Sneak (Swipe Series)

her, hard, straight down into the chair where he had been sitting. “Let’s not forget who got us into this mess.”
    “For the last time, Dad, I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Erin looked at her father blankly, leaning back and letting the snow fall in chunks from the coat she was still wearing. All three of them listened to the wet sound of slush hitting the apartment floor.
    “There is no way Logan Langly evaded those DOME agents on his own,” Mr. Arbitor said. “There is no way he made it out of DOME’s Pledging Center by himself. So I am more than well enough aware that you do, in fact, know what I am talking about, dear .”
    Erin shrugged.
    “But we are not here to talk about that,” Erin’s dad continued. “Not this time. Not anymore. We are putting those details behind us—”
    “About time,” Erin mumbled.
    And Mr. Arbitor spoke through gritted teeth. “We are here , Erin—if you would be so gracious as to listen to me, your father, who has been nothing but patient and kind and forgiving ever since you decided to help that little miser—we are here to talk about next steps.”
    “Next steps,” Erin repeated.
    “Next steps,” Johnson agreed.
    Erin raised her eyebrows in a sarcastic display of excitement and surprise. “You mean, finally, that you’re not just here to blame me for your mistakes? That you’re not just here to yell at me and threaten me because you and the idiots you call agents were too slow to catch half a dozen kids hiding out in a warehouse, just waiting to be arrested, after I told you exactly where they were and how to get there? You mean you two are actually thinking of moving on from all of that? Of actually investigating something? You’re really planning to play detective with your little friends over at DOME?” Erin laughed. “That’s adorable!” She leaned forward, resting her elbows on the table and looking from her father to Johnson.
    A vein in Mr. Arbitor’s forehead throbbed visibly as he glared at his daughter.
    Johnson cleared his throat and fiddled with his tie. When he spoke, he spoke calmly and slowly. “What we are doing here is spearheading a two-pronged strategy to find the Dust as well as your friend Logan Langly.” Johnson smiled, ignoring everything about Erin’s attitude. “We are hoping that with your help, we might maximize our chances of success.”
    Erin rolled her eyes. “I already told you—I don’t know where Logan is. I don’t know where the Dust is. They ran off and you lost them. What else do you want me to say? Follow Hailey Phoenix. She’s in league with all of them, and we know she’s their spy— Logan told me so before his Pledge.”
    “We are following Hailey.” Mr. Arbitor shook his head. “No luck. Her movements are strange, no doubt, but they haven’t led us anywhere. Peck must know she’s a liability—he hasn’t met with her at all.”
    “Have you powdered her house?”
    Johnson nodded. “And a lot of good it did us. Hailey’s extremely careful about what she says to her mom. They’re both clearly aware of the risk she’s put them under.”
    “Then bring her in and question her yourselves.” Erin hated herself for saying it. She really did like Hailey. But she just couldn’t stand this anymore. She desperately wanted Logan back. And failing that, she at least wanted this whole thing to be over so she could go back to Beacon. So she could be with her mom. So that she might have a real, functioning family again.
    Mr. Arbitor paced around the table now, thinking. “She’ll never rat Peck out, and you know it. If she’s anything like the rest of the Dust, she’d sooner let us kill her.”
    “Besides,” Johnson said. “That’s an endgame for us. As soon as Hailey gets even a whiff of DOME—as soon as she has so much as the slightest sense that Logan might have told you anything, that you might have gone to us, that we might have proof to hold against her . . . she’ll disappear. Much better, instead, for you to continue keeping tabs on her for us. See if she slips up and lets her guard down.”
    “How’d it go today?” Mr. Arbitor asked. “You talk to her?”
    “Yes, Dad, I talked to her. Obviously. How many times do I have to tell you she’s way too suspicious of me to say anything helpful?” Erin looked down at her hands. “And besides, I don’t like doing it.” She looked up again, at her father. “We need another angle.”
    Johnson smiled. “We’re here