Free Sneak by Evan Angler Page A

the Row,” she said. “In one of the abandoned brownstones, with my folks. They refused the Mark as soon as it became a thing. There was an adjustment period, I guess, while they relearned how to survive, but I was too young to remember it. Things weren’t too bad yet for Markless back then, of course. Living without the Mark was more of an inconvenience than anything else. The A.U. was brand-new, and we were still transi-tioning out of war money—you know, the paper kind—which my
    parents still had plenty of. Anyway, we made our way to Slog Row, and that’s where they raised me. I went to school in Spokie like anyone else until I turned eleven, and I lived a pretty normal life.
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    “Then, one day while I was at school, some DOME officer
    caught my mom and dad swiping a few cans of beans from a Spokie store. I was growing up, I guess, and the rations from the Fulmart weren’t cutting it anymore. DOME charged my folks with petty
    theft, which was accurate enough. Should’ve been no big deal.
    But at that point Parliament had already passed its stupid zero-tolerance law. Even a misdemeanor, by then, was enough, if you happened to be a Markless. . . . The case was closed before it was even opened. I haven’t seen them since.”
    “That’s . . . awful,” Dane said.
    “Well, I found Peck pretty early. He made it easier on me.
    It would’ve been tough without him. That would’ve been real
    tough . . .”
    Blake and Tyler and Eddie were on the other side of the fire
    pit, their ears to the radio speaker, listening intently. “Are you listening to this?” Tyler asked Jo. “Now Mama’s talking too! They’re famous . . . the Hayeses are famous , Jo!”
    “How about them?” Dane asked, pointing to the others as they
    sat distracted by the broadcast. “What’s their story?”
    “Well, the whole group is Peck’s doing, of course. Soon as he
    realized DOME was using the Pledge to swipe troublemakers, he
    swore he’d never let another Spokie kid risk flunking. So Eddie, we kidnapped,” Jo said. “Like we did you. I don’t know what’s
    wrong with him.” She laughed. “Just a problem child, I guess. I mentioned to Peck one time how much trouble he was always getting into at school. I’d seen him around, growing up, even though he was a couple grades below me—he was just notorious.” She
    shrugged. “So Peck red-flagged him, and a couple months later, he was living with us.
    “Same with Meg, pretty much. Peck heard there was a girl in
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    town with autism, and he knew from the patterns he’d seen that this made her a target. So we headed that off at the pass.
    “Tyler, on the other hand—he grew up orphaned. Lived in
    huddles all his life, out on the Row.” She laughed again. “Poor kid never stood a chance.” Jo stared at Tyler now. He was still listening to the radio, mouth open, enthralled by the pre-Unity tech.
    “Amazingly, after all that, Tyler still planned to Pledge. Wanted to ‘turn his life around.’” She shook her head. “ Man , he would’ve flunked so fast . . .”
    “So you kidnapped him too.”
    “Well, it wasn’t much of a kidnapping, taking some beggar
    orphan from a huddle. We just popped in one day and started
    hanging out with him. Soon enough he was living with us. He’d
    forgotten all about his big plans.”
    Dane nodded.
    “Blake was another easy one,” Jo recalled. “He ran away from
    home on his own, just before his Pledge. Good instincts, I think.
    As good as Peck’s. He knew something was wrong about the
    whole process. He and Peck met at the Fulmart back when Peck
    could still show his face around town. They hit it off right away.
    And they’ve been friends ever since. Best friends, until all this.”
    In the background, Papa’s voice was soothing through the
    static of the airwaves.
    “Logan’s not a bad guy,” Dane told Jo. “I want you all to know that. He’d