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capture will be rewarded accordingly.”
    “We know there are more Markless out there in the shadows
    and the alleys and the woods. But now all of them are the survi-vors of one raid or another. All of them have heard the terms of our deal.”
    Mr. Arbitor nodded. “And today, one of them has come
    for ward.”
    “The tip sounds credible.”
    “Logan has surfaced.”
    “Our agents are standing by.”
    “You’re not gonna hurt him,” Erin said. “Once you have him.
    You’re not gonna hurt him, are you?”
    “No,” Johnson said. “We would never hurt him.”
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    “He’s not one of them,” Erin insisted. “He’s not Dust. He’s
    Unmarked at the moment, I know, but that’s . . . temporary.
    He’s isn’t Markless, Dad. Peck tricked him. I told you that—Peck tricked him into thinking DOME has Logan’s sister. It’s ridiculous, I know. It was just a trap, and Logan fell for it. But you can’t blame him for—”
    “We’re not, Erin. We’re trying to help. That’s all.”
    Erin sighed, and another chunk of slush fell to the floor.
    “Okay. And what about finding the Dust?”
    “Can’t pit Markless against the Dust,” Johnson said. “Not in the same way. All anyone knows about Logan is that he’s the miser who caused the raids. But the Dust . . . Dust is revered in this city. Peck’s a symbol to those Unmarked beggars. They’d never turn him in.”
    “And anyway, he’s too smart. Peck’s suspected for years that
    Markless are too desperate, as a group, to be trusted. He’s learned how to stay away from enemies and friends alike.”
    “Then what’s the plan?” Erin asked. “Assuming your source
    is right, when do we move in on Logan? How do I know you’re
    not just gonna kill him? And how does any of this fit with finding Peck and the Dust?” She looked at the two men nervously, but Mr.
    Arbitor was grinning now.
    “Well, sweetie . . . that’s where you come in.”
    5
    Hailey arrived home just before sunset to the sounds of her mother in the bathroom upstairs, coughing and wheezing out the nanodust piled up in her lungs.
    Growing up, Hailey’s mom was always home while Mr. Phoenix
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    worked long hours as the head manager of a nanomaterials plant outside of town. But that changed when Mr. Phoenix passed away, and ever since, Hailey’s mom had made ends meet by working her own long hours on the same factory floor once managed by her
    husband. Though Mrs. Phoenix never once complained, Hailey
    knew that her mother’s job was a difficult one, made worse by the constant exposure to nanodust, which had given Mrs. Phoenix an awful, chronic cough.
    Tonight, Hailey went straight to the kitchen sink, turned on
    the faucet, and let the white noise of the running water drown out the spasms of her mother’s dry choking. She stood there for a full minute, hands braced against the countertop, just staring out the kitchen window. Finally she grabbed a pot and lit the stove to boil some water for lentils to eat with her mother. But when she put the pot on the stove and turned the faucet off, the familiar coughing again filled the empty, quiet space.
    “My favorite,” Mrs. Phoenix said when she sat at the dinner table twenty minutes later. “Thank you, honey.” She chewed and swallowed gingerly. “So how’s Erin? Any news?”
    “Erin’s good.” But Hailey put her spoon down. “Suspicious,
    though. She’s careful, no doubt about it.”
    Mrs. Phoenix nodded. “And how was your walk?”
    “Refreshing,” Hailey said, and Mrs. Phoenix knew what that
    meant. She extended her hand across the table and put it lightly on Hailey’s.
    Each of them knew that these days, anything they said might
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    the Dust. They’d never found evidence of bug tape (an electronic adhesive used to record and transmit sound