Uglies

Invasion

Tally turned from the window and saw nothing but empty beds. She was alone in the bunkhouse.

She shook her head, foggy from sleep and disbelief. The ground rumbled beneath her bare feet, and the bunkhouse shuddered around her. Suddenly, the plastic in one of the windows shattered, and the muffled cacophony from outside rushed in to batter her ears.

The entire building shook as if it would collapse.

Where was everyone? Had they already fled the Smoke, leaving her there to face this invasion alone?

Tally ran for the door and threw it open. Before her, a hovercar was landing, blinding her for a moment with a face full of dust. She recognized the machine's cruel lines from the Special Circumstances car that had first taken her to see Dr. Cable. But this one was equipped with four shimmering blades-one each where the wheels of a groundcar would be-a cross between a normal hovercar and the rangers' helicopter.

It could travel anywhere, Tally realized, inside a city or out in the wild. She remembered Dr. Cable's words: We'll be there in a few hours. Tally forced the thought from her head.

This attack couldn't have anything to do with her.

The hovercar struck the dusty ground with a thud. This was no time to stand there wondering. She turned and ran.

The camp was a chaos of smoke and running figures. Cooking fires had been blown from their pits, and scattered embers burned everywhere. Two of the encampment's big buildings were ablaze. Chickens and rabbits scampered underfoot, dust and ashes coiled in rampant whirlwinds. Dozens of Smokies ran about, some trying to put out the fires, some trying to escape, some simply panicking.

Through everything else, the forms of cruel pretties moved. Their gray uniforms passed like fleeting shadows through the confusion. Graceful and unhurried, as if unaware of the chaos around them, they set about subduing the panicking Smokies. They moved in a blur, without any weapons that Tally could see, leaving everyone in their wake lying on the ground, bound and dazed.

They were superhumanly fast and strong. The Special operation had given them more than just terrible faces.

Near the mess hall, about two dozen Smokies were making a stand, holding off a handful of Specials with axes and makeshift clubs. Tally made her way toward the fight, and the incongruous smells of breakfast reached her through the choking haze of smoke. Her stomach growled.

Tally realized that she had slept through the breakfast call, too exhausted to wake up with everyone else.

The Specials must have waited until most of the Smokies were gathered in the mess hall before launching their invasion.

Of course. They wanted to capture as many Smokies as possible in a single stroke.

The Specials weren't attacking the large group at the mess hall. They waited patiently in a ring around the building while their numbers increased, more hovercars landing every minute. If anyone tried to get past the cordon, they reacted swiftly, disarming and incapacitating whoever dared to run. But most of the Smokies were too shocked to resist, paralyzed by the terrible faces of their opponents. Even here, most people had never seen a cruel pretty.

Tally pinned herself against a building, trying to disappear next to a stack of firewood. She shielded her eyes from the dust storm, searching for an escape route. There was no way to get into the center of the Smoke, where her hoverboard lay on the broad roof of the trading post, charging in the sun. The forest was the only way out.

A stretch of uncleared trees lay at the closest edge of town, only a twenty-second dash away. But a Special stood between her and the border of dense trees and brush, waiting to intercept any stray Smokies. The woman's eyes scanned the approach to the forest, her head moving from side to side in a weirdly regular motion, like someone watching a slow-motion tennis match without much interest.

Tally crept closer, staying pressed against the building. A hovercar passed overhead, blowing a maelstrom of dust and loose wood chips into her eyes.

When she could see again, Tally found an aging ugly crouching next to her, against the wall.

"Hey!" he hissed.

She recognized the sagging features, the bitter expression.

It was the Boss.

"Young lady, we have a problem." His harsh voice cut through the cacophony of the attack.

She glanced in the direction of the waiting Special. "Yeah, I know."

Another hovercar roared over them, and he pulled her around the corner of the building and down behind a drum that collected rainwater from the gutters.

"You noticed her too?" He grinned, showing a missing tooth. "Maybe if we both run at once, one of us might make it. If the other puts up a fight."

Tally swallowed. "I guess." She peered out at the Special, who stood as calmly as a crumbly waiting for a pleasure ferry. "But they're pretty fast."

"That depends." He dropped the duffel bag from his shoulder. "There're two things I keep ready for emergencies."

The Boss unzipped the bag and pulled out a plastic container big enough for a sandwich.

"This is one."

He popped open one corner of the top, and a puff of dust rose up. A second later, a wave of fire rushed into Tally's head. She covered her face, eyes watering, and tried to cough up the finger of flame that had crawled down her throat.

"Not bad, eh?" the Boss chuckled. "That's pure habanero pepper, dried and ground down to dust. Not too bad in beans, but hell in your eyes."

Tally blinked away her tears and managed to speak. "Are you nuts?"

"The other thing is this bag, which contains a representative sample of two hundred years of Rusty-era visual culture. Priceless and irreplaceable artifacts. So which do you want?"

"Huh?"

"Do you want the habanero pepper or the bag of magazines? Do you want to get caught while taking out our Special friend? Or save a precious piece of human heritage from these barbarians?"

Tally coughed once more. "I guess…I want to escape."

The Boss smiled. "Good. I'm sick of running. Sick of losing my hair too, and being short-sighted.

I've done my bit, and you look pretty fast."

He handed her the duffel bag. It was heavy, but Tally had grown stronger since she'd come to the Smoke. Magazines were nothing compared with scrap metal.

She thought of the first day she had arrived there, seeing a magazine for the first time in the library, realizing with horror what humanity had once looked like. The pictures had made her sick that first day, and now here she was ready to save them.

"Here's the plan," the Boss said. "I'll go first, and when that Special grabs me, I'll give her a face full of pepper. You run straight and fast and don't look back. Got that?"

"Yeah."

"With any luck, we both might make it. Though I wouldn't mind a face-lift. Ready?"

Tally pulled the bag farther up on her shoulder. "Let's go."

"One…two…" The Boss paused. "Oh, dear. There's a problem, young lady."

"What?"

"You haven't got any shoes."

Tally looked down. In her confusion, she had stumbled barefoot out of the bunkhouse.

The packed dirt of the Smoke compound was easy enough to walk on, but in the forest…

"You won't make it ten meters, kid."

The Boss pulled the duffel bag away from her and handed her the plastic container. "Now get going."

"But I…," Tally said. "I don't want to go back to the city."

"Yes, young lady, and I wouldn't mind getting some decent dental work. But we all have to make sacrifices. Starting now!" On the last word, he shoved her out from behind the drum.

Tally stumbled forward, utterly exposed in the middle of the street. The roar of a hovercar seemed to pass right over her head, and she instinctively ducked, dashing toward the cover of the forest.

The Special cocked her head toward Tally, calmly folded her arms, and frowned like a teacher spotting littlies playing where they shouldn't.

Tally wondered if the pepper would do anything to the woman. If it affected the Special like it had Tally, she might still make it into the forest. Even if she was supposed to be the bait. Even if she had no shoes.

Even if it turned out David had already been caught and she'd never see him again…

The thought unleashed a sudden torrent of anger inside her, and she ran straight at the woman, the container clenched in both hands.

A smile broke out on the Special's cruel features.

A split second before they collided, the Special seemed to disappear, slipping out of sight like a coin in a magician's hand. In her next stride Tally felt something hard connect with her shin, and pain shot up her leg. Her body tumbled forward, hands reaching out to break her fall, the container slipping from her grasp.

She hit the ground hard, skidding on her palms. As she rolled through the dirt, Tally glimpsed the Special crouching behind her. The woman had simply ducked, invisibly fast, and Tally had tripped over her like some awkward littlie in a brawl.

Shaking her head and spitting the dirt out of her mouth, Tally spotted the container just out of reach. She scrambled toward it, but a staggering weight crashed down on her, driving her face-first into the ground. She felt her wrists pulled back and bound, hard plastic cuffs cutting into her flesh.

She struggled, but couldn't move.

Then the awful weight lifted, and a nudge from a boot flipped her over effortlessly. The Special stood over her, smiling coldly, holding the container. "Now, now, ugly," the cruel pretty said. "You just calm down. We don't want to hurt you. But we will if we have to."

Tally started to speak, but her jaw clenched with pain. It had plowed into the ground when she'd fallen.

"What's so important about this?" the Special asked, shaking the container and trying to peer through its translucent plastic.

Out of the corner of her eye, Tally saw the Boss making his way toward the forest. His run was slow and tortured, the duffel bag too heavy for him.

"Open it and see," Tally spat painfully.

"I will," she said, still smiling. "But first things first." She turned her attention toward the Boss, and her posture suddenly transformed into something animal, crouched and coiled like a cat ready to spring.

Tally rolled back onto her shoulders, thrashing out wildly with both feet. Her kick connected with the container, and it popped open, a puff of brownish-green dust spraying out over the Special.

For a second, a disbelieving expression spread over the woman's face. She made a gagging noise, her whole body shuddering. Then her eyes and fists clamped shut, and she screamed.

The sound wasn't human. It cut into Tally's ears like a vibrasaw striking metal, and every muscle in her body fought to get free of the handcuffs, her instincts demanding that she cover her ears. With another wild kick, she rolled herself over and stumbled to her feet, staggering in the direction of the forest.

A tickle grew in Tally's throat as the pepper dust dispersed on the wind. She coughed as she ran, eyes watering and stinging until she was half-blind. With her hands tied behind her, Tally lurched into the brush off-balance, tumbling to the ground as her bare feet caught on something in the dense vegetation.

She struggled forward, trying to drag herself out of sight.

Blinking away tears, she saw that the Special's inhuman scream had been some kind of alarm. Three more of the cruel pretties had responded. One led the pepper-covered Special away at arm's length, and the others approached the forest.

Tally froze, the brush barely concealing her.

Then she felt a tickle in her throat, a slowly growing irritation. Tally held her breath, closing her eyes. But her chest began to shudder, her body twitching, demanding to expel traces of the pepper from her lungs.

She had to cough.

Tally swallowed again and again, hoping spit could put out the fire in her throat. Her lungs demanded oxygen, but she didn't dare breathe. One of the Specials was only a stone's throw away, scanning the forest with slow back-and-forth sweeps of his head, his eyes searching the dense trees relentlessly.

Gradually, painfully, the flames seemed to expire in Tally's chest, the cough dying a quiet death inside her. She relaxed, finally letting out her breath.

Over the thunder of hovercars and crackle of burning buildings and sounds of battle, the Special somehow heard her soft exhalation. His head turned swiftly, eyes narrowing, and in what seemed like a single motion he was by her side, a hand on the back of her neck.

"You're a tricky one," he said.

She tried to answer, but wound up coughing savagely instead, and he forced her face down in the dirt before she could manage another breath.

The Rabbit Pen

They marched her to the rabbit pen, where about forty handcuffed Smokies sat inside the wire fence. A dozen or so Specials stood in a cordon around them, watching their captives with empty expressions. By the entrance to the compound a few rabbits hopped aimlessly, too addled by their sudden freedom to make a break for it.

The Special who had captured Tally took her to the end farthest from the gate, where a handful of Smokies with bloody noses and black eyes were clustered.

"Armed resistor," he said to the two cruel pretties who guarded this end of the pen, and shoved her down to the ground among the others.

She stumbled and fell onto her back, where her weight stretched the cuffs painfully across her wrists.

When she struggled to turn over, a foot planted itself into her back and pushed her up. For a moment, she thought the shoe belonged to a Special, but it was one of the other Smokies, helping her up the only way he could. She managed to sit up cross-legged.

The wounded Smokies around her smiled grimly, nodding encouragement.

"Tally," someone hissed.

She struggled to turn toward the voice. It was Croy, a cut over his eye bleeding down onto his cheek, one side of his face covered with dirt. He scooted himself a bit closer.

"You resisted?" he said. "Huh. Guess I was wrong about you."

Tally could only cough. Traces of the burning pepper seemed stuck in her lungs, like the embers of a fire that wouldn't go out. Tears still streamed from her eyes.

"I noticed you slept through breakfast call this morning," he said. "Then when the Specials came, I figured you'd picked an awfully convenient time to disappear."

She shook her head, forced words through the cinders in her throat. "I was out late with David. That's all." Speaking made her sore jaw ache.

Croy frowned. "I haven't seen him all morning."

"Really?" She blinked away tears. "Maybe he got away."

"I doubt anyone did." Croy jutted his chin toward the gate of the pen. A large group of Smokies was on its way, guarded by a squad of Specials. Among them, Tally recognized faces from those who'd made a stand at the mess hall.

"They're just mopping up now," he said.

"Have you seen Shay?"

Croy shrugged. "She was at breakfast when they attacked, but I lost track of her."

"What about the Boss?"

Croy looked around. "No."

"I think he got away. He and I made a run together."

A dark smile crossed Croy's face. "That's funny. He always said he wouldn't mind getting captured. Something about a face-lift."

Tally managed to smile. But then she thought about the brain lesions that went along with becoming pretty, and a shiver passed through her body. She wondered how many of these captives knew what was really going to happen to them.

"Yeah, the Boss was going to give himself up, to help me get away, but I couldn't have made it through the forest."

"Why not?"

She wriggled her toes. "No shoes."

Croy raised an eyebrow. "You picked the wrong day to sleep late."

"I guess so."

Outside the overcrowded rabbit pen, the new arrivals were being organized into groups. A pair of Specials moved through the pen, flashing a reader into the bound Smokies' eyes, taking them outside one by one.

"They must be separating everyone by city," Croy said.

"Why?"

"To take us home," he said coldly.

"Home," she repeated. Just last night, that word had changed its meaning in her mind. And now home was destroyed. It lay around her in ruins, burning and captured.

She scanned the captives, looking for Shay and David. The familiar faces in the crowd were haggard, dirty, crumpled by shock and defeat, but Tally realized that she no longer thought of them as ugly. It was the cold expressions of the Specials, beautiful though they were, that seemed horrific to her now.

A disturbance caught her eye. Three of the invaders were carrying a struggling figure, bound hand and foot, through the pen. They marched straight to the resistors' corner and dumped her onto the ground.

It was Shay.

"Watch this one."

The two Specials guarding them glanced at the still writhing figure. "Armed resistor?" one asked.

There was a pause. Tally saw that one of the Specials had a bruise marring his pretty face.

"Unarmed. But dangerous."

The three left their captive behind, their cruel grace marked with a touch of hurry.

"Shay!" Croy hissed.

Shay rolled herself over. Her face was red, her lips puffy and bleeding. She spat, saliva trailing from her mouth to a blood red glob on the dusty ground.

"Croy," she managed with a thick tongue.

Then her eyes fell on Tally.

"You!"

"Uh, Shay…," Croy began.

"You did this!" Her whole body writhed like a snake in its death throes. "Stealing my boyfriend wasn't enough? You had to betray the whole Smoke!"

Tally closed her eyes and shook her head. It couldn't be true. She had destroyed the pendant. The fire had consumed it.

"Shay!" Croy said. "Calm down. Look at her. She fought them."

"Are you blind, Croy? Look around you! She did this!"

Tally took a deep breath and forced herself to look at Shay. Her friend's eyes burned with hatred.

"Shay, I swear to you, I didn't. I never…" Her voice faltered.

"Who else could have led them here?"

"I don't know."

"We can't blame each other, Shay," Croy said. "It could've been anything. A satellite image. A scouting mission."

"A spy."

"Will you look at her, Shay?" Croy cried. "She's tied up, like us. She resisted!"

Shay slammed her eyes shut and shook her head.

The two Specials with the eye-reader had reached the resistors' corner of the pen. One stood back while the other stepped forward warily. "We don't want to hurt you," she announced. "But we will if we have to."

The cruel pretty grabbed Croy's chin and flashed the reader in his eye. She looked at its readout.

"Another one of ours," she said.

The other Special raised an eyebrow. "Didn't know we had so many runaways."

The two hauled Croy to his feet and marched him toward the largest group of Smokies outside. Tally bit her lip. Croy was one of Shay's old friends, so these two Specials were from her own city. Maybe all the invaders were.

It had to be a coincidence. This couldn't be her fault. She'd seen the pendant burn!

"So you've got Croy on your side too now, I see," Shay hissed.

Tears began to fill Tally's eyes, but not from the pepper this time. "Look at me, Shay!"

"He suspected you from the beginning. But I told him every time, 'No, Tally's my friend.

She'd never do anything to hurt me.'" "Shay, I'm not lying."

"How did you change Croy's mind, Tally? The same way you changed David's?"

"Shay, I never meant for that to happen."

"So where were you two last night?"

Tally swallowed, trying to hold her voice steady. "Just talking. I told him about my necklace."

"That took all night? Or did you just decide to make your move before the Specials came?

One last game with him. With me."

Tally lowered her head. "Shay…"

A hand grabbed her chin and forced it up. She blinked, and a dazzling red light flashed.

The Special looked at the device closely. "Hey, it's her."

Tally shook her head. "No."

The other Special looked at the readout, nodding confirmation. "Tally Youngblood?"

She didn't answer. They lifted her to her feet and dusted her off.

"Come with us. Dr. Cable wants to see you immediately."

"I knew it," Shay hissed.

"No!"

They pulled Tally toward the gate of the pen. She twisted her head around to look back, trying to think of words that would explain.

Shay glared up at her from the ground, bloody teeth gritted, her eyes falling to Tally's bound wrists. A second later, Tally felt the pressure release, and her hands popped apart.

The Specials had cut her handcuffs.

"No," she said softly.

One of the Specials squeezed her shoulder. "Don't worry, Tally, we'll have you home in no time."

The other chimed in. "We've been looking for this bunch for years."

"Yeah, good work."

In Case of Damage

They took her to the library. It had been transformed into a headquarters for the invasion, the long tables filled with portable workscreens manned by Specials, its usual quiet replaced by a buzz of clipped exchanges and commands. The razor voices of the cruel pretties set Tally's teeth on edge.

Dr. Cable waited at one of the long tables. Reading an old magazine, she seemed almost relaxed, at a remove from the activity around her.

"Ah, Tally." She bared her teeth in an attempt at a smile. "Nice to see you. Sit down."

Tally wondered what was behind the doctor's greeting. The Specials had treated Tally like an accomplice. Had some signal from the pendant reached them before she had destroyed it?

In any case, her only chance of escape was to play along. She pulled out a chair and sat down.

"Goodness. Look at you," Dr. Cable said. "For someone who wants to be a pretty, you're always such a sight."

"I've had a rough morning."

"You seem to have been in a scrape."

Tally shrugged. "I was just trying to get out of the way."

"Indeed." Dr. Cable placed the magazine facedown on the table. "That's something you don't seem to be very good at."

Tally coughed twice, the last bit of pepper leaving her lungs. "I guess not."

Dr. Cable glanced at her workscreen. "I see we had you among the resistors?"

"Some of the Smokies already suspected me. So when I heard you guys coming, I tried to get out of town. I didn't want to be around when everyone realized what was happening.

In case they got mad at me."

"Self-preservation. Well, at least you're good at something."

"I didn't ask to come here."

"No, and you took your time, too." Dr. Cable leaned back, making a steeple of her long, thin fingers.

"How long have you been here exactly?"

Tally forced herself to cough again, wondering if she dared lie. Her voice, still harsh and uneven from inhaling the pepper, wasn't likely to give her away. And although Dr. Cable's office back in the city might be one big lie detector, this table and chair were solid wood, without any tricks inside.

But Tally hedged. "Not that long."

"You didn't get here as quickly as I'd hoped."

"I almost didn't make it at all. And when I did, it was ages after my birthday. That's why they suspected me."

Dr. Cable shook her head. "I suppose I should have been worried about you, out in the wild all alone. Poor Tally."

"Thanks for your concern."

"I'm sure you would have used the pendant if you'd gotten into any real trouble. Self-preservation being your one skill."

Tally sneered. "Unless I'd fallen off a cliff. Which almost happened."

"We still would have come for you. If the pendant had been damaged, it would have sent a signal automatically."

The words sunk in slowly: If the pendant had been damaged… Tally gripped the edge of the table, trying not to show any emotion.

Dr. Cable narrowed her eyes. She might not have machines to read Tally's voice and heartbeat and sweat, but her own perceptions were alert. She'd chosen those words to provoke a reaction. "Speaking of which, where is it?"

Tally's fingers went to her neck. Of course, Dr. Cable had noticed the pendant's absence immediately.

Her questions had been leading to this moment. Tally's brain raced for an answer. The handcuffs were off. She had to get out of there, to the trading post. Hopefully, her hoverboard still lay on the roof, unfolded and charging in the morning sun. "I hid it," she said. "I was scared."

"Scared of what?"

"Last night, after I was sure this really was the Smoke, I activated the pendant. But they have this thing that detects bugs. They found the one on my board-the one you put there without telling me."

Dr. Cable smiled, spreading her hands helplessly.

"That almost blew the whole thing," Tally continued. "So after I activated the pendant, I got scared they'd know a transmission had been sent. I hid it, in case they came looking."

"I see. A certain amount of intelligence sometimes accompanies a strong sense of self-preservation. I'm glad you decided to help us."

"Like I had a choice?"

"You always had a choice, Tally. But you made the right choice. You decided to come here and find your friend, to save her from a life of being ugly. You should be happy about that."

"I'm thrilled."

"So pugnacious, you uglies. Well, you'll be growing up soon."

A chill went down Tally's spine at the words. To Dr. Cable, "growing up" meant having your brain changed.

"There's just one more thing you have to do for me, Tally. Do you mind getting the pendant from where you've hidden it? I don't like to leave loose ends lying around."

Tally smiled. "I'd be happy to."

"This officer will accompany you." Dr. Cable lifted a finger, and a Special appeared at her side. "And just to keep you safe from your Smokey friends, we'll make it look like you've been a brave resistor."

The Special pulled Tally's hands together behind her back, and she felt plastic bite into her wrists again.

She took a breath, her pulse pounding in her head, then forced herself to say, "Whatever."

"This way."

Tally led the Special toward the trading post, taking in the situation. The Smoke had been beaten into silence. Fires were left to burn freely. Some were already exhausted, clouds of smoke still rising from the blackened wood and swirling through the camp.

A few faces turned to look up with suspicion at Tally. She was the only Smokey still walking around.

Everyone else was on the ground, handcuffed and under guard, most of them gathered near the rabbit pen.

She tried to give those who saw her a grim smile, hoping they noticed that she was handcuffed just like they were.

When they reached the trading post, Tally looked up. "I hid it on the roof."

The Special eyed the building suspiciously. "All right, then," he said. "You wait here. Sit down and don't stand up."

She shrugged, kneeling carefully.

The Special swung himself onto the roof with an ease that made Tally shiver. How was she going to overcome this cruel pretty? Even if her hands weren't tied, he was bigger, stronger, faster.

A moment later, his head stuck out over the edge. "Where is it?"

"Under the rapchuck."

"The what?"

"The rapchuck. You know, the old-fashioned thingy where the roofline connects with the abbersnatch."

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"It's Smokey slang, I guess. Let me show you."

A fleeting expression crossed the Special's impassive face-annoyance mixed with suspicion. But he leaped down again and stacked a couple of crates. He jumped onto them and pulled Tally up, sitting her on the edge of the roof as if she weighed nothing. "You touch one of those hoverboards, I'll put you on your face," he threatened casually.

"There're hoverboards up here?"

He leaped past her and hauled her onto the roof. "Find it."

"No problem." She walked gingerly up the slanted roof, exaggerating the difficulty of balancing without her hands. The solar cells of the recharging hoverboards were blindingly bright in the sun. Tally's board lay too far away, on the other side of the roof, and it was unfolded into eight sections. Folding it back up would take a solid minute. But Tally saw one nearby, Croy's maybe, that had only been unfolded once.

Its light was green. One kick to close it and the board would be ready to fly.

But Tally couldn't fly with her hands bound. She'd fall off on the first turn.

She took a deep breath, ignoring the part of her brain that saw only the distance to the ground. As long as the Special was as fast and strong as he seemed…

"I'm wearing a bungee jacket," she lied to herself. "Nothing can possibly happen."

Tally let her bare feet trip, and tumbled down the slope.

The rough shingles battered Tally's knees and elbows as she rolled, letting out a cry of pain. She fought to stay on the roof, her feet scrambling against the wood to slow herself down.

Just as she reached the edge, an iron grip fastened onto her shoulder. She rolled off into space, the ground looming below. But Tally jerked to a halt, her arm wrenching in its socket, and she heard the Special's razor voice curse.

She swung for a moment, her fall arrested, then they both started to slip.

She could hear the Special's fingers and feet scrabbling for purchase. However strong he might be, there was nothing for him to hold on to. Tally was going to fall.

But at least she was going to take him with her.

Then a grunt came from the Special, and Tally felt herself being pulled up in a mighty heave. She was thrown back onto the roof, and a shadow passed over her. Something hit the ground below. The Special had thrown himself off the roof to save her!

She rolled up into a crouch, stood, and lifted half of Croy's hoverboard with one foot, flipping it closed.

A noise came from the edge of the roof, and Tally stepped away from Croy's board.

The Special's fingers appeared, then his body swung into view. He was completely unhurt.

"Are you okay?" she asked. "Wow. You guys are strong. Thanks for saving me."

He looked at her coolly. "Just get what we came for. And try not to kill yourself."

"Okay." Tally turned, managed to get a foot tangled on a shingle, and teetered again. The Special had her in his arms in a second. Finally, she heard real anger in his voice. "You uglies are so…incompetent!"

"Well, maybe if you could-" Even before it was out of her mouth, she felt the pressure on her wrists disappear. She brought her hands around in front, rubbing her shoulders. "Ow. Thanks."

"Listen," he said, the razors in his cruel voice sharper than ever, "I don't want to hurt you, but-" "You will if you have to." Tally smiled. He was standing in exactly the right place.

"Just get whatever Dr. Cable wants. And don't you dare touch one of those hoverboards."

"Don't worry, I don't have to," she said, and snapped the fingers of both hands as loudly as she could.

Croy's hoverboard jumped into the air, knocking the Special's feet out from under him.

The man rolled off the roof again, and Tally leaped onto the board.

Run

Tally had never ridden a hoverboard barefoot before. Young Smokies had all kinds of competitions, carrying weights or riding double, but no one was ever that stupid.

She almost fell off on the first turn, zooming down a new path they'd spiked with scrap metal only a few days before. The moment the board banked, her dirty feet skidded across the surface, spinning her halfway around. Her arms flailed wildly, but somehow Tally kept her footing, shooting across the compound and over the rabbit pen.

A ragged cheer rose up below as the captives below saw her fly past and realized that someone was making an escape. Tally was too busy staying on board to glance down.

Regaining her balance, Tally realized she wasn't wearing crash bracelets. Any fall would be for real. Her toes gripped the board, and she vowed to take the next turn more slowly.

If the sky had been cloudy this morning, the sun wouldn't have burned the dew off Croy's board yet. She'd be lying in a crumpled heap in the pen, probably with a broken neck. It was lucky she, like most young Smokies, slept with her belly sensor on.

Already, the whine of hovercars taking off came from behind.

Tally knew only two ways out of the Smoke by hoverboard. Instinctively, she headed for the railroad tracks where she worked every day. The valley dropped behind her, and she managed to make the tight turn onto the white-water stream without falling off. With no knapsack and her heavy crash bracelets missing, Tally felt practically naked.

Croy's board wasn't as fast as hers, and it didn't know her style. Riding it was like breaking in new shoes-while running for your life.

Over the water, spray struck her face, hands, and feet. Tally knelt, grasping the edge of the board with wet hands, flying as low as she dared. Down here, the spray might make it even harder to ride, but the barrier of the trees kept her invisible. She dared a glance backward. No hovercars had appeared yet.

As she shot down the winding stream, swerving through the familiar hard turns, Tally thought of all the times she and David and Shay had raced each other to the work site. She wondered where David was.

Back in camp, bound and ready to be taken to a city he'd never seen before? Would he have his face filed down and replaced by a pretty mask, his brain turned into whatever mush the authorities decided would be acceptable for a former renegade raised in the wild?

She shook her head, forcing the image from her mind. David hadn't been among the captured resistors.

If he'd been caught, he definitely would have put up a fight. He must have escaped.

The roar of a hovercar passed overhead, the shock wave of its passage almost throwing Tally from the board. A few seconds later, she knew it had spotted her, its screaming turn echoing through the forest as it cut back to the river.

Shadows passed over Tally, and she glanced up to see two hovercars following her, their blades shimmering as bright as knives in the midmorning sun. The hovercars could go anywhere, but Tally was limited by her magnetic lifters. She was trapped on the route to the railroad.

Tally remembered her first ride out to Dr. Cable's office, the violent agility of the hovercar with its cruel pretty driver. In a straight line, they were much faster than any board. Her only advantage was that she knew this path backward and forward.

Fortunately, it was hardly a straight line.

Tally gripped the board with both hands and jumped from the river to the ridge line. The cars disappeared into the distance, overshooting as she skimmed the iron vein. But Tally was out in the open now, the plains spreading out below her as huge as ever.

She noticed fleetingly that it was a perfect day, not a cloud in the sky.

Tally lay almost flat to cut down wind resistance, coaxing every ounce of speed from Croy's board. It didn't look like she'd make it to the next cover before the two cars had swung around.

She wondered how they planned to capture her. Use a stunner? Throw a net? Simply bowl her over with their shock waves? At this speed and without crash bracelets, anything that knocked Tally off the board would kill her.

Maybe that was just fine with them.

The scream of their blades came from her right, louder and louder.

Just before the sound reached her, Tally dragged herself into a full hover skid, her momentum crushing her down into the board. The two hovercars shot past ahead, missing by a mile, but the wind of their passage spun her around in circles. The board flipped over and then back upright, Tally hanging on with both arms as the world spun wildly around her.

She regained control and urged it forward again, bringing it back to full speed before the hovercars could turn back around. The Specials might be faster, but her hoverboard was more maneuverable.

As the next turn drew near, the hovercars were headed straight for her, moving slower now, their pilots realizing that at top speed they would overshoot her every time.

Let them try to fly below tree level, though.

Now riding on her knees, gripping the board with both hands, Tally twisted into the next turn, dropping to skim just above the cracked dirt of the dry creek bed. She heard the whine of the hovercars steadily build.

They were tracking her too easily, probably using her body heat to pick her out among the trees, like the minders back home. Tally remembered the little portable heater she'd used to sneak out of the dorm so many times. If only she had it now.

Then Tally remembered the caves that David had shown her on her first day in the Smoke.

Under the cold stones of the mountain, her body heat would disappear.

She ignored the sound of her pursuers, shooting down the creek bed and across a spur of ore, then onto the river that led to the railroad. She careened along above the water, and the hovercars stayed above tree height, patiently waiting for her to run out of cover.

As the turnoff to the railroad approached, Tally increased her speed, skimming the water as fast as she dared. She took the turn at full skid and hurtled down the track.

The cars swept away down the river. The Specials might have expected her to turn off on another river, but the sudden appearance of an old railroad track had surprised them. If she could make it to the mountain before the hovercars completed their slow turns, she would be safe.

Just in time, Tally remembered the spot where they had pulled up the track for scrap metal, and angled her board for a stomach-wrenching moment of freefall, soaring over the gap in a high arc.

The lifters found metal again, and thirty seconds later she came to a skidding halt at the end of the line.

Tally jumped from the hoverboard, turned it around, and gave it a shove back toward the river. Without her crash bracelets to pull it back, the board would drift along the straight line of the railroad until it reached the break, where it would drop to the ground.

Hopefully, the Specials would think she'd fallen off, and start their search back there.

Tally crawled up the boulders and into the cave, scrambling back into the darkness. She pulled herself as far as she could go, hoping that the tons of stone overhead would be enough to hide her from the Specials. When the tiny aperture of light at the mouth of the cave had shrunk to the size of an eye, Tally dropped to the stone, panting, her hands still shaking from the flight, telling herself again and again that she'd made it.

But what had she made it to? She had no shoes, no hoverboard, no friends, not even a water purifier or a packet of SpagBol. No home to go back to.

Tally was completely alone. "I'm so dead," she said aloud.

A voice came out of the dark.

"Tally? Is that you?"

Amazing

Hands grasped Tally's shoulders in the darkness.

"You made it!" It was David's voice.

In her surprise, Tally couldn't speak, but pulled him close, burying her face in his chest.

"Who else is with you?"

She shook her head.

"Oh," David whispered. Then his grip tightened as the cave shuddered around them. The roar of a hovercar passed slowly overhead, and Tally imagined the Specials' machines searching every crevice in the rock for signs of their prey.

Had she led them to David? That would be perfect, her final betrayal.

The low rumble of pursuit passed over them again, and David pulled her deeper into the blackness, down a long, twisting path that grew colder and darker. A stillness settled around her, damp and chill, and Tally imagined again the trainload of dead Rusties buried among the stones.

They waited in silence for what seemed like hours, holding each other, not daring to speak until long after the sounds of the cars had faded.

Finally David whispered, "What's happening back at the Smoke?

"The Specials came this morning."

"I know. I saw." He held her tighter. "I couldn't sleep, so I took my board up the mountain to watch the sunrise. They went right over me, twenty hovercars at once coming across the ridge. But what's happening now?"

"They put everyone in the rabbit pen, separating us into groups. Croy said they're going to take us all back to our cities."

"Croy? Who else did you see?"

"Shay, a couple of her friends. The Boss might have made it out. He and I made a break together."

"What about my parents?"

"I don't know." She was glad for the darkness. The fear in David's voice was painful enough. His parents had founded the Smoke, and they knew the secret of the operation.

Whatever punishment awaited the other Smokies, it would be a hundred times worse for them.

"I can't believe it finally happened," he said softly.

Tally tried to think of something comforting to say. All she could see in the darkness was Dr. Cable's mocking smile.

"How did you get away?" he asked.

She pulled his hands to feel her wrists, where the plastic bracelets of the handcuffs remained. "I cut through these, got up onto the roof of the trading post, and stole Croy's hoverboard."

"With Specials guarding you?"

She bit her lip, saying nothing.

"That's amazing. My mother says they're superhuman. Their second operation augments all their muscles and rewires their nervous system. And they're so scary-looking, a lot of people just panic the first time they see one." He held her tighter. "But I should have known you would escape."

Tally closed her eyes, which made no difference in the utter darkness. She wished they could stay in there forever, never having to face what was outside. "It was just good luck."

Tally was amazed that she was lying again, already. If she had only told the truth about herself in the first place, the Smokies would have known what to do with the pendant.

They could have attached it to some migratory bird, and Dr. Cable would be on her way to South America instead of in the library overseeing the destruction of the Smoke.

But Tally knew she couldn't tell the truth, not now. David would never trust her again, not after she'd destroyed his home, his family. She'd already lost Peris, Shay, and her new home. She couldn't bear to lose David as well.

And what good would a confession do now? David would be left alone, and so would she, when they most needed each other.

His hands ran across her face. "You still amaze me, Tally."

She felt herself shudder, the words twisting in her like a knife.

In that moment, Tally made a deal with herself. Eventually she would have to tell David what she had unwittingly done. Not now, but someday. When she'd made things better, fixed part of what she had destroyed, maybe then he would understand. "We'll go after them," she said. "Rescue them."

"Who? My parents?"

"They came from my city, right? So that's where they'll take them. And Shay and Croy, too. We'll rescue them all."

David laughed bitterly. "Us two? Against a bunch of Specials?"

"They won't expect us."

"But how will we find them? I've never been inside a city, but I hear they're pretty big.

More than a million people."

Tally took a slow breath, once again remembering her first trip out to Dr. Cable's office.

The low, dirt-colored buildings at the edge of the city, past the greenbelt and among the factories. The huge, misshapen hill nearby. "I know where they'll be."

"You what?" David pulled away from their embrace.

"I've been there. Special Circumstances headquarters."

There was a moment of silence. "I thought they were secret. Most of the kids who come out here don't even believe in them."

She went on, quietly horrified that another lie was coming into her head with such ease.

"A while ago I pulled a really bad trick, the kind that gets you special attention." She rested her head against David again, glad that she couldn't see his trusting expression. "I snuck into New Pretty Town. That's where you live right after the operation, having fun all the time."

"I've heard of it. And uglies aren't allowed in, right?"

"Yeah. It's a pretty serious trick. Anyway, I wore this mask and crashed a party. They almost caught me, so I grabbed a bungee jacket."

"Which is?"

"Like a hoverboard, but you wear it. It was invented for escaping tall buildings in a fire, but new pretties use it mostly for goofing around. So I grabbed one, pulled a fire alarm, and jumped off the roof. It freaked a lot of people out."

"Right. Shay told me the whole story on our way to the Smoke, saying you were the coolest ugly in the world," he said. "But all I was thinking was that things must be really boring in the city."

"Yeah, I guess so."

"But you got caught? Shay didn't mention that."

The lie took form as she spoke, pulling on as many strands of truth as it could reach.

"Yeah, I thought I'd gotten away, but they found my DNA or something. A few days later they took me to Special Circumstances, introduced me to this scary woman. I think she was in charge there. It was the first time I'd ever seen Specials."

"Are they really that bad up close?"

She nodded in the dark. "They're beautiful, absolutely. But in a cruel, horrible way. The first time's the worst. They only wanted to scare me, though. They warned me I'd be in big trouble if I ever got caught again. Or if I ever told anyone. That's why I never mentioned it to Shay."

"That explains a lot."

"About what?"

"About you. You always seemed to know how dangerous it was here in the Smoke.

Somehow, you understood what the cities were really like, even before my parents told you the truth about the operation. You were the only runaway I ever met who really got it."

Tally nodded. That much was true. "I get it."

"And you still want to go back there for my parents and Shay? To risk getting caught? To risk your mind?"

A sob broke in her voice. "I have to." To make it up to you.

David held her tighter, tried to kiss her. She had to turn her face away, tears finally coming.

"Tally, you are amazing."

Ruin

They didn't leave the cave until the next morning.

Tally squinted in the dawn light, eyes scanning the sky for a fleet of hovercars suddenly rising above the trees. But they hadn't heard any sound of a search all night. Maybe now that the Smoke was destroyed, catching the last few runaways wasn't worth the trouble.

David's hoverboard had spent the night hidden in the cave, and hadn't had any sunlight for a whole day now, but it had just enough charge to get them back up the mountain. They rode to the river. Tally's stomach rumbled after a whole day without food, but the first thing she needed was water. Her mouth was so dry, she could hardly talk.

David knelt at the bank and dipped his head under the icy water. Tally shivered at the sight. Without a blanket or shoes, she'd frozen in the cave all night long, even huddled in David's arms. She needed warm food in her before she could face anything colder than the morning breeze.

"What if the Smoke's still occupied?" she asked. "Where will we get food?"

"You said they put prisoners in the rabbit pen? Where'd the rabbits go?"

"All over."

"Exactly. They should be everywhere by now. And they aren't hard to catch."

She grimaced. "Well, okay. As long as we cook them."

David laughed. "Of course."

"I've never actually started a fire," she admitted.

"Don't worry. You're a natural." He stepped onto his board and held out his hand.

Riding double was something Tally had never done before, and she found herself glad she was with David and not just anyone. She stood in front of him, bodies touching, her arms out, his hands around her waist. They negotiated the turns without words, Tally shifting her weight gradually, waiting for David to follow her lead. As they slowly got the hang of it, their bodies began to move together, threading the board down the familiar path as one.

It worked, as long as they went slowly, but Tally kept her ears open for sounds of pursuit.

If a hovercar appeared, a full-speed escape was going to be tricky.

They smelled the Smoke long before they saw it.

From high up the mountain, the buildings had the look of a burned-out campfire, smoking, crumbling, blackened through and through. Nothing moved in the compound, except a few pieces of paper stirred by the wind.

"Looks like it burned all night," Tally said.

David nodded, speechless. Tally grasped his hand, wondering what it was like to see your childhood home reduced to a smoking ruin.

"I'm so sorry, David," she said.

"We have to go down. I need to see if my parents…" He swallowed the words.

Tally searched for signs of anyone remaining in the Smoke. It seemed entirely deserted, but there might be a few Specials in hiding, waiting for stragglers to reappear. "We should wait."

"I can't. My parents' house is on the other side of the ridge. Maybe the Specials didn't see it."

"If they missed it, Maddy and Az will still be there."

"But what if they ran?"

"Then we'll find them. In the meantime, let's not get caught ourselves."

David sighed. "All right."

Tally held his hand tight. They unfolded the hoverboard and waited as the sun climbed, watching for any sign of a human being below. Occasionally, the embers of the fires flared to life in the breeze, the last standing columns of wood collapsing one by one, crumbling into ash.

A few animals rummaged for food, and Tally watched in silent horror as a stray rabbit was taken by a wolf, the short struggle leaving only a patch of blood and fur. This was what was left of nature, raw and wild, only hours after the Smoke had fallen.

"Ready to go down?" David asked after an hour.

"No," Tally said. "But I never will be."

They approached slowly, ready to turn and fly if any Specials appeared. But when they reached the edge of town, Tally felt her anxiety turn to something worse: a horrible certainty that no one remained there.

Her home was gone, replaced by nothing but charred wreckage.

At the rabbit pen, footprints showed where groups of Smokies had been moved in and out through the gates, a whole community turned into cattle. A few rabbits still hopped around on the dirt.

"Well, at least we won't starve," David said.

"I guess not," Tally said, although the sight of the Smoke had stilled her hunger. She wondered how David always managed to think practical thoughts, no matter what horrors were in front of him. "Hey, what's that?"

At one corner of the pen, just outside the fence, clusters of little shapes lay on the ground.

They edged the board closer, David squinting through a drifting wall of smoke. "It looks like…shoes."

Tally blinked. He was right. She lowered the board and jumped off, running to the spot.

Tally looked around in amazement. Around her were scattered twenty or so pairs of shoes, in all sizes.

She fell to her knees to look closer. The laces were still tied, as if the shoes had been kicked off by people whose hands were bound behind them….

"Croy recognized me," she murmured.

"What?"

Tally turned to David. "When I escaped, I flew right over the pen. Croy must have seen it was me. He knew I didn't have shoes. We joked about it."

She imagined the Smokies, helplessly awaiting their fate, making one last gesture of defiance. Croy would have kicked his own shoes off, then whispered to whomever he could: "Tally's free, and barefoot." They'd left her with a score of pairs to pick from, the only way they could help the one Smokey they'd seen escape.

"They knew I'd come back here." Her voice faltered. What they didn't know was who had betrayed them.

She picked a pair that looked about the right size, with grippy soles for hoverboarding, and pulled them on. They fit, even better than the ones the rangers had given her.

Jumping back on the board, Tally had to hide the pained expression on her face. This is what it would be like from now on. Every gesture of kindness from her victims would only make her feel worse. "Okay, let's go."

The hoverpath wound through the smoking camp, over what streets remained between the charred ruins.

Beside a long building, now little more than a ridge of blackened rubble, David pulled the board to a halt.

"I was afraid of this."

Tally tried to picture what had stood there. Her knowledge of the Smoke had evaporated, the familiar streets reduced to an unrecognizable sprawl of ash and embers.

Then she saw a few blackened pages fluttering in the wind. The library.

"They didn't take the books out before they…," she cried. "But why?"

"They don't want people to know what it was like before the operation. They want to keep you hating yourselves. Otherwise, it's too easy to get used to ugly faces, normal faces."

Tally turned around to look into David's eyes. "Some of them, anyway."

He smiled sadly.

Then a thought crossed her mind. "The Boss was running away with some old magazines.

Maybe he escaped."

"On foot?" David sounded dubious.

"I hope so." She leaned, and the board slid toward the edge of town.

A blotch of pepper still marked the ground where she had fought the Special. Tally jumped off, trying to remember exactly where the Boss had escaped into the forest.

"If he got away, he must be long gone," David said.

Tally pushed her way into the brush, looking for signs of a struggle. The morning sun was streaming through the leaves, and a trail of broken bushes cut into the forest. The Boss had been none too graceful, leaving a path like a charging elephant.

She found the duffel bag half-hidden, shoved under a moss-covered fallen tree. Zipping it open, Tally saw that the magazines were still there, each one lovingly wrapped in its own plastic cover.

She slung the bag over her shoulder, glad to have salvaged something from the library, a small victory over Dr. Cable.

A moment later, she found the Boss.

He lay on his back, his head turned at an angle that Tally instantly knew was utterly wrong. His fingers were clenched, the nails bloody from clawing at someone. He must have fought to distract them, maybe to keep them from finding the duffel bag. Or maybe for Tally's sake, having seen that she'd reached the forest too.

She remembered what the Specials had said to her more than once: We don't want to hurt you, but we will if we have to.

They'd been serious. They always were.

She stumbled back out of the forest, stunned, the bag still hanging from her shoulder.

"You found something?" David asked.

She didn't answer.

He saw the expression on her face and jumped down from the board. "What happened?"

"They caught him. They killed him."

David looked at her, his mouth open. He took a slow breath. "Come on, Tally. We have to go."

She blinked. The sunlight seemed wrong, twisted out of shape, like the Boss's neck. As if the world had become horribly distorted while she was among the trees. "Where?" she murmured.

"We have to go to my parents' house."

Maddy and Az

David took the board over the ridge so fast that Tally thought she would tumble off. She sank her fingertips into David's jacket to steady herself, thankful for the new shoes' grippy soles.

"Listen, David. The Boss fought them, that's why they killed him."

"My parents would fight too."

She bit her lip and focused her whole mind on staying on board. When they reached the closest approach of the hoverpath to his parents' house, David jumped off and dashed down the slope.

Tally realized that the board still wasn't fully charged, and took a moment to unfold it before following, in no hurry to discover what the Specials had done to Maddy and Az.

But when she thought of David finding his parents on his own, Tally ran after him.

It took her long minutes to find the path in the dense brush. Two nights ago they had come in the dark, and from a different direction. She listened for David, but couldn't hear anything. But then the wind shifted, and the smell of smoke came through the trees.

Burning the house hadn't been easy.

Set into the mountain, the stone walls and roof had provided no fuel for the fire. But the attackers had evidently thrown something inside that had contained its own fuel. The windows were blown outward, glass littering the grass in front of the house, nothing left of the door but a few charred scraps swinging on their hinges in the breeze.

David stood in front, unable to cross the threshold.

"Stay here," Tally said.

She stepped through the doorway, but the air overpowered her for the first moments.

Morning light slanted in, picking out floating particles of ash. They swirled around Tally, little spiral galaxies set in motion by her passage.

The blackened floorboards crumbled under her feet, burned away to bare stone in some places. But some things had survived the fire. She remembered the marble statuette from her visit, and one of the rugs hanging on the wall remained mysteriously untouched. In the parlor, a few teacups stood out white against the charred furniture. Tally picked one up, realizing that if these cups had survived, a human body would leave more than traces.

She swallowed. If David's parents had been here, whatever was left of them would be easy to find.

Deeper into the house, in a small kitchen, city-made pots and pans hung from the ceiling, their warped, blackened metal still shining through in a few spots. Tally noted a bag of flour, and a few pieces of dried fruit somehow made her empty stomach growl.

The bedroom was last.

The stone ceiling was low and angled, the paint cracked and blackened from the heat of a raging fire.

Tally felt the heat still rising from the bed, the straw mattress and thick quilts fuel for the conflagration.

But Az and Maddy had not been there. There was nothing in the room that could have been human remains. Tally sighed with relief and made her way back outside, rechecking every room.

She shook her head as she stepped through the door. "Either the Specials took them, or they got away."

David nodded and pushed past her. Tally collapsed on the ground and coughed, her lungs finally protesting against the smoke and dust particles she had inhaled. Her hands and arms were black with soot, she realized.

When David came out, he held a long knife. "Hold out your hands."

"What?"

"The handcuffs. I can't stand them."

She nodded and held out her hands. He carefully threaded the blade between flesh and plastic, working it back and forth to saw the cuffs.

A solid minute later, he pulled the knife away in frustration. "It's not working."

Tally looked closer. The plastic had hardly been marked. She hadn't seen how the Special had snipped her handcuffs in two behind her, but it had only taken a moment. Perhaps they'd used a chemical trigger.

"Maybe it's some kind of aircraft plastic," she said. "Some of that stuff is stronger than steel."

David frowned. "So how did you get them apart?"

Tally opened her mouth, but nothing came out. She could hardly tell him that the Specials had released her themselves.

"And why do you have two cuffs on each wrist, anyway?"

She looked down dumbly, remembering that they'd handcuffed her first when she was captured, then again in front of Dr. Cable, before taking her to look for the pendant.

"I don't know," Tally managed. "I guess they double-cuffed us. But breaking out was easy. I cut them on a sharp rock."

"That doesn't make sense." David looked at the knife. "Dad always said this was the most useful thing he'd ever brought from the city. It's all high-tech alloys and mono-filaments."

She shrugged. "Maybe the part that joined the cuffs was made out of different stuff."

He shook his head, not quite accepting her story. Finally, he shrugged. "Oh well, we'll just have to live with them. But one thing's for sure: My parents didn't get away."

"How do you know?"

He held up the knife. "If he'd had any warning, my dad never would have left without this.

The Specials must have surprised them completely."

"Oh. I'm sorry, David."

"At least they're alive."

He looked into her eyes, and Tally saw that his panic had faded.

"So, Tally, do you still want to go after them?"

"Yes, of course."

David smiled. "Good." He sat next to her, looking back at the house and shaking his head.

"It's funny, Mom always warned me that this would happen. They tried to prepare me the whole time I was growing up. And for a long while I believed them. But after all those years, I started to wonder. Maybe my parents were just being paranoid. Maybe, like runaways always said, Special Circumstances wasn't real."

Tally nodded silently, not trusting herself to speak.

"And now that it's happened, it seems even less real."

"I'm sorry, David." But he could never know how sorry. Not until she'd helped save his parents, at least. "Don't worry, we'll find them."

"One stop to make first."

"Where?"

"As I said, my parents were ready for this, ever since they founded the Smoke. They made preparations."

"Like making sure you could take care of yourself," she said, touching the soft leather of his handmade jacket.

He smiled at her, rubbing soot from her cheek with one finger. "They did a lot more than that. Come with me."

In a cave near the house, the opening so small that Tally had to crawl inside on her belly, David showed her the cache of gear his parents had tended for twenty years.

There were water purifiers, direction finders, lightweight clothes, and sleeping bags-by Smokey standards, an absolute fortune in survival equipment. The four hoverboards had old-fashioned styling, but they were fitted with the same features as the one Dr. Cable had supplied Tally with for the trip to the Smoke, and there was a package of spare belly sensors, sealed against moisture. Everything was of the highest quality.

"Wow, they did plan ahead."

"Always," he said. He picked up a flashlight and tested its beam against the stone. "Every time I came here to check on all this stuff, I would imagine this moment. A million times I planned exactly what I would need. It's almost like I imagined it so much that it had to happen."

"It's not your fault, David."

"If I'd been here-" "You'd be in a Special Circumstances hovercar right now, handcuffed, not likely to rescue anyone."

"Yeah, and instead, I'm here." He looked at her. "But at least you are too. You're the one thing I never imagined, all those times. An unexpected ally."

She managed to smile.

He pulled out a big waterproof bag. "I'm starving."

Tally nodded, and her head swam for a moment. She hadn't eaten since dinner two nights before.

David rummaged through the bag. "Plenty of instant food. Let's see: VegiRice, CurryNoods, SwedeBalls, PadThai…any favorites?"

Tally took a deep breath. Back to the wild.

"Anything but SpagBol."

The Oil Plague

Tally and David left at sunset.

Each of them rode two hoverboards. Pressed together like a sandwich, the paired boards could carry twice as much weight, most of it in saddlebags slung on the underside. They packed everything useful they could find, along with the magazines the Boss had saved.

Whatever happened, there would be no point in returning to the Smoke.

Tally took the river down the mountain carefully, the extra weight swaying below her like a ball and chain around both ankles. At least she was wearing crash bracelets again.

Their journey would follow a path very different from the one Tally had taken there. That route had been designed to be easy to follow, and had included a helicopter ride with the rangers. This one wouldn't be as direct. Overloaded as they were, Tally and David couldn't manage even short distances on foot.

Every inch of the journey had to be over hoverable land and water, no matter how far it took them out of their way. And after the invasion, they would be giving any cities a wide berth.

Fortunately, David had made the journey to and from Tally's city dozens of times, alone and with inexperienced uglies in tow. He knew the rivers and rails, the ruins and natural veins of ore, and dozens of escape routes he'd devised in case he was ever pursued by city authorities.

"Ten days," he announced when they started. "If we ride all night and stay low during the day."

"Sounds good," Tally said, but she wondered if that would be soon enough to save anyone from the operation.

Around midnight the first night of travel, they left the brook that led down to the bald-headed hill, and followed a dry creek bed through the white flowers. It took them to the edge of a vast desert.

"How do we get through that?"

David pointed at dark shapes rising up from the sand, a row of them receding into the distance. "Those used to be towers, connected by steel cables."

"What for?"

"They carried electricity from a wind farm to one of the old cities."

Tally frowned. "I didn't know the Rusties used wind power."

"They weren't all crazy. Just most of them." He shrugged. "You've got to remember, we're mostly descended from Rusties, and we're still using their basic technology. Some of them must have had the right idea."

The cables still lay buried in the desert, protected by the shifting sands and a near-total absence of rainfall. In spots, they had broken or rusted through, so Tally and David had to ride carefully, eyes glued to the boards' metal detectors. When they reached a gap they couldn't jump, they would unroll a long piece of cable David carried, then walk the boards along it, guiding them like reluctant donkeys across some narrow footbridge before rolling it up again.

Tally had never seen a real desert before. She'd been taught in school that they were full of life, but this one was like the deserts she'd imagined as a littlie-featureless humps stretching into the distance, one after another. Nothing moved but slow snakes of sand borne by the wind.

She only knew the name of one big desert on the continent. "Is this the Mojave?"

David shook his head. "This isn't nearly that big, and it isn't natural. We're standing where the white weed started."

Tally whistled. The sand seemed to go forever. "What a disaster."

"Once the undergrowth was gone, replaced by the orchids, there was nothing to hold the good soil down. It blew away, and all that's left is sand."

"Will it ever be anything but desert?"

"Sure, in a thousand years or so. Maybe by then someone will have found a way to stop the weed from coming back. If we haven't, the process will just start all over again."

They reached a Rusty city around daybreak, a cluster of unremarkable buildings stranded on the sea of sand.

The desert had invaded over the centuries, dunes flowing through the streets like water, but the buildings were in better shape than other ruins Tally had seen. Sand wore away the edges of things, but it didn't tear them down as hungrily as rain and vegetation.

Neither of them was tired yet, but they couldn't travel during the day; the desert offered no protection from the sun, nor any concealment from the air. They camped in the second floor of a low factory building that still had most of its roof. Ancient machines, each as big as a hovercar, stood silent around them.

"What was this place?" Tally asked.

"I think they made newspapers here," David said. "Like books, but you threw them away and got a new one every day."

"You're kidding."

"Not at all. And you thought we wasted trees in the Smoke!"

Tally found a patch of sun shining through where the roof had collapsed, and unfolded the hoverboards to recharge. David pulled out two packets of EggSal.

"Will we make it out of the desert tonight?" she asked, watching David coax their last few drops of bottled water into the purifiers.

"No problem. We'll hit the next river before midnight."

She remembered something that Shay had said a long time ago, the first time she'd shown Tally her survival gear. "Can you really pee in a purifier? And then drink it, I mean?"

"Yeah. I've done it."

Tally grimaced and looked out the window. "Okay, I shouldn't have asked."

He came up behind her, laughing softly, placing his hands on her shoulders. "It's amazing what people will do to survive," he said.

She sighed. "I know."

The window overlooked a side street, partly protected from the encroaching desert. A few burned-out groundcars stood half-buried, their blackened frames stark against the white sand.

She rubbed the handcuff bracelets still encircling her wrists.

"The Rusties sure wanted to survive. Every ruin I've seen, those cars are always all over, trying to get out. But they never seem to make it."

"A few of them did. But not in cars."

Tally leaned back into his reassuring warmth. The morning sun was hours away from burning off the chill of the desert.

"It's funny. At school, they never talk much about how it happened-the last panic, when the Rusty world fell apart. They shrug and say that all their mistakes just kept adding up, until it all collapsed like a house of cards."

"That's only partly true. The Boss had some old books about it."

"What did they say?"

"Well, the Rusties did live in a house of cards, but someone gave it a pretty big shove. No one ever found out who. Maybe it was a Rusty weapon that got out of control. Maybe it was people in some poor country who didn't like the way the Rusties ran things. Maybe it was just an accident, like the flowers, or some lone scientist who wanted to mess things up."

"But what happened?"

"A bug got loose, but it didn't infect people. It infected petroleum."

"Oil got infected?"

He nodded. "Oil is organic, made from old plants and dinosaurs and stuff. Somebody made a bacterium that ate it. The spores spread through the air, and when they landed in petroleum, processed or crude, they sprouted. Like a mold or something. It changed the chemical composition of the oil. Have you ever seen phosphorus?"

"It's an element, right?"

"Yeah. And it catches fire on contact with air."

Tally nodded. She remembered playing with the stuff in chem class, wearing goggles and talking about all the tricks you could do with it. But no one ever thought of a trick that wouldn't kill someone.

"Oil infected by this bacterium was just as unstable as phosphorus. It exploded on contact with oxygen.

And as it burned, the spores were released in the smoke, and spread on the wind. Until the spores got to the next car, or airplane, or oil well, and started growing again."

"Wow. And they used oil for everything, right?"

David nodded. "Like those cars down there. They must have been infected as they tried to get out of town."

"Why didn't they just walk?"

"Stupid, I guess."

Tally shivered again, but not from the cold. It was hard to think of the Rusties as actual people, rather than as just an idiotic, dangerous, and sometimes comic force of history.

But there were human beings down there, whatever was left of them after a couple of hundred years, still sitting in their blackened cars, as if still trying to escape their fate.

"I wonder why they don't tell us that in history class. They usually love any story that makes the Rusties sound pathetic."

David lowered his voice. "Maybe they didn't want you to realize that every civilization has its weakness.

There's always one thing we depend on. And if someone takes it away, all that's left is some story in a history class."

"Not us," she said. "Renewable energy, sustainable resources, a fixed population."

The two purifierspinged, and David left her to get them. "It doesn't have to be about economics," he said, bringing the food over. "The weakness could be an idea."

She turned to take her EggSal, cupping its warmth in her hands, and saw how serious he looked. "So, David, is that one of the things you thought about all those years, when you imagined the Smoke being invaded? Did you ever wonder what would turn the cities into history?"

He smiled and took a big bite.

"It gets clearer every day."

Familiar Sights

They reached the edge of the desert the next night, on schedule, then followed a river for three days, all the way to the sea. It took them still farther north, and the October chill turned as cold as any winter Tally had ever felt.

David unpacked city-made arctic gear of shiny silver Mylar, which Tally wore over her handmade sweater, her only possession left from the Smoke. She was glad she'd dropped off to sleep in it the night before the Specials had invaded, so it hadn't been lost that day like everything else.

The nights spent on board seemed to pass quickly. On this journey, there were none of Shay's cryptic clues to puzzle through, no brush fires to escape, and no antique Rusty machines descending to scare her to death. The world seemed to be empty except for the occasional ruins, as if Tally and David were the last people alive.

They augmented their diet with fish caught from the river, and Tally roasted a rabbit on a fire she'd built herself. She watched David repair his leather clothes and decided she would never be able to manage a needle and thread well. He taught her how to tell time and direction from the stars, and she showed him how to open the expert software in the boards to optimize them for night travel.

At the sea they turned south, heading down the northern reaches of the same coastal railway that Tally had followed on her way to the Smoke. David said it had once stretched unbroken all the way back to Tally's home city and beyond. But now there were large gaps in the track, and new cities built on the sea, so they had to travel inland more than once. But David knew the rivers, the spurs of the railroad, and the other metal paths the Rusties had left behind, so they made good time toward their goal.

Only the weather stopped them. After a few days' travel down the coast, a dark and threatening mountain of clouds appeared over the ocean. At first, the storm seemed reluctant to come ashore, building up its nerve over a slow twenty-four hours, the air pressure changing in a way that made the hoverboards jittery to ride. The storm gave plenty of warning, but when it finally arrived, it was much worse than Tally had imagined weather could be.

She'd never faced the full force of a hurricane, except from within the solid structures of her inland city.

It was another lesson in nature's savage power.

For three days Tally and David huddled in a plastic tent in the shelter of a rock outcrop, burning chemical glowsticks for heat and light, hoping the magnets in the hoverboards wouldn't bring down a lightning strike. For the first hours, the drama of the storm kept them fascinated, amazed at its power, wondering when the next peal of thunder would shake the cliffs.

Then the driving rain became simply monotonous, and they spent a whole day talking to each other about anything and everything, but especially their childhoods, until Tally was sure that she understood David better than anyone she'd ever known. On their third day trapped in the tent they had a terrible fight-Tally could never remember about what-that ended when David stormed out and stood alone in the icy wind for a solid hour.

When he finally returned, it took him hours to stop shivering, even wrapped in her arms.

"We're taking too long," he finally said.

Tally squeezed tighter. It took time to prepare subjects for the operation, especially if they were older than sixteen. But Dr. Cable wouldn't wait forever to turn David's parents.

Every day the storm delayed them, there was a greater chance that Maddy and Az had already gone under the knife. For Shay, the perfect age for turning, the odds were even worse.

"We'll get there, don't worry. They measured me every week for a year before I was supposed to turn.

It takes time to do it right."

A shudder passed through his body.

"Tally, what if they don't bother to do it right?"

The storm ended the next morning, and they emerged to find that the world's colors had been transformed. The clouds were bright pink, the grass an unearthly green, and the ocean darker than Tally had ever seen it, marked only by the foam crests of waves and a peppering of driftwood driven into the sea by the wind. They rode all day to make up for lost time, in a state of shock, amazed that the world could still exist after the storm.

Then the railway turned inland, and a few nights later they reached the Rusty Ruins.

The ruins looked smaller, as if the spires had shrunk since Tally had left them behind more than a month before, headed to the Smoke with nothing but Shay's note and a knapsack full of SpagBol. As she and David passed through the dark streets, the ghosts of the Rusties no longer seemed to threaten from the windows.

"The first time I came here at night, this place really scared me," she said.

David nodded. "It's kind of creepy how well preserved it is. Of all the ruins I've seen, it looks the most recent."

"They sprayed it with something to keep it up for school trips." And that was her city in a nutshell, Tally realized. Nothing left to itself. Everything turned into a bribe, a warning, or a lesson.

They stowed most of their gear in a collapsed building far from the center, a crumbling place that even truant uglies would probably avoid, packing only water purifiers, a flashlight, and a few food packets.

David had never been any closer to the city than the ruins, so Tally took the lead for once, following the vein of iron that Shay had shown her months before.

"Do you think we'll ever be friends again?" she asked as they hiked toward the river, lugging their boards for the first time the entire trip.

"You and Shay? Of course."

"Even after…you and me?"

"Once we've rescued her from the Specials, I figure she'll forgive you for just about anything."

Tally was silent. Shay had already guessed that Tally had betrayed the Smoke. She doubted anything would ever make up for that.

Once they reached the river, they shot down the white water at top speed, glad to be finally free of the heavy saddlebags. With the spray hitting her face, the roar of water all around her, Tally could almost imagine this was one of her expeditions, back when she was a carefree city kid and not a…

What was she now? No longer a spy, and she couldn't call herself a Smokey anymore.

Hardly a pretty, but she didn't feel like an ugly, either. She was nothing in particular. But at least she had a purpose.

The city came into view.

"There it is," she called to David over the churning water. "But you've seen cities before, right?"

"I've been this close to a few. But not much closer."

Tally gazed down at the familiar skyline, the slender trails of fireworks silhouetting the party towers and mansions. She felt a pang of something like homesickness, but much worse. The sight of New Pretty Town had once filled her with longing. Now the skyline was like a vacant shell, all its promises gone. Like David, she had lost her home. But unlike the Smoke, her city still existed, right in front of her eyes-but emptied of everything it had once meant.

"We've got a few hours before sunrise," she said. "Want to take a look at Special Circumstances?"

"The sooner the better," David said.

Tally nodded, her eyes tracing the familiar patterns of light and darkness surrounding the city. There was time to make it there and back before daybreak.

"Let's go."

They followed the river as far as the ring of trees and brush that separated Uglyville from the suburbs.

The greenbelt was the best place to travel without being seen, and a good ride as well.

"Don't go so fast!" David hissed from behind as she whipped through the trees.

She slowed down. "You don't have to whisper. No one comes here at night. It's ugly territory, and they're all in bed, unless they're tricking."

"Okay," he said. "But shouldn't we be more careful about hoverpaths?"

"Hoverpaths? David, hoverboards work everywhere in the city. There's a metal grid under the whole thing."

"Oh, right."

Tally smiled. She had been so used to living in David's world, it was good to be explaining things to him for once. "What's the matter," she taunted, "can't keep up?"

David grinned. "Try me."

Tally turned and shot ahead, cutting a zigzag path between the tall poplars, letting her reflexes guide her.

She remembered her two hovercar rides to Special Circumstances. They'd flown across the greenbelt on the far side of town, then out to the transport ring, the industrial zone between the middle-pretty suburbs and outer Crumblyville. The hard part would be getting across the burbs, a risky place to have an ugly face. Luckily, middle pretties went to bed early. Most of them, anyway.

She raced David halfway around the greenbelt, until the lights of the big hospital sat directly across the river from them. Tally remembered that first terrible morning, yanked away from the promised operation, flown out to be interrogated, her future pulled out from under her. She made a grim face, realizing that this time she was actually going out looking for Special Circumstances.

A tingle passed through her as they left the greenbelt. A minuscule part of Tally still expected her interface ring to warn her that she was leaving Uglyville. How had she worn that stupid thing for sixteen years? It had seemed such a part of her back then, but now the idea of being tracked and monitored and advised every minute of the day repelled Tally.

"Stick close," she said to David. "This is the part where you should whisper."

As a littlie, Tally had lived in the middle-pretty burbs with Sol and Ellie. But back then her world had been pathetically tiny: a few parks, the path to littlie school, one corner of the greenbelt where she would sneak in to spy on uglies. Like the Rusty Ruins, the neat row houses and gardens seemed much smaller to her now, an endless village of dollhouses.

They skimmed the rooftops, crouching low. If anybody was awake, going for a late-night run or walking a dog, they wouldn't be looking up, hopefully. Their boards barely a hand's breadth above the housetops, the patterns of shingles passed underneath hypnotically. All they encountered were nesting birds and a few cats, who flew or scrambled out of their way in surprise.

The burbs ended suddenly, a last band of parks fading into the transport ring, where underground factories stuck their heads aboveground and cargo trucks drove concrete roads all day and night. Tally lofted her board and gained speed.

"Tally!" David hissed. "They'll see us!"

"Relax. Those trucks are automatic. Nobody comes out here, especially at night."

He stared down at the lumbering vehicles nervously.

"Look, they don't even have headlights." She pointed down at a giant road-train passing below, the only light coming from it a dim red flicker from underneath, the navigation laser reading the bar codes painted onto the road.

They rode on, David still anxious at the sight of moving vehicles below.

Soon, a familiar landmark rose above the industrial wasteland.

"See that hill? Special Circumstances is just below it. We'll climb up top and take a look."

The hill was too steep to put a factory on, and apparently too big and solid to flatten with explosives and bulldozers, so it stood out on the flat plain like a lopsided pyramid, steep on one side and sloping on the other, covered with scrub and brown grass. They skimmed up the sloping side, dodging a few boulders and hardscrabble trees, until they reached the top.

From this height, Tally could see all the way back to New Pretty Town, the glowing disk of the island about as big as a dinner plate. The outer city was in darkness, and below her, the low, brown buildings of Special Circumstances were lit only with the harsh glare of security lights.

"Down there," she said, her voice falling to a whisper.

"Doesn't look like much."

"Most of it's underground. I don't know how far down it goes."

They stared at the cluster of buildings in silence. From up here, Tally could see the perimeter wire clearly, stretching around the buildings in an almost perfect square. That meant serious security. There weren't many barriers in the city-not that you could see, anyway. If you weren't supposed to be someplace, your interface ring just politely warned you to move along.

"That fence looks low enough to fly over."

Tally shook her head. "It's not a fence, it's a sensor wire. You get within twenty meters of it and the Specials will know you're there. Same goes if you touch the ground inside it."

"Twenty meters? Too high to clear on boards. So what do we do, knock on the gate?"

"There's no gate that I can see. I went in and out by hovercar."

David drummed his fingers on his board. "What about stealing one?"

"A hovercar?" Tally whistled. "That'd be a pretty good trick. I knew uglies who used to go joyriding, but not in Special Circumstances hovercars."

"It's too bad we can't just jump down."

Tally narrowed her eyes. "Jump?"

"From here. Get on our hoverboards back at the bottom of the hill, zoom up at maximum speed, then jump off from about this spot. We'd probably hit that big building dead center."

"Dead is right. We'd splat."

"Yeah, I guess. Even with crash bracelets, our arms would probably yank out of their sockets after a fall like that. We'd need parachutes."

Tally looked down, plotting trajectories from the hilltop, shushing David when he started to speak again, the wheels of her brain spinning. She remembered the party at Garbo Mansion, which seemed like years ago.

Finally, she allowed herself to smile.

"Not parachutes, David. Bungee jackets."

Accomplices

"There's enough time, if we hurry."

"Enough time to what?"

"To drop by the Uglyville art school. They have bungee jackets in the basement. A whole rack of spares."

David took a deep breath. "Okay."

"You're not scared, are you?"

"I'm not…" He grimaced. "It's just that I've never seen this many people before."

"People? We haven't seen anyone."

"Yeah, but all those houses on the way here. I keep thinking of people living in every single one, all crowded together like that."

Tally laughed. "You think the burbs are crowded? Wait until we get to Uglyville."

They headed back, taking the rooftops at top speed. The sky was pitch-black, but by now Tally could read the stars well enough to know that the first notes of dawn were only a couple of hours away.

Reaching the greenbelt, they turned back the way they'd come, neither of them speaking, concentrating instead on navigating through the trees. This arc of the belt brought them through Cleopatra Park, where Tally threaded the slalom poles for old times' sake. Her instincts twitched as they passed the path down to her old dorm. For a split second, it felt as if she could make the turnoff, climb in through her window, and go to bed.

Soon, the jumbled spires of the Uglyville art school rose up, and Tally brought the two of them to a halt.

This part was easy. It seemed like a million years ago that Tally and Shay had borrowed one of the school's bungee jackets for their final trick, Shay's leap onto the new uglies in the dorm library. Tally retraced her steps to the exact window they'd jimmied, a dirty, forgotten pane of glass concealed behind decorative bushes, and found that it was still unlocked.

Tally shook her head. This sort of burglary had seemed so daring two months before.

Back then, the library stunt was the wildest prank she and Shay could dream up. Now she saw tricks for what they were: a way for uglies to blow off steam until they reached sixteen, nothing but a meaningless distraction until their mutinous natures were erased by adulthood, and the operation.

"Give me the flashlight. And wait here."

She slipped in, found the rack of spares, grabbed two bungee jackets, and was out in less than a minute.

When she pulled herself out of the window, she found David staring at her with wide eyes.

"What?" she asked.

"You're just so…good at all this. So confident. It makes me nervous just being inside city limits."

She grinned. "This is no big deal. Everyone does it."

Still, Tally was happy to impress David with her burglary skills. In the last few weeks he'd taught her how to build a fire, scale a fish, pitch a tent, and read a contour map. It was nice to be the competent one for a change.

They crept back to the greenbelt and reached the river before the sky had even shown a sliver of pink.

Zooming past the white water and onto the vein of ore, they sighted the ruins just as the sky was beginning to change.

On the hike down, Tally asked, "Tomorrow night, then?"

"No point in waiting."

"No." And there was every reason to attempt the rescue soon. It had been more than two weeks since the invasion of the Smoke.

David cleared his throat. "So, how many Specials do you think will be in there?"

"When I was there, a lot. But that was during the day. I assume they have to sleep sometime."

"So it'll be empty at night."

"I doubt that. But maybe just a few guards." She didn't say more. Even one Special would be more than a match for a pair of uglies. No amount of surprise would make up for the cruel pretties' superior strength and reflexes. "We'll just have to make sure they don't see us."

"Sure. Or hope they've got something else to do that night."

Tally trudged ahead, exhaustion taking over now that they were safely out of the city, her confidence ebbing with every step. They'd traveled all this way without thinking very hard about the task ahead of them. Rescuing people from Special Circumstances wasn't just another ugly-trick, like stealing a bungee jacket or sneaking up the river. It was serious business.

And although Croy, Shay, Maddy, and Az were probably all prisoners in those horrible underground buildings, there was always the possibility that the Smokies had been taken somewhere else. And even if they hadn't, Tally had no idea exactly where they'd be inside the warren of puke-brown hallways.

"I just wish we had some help," she said softly.

David's hand settled on her shoulder, bringing her to a halt. "Maybe we do."

She looked at him questioningly, then followed his gaze down toward the ruins. At the top of the highest spire, the last few flickers of a safety sparkler were sputtering out.

There were uglies down there.

"They're looking for me," he said.

"So what do we do?"

"Is there any other way back to the city?" David asked.

"No. They'll come hiking right up this path."

"Then we wait."

Tally squinted, peering at the ruins. The sparkler had faded, and nothing was visible in the dawn light just starting to spill across the sky. Whoever was down there had waited until the last possible minute to head for home.

Of course, if they were looking for David, these uglies were potential runaways.

Rebellious seniors, not that worried about missing breakfast.

She turned to David. "So, I guess uglies are still looking for you. And not just here."

"Of course," he said. "The rumors will go on for generations, in cities all over, whether I'm around or not. Lighting a sparkler doesn't usually get an answer, so it'll be a long time before even the uglies I've met figure out I'm not showing up. And most of them already don't even think the Smoke-" His voice caught, and Tally took his hand. For a moment he'd forgotten that the Smoke didn't, in fact, exist anymore.

They waited in silence, until the sound of scrambling feet came across the rocks. It sounded like three or so uglies, talking in low tones as if still wary of the ghosts of the Rusty ruins.

"Watch this," David whispered, pulling a flashlight from his pocket. He stood and pointed the light up at his own face, switching it on.

"Looking for me?" he said in a loud, commanding voice.

The three uglies froze, wide-eyed and open-mouthed. Then the boy dropped his board, and it crashed onto the stones beside him, breaking their paralysis.

"Who are you?" one of the girls managed.

"I'm David."

"Oh. You mean you're…"

"Real?" He switched off the light and grinned. "Yeah, I get that question a lot."

Their names were Sussy, An, and Dex, and they had been coming to the ruins for a month now. They'd heard rumors about the Smoke for years, since an ugly in their dorm had run away.

"I'd just moved to Uglyville," Sussy said, "and Ho was a senior. When he disappeared, everyone had these crazy theories about where he'd gone."

"Ho?" David nodded. "I remember him. He stayed for a few months, then changed his mind and came back. By now, he's a pretty."

"But he really made it? To the Smoke?" An asked.

"Yeah. I took him there."

"Wow. So it's real." An shared an excited look with her two friends. "We want to see it too."

David opened his mouth, then closed it. His eyes drifted away to one side.

"You can't," Tally spoke up. "Not right now."

"Why not?" Dex asked.

Tally paused. The truth, that the Smoke had been destroyed by an armed invasion, seemed too far-fetched. A few months ago, she wouldn't have believed what her own city was capable of. And if she admitted that the Smoke was gone, the rumor would make its way down through generations of uglies.

Dr. Cable's work would be complete, even if a few rescued Smokies somehow managed to create another community in the wild. "Well," she started, "every so often the Smoke has to move, to stay secret. Right now, it doesn't really exist. Everyone's scattered, so we're not recruiting."

"The whole place moves?" Dex said. "Whoa."

An frowned. "Hang on. If you're not recruiting, then why are you here?"

"To do a trick," Tally said. "A really big one. Maybe you could help us. And then when the Smoke is back on its feet, you'll be the first to know."

"You want us to help? Like an initiation?" Dex asked.

"No," David said firmly. "We don't make anyone do anything to get into the Smoke. But if you do want to help, Tally and I would appreciate it."

"We just need a diversion," Tally said.

"Sounds like fun," An said. She looked at the others, and they waggled their heads.

Up for anything, Tally thought, just like she used to be herself. They were definitely seniors, less than a year behind her, but she was amazed at how young they seemed.

David stared at Tally along with the others, waiting for the rest of her idea. She had to come up with a diversion right away. A good one. Something that would intrigue the Specials enough to investigate.

Something that would make Dr. Cable herself take notice.

"Well, you'll need a lot of sparklers."

"No problem."

"And you know how to get into New Pretty Town, right?"

"New Pretty Town?" An looked at her friends. "But don't the bridges report everyone who crosses the river?"

Tally smiled, always happy to teach someone a new trick.

Over the Edge

The two waited all day in the Rusty Ruins, patches of sunlight crawling across the floor through the crumbling roof, like slow searchlights marking the hours. It took Tally ages to get to sleep, imagining the leap from the hilltop down into uncertainty. Finally she passed out, too tired to dream.

Awakening at dusk, she found that David had already packed two knapsacks with everything they might need during the rescue. They hoverboarded to the edge of the ruins, riding two sandwiched hoverboards each. Hopefully, they would need the extra boards when they emerged from Special Circumstances, escapees in tow.

Eating breakfast by the river, Tally took time to appreciate her SwedeBalls. If they got caught tonight, at least she would never have dehydrated food again. Sometimes Tally felt she could almost accept brain damage if it meant a life without reconstituted noodles.

As darkness fell, Tally and David reached the white water, and they passed through the greenbelt at the very moment the lights winked off in Uglyville. By midnight, they were atop the hill overlooking Special Circumstances.

Tally pulled out her binoculars and trained them inward, toward New Pretty Town, where the party towers were just coming alight.

David blew into his hands, his breath visible in the October chill. "You really think they'll do it?"

"Why not?" she said, watching the dark spaces of the city's largest pleasure garden. "They seemed into it."

"Yeah, but aren't they taking a big risk? I mean, they just met us."

She shrugged. "An ugly lives for tricks. Haven't you ever done something just because a mysterious stranger intrigued you?"

"I gave my gloves to one once. But it got me into all kinds of trouble."

She lowered the binoculars and saw that David was smiling. "You don't look as nervous tonight," she said.

"I'm glad we're finally here, finally ready to-do something. And after those three kids agreed to help us, I feel like…"

"Like this might actually work?"

"No, something better." He looked down at the Special Circumstances compound. "They were so ready to help, just to make trouble, just to play a trick. At first, it killed me to hear you act like the Smoke still existed. But if there are enough uglies like them, maybe it will again."

"Of course it will," she said softly.

David shrugged. "Maybe, maybe not. But even if we blow it tonight, and both wind up under the knife, at least someone will still keep fighting. Making trouble, you know?"

"I hope it's us, making trouble," Tally said.

"Me too." He drew Tally closer, and kissed her. When he released her, Tally took a deep breath and closed her eyes. It felt better to kiss him, more real, now that she was about to begin undoing the damage she had done.

"Look," David said.

In the dark spaces of New Pretty Town, something was happening.

She raised her binoculars.

A shimmering line cut its way across the black expanse of the pleasure garden, like a bright fissure opening in the earth. Then more lines appeared, one by one, tremulous arcs and circles sweeping through the darkness. The various segments seemed to sparkle into existence in random order, but they eventually formed letters, and words.

Finally, the whole glittering thing was finished, some parts of it newly sprung to life, the first few lines already starting to fade as the sparklers exhausted themselves. But for a few moments, Tally could read the whole thing, even without her binoculars. From Uglyville, it must have been huge, visible to anyone staring longingly out their window. It said: THE SMOKE LIVES.

As Tally watched it fade, breaking down into random lines and arcs again as the sparklers extinguished, she wondered if the words were really true.

"There they go," David said.

Below them, a large circular opening had appeared in the largest building's roof, and three hovercars rose up through the gap in quick succession, screaming toward the city. Tally hoped that An, Dex, and Sussy had followed her advice and were long gone from New Pretty Town. "Ready?" she said.

In answer, David tightened the straps of his bungee jacket and jumped onto his boards.

They rode down the hill, turned around, and started back up.

For the tenth time, Tally checked the light on the collar of her jacket. It was still green, and she could see David's light bobbing along beside her. No excuses now.

They gained speed as they climbed toward the dark sky, the entire hill like a giant ramp before them.

The wind pushed Tally's hair back, and she blinked as bugspinged against her face. She slid carefully toward the front of the paired boards, the toes of one grippy shoe sticking out past the riding surface.

Then the horizon seemed to slip away in front of her, and Tally crouched, ready to jump.

The ground disappeared.

Tally pushed off with all her strength, forcing her hoverboards down the steep side of the hill, where they would bring themselves to a halt. She and David had switched off their crash bracelets-they didn't want the boards following them over the wire. Not yet.

Tally soared into midair, still climbing for a few more seconds. The outer city lay below her, a vast patchwork of light and dark. She spread her arms and legs.

At the peak of her arc, the silence seemed to overwhelm everything-her stomach-churning weightlessness, the mix of excitement and fear rushing through her, the wind against her face. Tally tore her eyes from the silently waiting earth and dared a glance at David. Hardly an arm's length away, he was looking back at her, his face alight.

She grinned at him and turned back to see that the ground was approaching now, the speed of her fall building slowly. As she'd calculated, they were coming down right in the middle of the wire. Tally began to anticipate the sickening jolt of her bungee jacket pulling her up.

For long moments nothing happened, except the ground getting closer, and Tally wondered again if bungee jackets could handle a fall from this distance. A hundred versions of what a hard landing would feel like managed to squeeze into her head. Of course, it probably wouldn't feel like anything.

Ever again.

The ground grew closer and closer, until Tally was certain something had gone wrong.

Then, with sudden violence, the straps of the jacket came alive, cutting cruelly into her thighs and shoulders, crushing the air from her lungs, the pressure building as if a huge rubber band were wrapped around her, trying to bring her to a halt. The bare dirt of the compound rushed up toward her, looking flat and packed and hard, the jacket fighting her momentum desperately now, crushing her like a fist in its grasp.

Finally, the invisible rubber band stretching toward its breaking point, she slowed to a shuddering halt within reach of the ground, pulling her hands back to keep from touching it, her eyeballs straining forward as if they wanted to pop out of her skull.

Then her fall reversed, and she pulled back upward, hover-bouncing head over heels, sky and horizon spinning around her like a playground ride. Tally had no idea where David was-or where up and down were, for that matter. This jump was ten times her plunge off Garbo Mansion. How many bounces would it take to come to a stop?

Now she was falling again, the dirt of the compound replaced by a building below her.

One foot almost touched down onto the roof, but Tally was pulled up again, still barreling forward with the momentum of her leap off the hill.

She managed to orient herself, sorting out up and down just in time to see the edge of the roof coming toward her. She was overshooting the building….

Flailing in the grasp of the jacket, flying helplessly upward and then down again, she passed the roof's edge. But her outstretched hand caught a rain gutter, bringing Tally to a sudden halt. "Phew," she said, looking down.

The building wasn't very tall, and Tally would bounce in her jacket if she fell, but the moment her feet touched the ground, the wire would sound an alarm. She gripped the rain gutter with both hands.

But the bungee jacket, satisfied that her fall had stopped, was shutting itself down, gradually returning her to normal weight. She struggled to pull herself up onto the roof, but the heavy knapsack full of rescue equipment dragged her downward. It was like trying to do a pull-up wearing lead shoes.

She hung there, out of ideas, waiting to fall.

Footsteps came toward her along the roof, and a face appeared.

David.

"Having trouble?"

She grunted an answer, and he reached over, grabbing a strap of the knapsack. The weight mercifully lifted from her shoulders, and Tally pulled herself over the edge.

David sat back onto the roof, shaking his head. "So, Tally, you used to do that for fun?"

"Not every day."

"Didn't think so. Can we rest for a minute?"

She scanned the rooftop. No one coming, no alarms ringing. Apparently, the wire wasn't built to sense them up there. Tally smiled.

"Sure. Take two minutes, if you want. It looks like the Specials weren't expecting anyone to jump out of the sky."

Inside

The roof of Special Circumstances had looked flat and featureless from way up on top of the hill. But standing on it, Tally could see air vents, antennae, maintenance hatchways, and of course the big circular door that the hovercars had come through, now closed. It was a wonder neither she nor David had cracked their heads hover-bouncing across it.

"So how do we get in?" David asked.

"We should start with this." She pointed toward the hovercar door.

"Don't you think they'll notice if we come through there and we're not a hovercar?"

"Agreed. But what if we jam the door? If any more Specials show up, we don't want to make it easy for them to come in after us."

"Good idea." David searched through his knapsack, bringing out what looked like a tube of hair gel. He squeezed out white goo along the edges of the door, careful not to let any touch his fingers.

"What's that?"

"Glue. The nano kind. You can stick your shoes to the ceiling with this stuff and hang upside down."

Tally's eyes widened. She'd heard rumors of tricks you could play with nanotech glue, but uglies weren't allowed to requisition it. "Tell me you haven't done that."

He smiled. "I had to leave them up there. Waste of good shoes. So how do we get down?"

Tally pulled a powerjack from her pack and pointed. "We take the elevator."

The big metal box sticking up from the roof looked like a storage shed, but the double doors and eye-reader gave it away. Tally squinted, making sure the reader didn't flash her, and worked her powerjack between the doors. They crumpled like foil.

Through the doors, a dark shaft dropped away to nothingness. Tally clicked her tongue, and the echoes indicated that it was a long way down. She glanced at her collar light. Still green.

Tally turned to David. "Wait for me to whistle."

She stepped off into thin air.

Falling down the shaft was much scarier than leaping off Garbo Mansion, or even flying into space from the hilltop. The darkness offered no clue how deep the shaft was, and it felt to Tally as if she might fall forever.

She sensed the walls rushing past, and wondered if she was drifting toward one side as she fell, about to crash against it. She imagined herself bouncing from one wall to another all the way down, coming to a soft landing already broken and bleeding.

Tally kept her arms close to her sides.

At least she was sure the jacket would work in here. Elevators used the same magnetic lifters as any other hovercraft, so there was always a solid metal plate at the bottom.

After a long count of five, the jacket gripped Tally. She bounced twice, straight up and down, then settled onto a hard surface and found herself in silence and absolute blackness.

Stretching out her hands, she felt the four walls around her. Nothing suggested the inside of closed doors. Her fingers came away greasy.

Tally peered upward. A tiny shaft of light shone above, and she could just make out David's face peering down. She pursed her lips to whistle, but stopped.

A muffled sound came from below her feet. Someone talking.

She crouched, trying to grasp the words. But all Tally could hear was the razor sound of a cruel pretty's voice. The mocking tone reminded her of Dr. Cable.

Without warning, the floor dropped out from under her. Tally struggled to keep her footing. When the elevator stopped again, one of her ankles twisted painfully under her weight, but she managed not to fall.

The sound below her faded. One thing was certain now: The complex wasn't empty.

Tally lifted her head and whistled, then huddled in one corner of the shaft, hands covering her head, counting.

Five seconds later, a pair of feet dangled next to her, then jerked back up, the beam of David's flashlight swinging around drunkenly. Gradually, he settled beside her. "Wow. It's dark down here."

"Shhh," she hissed.

He nodded, sweeping the flashlight around the shaft. Just above them, it fell on the inside of closed doors. Of course. Standing on the elevator's roof, they were midway between floors.

Tally interlaced her fingers, locking her hands together to give David a boost up to where he could wedge the powerjack between the doors. They crumpled open with a metal screech that set her hair on end. He pulled himself through, then extended his hand back down to her. Tally grabbed it and pulled, her grippy shoes squeaking on the walls of the elevator shaft like a herd of panicked mice.

Everything was making too much noise.

The hallway was dark. Tally tried to convince herself that no one had heard them yet.

Maybe this whole floor was empty at night.

She pulled out her own flashlight, pointing it at the doors as they walked down the hall.

Small brown labels marked each of them.

"Radiology. Neurology. Magnetic Imaging," she read softly. "Operating Theater Two."

She looked at David. He shrugged and gave the door a push. It opened.

"I guess when you're in an underground bunker, there's no point in locking up," he said softly. "After you."

Tally crept inside. The room was big, the walls lined with dark and silent machines. An operating tank stood in the middle, the liquid drained out of it, tubes and electrodes hanging loosely in a puddle at the bottom. A metal table glistened with the cruel shapes of knives and vibrasaws.

"This looks like photos Mom showed me," David said. "They do the operation here."

Tally nodded. Doctors only put you in a tank if they were doing major surgery.

"Maybe this is where they make Specials special," she said. The thought didn't cheer her up.

They returned to the hall. A few doors later, they found a room labeled MORGUE.

"Do you…," she started to ask.

David shook his head. "No."

They searched the rest of the floor. Basically, it was a small, well-equipped hospital. There were no torture chambers or prison cells.

And no Smokies.

"Where to now?"

"Well," Tally said. "If you were the evil Dr. Cable, where would you put your prisoners."

"The evil who?"

"Oh. That's her name, the woman who runs this place. I remember from when I got busted."

David frowned, and Tally wondered if she'd said too much.

Then he shrugged. "I guess I'd put them in the dungeon."

"Okay. Down, then."

They found a set of fire stairs that led down, but they ended after only one flight.

Apparently, they had reached the bottom floor of Special Circumstances.

"Careful," Tally whispered. "Before, I heard people getting out of the elevator below me.

They must be somewhere down here."

This floor was lit by a soft glowstrip running down the middle of the hallway. A cold finger crept down Tally's spine as she read the labels on the doors.

"Interrogation Room One. Interrogation Room Two. Isolation Room One," she whispered, her flashlight flickering across the words like an anxious firefly. "Disorientation Room One. Oh, David, they must be down here somewhere."

He nodded, and pushed one of the doors softly, but it didn't budge. He ran his fingers around the edge, searching for a place where the powerjack could get purchase.

"Don't let the eye-reader flash you," Tally warned softly. She pointed at the little camera by the door. "If it thinks it sees an eye, it'll read your iris and check with the big computer."

"It won't have any record of me."

"And that will freak it out totally. Just don't get too close. It's automatic."

"Okay," David said, nodding. "These doors are too smooth, anyway. No place to fit a jack in. Let's keep looking."

Farther down the hall, a label caught Tally's eye. "Long-Term Detention," she whispered.

The door had a long expanse of blank wall on either side, as if the room behind it was bigger than the others.

She put her ear to it, listening for any hint of sound.

She heard a familiar voice. It was coming closer. "David!" she hissed, pulling away from the door and throwing herself against the wall. David looked around frantically for a place to hide. Both of them were in plain view.

The door slid open, and Dr. Cable's malevolent voice poured out.

"You're simply not trying hard enough. You just have to convince her that-" "Dr. Cable," Tally said.

The woman spun to face Tally, her hawklike features twisted in surprise.

"I'd like to give myself up."

"Tally Youngblood? How-" From behind, David's powerjack thudded against the side of Dr. Cable's head, and she slumped to the floor.

"Is she…," David stammered. His face was white.

Tally knelt and turned Dr. Cable's head to inspect the wound. No blood, but she was out cold. No matter how formidable cruel pretties were, surprise still had its advantages.

"She'll be okay."

"Dr. Cable? What's going-" Tally turned toward the voice, her eyes taking in the young woman before her.

She was tall and elegant, every feature perfection. Her eyes-deep and soulful, flecked with copper and gold-widened with a troubled look. Her generous lips parted wordlessly, and she raised one graceful hand. Tally's heart almost stopped at the beauty of her confusion.

Then recognition filled the woman's face, her broad smile illuminating the darkness, and Tally felt herself smiling in return. It felt good to make this woman happy.

"Tally! It is you."

It was Shay. She was pretty.

Rescue

"Shay…"

"You made it!" Shay's stunning smile faded as she looked down at the crumpled form of Dr. Cable.

"What's with her?"

Tally blinked, awed by the transformation of her friend. Shay's beauty seemed to snuff out everything inside Tally; her fear, surprise, and excitement fled, leaving nothing but amazement. "You…turned."

"Duh," she said. "David! You're both okay!"

"Uh, hi." His voice was dry, his hands shaking as they gripped the powerjack. "We need your help, Shay."

"Yeah, I guess you do." She looked down at Dr. Cable again and sighed. "You guys still know how to make trouble, I see."

Tally averted her eyes from Shay's beauty, trying to focus her thoughts. "Where's everyone else?

David's parents? Croy?"

"Right in here." Shay gestured over one shoulder. "All locked up. Dr. C has been totally bogus to us."

"Keep her here," David said. He pushed past Shay and through the door. Tally saw a row of small doors inside the long room, each with a tiny window set in it.

Shay beamed at her. "I'm so glad you're all right, Tally. The thought of you all alone in the wild…of course, you weren't alone, were you?"

Meeting Shay's eyes, Tally was overwhelmed all over again. "What did they do to you?"

Shay smiled. "Besides the obvious?"

"Yeah. I mean, no." Tally shook her head, not knowing how to ask Shay if she was brain damaged.

"Are any of the rest of them…"

"Pretty? No. I got to be first, because I made the most trouble. You should have seen me kicking and biting." Shay chuckled.

"They forced you."

"Yeah, Dr. C can be a major pain. It's kind of a relief, though."

Tally swallowed. "A relief…"

"Yeah, I hated this place. The only reason I'm here is that Dr. C wanted me to come by and talk to the Smokies."

"You live in New Pretty Town," Tally said softly. She tried to see past the beauty, to find whatever was behind Shay's wide, perfect eyes.

"Yeah. I just came from the best party."

Tally finally heard how slurred Shay's words were. She was drunk. Maybe that was why she was acting so strangely. But she had called the others "the Smokies." She wasn't one of them anymore.

"You go to parties, Shay? While everyone here is locked up?"

"Well, I guess so," Shay said defensively. "I mean, they'll all get out once they turn. Once Cable gets over her stupid power trip." She looked at the unconscious form on the floor and shook her head.

"She's going to be in a bad mood tomorrow, though. Thanks to you two."

The sound of complaining metal came from the detention room. Tally heard more voices.

"Of course, sounds like no one'll be around to see it," Shay said. "So how are you two doing, anyway?"

Tally opened her mouth, closed it, then managed to answer. "We're…good."

"That's great. Listen, sorry I was such a pain about all that. You know what uglies are like." Shay laughed. "Well, of course you do!"

"So you don't hate me?"

"Don't be silly, Tally!"

"I'm glad to hear that." Of course, Shay's blessing was meaningless. It wasn't forgiveness, just brain damage.

"You did me a big favor, getting me out of that Smoke place."

"You can't really believe that, Shay."

"What do you mean?"

"How could you change your mind so quickly?"

Shay laughed. "It took exactly one hot shower to change my mind." She reached out and touched Tally's hair, tangled and knotted from two weeks of camping out and riding all day. "Speaking of showers, you are a total mess."

Tally blinked. Hot tears were forcing themselves into her eyes. Shay had wanted so much to keep her own face, to live on her own terms outside the city. But that desire had been extinguished.

"I didn't mean to…betray you," she said softly.

Shay glanced over her shoulder, then turned back and smiled. "He doesn't know that you were working for Dr. C, does he? Don't worry, Tally," she whispered, putting one elegant finger to her lips. "Your ugly little secret is safe with me."

Tally swallowed, wondering if Shay had found out the whole story. Maybe Dr. Cable had told them all what she'd done.

A buzzing sound came from beside Dr. Cable. On the work tablet she had been carrying, a request light blinked with an incoming call.

Tally picked up the tablet and handed it to Shay. "Talk to them!"

Shay winked, pushed a button, and said, "Hey, it's me, Shay. No, I'm sorry, Dr. Cable's busy. Doing what? Well, it's complicated…" She muted the device. "Shouldn't you be rescuing people or something, Tally? That is the point of this little trick, right?"

"You'll stay here?"

"Duh. This looks bubbly. Just because I'm pretty doesn't mean I'm totally boring."

Tally brushed past her and into the room. Two doors had been ripped open, David's mother and another Smokey freed. The two were dressed in orange jumpsuits, with stunned and sleepy looks on their faces. David was working another door, his powerjack thrust into a small slot at floor level.

Tally saw Croy's face peering wide-eyed through one of the tiny windows, and planted her powerjack under his door. It whined to life, and the thick metal screeched as it bent upward. "David, they know something's up!" she called.

"Okay. We're almost done here."

Her jack had wrenched a small gap in the metal, not big enough. Tally reset the tool, and the metal groaned again. Her days of pulling up railroad ties soon paid off, the jack tearing a hole the size of a doggy door.

Croy's arms appeared, then his head, his jumpsuit ripping on jagged spurs of metal as he wriggled.

Maddy grabbed his hands and pulled him through. "That's everyone who's left," she said.

"Let's go."

"What about Dad!" David cried.

"We can't help him." Maddy ran into the hall.

Tally and David shared an anxious look, and followed.

Maddy was dashing down the hall toward the elevator, dragging Shay by the wrist behind her. Shay stabbed the tablet's talk button and said, "Wait a second, I think she's just coming back now. Hold please." She giggled and muted the device again.

"Bring Cable!" Maddy called. "We need her!"

"Mom!" David ran after her.

Tally looked at Croy, then down at Dr. Cable's crumpled form. Croy nodded, and they each took a wrist, dragging the woman along the slick floor at a trot, Tally's grippy shoes squealing.

When the party reached the elevator, Maddy grabbed Dr. Cable by the collar and pulled her up to the eye-reader. The woman groaned once, softly. Maddy carefully pried open one of her eyes, and the elevator pinged, its doors sliding open.

Maddy tugged off the doctor's interface ring and dropped her to the floor, then pulled Shay inside. Tally and the other Smokies followed, but David stood his ground. "Mom, where's Dad?"

"We can't help him." Maddy yanked the tablet away from Shay and cracked it against the wall, then pulled David in against his protests. The doors closed, and the elevator asked, "Which floor?"

"Roof," Maddy said, the interface ring still in her hand. The elevator began to move, Tally's ears complaining at the swift ascent.

"What's our escape plan?" Maddy snapped. The glazed look was completely gone from her eyes, as if she'd gone to sleep last night expecting to be rescued this morning.

"Uh, hoverboards," Tally managed to answer. "Four of them." Realizing that she hadn't done so yet, Tally adjusted her crash bracelets to call them in.

"Oh, cool!" Shay said. "You know, I haven't been boarding since I left the Smoke?"

"There's seven of us," Maddy said. "Tally, you take Shay. Astrix and Ryde, double up.

Croy, you go alone and throw them off the track. David, I'll ride with you."

"Mom…," David pleaded, "if he's pretty, can't you cure him? Or at least try?"

"Your father's not pretty, David," she answered softly. "He's dead."

Getaway

"Give me a knife." Maddy held out her hand, ignoring the shocked look on her son's face.

Tally scrambled through her knapsack. She passed her multiknife to Maddy, who pulled out a short blade and cut a piece from the arm of her jumpsuit. When the elevator reached roof level, its doors slid halfway open and groaned to a halt, revealing the uneven hole Tally had torn to gain entry. They slipped through one by one and ran for the edge of the roof.

A hundred meters away, Tally saw the hoverboards cruising across the compound, called by her crash bracelets. Alarms were ringing all around them now. If by some magic the Specials hadn't noticed the escape so far, the riderless boards had tripped the wire.

Tally spun around, looking for David. He was stumbling along at the back of the group, half in a daze.

She caught him by his shoulders. "I'm so sorry."

He shook his head. Not at her, not at anything in particular.

"I don't know what to do, Tally."

She took his hand. "We have to run. That's all we can do right now. Follow your mother."

He looked into her eyes, his face wild. "Okay." He started to say more, but the words were drowned out by a noise like huge fingernails scraping metal. The hovercar door was fighting against the nanotech glue, setting the whole roof shuddering.

Maddy, last out of the elevator, had jimmied its door open with a powerjack. Its voice kept repeating, "Elevator requested."

But there were other ways onto the roof. Maddy turned to David. "Glue down those hatches so they can't get out."

His gaze cleared for a moment, and he nodded.

"I'll get the boards," Tally said, turning to dash for the edge of the roof. When she reached it, she jumped into space, hoping her bungee jacket still had some charge.

After one bounce, Tally was on the ground running. The boards sensed her crash bracelets and sped toward her.

"Tally! Look out!"

She looked over her shoulder at Croy's shout. A squad of Specials was headed toward her across the compound, an open door behind them at ground level. They ran inhumanly fast, covering the ground with long, loping strides.

The boards nudged her calves from behind, like dogs ready to play. Tally leaped up, teetering for a moment with one foot on each pair of sandwiched boards. She'd never heard of anyone riding four boards at once. But the closest cruel pretty was only a few strides away.

Tally snapped her fingers and rose swiftly into the air.

The Special jumped, amazingly high, the fingers of one outstretched hand just brushing the front edge of the boards. The contact set them wobbling beneath Tally. It was like standing on a trampoline while someone else jumped on it. The other Specials watched from the ground below, waiting for her to fall.

But Tally regained her balance and leaned forward, heading back toward the building. The boards picked up speed, and seconds later Tally leaped off onto the roof, kicking one pair of hoverboards to Croy.

He pulled them apart while she separated the other two.

"Go now," Maddy said. "Take this."

She handed Tally a swatch of orange fabric, a small bit of circuitry visible on one side.

Tally noticed that Maddy had cut pieces from the forearms of all the jumpsuits.

"There's a tracker in that cloth," Maddy said. "Drop it somewhere to throw them off."

Tally nodded, looking around for David. He was running toward them, his face set into a grim mask, the tube of glue crushed and empty in his hand. "David-," she started.

"Go!" Maddy shouted, pushing Shay onto the board behind Tally.

"Um, no crash bracelets?" Shay said, her feet unsteady. "This is not my first party tonight, you know."

"I know. Hold on," Tally said, and shot away from the roof.

The two of them teetered for a moment, almost losing their balance. But Tally steadied herself, feeling Shay's arms wrap tightly around her waist.

"Whoa, Tally! Slow down!"

"Just hang on."

Tally leaned into a turn, sickened by the sluggishness of the board. Not only was it carrying two, but Shay's wobbly moves were freaking it out.

"Don't you remember how to ride?"

"Sure!" Shay said. "Just a little rusty, Squint. Plus a little too much to drink tonight."

"Just don't fall off. It'll hurt."

"Hey! I didn't ask to be rescued!"

"No, I guess you didn't." Tally looked down as they soared over Crumblyville, skipping the greenbelt to head straight back toward the river. If Shay hit the ground at this speed, she'd be worse than hurt.

She'd be dead.

Like David's father. Tally wondered how he'd died. Had he tried to escape the Specials, like the Boss?

Or had Dr. Cable done something to him? One thought stuck in her mind: However it had happened, it was her fault.

"Shay, if you fall off, take me with you."

"What?"

"Just hold on to me and don't let go, no matter what. I'm wearing a bungee jacket and bracelets. We should bounce." Probably. Unless the jacket pulled her one way and the bracelets the other. Or Tally's and Shay's combined weight was too much for the lifters.

"So give me the bracelets, silly."

Tally shook her head. "No time to stop."

"Guess not. Our Special friends are going to be royally pissed." Shay clung tighter.

They were almost at the river, with no sign of pursuit behind them. The nanotech glue must have been putting up quite a fight. But Special Circumstances had other hovercars-the three they'd seen leave earlier, at least-and regular wardens had them too.

Tally wondered if Special Circumstances would call for help from the wardens, or whether they'd keep the whole situation a secret. What would the wardens think of the underground prison? Did the regular city government know what the Specials had done to the Smoke, or to Az?

Water flashed below her, and Tally dropped the swatch of orange cloth as they turned. It fluttered away, down toward the river. The current would take it back toward the city, in the opposite direction of their escape route.

Tally and David had agreed to rendezvous upriver, a long way past the ruins, where he had found a cave years before.

Because its entrance was covered by a waterfall, it would shelter them from heat sensors.

From there, they could hike back to the ruins to retrieve the rest of their equipment, and then…

Rebuild the Smoke? Seven of them? With Shay as their honorary pretty? Tally realized that they hadn't made plans beyond tonight. The future hadn't seemed real until now.

Of course, they still might all be caught.

"You think it's true?" Shay shouted. "What Maddy said?"

Tally dared a glance back at Shay. Her pretty face looked worried.

"I mean, Az was fine when I visited a few days ago," Shay said. "I thought they were going to make him pretty. Not kill him."

"I don't know." It was hardly something Maddy would lie about. But maybe she was mistaken.

Tally leaned forward, skimming the river low and fast, trying to leave the cold feeling in her stomach behind. Spray struck their faces as they hit the white water.

Shay had started to ride properly, leaning with the slow arcs of the river's bends. "Hey, I remember this!" she shouted.

"Do you remember anything else from before your operation?" Tally yelled over the roar of water.

Shay ducked behind Tally as they struck a wall of spray. "Of course, silly."

"You hated me. Because I stole David from you. Because I betrayed the Smoke.

Remember?"

Shay was silent for a moment, only the roar of white water and the rushing wind around them.

Finally, she leaned closer, her voice thoughtful in Tally's ear.

"Yeah, I know what you mean. But that was all ugly stuff. Crazy love and jealousy and needing to rebel against the city. Every kid's like that. But you grow up, you know?"

"You grew up because of an operation? Doesn't that strike you as weird?"

"It wasn't because of the operation."

"Then why?"

"It was just good to come home, Tally. It made me realize how crazy the whole Smoke thing was."

"What happened to biting and kicking?"

"Well, it took a few days to sink in, you know."

"Before or after you became pretty?"

Shay went silent again. Tally wondered if you could talk somebody out of their brain damage.

She pulled a position-finder from her pocket. The coordinates for the cave were still half an hour away.

A glance over her shoulder didn't reveal any hovercars, not yet. If all four boards took different routes to the river, and all of them dropped their trackers in different places, the Specials were going to have a confusing night.

There were also Dex, Sussy, and An, who'd promised to tell every tricky ugly they knew to go for a ride tonight. The greenbelt would be crowded.

Tally wondered how many uglies had seen the burning letters in New Pretty Town, how many of them knew what the Smoke was, or were coming up with their own stories to explain the mysterious message.

What new legends had she and David created with their little diversion?

When they reached a calmer part of the river, Shay spoke up again. "So, Tally?"

"Yeah?"

"Why do you want me to hate you?"

"I don't want you to hate me, Shay." Tally sighed. "Or maybe I do. I betrayed you, and I feel horrible about it."

"The Smoke wasn't going to last forever, Tally. Whether you turned us in or not."

"I didn't turn you in!" Tally cried. "Not on purpose, anyway. And the whole thing with David was just an accident. I didn't mean to hurt you."

"Of course not. You're just confused."

"I'm confused?" Tally groaned. "You're the one who…" She trailed off. How could Shay not understand that she'd been changed by the operation? Not just been given a pretty face, but also a…pretty mind.

Nothing else could explain how quickly she'd changed, abandoning the rest of them for parties and hot showers, leaving her friends behind, just as Peris had so many months ago.

"Do you love him?" Shay asked.

"David? I, uh…maybe."

"That's sweet."

"It's not sweet. It's real!"

"Then why are you ashamed of it?"

"I'm not…," Tally sputtered.

She lost concentration for a moment, and the back of the board dipped low, sending a sheet of water up behind them. Shay whooped and held tighter. Tally gritted her teeth and took them a bit higher.

When Shay had stopped laughing, she said, "And you think I'm confused?"

"Listen, Shay, there's one thing I'm not confused about. I didn't want to betray the Smoke. I was blackmailed into going there as a spy, and when I sent for the Specials, it was an accident, really. But I'm sorry, Shay. I'm sorry I ruined your dream."

Tally felt herself crying, the tears driven backward by the wind. The trees rushed past in the darkness for a while.

"I'm just glad you two made it back to civilization," Shay said softly, holding on tight.

"And I'm not sorry about what happened. If that makes you feel any better."

Tally thought of the lesions on Shay's brain, the tiny cancers or wounds or whatever they were, that she didn't even know she had.

They were in there somewhere, changing her friend's thoughts, warping her feelings, gnawing at the roots of who she was. Making her forgive Tally.

"Thanks, Shay. But no, it doesn't."

Night Alone

Tally and Shay made it to the cave first.

Croy arrived a few minutes later, without warning, he and his board hurtling through the waterfall in a sudden explosion of splashing and cursing. He tumbled into the darkness, his body rolling across the stone floor with a series of sickening thuds.

Tally scrambled from the back of the cave, a flashlight in one hand.

Croy shook his head and groaned. "I lost them."

Tally looked at the entrance of the cave, the sheet of water a solid curtain against the night. "I hope so. Where's everybody else?"

"Don't know. Maddy told us all to go different ways. Since I was flying solo, I went all the way around the greenbelt first to get them off track." He laid his head back, still panting. A position-finder fell from one of his hands.

"Wow. You went fast."

"You're telling me. No crash bracelets."

"Been there. At least you had shoes on," Tally said. "Did anyone chase you?"

He nodded. "I held on to my tracker as long as I could. Got most of the Specials to follow me. But there were a whole bunch of hoverboard riders in the belt. You know, city kids.

The Specials kept getting us confused."

Tally smiled. Dex, An, and Sussy had done their work well.

"Are David and Maddy okay?"

"I wouldn't know about okay," he said softly. "But they got off right after you, and it didn't look like anyone was following them.

Maddy said they were heading straight for the ruins. We're supposed to meet them there tomorrow night."

"Tomorrow?" Tally said.

"Maddy wanted to be alone with David for a while, you know?"

Tally nodded, but her heart wrenched inside her. David needed her. At least, she hoped he did. The thought of him dealing with Az's death without her made the icy feeling in her stomach drop a few more degrees.

Of course, Maddy was there. Az had been her husband, after all, and Tally had only met the man once.

But still.

She sighed. Tally tried to remember the last words she'd said to David, and wished they'd been more comforting. There hadn't even been time to hold him. Since the invasion of the Smoke, Tally hadn't been separated from David for longer than that hour in the storm, and now she wouldn't see him for a whole day.

"Maybe I should go to the ruins. I could hike out there tonight."

"Don't be crazy," Croy said. "The Specials are still out looking."

"But just in case they need anything…"

"Maddy said to tell you no."

Astrix and Ryde showed up a half hour later, coming into the cave more gracefully than Croy, but with their own stories of running from hovercars. The pursuit had been confused, the Specials overwhelmed by everything that had happened that night.

"They never even got close," Astrix said.

Ryde shook his head. "They were all over the place."

"It's like we won a battle, you know?" Croy said. "We beat them in their own city. Made them look like fools."

"Maybe we don't have to hide in the wild anymore," Ryde said. "It could be like when we were uglies, playing tricks. But telling the whole city the truth."

"And if we get caught, Tally can come and rescue us!" Croy shouted.

Tally tried to smile at their cheers, but knew she wouldn't feel good about anything until she saw David again. Not until tomorrow night. She felt exiled, shut out from the one thing that really mattered.

Shay had fallen asleep in a small crevice after complaining about the dampness and her hair, asking when they were going to take her home. Tally crawled back to where her friend lay and snuggled up next to her, trying to forget the damage that had been done to Shay's mind. At least Shay's new body wasn't as painfully skinny; she felt soft and warm in the damp cold of the cave.

Cradled against her, Tally managed to stop shivering.

But it was a long time before she fell asleep.

She woke up to the smell of PadThai.

Croy had found the food packets and purifier in her knapsack and was making food with water from the fall, apparently trying to placate Shay.

"A little escape was one thing, but I didn't know you guys were going to drag me all the way out here.

I'm through with this whole rebellion thing, I've got a wicked hangover, and I really need to wash my hair."

"There's a waterfall right there," Croy said.

"But it's cold! I'm so over this camping-out bogusness."

Tally crawled out into the big part of the cave, every muscle stiff, every rock she'd slept on imprinted on her. Through the curtain of the waterfall, dusk was falling. She wondered if she'd ever be able to sleep at night again.

Shay was squatting on a rock, digging into the PadThai, complaining that it wasn't spicy enough.

Bedraggled, in dirty party clothes, her hair stuck to her face, she was still stunning. Ryde and Astrix watched her silently, a bit awestruck by her looks.

They were two of Shay's old friends who'd run away to the Smoke the time she'd chickened out, so it must have been months since they'd seen a pretty face.

Everyone seemed willing to let her go on complaining.

One thing about being pretty, people put up with your annoying habits.

"Morning," said Croy. "SwedeBalls or VegiRice?"

"Whatever's faster." Tally stretched her muscles. She wanted to get to the ruins as soon as possible.

When darkness fell, Tally and Croy crept out from behind the waterfall. There was no sign of Specials in the sky. She doubted anyone was searching this far out. Forty minutes from the city on a fast board was a long way.

They gave the all-clear, and everyone rode farther upriver, to a place where the river's course twisted closer to the ruins. A long hike followed, the four uglies sharing the load of boards and supplies.

Shay had stopped complaining, settling into a pouty, hungover silence. The walk seemed easy for her. Her wiry fitness from hard work at the Smoke hadn't faded in two weeks, and the operation actually firmed up a new pretty's muscles, at least for a while. Although Shay announced once that she wanted to go home, heading back on her own didn't seem to have entered her mind.

Tally wondered what they were going to do with her. She knew there was no simple fix.

Maddy and Az had worked for twenty years to no avail. But they couldn't leave Shay like this.

Of course, the moment she was cured, her hatred for Tally would return.

Which was worse: a friend with brain damage, or one who despised you?

They reached the edge of the ruins after midnight, and boarded down to the abandoned building where Tally and David had camped.

David was waiting outside.

He looked exhausted, the dark lines under his eyes visible even in starlight. But he embraced Tally the moment she stepped from the board, his arms tight around her, and she hugged him back hard.

"Are you okay?" she whispered, then felt idiotic.

What was he supposed to say to that? "Oh, David, of course you're not. I'm sorry, I-" "Shhh. I know." He pulled away and smiled.

Relief flowed through Tally, and she squeezed David's hands, confirming the realness of him. "I missed you," she said.

"Me too." He kissed her.

"You two are just so cute," Shay said, combing her hair with her fingers after the windy ride.

"Hi, Shay." David gave her a tired smile. "You guys look hungry."

"Only if you have any non-bogus food," Shay said.

"Afraid not. Three kinds of reconstituted curry."

Shay groaned and pushed past him into the crumbling building. His eyes followed her, but without any of the awe still in Ryde's and Astrix's faces. It was as if David didn't see her beauty.

He turned back. "We finally got some luck."

Tally looked into his lined, fatigued face. "Really?"

"We got that tablet working, the one Dr. Cable was carrying. Mom was yanking the phone part out so they couldn't track us through it, and she got it to display Cable's work data."

"About what?"

"All her notes on making pretties into Specials. Not just the physical part"-he pulled her closer-"but also how the brain lesions work. It's everything my parents weren't told when they were doctors!"

Tally swallowed. "Shay…"

He nodded. "Mom thinks she can find a cure."

Hippocratic Oath

They stayed at the edge of the Rusty Ruins.

Occasionally, hovercars would pass over the crumbling city, threading a slow search pattern across the sky. But the Smokies were old hands at hiding from satellites and aircraft. They placed red herrings across the ruins-chemical glowsticks that gave off human-size pockets of heat-and covered the windows of their building with sheets of black Mylar. And of course the ruins were very large; finding seven people in what had once been a city of millions was no simple matter.

Every night, Tally watched the influence of the "New Smoke" grow. A lot of uglies had seen the burning message on the night of the escape, or had heard about it, and the nightly pilgrimages out to the ruins slowly increased, until sparklers wavered atop high buildings from midnight until dawn.

Tally, Ryde, Croy, and Astrix made contact with the city uglies, starting new rumors, teaching new tricks, and offering glimpses of the ancient magazines the Boss had salvaged from the Smoke. If they doubted the existence of Special Circumstances, Tally showed them the plastic handcuff bracelets still encircling her wrists, and invited them to try to cut the cuffs off.

One new legend towered above all the rest. Maddy had decided that the brain lesions couldn't be kept a secret anymore; every ugly had the right to know what the operation really entailed. Tally and the others spread the rumor among their city friends: Not just your face was changed by the knife. Your personality-the real you inside-was the price of beauty.

Of course, not every ugly believed such an outrageous tale, but a few did. And some sneaked across to New Pretty Town in the dead of night to talk to their older friends face-to-face, and decided for themselves.

The Specials sometimes tried to crash the party, setting traps for the New Smokies, but someone always gave a warning, and no hovercar could ever catch a board among winding streets and rubble.

The New Smokies learned the nooks and crannies of the ruins as if they'd been born there, until they could disappear in a heartbeat.

Maddy worked on the brain cure, using materials salvaged from the ruins or brought by city uglies willing to borrow from hospitals and chem classes. She withdrew from the rest of them, except for David. She seemed particularly cool to Tally, who felt guilty for every moment she spent with David, now that his mother was alone. None of them ever talked about Az's death.

Shay stayed with them, complaining about the food, the ruins, her hair and clothes, and having to look at all the ugly faces around her. But she never seemed bitter, only perpetually annoyed. After the first few days she didn't even talk about leaving. Perhaps the brain damage made her pliant, or the fact that she hadn't lived in New Pretty Town for long. She still remembered them all as friends.

Tally sometimes wondered if Shay secretly enjoyed having the only pretty face in their little rebellion. Certainly, she didn't do any more work than she would have in the city; Ryde and Astrix obeyed her every command.

David helped his mother, searching the ruins for salvage, and taught wilderness survival tricks to any ugly who wanted to learn. But in the two weeks after his father's death, Tally found herself missing the days when it had been just the two of them.

Twenty days after the rescue, Maddy announced that she had found a cure.

"Shay, I want to explain this to you carefully."

"Sure, Maddy."

"When you had the operation, they did something to your brain."

Shay smiled. "Yeah, right." She looked across at Tally, wearing a familiar expression.

"That's what Tally keeps telling me. But you guys don't understand."

Maddy folded her hands. "What do you mean?"

"I like the way I look," Shay insisted. "I'm happier in this body. You want to talk about brain damage?

Look at you all, running around these ruins playing commando. You're all full of schemes and rebellions, crazy with fear and paranoia, even jealousy." Her eyes skipped back and forth between Tally and Maddy. "That's what being ugly does."

"And how do you feel, Shay?" Maddy asked calmly.

"I feel bubbly. It's nice not being all raging with hormones. Of course, it kind of sucks being out here instead of in the city."

"No one's keeping you here, Shay. Why haven't you left?"

Shay shrugged. "I don't know…. I'm worried about you guys, I guess. It's dangerous out here, and messing with Specials isn't a good idea. You should know that by now, Maddy."

Tally took a sharp breath, but Maddy's expression didn't change. "And you're going to protect us from them?" she asked calmly.

Shay shrugged. "I just feel bad about Tally. If I hadn't told her about the Smoke, she'd be pretty right now instead of living in this dump. And I figure eventually she'll decide to grow up. We'll go back together."

"You don't seem to want to decide for yourself."

"Decide what?" Shay rolled her eyes, looking at Tally to confirm what a bore this was.

The two of them had plowed through this conversation a dozen times before, until Tally had realized there was no convincing Shay that her personality had changed. To Shay, her new attitude was simply the result of growing up, moving on, leaving all the overheated emotions of ugliness behind.

"You weren't always this way, Shay," David said.

"No, I used to be ugly."

Maddy smiled gently. "These pills won't change the way you look. They'll only affect your brain, undoing what Dr. Cable did to the way your mind works. Then you can decide for yourself how you want to look."

"Decide? After you've messed with my brain?"

"Shay!" Tally said, forgetting her promise to remain silent. "We're not the ones messing with your brain!"

"Tally," David said softly.

"That's right, I'm the one who's crazy." Shay's voice took on the tone of her daily round of complaining.

"Not you guys, who live in a broken-down building on the edge of a dead city, slowly turning into freaks when you could be beautiful. Yeah, I'm crazy all right…for trying to help you!"

Tally sat back and crossed her arms, silenced by Shay's words. Whenever they had this conversation, reality became a little unhinged, as if she and the other New Smokies might really be the insane ones. It felt like Tally's horrible first days in the Smoke, when she hadn't known whose side she was on.

"How are you helping us, Shay?" Maddy asked calmly.

"I'm trying to get you to understand."

"Just like you did when Dr. Cable used to bring you by my cell?"

Shay's eyes narrowed, confusion clouding her face, as if her memories of the underground prison didn't fit in with the rest of her pretty worldview.

"I know Dr. C was horrible to you," she said. "The Specials are psychos-just look at them. But that doesn't mean you have to spend your whole lives running away. That's what I'm saying. Once you turn, Specials won't mess with you."

"Why not?"

"Because you won't make trouble anymore."

"Why not?"

"Because you'll be happy!" Shay took a couple of deep breaths, and her usual calm returned. She smiled, beautiful again. "Like me."

Maddy picked up the pills on the table in front of her. "You won't take these willingly?"

"No way. You said they're not even safe."

"I said there was a small chance something could go wrong."

Shay laughed. "You must think I'm nuts. And even if those pills work, look what they're supposed to do.

From what I can tell, 'cured' means being a jealous, self-important, whiny little ugly-brain.

It means thinking you've got all the answers." She crossed her arms. "In a lot of ways, you and Dr. Cable are alike. You're both convinced you've personally got to change the world. Well, I don't need that. And I don't need those."

"Okay, then." Maddy picked up the pills and put them in her pocket. "That's all I have to say."

"What do you mean?" Tally asked.

David squeezed her hand. "That's all we can do, Tally."

"What? You said we could cure her."

Maddy shook her head. "Only if she wants to be cured. These are experimental, Tally. We can't give them to someone against her will. Not when we don't know if they'll work."

"But her mind…she's got the lesions!"

"Hello," Shay called. "She is sitting right here."

"Sorry, Shay," Maddy said mildly. "Tally?"

Maddy pulled aside the Mylar barrier, stepping out onto what the New Smokies called the balcony. It was really just part of the top floor of the building, where the roof had entirely collapsed, leaving sweeping views of the ruins.

Tally followed. Behind her, Shay was already talking about what was for dinner. David came out a moment later.

"So, we give her the pills secretly, right?" Tally whispered.

"No," Maddy said firmly. "We can't. I'm not going to do medical experiments on unwilling subjects."

"Medical experiments?" Tally swallowed.

David took her hand. "You can't know for sure how something like this will work. It's only a one-percent chance, but it could screw up her brain forever."

"It's already screwed up."

"But she's happy, Tally." David shook his head. "And she can make decisions for herself."

Tally pulled her hand away, staring out over the city. A sparkler was already showing on the tall spire, uglies come to gossip and trade. "Why did we even have to ask? They didn't get her permission when they did this to her!"

"That's the difference between us and them," Maddy said. "After Az and I found out what the operation really meant, we realized we'd been party to something horrible. People had had their minds changed without their knowledge. As doctors, we took an ancient oath never to do anything like that."

Tally looked into Maddy's face. "But if you weren't going to help Shay, why did you bother finding a cure?"

"If we knew the treatment would work safely, then we could give it to Shay and see how she felt about it later. But to test it, we need a willing subject."

"Where are we ever going to find one? Anyone who's pretty is going to say no."

"Maybe for right now, Tally. But if we keep making inroads into the city, we might find a pretty who wants out."

"But we know Shay's crazy."

"She's not crazy," Maddy said. "Her arguments make sense, in fact. She's happy as she is, and doesn't want to take a deadly risk."

"But she's not really herself. We have to change her back."

"Az died because someone thought like that," Maddy said grimly.

"What?"

David put his arm around her. "My father…" He cleared his throat, and Tally waited in silence. Finally he would tell her how Az had died.

He took a slow breath before continuing. "Dr. Cable wanted to turn them all, but she was worried that Mom and Dad might talk about the brain lesions, even after the operation, because they'd been focused on them for so long." David's voice trembled, but it was soft and careful, as if he didn't dare put any emotion into the words. "Dr. Cable was already working on ways to change memories, a way of erasing the Smoke forever from people's minds. When they took my father for the operation, he never came back."

"That's awful," Tally whispered. She gathered him into a hug.

"Az was the victim of a medical experiment, Tally," Maddy said. "I can't do the same thing to Shay.

Otherwise, she'd be right about me and Dr. Cable."

"But Shay ran away. She didn't want to become pretty."

"She doesn't want to be experimented on, either."

Tally closed her eyes. Through the Mylar shade, she could hear Shay telling Ryde about the hairbrush she'd made. For days she'd proudly shown the little brush, made of splinters of wood shoved into a lump of clay, to anyone who would listen. As if it were the most important thing she'd ever done.

They had risked everything to rescue her. But they had nothing to show for it. Shay would never be the same.

And it was all Tally's fault. She'd come to the Smoke, and had brought the Specials, leaving Shay an empty-headed pretty, and Az dead.

She took a deep breath. "Okay, you've got a willing subject."

"What do you mean, Tally?"

"Me."

Confessions

"What?" David said.

"Your taking the pills won't prove anything, Tally," Maddy said. "You don't have the lesions."

"But I will have them. I'll go back to the city and get caught, and Dr. Cable will give me the operation. In a few weeks, you come and get me. Give me the cure. You've got your subject."

The three of them stood there in silence. The words had poured out of Tally of their own accord. She could hardly believe she'd uttered them.

"Tally…" David shook his head. "That's crazy."

"It's not crazy. You need a willing subject. Someone who agrees before they become pretty that they want to be cured, experimental or not. It's the only way."

"You can't give yourself up!" David cried.

Tally turned toward Maddy. "You said you're ninety-nine percent sure these pills will work, right?"

"Yes. But the one percent could leave you a vegetable, Tally."

"One percent? Compared to breaking into Special Circumstances, that's a breeze."

"Tally, stop it." David took her shoulders. "It's too dangerous."

"Dangerous? David, you can get across into New Pretty Town no problem. City uglies do it all the time.

Just grab me out of my mansion and stick me on a board. I'll come with you, just like Shay did. Then you cure me."

"What if the Specials decide to change your memory? Like they did my father's?"

"They won't," Maddy said.

David stared at his mother in surprise.

"They didn't bother with Shay. She remembers the Smoke just fine. Az and I were the only ones they were worried about. Because we'd been focused on the brain lesions for half our lives, they figured we'd never shut up about them, even as pretties."

"Mom!" David cried. "Tally's not going anywhere."

"And besides," Maddy continued, "Dr. Cable wouldn't do anything to hurt Tally."

"Stop talking like this is going to happen!"

Tally looked into Maddy's eyes. The woman nodded. She knew.

"David," Tally said. "I have to do this."

"Why?"

"Because of Shay. It's the only way that Maddy will cure her. Right?"

Maddy nodded.

"You don't have to save Shay," David said slowly and evenly. "You've done enough for her. You followed her to the Smoke, rescued her from Special Circumstances!"

"Yeah, I've done a lot for her." Tally took a breath. "I'm the reason she's like this, pretty and brainless."

David shook his head. "What are you talking about?"

She turned to him, taking his hand. "David, I didn't come to the Smoke just to make sure Shay was okay. I came to bring her back to the city." She sighed. "I came to betray her."

Tally had imagined telling her secret to David so many times, rehearsing this speech to herself almost every night, that she could hardly believe this wasn't just another nightmare in which the truth was forced from her. But as the reality of the moment sank in, she found the words spilling out in a torrent.

"I was a spy for Dr. Cable. That's how I knew where Special Circumstances was. That's why the Specials came to the Smoke. I brought a tracker with me."

"You're not making any sense," David said. "You fought when they came. You escaped.

You helped rescue my mother…"

"I'd changed my mind. And I never meant to activate the tracker, honestly. I wanted to live in the Smoke. But the night before the invasion, after I found out about the lesions…"

She closed her eyes.

"After we kissed, I accidentally set it off."

"What?"

"My locket. I didn't mean to. I wanted to destroy it. But I'm the one who brought the Specials to the Smoke, David. I'm the reason why Shay is pretty. It's my fault your father's dead."

"You're making this up! I'm not going to let you-" "David," Maddy said sharply, silencing her son, "she's not lying."

Tally opened her eyes. Maddy was looking at her sadly.

"Dr. Cable told me everything about how she manipulated you, Tally. I didn't believe her at first, but the night you rescued us, she'd just brought Shay down to confirm it."

Tally nodded. "Shay knew I was a traitor, at the end."

"She still knows," Maddy said. "But it doesn't matter to her anymore. That's why Tally has to do this."

"You're both crazy!" David shouted. "Look, Mom, just get off your high horse and give Shay the pills."

He reached out his hand. "I'll do it for you."

"David, I won't let you turn yourself into a monster. And Tally's made her choice."

David looked at them both, unable to believe any of it. Finally, he found words. "You were a spy?"

"Yes. At first."

He shook his head.

"Son." Maddy stepped forward, trying to hold him.

"No!" He turned and ran, tearing the Mylar shade down and leaving the others inside speechless; even Shay was shocked into silence.

Before Tally could follow, Maddy took her arm in a firm grip. "You should go to the city now."

"Tonight? But-" "Otherwise, you'll talk yourself out of it. Or David will."

Tally pulled away. "I have to say good-bye to him."

"You have to go."

Tally stared at Maddy and slowly realized the truth. Although the woman's gaze held more sadness than anger, there was something cold in her eyes. David might not blame her for Az's death, but Maddy did.

"Thank you," Tally said softly, forcing herself to hold Maddy's gaze.

"For what?"

"For not telling him. For letting me do it myself."

Maddy shook her head, managing a smile. "David needed you these last two weeks."

Tally swallowed and stepped away, looking at the city. "He still needs me."

"Tally-" "I'll go tonight, all right? But I know that David will be the one who brings me back."

Down the River

Before leaving, Tally wrote a letter to herself.

It was Maddy's idea, to put her consent in writing. That way, even as a pretty, unable to comprehend why she would ever want her brain fixed, Tally could at least read her own words and know what was about to happen.

"Whatever makes you feel better," Tally said. "As long as you cure me, no matter what I say. Don't leave me like Shay."

"I'll cure you, Tally. I promise. I just need written consent." Maddy handed her a pen and a small, precious piece of paper.

"I never learned penmanship," Tally said. "They don't require it anymore."

Maddy shook her head sadly and said, "Okay. You dictate, and I'll write it."

"Not you. Shay can write it for me. She took a class, back when she was trying to get to the Smoke."

Tally remembered the scrawl of Shay's directions to the Smoke, clumsy but readable.

The letter didn't take long. Shay giggled at Tally's heartfelt words, but she wrote them down as directed.

There was something earnest in the way she put stylus to paper, like a littlie learning how to read.

When they were finished, David still hadn't come back. He'd taken one of the hoverboards in the direction of the ruins. As she put away her things, Tally kept glancing at the window, hoping he would return.

But Maddy was probably right. If Tally saw him again, she would just talk herself out of this. Or maybe David would stop her.

Or worse, maybe he wouldn't.

But no matter what David said now, he would always remember what she had done, the lives she had cost with her secrets. This was the only way Tally could be certain that he had forgiven her. If he came to rescue her, she would know.

"So, let's get moving," Shay said when they were done.

"Shay, I'm not going to be gone forever. I'd rather you…"

"Come on. I'm sick of this place."

Tally bit her lip. What was the point of giving herself up if Shay was coming too? Of course, they could always snatch her away again as well. Once the cure was proven to work, they could give it to anyone.

Or everyone.

"The only reason I've been hanging around this dump is to try to get you to come back," Shay said, then lowered her voice. "You know, it's my fault you're not already pretty. I messed up everything by running away. I owe you."

"Oh, Shay." Tally's head began to spin. She closed her eyes.

"Maddy always says I can go anytime. You don't want me to go back all alone, do you?"

Tally tried to imagine Shay hiking to the river alone. "No, I guess not." She looked at her friend's face and saw a spark in her eyes, something real ignited by the idea of going on a trip with Tally.

"Please! We'll have a blast in New Pretty Town."

Tally spread her hands. "Okay. I guess I can't stop you."

They rode together on one hoverboard. Croy came along on another, to take the boards back when they reached the city's edge.

He didn't talk the whole way down. The other New Smokies had all heard the fight outside, and finally knew what Tally had done. It must have been worse for Croy. He had suspected, and she'd lied to him face-to-face. He was probably wishing he'd stopped Tally himself before she'd had a chance to betray them all.

When they reached the greenbelt, though, he forced himself to look at her. "What did they do to you, anyway? To make you do something like that?"

"They said I couldn't turn, until I'd found Shay."

He looked away, staring at the lights of New Pretty Town, bright in the clear cold of a November night.

"So you're finally getting your wish."

"Yeah. I guess."

"Tally's going to be pretty!" Shay said.

Croy ignored her and looked at Tally again. "Thanks for rescuing me, though. That was some trick you guys pulled off. I hope that…" He shrugged, and shook his head. "See you later."

"I hope so."

Croy stuck the boards together and headed back up the river.

"This is going to be the best!" Shay said. "I can't wait for you to meet all my new friends.

And you can finally introduce me to Peris."

"Sure."

They walked down toward Uglyville until they found themselves in Cleopatra Park. The earth was hard underneath their feet in the late autumn chill, and they huddled close against the cold.

Tally wore her Smoke-made sweater. She'd wanted Maddy to keep it for her, but she'd left her microfiber jacket behind instead. City-made clothes were too valuable to waste on someone going back to civilization.

"You see, I was already getting popular," Shay was saying. "Having a criminal past is the only way into the really good parties. I mean, no one wants to hear about what classes you took in ugly school." She giggled.

"We should be a hit, then."

"Duh. When we tell everyone about your kidnapping me right out of Special Circumstances headquarters? And how I talked you into escaping from that band of freaks? But we're going to have to tone it down, Squint. No one's ever going to believe the truth!"

"No, you're right about that."

Tally thought of the letter she'd left with Maddy. Would she even believe the truth in a few weeks' time?

How would the words of a fugitive, desperate, tragic ugly look through pretty eyes?

For that matter, what was David going to look like after she'd been surrounded by new pretty faces twenty-four hours a day? Would she really believe all that stuff about ugliness again, or would she remember how someone could be beautiful even without surgery?

Tally tried to picture David's face, but it hurt to think of how long it would be before she saw him again.

She wondered how long it would take after the operation, before she would stop missing David. It might be a few days before the lesions completely took hold of her, Maddy had warned. But that didn't mean it was her own mind, changing itself.

Maybe if she decided to go on missing him, no matter what, Tally could keep her mind from changing.

Unlike most people, she knew about the lesions. Maybe she could beat them.

A dark shape passed overhead, a warden's hovercar, and Tally instinctively froze. The city uglies had said there were more patrols out these days. The regular authorities had finally noticed that things were changing.

The hovercar halted, then settled softly onto the earth next to them. A door slid open, and a blinding light popped on. "All right, you kids…oh, sorry, miss."

The light was on Shay's face. Then it flicked across to Tally.

"What are you two…?" The warden's voice stumbled. Didn't this beat everything? A pretty and an ugly taking a stroll together. The warden came closer, confusion all over his middle-pretty face.

Tally smiled. At least she was causing trouble to the end.

"I'm Tally Youngblood," she said. "Make me pretty."