“That’s Spine,” Atlas says. “She’s head trainer, one of the most fearless people I’ve ever met, and unofficial leader of the Stokers. If we can convince her, the majority of the others will follow.”

“And if we don’t?”

“Be glad you know how to run.”

“Lockdown doesn’t mean we slow down! And you don’t need to talk to each other right now,” Spine yells. “You’ll have a whole lot of time down here to talk once the doors are closed.”

Dewey appears behind us with the long-nailed Renu and a half dozen others in tow. He nods and Atlas whispers, “Let’s do this.”

The floor slants slightly downward as we walk deeper into the hopper toward the center, where Spine is shouting about final assignments for taking books to the vaults and people to out-of-town stations. While a lot of Stokers are paying attention to her, a number have turned to watch Atlas and me striding across the gravel floor.

“Anyone who doesn’t think they need to pay attention to what I’m saying will have to run extra drills when we resume our training sessions tomorrow. Do you hear me?” Spine yells to a group of Stokers to her right.

“We hear you, Spine.” A bulky guy in a white T-shirt with a mop of brown hair with almost glowing white-blond streaks points toward us. “But I don’t think those two are listening.”

Spine looks down at us. “Atlas, I thought you told me you had to deal with something important before the lockdown.”

“I am dealing with something important. That’s why I’m here now. We have something we have to ask you.” He turns and looks around the room. “To ask all of you.”

“‘We?’” Spine asks. “Whoever this is, she’s not even old enough to be in the Stewards.”

“I know you don’t like the idea of a lockdown,” Atlas says over the whispers from those looking on. “I know you hate the idea of hiding down here while my father needs our help. You train every day. You push yourself to be able to take on the Marshals, yet you are told to run from them even when you see someone who isn’t a Steward in danger. And you wonder about those people and whether you could have made a difference if only you had broken the rules and tried.”

Several Stokers nod their heads. I hold my breath.

“My father wanted to do more than just hide down here in the Lyceum. It’s the reason he’s not here with us now, and why I’m asking for your help to tell the people in this city what we know.”

“Yes, we train.” Spine leaps off her perch on the fence, lands gracefully, and strides across the gravel toward us. “Yes, we prepare to fight. But our mission is to keep the truth alive until people are ready to listen. We have to wait until the time is right. I’m sorry about Atticus.” She pats Atlas’s shoulder then starts to walk away.