Margaret Haddix - Among the Betrayed

And this six-year-old girl was huddled in a damp jail cell, waiting to die.

"If you don't mind," the biggest one — Matthias? — asked, "I think we'll put out the candle now. We only have the one. But we wanted to get a good look at you."

"Oh, go ahead," Nina said, though she longed for light. Two days in darkness had been much too long.

"My turn!" Alia said joyfully. She leaned over and blew. The flame vanished. Nina longed for it to come back.

But in the darkness I can trick them more easily. They won't be able to tell from my face when I am lying.

Was Nina going to lie to them? She couldn't decide.

"So. Who are you?" an unfamiliar voice — Percy's? — asked in the darkness.

And Nina was already lost. Which name should she say? Which names had they told her — real or fake? She had trouble imagining anyone wanting to name their kid Percy. So they were probably still pretending to be the people their fake I.D.'s said they were.

"You can call me Nina," she said cagily. "But my real name is—"

"No! Don't say it!" Alia screamed.

"We think they might be listening," Matthias explained in a whisper.

"So what?" Nina said recklessly. "They're going to kill us anyway."

Somehow Nina could feel the shocked silence on the other side of the room. Even in the dark she could picture those three grimy faces agape with horror.

"No, they're not," Alia said. "They're going to find out we're innocent, and then they're going to release us."

Alia's voice was buoyant with hope, calm and confident. Did she really believe what she was saying? Was she that stupid? Just from the way the three kids had huddled together, in the brief moments that the candle had been lit, Nina could tell that Matthias and Percy watched out for Alia. Maybe the boys, not wanting a hysterical six^year-old on their hands, had filled her head with lies: "Everything's okay. They won't hurt us. We'll get out soon."

Or was Alia acting, for the sake of the Population Police they thought were listening? Maybe one of the boys had told Alia, 'Act like you think we're innocent, and maybe they'll believe it." But could a six-year-old act so convinc-ingly?

Anyway, how could they possibly think the Population Police were listening? (Or know — if Nina told the Population Police everything, wasn't it like they were listening through Nina's ears?)

Nina rubbed her forehead. Everything was a muddle. How could she ever get these kids to trust her and spill all their secrets now? Did she really want them to tell her all their secrets?

I could find out their secrets and just not tell the Population Police, she told herself.

"How long have you been here?" she asked, trying to keep her voice casual, like she didn't really care but didn't have anything else to do but ask questions.

Nobody answered right away. Nina thought maybe they were whispering together on the other side of the room. Then Percy spoke up.

"We don't really know. It's hard to tell day from night down here."

"They've only brought us food three times," Alia said helpfully.

"How were you arrested?" Nina asked.

Again, it was a while before anyone answered. Nina wished so badly that she could see them.

"We were standing in line to buy cabbage. All three of us," Matthias finally said. "The Population Police came through the market, checking I.D.'s. They said ours were fake. So they arrested us—"

"But they're not fake!" Alia interrupted. "They're real, and the Population Police should know that. DO YOU HEAR ME?" Alia's voice was directed not at Nina, but at the door. Her words echoed so loudly, Nina could barely hear the two boys shushing her.

Nina decided to pretend she didn't notice.

"Why haven't your parents come to get you out?" Nina asked.

"Don't got any parents," Alia said.

Nina noticed the way she'd said that—"Don't got any," — not "Our parents are dead," or "We live with our grandparents," or "It'd be our aunt coming for us."

"Who takes care of you?" Nina asked cautiously.

"We take care of ourselves," Alia said hotly.

And this time Nina was sure the boys were whispering to Alia, telling her not to say anything else. A miserable lump filled Nina's throat. Filthy as they were, at least those three kids had one another. Nina wanted someone to huddle with, too.

If Jason were here —

No, not Jason. He was dead now, and anyway, he had betrayed her. How could she forget? Remembering his hugs made her skin crawl; thinking about his kisses made her wish she'd punched him in the nose instead of kissing back. Why hadn't she challenged him: "You keep saying we ought to do something about third children's rights, something like the famous Jen Talbot's rally. So why don't we?" Nina could have exposed him as a fake, right then and there. She could have been a hero, like Jen.

Instead, she was about to become a traitor.

Nina fell into a miserable sleep because that was the only way to escape. Let the other three whisper together all they wanted.

She woke when a light flashed over her — someone was shining a flashlight in through the open door.

"Nina Idi," a bored voice called.

Nina stumbled to her feet. She glanced around and saw that the other three had fallen asleep as well, in one giant heap. Alia was cuddled in Matthias's lap; Matthias's head was on Percy's shoulder. The light didn't seem to awaken any of them. Alia turned so her face was against Matthias's leg instead of his arm. But her eyes stayed shut.

Nina squinted back toward the light. The person holding it lowered it toward the floor, and Nina could see better without the glare directly in her eyes. It was a guard behind the light, in the shadows.

"Come on now," he said irritably.

Nina thought it might be the same guard as before, but it was hard to tell. Maybe all the guards looked and sounded alike, so grim in their dark uniforms. Nina took a step toward the door, her chains clanking against the stone floor. She turned around, and all three of the other kids were wide awake now.

Nina hated the sight of all those terrified, round eyes.

"You're wanted for questioning," the guard said.

Nina took another step forward, but she watched the other kids exchanging glances. As soon as I'm gone, she thought bitterly, Matthias is going to tell Alia, "See, that's why we can't tell her anything. She's not trustworthy."

Nina would have liked it if even one of the kids had mouthed a "Good luck" at her or flashed her a look of pity. But they all sat as still and silent as statues.

The guard grabbed Nina's arm and pulled her on out the door. But once the door was shut and they were down the hall a bit, the guard bent over and unlocked the chains from her ankles. When he straightened up, he took the cuffs off her wrists.

"You're setting me free?" Nina asked in disbelief.

The man snorted. 'Are you crazy?"

But he let her walk on her own, beside him, down the rest of the hall and up the stairs. He turned to the left at the top of the stairs and unlocked a metal door. On the other side of the door there was carpet and soft light and crearri'Colored walls. It seemed like a different universe than the rest of the prison. It seemed like a different universe than any place she'd ever been. Harlow School for Girls had been nice, especially compared with Gran's apartment. But there had still been cracks in the plaster walls, scuff marks on the tile floor. Here Nina couldn't see so much as a tuft of carpet that wasn't perfect.

The guard must have noticed her awestruck stares, because he snorted again. "Officers' suites," he explained. "Nothing but the best for the top brass."

He led her into a room with a long wooden table, beau' tifully carved with grapes and apples and other designs Nina couldn't even identify. Nina sat down in a chair, and it was a kind she would have expected the president to use.