Sneak (Swipe Series)

of rebellion and the distant noise from half a mile below . . . with all of them listening to Dane strum his guitar on the nearly-busted speaker of Hailey’s latest foxhole radio, Logan opened up.
    “Here’s the thing I can’t get out of my head,” he said, unprompted. To no one in particular. To himself, almost. “What if she didn’t betray us? What if it was the only way?”
    The Dust just stared.
    “The only way for what?” Erin asked.
    Logan smiled, bemused. “What if Lily didn’t need saving? What if Lily has her own plans?”
    The Dust all looked now, intently, respectfully, waiting eagerly for Logan’s next words.
    “Lily. She’s ascending the ranks of Cylis’s army. A faithful servant.” He shook his head. “She’s close, now, to Lamson. To Cylis. Closer than any of us ever dreamed we could get.”
    “Yeah, because they broke her,” Joanne said gently. “Because she’s been brainwashed. Like Eddie. Like everyone else in that awful place.”
    Logan frowned. “Maybe. Or maybe she’s been five years ahead of us all along. Maybe the reason she was so angry to see me was because I’d gotten in the way. Because she figured she was going to have to save me . Maybe she worried that doing so would blow her cover.”
    “Cover?” Peck said. “Logan, I’m sorry, but you’re grasping at straws here . . .”
    “She was surprised that you were there, Peck. She said that it changed things. It was as if . . . it was as if she revised her plan once she learned that I had backup.”
    “Revised it so that it included betraying you?” Hailey said incredulously.
    “Well . . . yes. As if suddenly it seemed worth the risk to turn me in. Because with all of you on my side, I still stood a chance of escape, even without her help.”
    “So you think Lily turned you in on the chance that you might escape, because somehow that was preferable to the idea of ruining her big plan?”
    “That’s right,” Logan said. “Maybe the stakes here are higher than any of us had ever imagined. Maybe we almost ruined the whole miserly thing.”
    “What thing ?” Peck coaxed. “Logan . . . even if you were right about any of this . . . what could Lily’s plan possibly be?”
    Logan looked at him, distantly. “I agree, Peck. It seems like we’ve lost her. She turned me in. She gave us up. She left us for dead. It seems like we’ve lost the Lily we knew. But what if . . .
    “ What if we haven’t? What if somehow, someway, Lily’s still on our side . . . ?
    “Because then . . . well . . . of all of us, she’s positioned herself, now, right where she needs to be.”
    “Positioned herself . . . for what?”
    “For the fight. Dust, don’t you see? It’s only just begun.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
    E VAN ANGLER has escaped. Hopped the first train out of Beacon, made his way across the country. . . . If he’s lucky, he can buy himself some time in Sierra, lie low for a while . . . but he isn’t counting on it. His first book, Swipe , gave him trouble enough already. His second book, Sneak , is only making matters worse.
    Sometimes Evan wishes he’d never met Logan or Erin or Peck or any of them. But the Global Union needs to know what they did. It needs to remember. Before it’s too late . . .
    If you’ve finished this book—good. Hide it. Burn it. Give it to your own worst enemy and tell the authorities he has it.
    That’s my advice to you. For what it’s worth.
    Evan Angler