The Three Most Wanted by Corinna Turner Page A

want to help. At least let us get you a whole load of food tomorrow.”
    “Then you can go off if you want and we’ll forget we ever met you,” said Dominique. “But you need the food, don’t you? You eat like you do.”
    So much for not acting half-starved. I put my head close to Bane’s and Jon’s.
    “We do need the food,” I said softly in English.
    “But can we trust them?” snarled Bane.
    “If they did get us a full bag of food we could go the best part of a week without risking being recognized again,” pointed out Jon. “Get us a quite a lot closer to Zurich, wouldn’t it?”
    “ If we can trust them,” growled Bane.
    A rather circular conversation. I turned to the other three and went back to Esperanto. “Why do you want to help us so much? Don’t you know it’s dangerous?”
    “ I know it’s dangerous,” said Louis glumly.
    “So do we.” Dominique gave him a scornful look. “We’ll help all the same.”
    “We want to help,” said Juwan.
    “But why ?”
    Dominique glanced at Juwan, who looked away.
    “We’d a friend—Juwan’s best mate, actually—he... rather unexpectedly failed his Sorting. Someone that close gets taken—you can’t pretend it’s okay anymore.” She looked grim, no trace of a laugh on Louis’s face now and Juwan’s face was pinched.
    “A lie detector would come in handy right now, but I think they’re telling the truth,” I said to the other two in English.
    “She sounds sincere,” said Jon.
    Bane rubbed a hand through his ragged hair, pushing his now-useless cap off. “I’d say they meant it too, it’s just... what’s at stake...” He swung around to the others and switched language again.
    “Do you three understand what will happen to us if we’re caught? Jon and I will just be chopped up while we’re asleep—we’ll die but it’ll be painless. But do you understand what they’ll do to Margo? They will kill her piece by piece by piece and she’ll feel everything . Just stop and think about that before you tell me you understand!”
    Louis looked sick and Dominique and Juwan remained silent for a moment. My guts had twisted themselves into an icy knot.
    “We do understand,” said Dominique.
    “We want to make sure that doesn’t happen,” said Juwan. “Since even we got ID’d in one of the last towns, I think you need our help.”
    “Um... the dinner’s burning,” put in Louis.
    “Let’s talk while we eat.” Dominique hurried to the stove.
    Bane and I exchanged looks.
    “Oh, come on! Have one more good meal,” said Juwan.
    Our stomachs propelled us after him and the conversation was abandoned until our plates were clean.
    “Really, we’re happy to stick with you. Think about it ,” Juwan insisted, as Bane opened his mouth. “They’re not looking for a group of six and you wouldn’t even need to come into towns to resupply.”
    “You realize it’s dangerous?” I said.
    Dominique made a ‘zut’ noise. “Not for us . If you did get caught, we could act astonished as anything. Three poor gullible New Adults taken in by the wily fugitives.”
    “I wouldn’t underestimate just how pissed off the EuroGov are right now.”
    “I’m not. I read your book. But how could they possibly prove we knew who you were? We might get a black mark by our names but we’re prepared to risk that , aren’t we?”
    “Definitely,” said Juwan.
    “Yeah, I s’pose so,” said Louis. “Seeing that... well, Piers and all.”
    Getting over the shock of our discovery... This might actually be a stroke of luck. Safe in our group of six we could use the hiking trails, making much better time and putting less strain on Jon, and keep well supplied with food—without having to go into towns that were fast becoming death-traps.
    I glanced at Bane, who sat frowning.
    “You can trust us, seriously,” said Dominique. “Look, I’ll... tell you a big secret...” She glanced at Juwan, who frowned, but after a long moment, jerked a nod. “Juwan