Among the Enemy by Margaret Peterson Haddix Page A

others.
He heard Mrs. Talbot gasp, and he ran outside to join her.
"Is it Percy? Alia?" he asked.
Mrs. Talbot glanced over at him like she'd forgotten who he was.
"No . .. no," she murmured. "There aren't any children here. But it's . . . someone I used to know. The man who sold us our daughter's fake identity card." She took Matthias's flashlight from him and switched it off. "This is too strange. Nothing makes sense. Let's go search the underground room together and wait until daylight before we look for footprints. These flashlights are too much like beacons in the dark."
"But—," Matthias started to object. He thought they'd find his friends fastest by following footprints.
"I insist," Mrs. Talbot said. "It's only about twenty minutes or so until sunrise."
Troubled, Matthias followed Mrs. Talbot back into the cabin and down the stairs. The two of them tapped on the walls and floors for what felt like hours, but no secret tunnels or hideaways appeared. Matthias showed her the safe that had contained all the false identity cards.
"Do you remember the combination?" Mrs. Talbot asked.
"Um, I think so," Matthias said. It took him a few tries, but he finally got the safe open.
It was empty too.
"So they took two injured children and dozens of fake I.D.'s," Mrs. Talbot said. "Hmm."
"What?" Matthias asked. "What do you think hap^ pened?"
"I don't know," Mrs. Talbot said. She gave him a shaky smile. "Got any guesses?"
    Matthias wished he were as smart as Percy. Percy would have been able to look at the clues they had and come up with a solid answer: Oh, yes, they left with a man in a gray hat, and the serial number on his I.D. card ends in two-three, and we'll find them if we travel north by northeast for forty-five minutes.
    Okay, maybe Percy wouldn't be able to figure out that much detail. But if it were Percy looking for Alia and me, not the other way around, Matthias thought, he'd know enough to tell for sure if the Population Police had come back and discovered the secret room and the fake I.D.'s and his friends. . .. Oh, please, God, don't let it be the Population Police who found them.
Matthias gulped. "Let's go see if we can find any foot' prints," he told Mrs. Talbot.
She shrugged and followed him back up the ladder yet again. They closed the trapdoor behind them.
Dim light was filtering into the cabin from outdoors now. It only served to highlight the disarray. Mrs. Talbot stood at the splintered door and peeked outside.
    "When it's dark out," she murmured, "I'm always terrified of what might be hiding in the shadows. But when the sun comes up, I wish for the darkness again to hide me."
Matthias brushed past her. It didn't do any good to speak of fear.
    He took a few steps toward the road and then looked back. He'd left no footprints in the leaf-strewn, packed dirt. He shivered, but his chill had nothing to do with the brisk morning air.
    Maybe whoever took Percy and Alia away was here yesterday when the ground thawed and then refroze, he told himself. So their footprints might still be there, encrusted in the ground, even though I can't see my own.
He peered around, his gaze taking in the sky and the woods as well as the ground.
And that was when he saw the man in the tree.
    Chapter Fourteen

Really, Matthias could see only eyes and maybe a dark fcboot in the shadows of one of the trees across the road. But the eyes were focused precisely.
Watching Matthias.
    Alia would have seen him before I did, before he saw her, Matthias thought shakily. She would have known not to step out of the cabin.
But Matthias didn't have Alia with him, and he barely knew what to do without her and Percy making decisions with him. At least the man wasn't doing anything but watching. He didn't swing down from the tree, didn't dash across the road to attack. Matthias dropped to the ground and pretended that he had to tie his shoe.
"Mrs. Talbot!" he hissed urgently, his head bent down so the man wouldn't be able to see his lips moving. "Stay in