolproof. But this was the endgame, after all. There was no going back.
    Lily was the symbol. Free her, and make a statement. Free her, and pave the way for the rest.
    The Markless were taking their stand.

    It was hard for Peck to watch Joanne and Eddie suffer in the waiting room as long as they did. It was hard to watch them endure so much for a cause, Peck knew, they only believed in for him.
    But in the end, it was worth it. Logan emerged. With Lily. Through the Moderator’s entrance next to the elevator, just beyond the desk.
    Eddie and Jo moved in to surround them, to clear a path through the crowd of guards.
    It was happening. They were right there . Logan and Lily both. They stood at the far end of the room and waited eagerly for Eddie and Jo to bring them back to the ducts. To Peck. To freedom.
    Peck unscrewed the grate in front of him, heart racing, blood pounding in his ears.
    They were here.
    They were really going to do it!
    4
    Lily’s plan was simple. “There’s only one way out of here,” she said. “And that’s the Moderators’ exit, connected to the pathways we IMPS use to travel throughout the building. I’ll just sneak you into it, and we’ll be on our way.”
    “Wait a minute,” Logan said. “You’re telling me everyone here has access to a pathway leading out to the prison’s main exit?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Well, why in the world doesn’t everyone just leave ?”
    Lily looked at him as though she hadn’t understood the question. So instead of answering, she slipped silently into the Moderators’ exit, and Logan followed nervously behind. Something about this—just to walk out through the holding room like that, right there, out in the open, nothing sneaky about it . . . somehow that plan felt awfully risky, even to Logan. Something about it was hard for him to trust.
    And yet here they were in the middle of the room, just shy of the sign-in desk, everything going according to plan.
    And that’s when Lily stopped. She stopped right there at the desk. Right as Eddie and Jo were about to reach them.
    Logan’s body went rigid, stone-limbed with fear. He braced himself. For something . . . something coming . . .

    What are you doing? Peck thought. Come on—we’re so close!
    Lily stepped swiftly to the Markscan at a podium by the sign-in desk. She looked into it as it scanned her face. Then she leaned down, even closer. She touched something on the screen. And she spoke.
    Her voice rang out, amplified by some speaker system across the vestibule and, Peck could only assume, throughout all of Acheron.
    “This is Advocate Langly,” she said. “Reporting intruders, and attempted prison break, and treason. Repeat. Treason. I have apprehended the perpetrators. Requesting immediate backup for transport to level nine.”
    Peck shook his head in horror. The unthinkable had happened. The Lily he knew was gone. Replaced by . . . something else. An Advocate. An IMP. A puppet of Cylis. The struggle was quick. The guards descended on Logan and Eddie and Joanne as Lily watched. Logan swung a few times, ran a few feet, and was swiftly overpowered. Trapped alone out in the open, with the element of surprise taken away from them, Eddie and Jo never stood a chance.
    Peck saw no emotion flash across Lily’s face. No remorse. No fear. Nothing but the flat, black mark on her forehead as she stood by and betrayed her own brother.
    Peck’s heart sank. All the adrenaline left him, sucked right out of his belly into the cold metal duct. He had no energy left. But what could he do? What could he possibly do?
    And so Peck fled, through the vent, hardly believing this turn of events. Back to tell the others. Back the way he came.
    5
    When Peck made it into to the control room alone, everything was chaos and confusion.
    “What happened?”
    “Was it really there?”
    “Did you make it?”
    “Did you find her?”
    “Where’s Lily?”
    “Where’s Eddie?”
    “Where’s