Sneak (Swipe Series)

Jo?”
    “Where’s Logan?”
    “Logan—he found her—they were coming—captured—” Peck spoke in short bursts, still barely believing it himself. He slowed himself down, taking deep breaths so he could explain what had happened.
    “Logan did find Lily. She’s an IMP. She didn’t want saving. She played along until the end. And then she turned us in. She turned her own brother in.”
    The news was met with blank, disbelieving stares across the control room. Distantly, the whirring of turbines from the fusion reactor droned a low, unnerving hum. No one spoke.
    Finally, Peck turned, walking swiftly away from the Dust.
    “Where are you going?” Blake called.
    And Peck yelled back, stone-faced, still walking, not even turning to look. “To get someone,” he said. “We’re gonna need the help.”
    6
    The first thing Erin did was spit at him. “Well, of course she did, you idiot! What did you expect would happen?” Erin was lying, hands still tied behind her back, beneath a tangle of pipes in the corner. Tyler stood over her, keeping watch for any sudden movements.
    “How many ways do I have to tell you misers—Lily was labeled disloyal during her Pledge. So they’ve made her into a soldier. Just like they’ve done every other flunkee. Just like every other Markless they could get their hands on, through whatever excuse of ‘law enforcement’ they could come up with. Lily is an IMP! Highly trained and brainwashed. Why wouldn’t she have turned Logan in?”
    “Erin. Please.” Peck approached her now. “We were wrong. And I know you have no reason to help us after what we’ve put you through. But if you care about Logan . . . tell us what you know. Do you have any ideas . . . any at all . . . that might give us a chance at rescuing Logan and Eddie and Joanne? Because however hard it was for us to get to Lily . . . this will be harder. They’ll be labeled traitors, Erin. She sent them to level nine. And if the rest of what Eddie heard about Acheron is half as accurate as what we’ve confirmed so far, that means they’ll be tortured, Erin. Tortured. Please help us. Before it’s too late . . .”
    Erin was silent for a long time. She breathed slowly and deliberately, just staring into the distance, but inside she was frantic, desperate to come up with any sort of reasonable plan.
    “I think . . . ,” she said finally, “I think there might be a way.”
    7
    Back in the control room, Erin stood on top of the old panel, speaking quickly to an energized group, and it wasn’t just the Dust surrounding her. There were a couple hundred Markless now crammed between the rows of rolling chairs and tablescreens and switchboards.
    “Here it is,” Erin said. “I’m layin’ it all out, not pulling any punches: You can make your way across the holding room. You can make your way to Logan’s level. You can make your way down past the winds, or the darkness, or the reptiles, or the tar pits, or the fires, or whatever it is that’s actually down there . . . you can even make it all the way back. But as long as Acheron is filled with prisoners willing to fight for the idea of Acheron, that place really is guarded with an infinite security.
    “This isn’t some case of knocking out a few hourly-rate security guards, or hacking into some lame security feed, or sneaking our friends past some silly trap. Everyone in there is an obstacle in our way.
    “Logan’s fellow inmates are his prison guards. IMPS. Every last one of them. Not a one is on your side. So how in the world do you break anyone out of a prison like that?”
    “You don’t,” Blake said. “We can’t.”
    “That’s right. But .” Erin smiled. “There might be a catch. Because this network of prison guards? This endless chain of security? It’s also Cylis’s army.”
    “Right,” Tyler said impatiently. “We get that part.”
    “Well, what if I told you,” Erin said, “that Cylis is willing to use it? This document—” She borrowed from Shawn the tablet she’d given him earlier, and she held it up to the group, displaying her picture of Michael Cheswick’s top secret page. “This document proves it.”
    “Wait a second,” Jo said. “You mean to say that Cylis has used IMPS on A.U. citizens . . . already?”
    “That’s right,” Erin said. “A test run. One early sunny morning in August. This page here confirms it.”
    Erin frowned. “Now, I know it sounds crazy. But if we can force Cylis’s hand—if we can coax