Among the Enemy (9 page)

It was an unlucky number, after all.

The Population Police officer was studying Matthias's face.

"My apologies, then," he muttered. He stopped the car and turned to face Matthias directly. The gun went back down to his side. "Who am I to question the young man who saved my life? I can't imagine any better start to a Population Police career than the one you just had. In fact, I'll induct you right now. What's your name?"

Matthias had to struggle to remember the name on the fake I.D. he'd taken from the safe in the cabin.

"Uh, Roger Symmes," he said.

"Well, then, Roger Symmes, I hereby inaugurate you into the grand tradition of the Population Police. I believe you're already in line for a medal for meritorious service. Congratulations." He reached over and shook Matthias's hand. And, for a final touch, he took off his own official Population Police cap and settled it on Matthias's head. It was much too large and slipped down, almost entirely covering his eyes.

And Matthias, in the midst of still praying,
Oh, God, pro
tect Alia, oh, God, protect Percy,
had to force himself not to
flinch at the touch of the Population Police officer, of the Population Police cap.

Oh, God, can you protect me, too?
he wondered.

Chapter Sixteen

The Population Police officer seemed to have satisfied all his doubts about Matthias now. He tucked his gun away out of sight before pressing his foot down on the accelerator again.

"My name's Tidwell, by the way," the officer said. "Friends call me Tiddy."'

"Tiddy"?
Matthias thought.
The big, fierce Population Police officer goes by "Tiddy"?

Without his official cap, Tiddy looked younger, almost boyish himself. His blond hair was cut very short, with razor-sharp precision, and his uniform was still crisply pressed, even after the march through the woods and the surprise attack. But he didn't have the cold, steely-eyed look of all the other Population Police Matthias had ever seen.

"Um, Tiddy?" Matthias asked. "Where are we going?"

"Back to HQ," Tiddy said. "Headquarters. You'll get your assignment—further assignment, I should say—and I'll put in orders for those reinforcements." He was silent for a minute, then added, "Wish you'd been able to save Hathaway, Grimes, and Sully, too."

Matthias guessed he meant the other three Population Police, the men who had died in the first hail of gunfire.

"Were they your friends?" Matthias asked.

"Yes," Tiddy said softly, his eyes carefully trained on the road ahead. "They were."

It was strange for Matthias to think of Tiddy, a Population Police officer, missing his friends just as Matthias was worrying about Percy and Alia.

"You should know," Tiddy went on, so quietly that he almost seemed to be talking to himself, "being in the Population Police is a dangerous business. It's not just about privileges and promotions. We're serving the cause and ... not everybody understands."

"The cause?" Matthias asked.

Tiddy glanced over at him.

"You're thirteen, huh?" Tiddy said. "That's too young to remember the famines. I was just a boy myself then, not much older than you. We'd always had food. Back then, you could go into a grocery store and there'd be aisles and aisles of every food you could imagine. Even meat—I bet you've never tasted meat in your entire life, have you?"

Matthias shook his head. No. Of course he'd never tasted meat.

"They had these things called cheeseburgers. . . . Well, never mind. The point is, everyone had plenty of food. You didn't really think about it. You just ate. And then it stopped raining. It didn't rain
ever.
I wasn't really paying attention, I was just a kid, but the newspeople were always on TV blathering on about 'The droughts! The droughts! What if the rains never come back?' This is awful, but me and my friends, we used to laugh about it. It was like the grown-ups telling themselves horror stories, trying to scare themselves. Nobody was
really
worried. But then those grocery store shelves started emptying out, and people started fighting over what food there was. . . . Everybody would have starved if it hadn't been for the Population Police."

Matthias had heard a story sort of like this from Samuel. But in Samuel's version, told beside a small fire in the dark tunnel, he always ended by musing, "Was this a judgment on our wickedness, O Lord?"

And in Samuel's tale, the Population Police were part of the evil visited on the land, not the people's salvation.

"How did the Population Police keep people from starving?" Matthias asked.

"You don't know?" Tiddy asked. He shook his head in disbelief. "Look at it this way. If you've got one box of rice and ten thousand people, nobody's going to survive. But if you've got only ten people, everyone gets a bellyful. The Population Police just make sure there aren't too many people. It's, like, simple math."

Not so simple if you're one of the people who are "too many,"
Matthias thought.

"What's amazing," Tiddy continued, "is how people try to get around the rules. Rules that are there for their own good! You know what was happening back at that cabin? People were making fake I.D.'s so they could get extra food. And then they were so greedy that they fought about it and started shooting one another—that's why there were all those bodies by the side of the road. The Population Police, we were just going in to clean up the mess. But not only did the rebels start shooting at us, did you see that sign? By the bodies? Somebody wrote, 'The Population Police did this'—like they were trying to blame everything on us. Lies, lies, lies. It's just so wrong!"

Matthias
froze.
Did Tiddy have any idea who had written that sign? No—Tiddy was banging his hand on the steering wheel and his voice cracked with indignation, but he was also nodding his head toward Matthias, like he thought Matthias was completely on his side. An ally. (Well, hadn't Matthias acted like he was—saving Tiddy's life, shaking hands over the notion of joining the Population Police? Why would Tiddy suspect Matthias of anything?)

Something else struck Matthias: Tiddy seemed to truly believe that the rebels, not the Population Police, had killed those seventeen people.

Matthias opened his mouth. Then
closed
it He couldn't
very well tell Tiddy,
But you're the one who's wrong! I was there the night before last! I saw the Population Police kill the rebels!
He
closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the seat.

"I know," Tiddy said sympathetically. "It's almost too much to bear, isn't it?"

They drove the rest of the way without much conversation. Matthias was worrying about Percy and Alia, and he suspected that Tiddy was grieving for his friends. Matthias watched the scenery flash by—first the countryside, with scant villages, then the streets of a large city Matthias didn't recognize. He paid close attention. He wanted to memorize the route so he could slip away and hike back to the cabin as soon as possible.

But when they got to Population Police headquarters— a monstrous building surrounded by a towering stone fence—he was chilled by the sight of guards everywhere. Hordes of them stood by the fence, by the gate, by every door and window. After Tiddy drove in past a guardhouse, a line of guards closed in across the road as quickly as a prison door slamming shut.

Oh, Percy,
Matthias thought, as if his friend could really hear him, all those miles away,
even you couldn't escape from
this place.

Chapter Seventeen

Tiddy parked the car at a reckless angle and hollered over to one of the guards by the front door, "Hey, fill out the paperwork on this car for me, will you? We requi^ sitioned it from the enemy. It didn't come with a key."

Some of the guards chuckled, and Matthias heard one of them snort, "That's Tiddy for you."

"Come on, kid. You stick with me," Tiddy said to Matthias as they got out of the car.

"You requisition the kid, too?" one of the guards teased.

"Nope. He saved my life," Tiddy said, bounding up to the door.

"Yeah, sure," the guards muttered. "Can't wait to hear that story."

Matthias followed Tiddy into the imposing headquarters building and through a maze of halls and stairs the way he had once followed Samuel through the reeking, traslvstrewn streets of his city. He didn't feel like he had much choice. It seemed like he'd cast his fate with Tiddy's when he'd shoved the officer into Mrs. Talbot's car. And, strangely, staying close to Tiddy helped staunch the fear
pounding in his head:
This is Population Police headquarters!
Everyone
here is evil!

Then a guard standing before an interior door in a grand hallway planted himself firmly in front of Matthias, blocking his way.

"Officer Tidwell!" the guard chided, cutting his eyes dis' dainfully toward Matthias. "Surely you understand that it wouldn't be proper—"

"Proper?" Tiddy looked from the guard to Matthias. "Oh, relax. This is our newest Population Police member. He's been too busy perpetrating acts of heroism to get his uniform yet."

"Still, to go in there—," the guard persisted.

"Oh, very well," Tiddy said. "Send for a uniform. Size extra small."

Tiddy waited with Matthias until someone came with a uniform. It was gray, not black like Tiddy's. And it was at least three sizes too big.

'That's the best they can do down in the uniform room?" Tiddy asked, glancing at the sizing tag. "Oh, well. Just put it on over your clothes. You could use the extra bulk."

Matthias pulled the pants over his pajama bottoms. He had to make an extra hole in the belt to get them to stay up. He stuck his arm into the first sleeve. His sweater bunched up and rubbed uncomfortably.

Oh no,
he thought.
I was planning to give Alia my sweater, way back before Percy was shot.
... In his rush to find shelter, tend his friends' wounds, and go for help, he'd totally forgotten.
What if the man in the tree didn't take Alia someplace warm? What if she freezes to death because of me?

Matthias's knees threatened to give out at this horrible thought. He sagged back against the doorway.

Tiddy gently pulled the uniform shirt the rest of way around Matthias's body. He pushed Matthias's other arm through the other sleeve.

"You don't have to button it," Tiddy said. "Come on, it's time to see the commander."

Numbly, Matthias followed Tiddy past the guard and through a doorway that seemed, just by itself, to be taller and wider than most normal houses. The room beyond was so vast and awe-inspiring that Matthias came to a dead halt. A row of ornate chairs led up to a wooden desk that seemed as big as a car. The windows—all ten of them—stretched from the floor to the ceiling and were studded with colored glass.

And between the windows were black banners, just as tall and even wider—banners showing children dying, Population Police officers cheering.

It's like a cathedral,
Matthias thought dizzily.
A cathedral where people worship evil.

"Sir!" Tiddy was saying, snapping his arm into a salute.

Belatedly, Matthias thought he ought to salute too. He lifted his arm, and the excess material of his uniform sleeve swung against his cap, knocking it off. Tiddy noticed and swung his hand down, smoothly catching the cap before it hit the floor. And, in spite of the fact that Tiddy was a Population Police officer and therefore Matthias's worst enemy, Matthias felt a surge of gratitude.

'At ease. Approach," a creaky old voice said from the far end of the room.

Tiddy and Matthias walked past all the empty chairs, toward the massive desk. The oldest man Matthias had ever seen in his entire life was sitting behind it.