of the holograms. They were circling now, dropping garlands of roses, playing cards, flocks of mechanical doves, which spun on convection currents to the roof below, where they exploded, ripping steel and tarmac from under the boys' feet, billowing choking pink clouds of CS gas. 'What'd I tell you?' Zamora said. 'They're hotdogs. It's going to be a turkey shoot.'
But the power cut in, and the carbon arcs atop the light gantries glowed to life, blotting out the winged figures. 'Shit,' Zamora yelled, hurrying across the roof. 'Get him to detention,' he yelled to the Meat Boys. 'Lose him and it's your asses.'
The shorter Meat Boy, a WASPish blonde with bad teeth, nodded and pushed Jonny in the direction of the hovercar. 'Name's Stearn,' he said. 'This is Julio.' He jerked his thumb at the taller boy.
'We'll break your back if you get cute.' At about sixteen, Stearn was nearly a meter taller than Jonny, his voice unnaturally deep, his speech slurred by his distended acromegalic jaw.
At the base of the hovercar platform, Jonny panicked, knowing what would be waiting for him when they reached Committee headquarters. He twisted in Stearn's grip, the cheap paper shirt splitting at the shoulders, and vaulted up and over the hovercar. He caught a glimpse of the pilot inside, an amber death's head in the backwash from the navigation console. Down on the other side, Jonny leaped off the platform and ran for the edge of the roof, waving his arms and yelling at the Croakers. 'Here! I'm here!'
A fist, the size of Jonny's head, caught him between the shoulder blades and knocked him flat. A moment later, he was dragged to his feet. The Meat Boys double-timed him back to the hovercar. On the far end of the roof, Croakers were bringing their ultralights down, coasting to a halt amidst a wash of tear gas and Futukoro fire.
'All right!' yelled Jonny. 'They're gonna use your balls for paperweights, Ubu!'
Stearn released him and Julio shoved Jonny, back-first, through the canopy of the hovercar. He fell, staring up at the huge boot that hovered above his face, and passed over him as Julio settled into the seat on his right. The Meat Boy hauled him up as Stearn got in and sat, boxing Jonny in on the left.
Outside, the amplified voices continued: 'I am here by the will of the people and I won't leave until I get my raincoat back.'
Stearn snapped down the canopy and tapped the pilot on the shoulder, yelling 'Go!' The pilot hit the cut-in switch for the engines.
Sub-sonics rumbled in Jonny's guts as the hovercar's four Pratt and Whitney engines burned to life. Ultralights settled to the roof a few meters from the platform, and Croakers came scrambling for the car.
'Go! Vamonos!' yelled Stearn.
Jonny jammed his leg between the forward seats and swung his boot at the pilot's head. 'Keep still,' mumbled Stearn, shoving an elbow into Jonny's throat.
In a tear gas fog, the hovercar rose about two feet off the platform. And banged down again. Something silver flashed by the window. The pilot pushed the throttle forward, feeding more power to the engines. The hovercar slowly began to rise, and swung out over the street. Jonny saw Zamora below them, waving frantically.
One of the Meat Boy's cursed and Jonny looked up.
The sickle end of a kusairigama was wrapped around the light rack atop the car. Flash of a face in the window. Noise from the roof.
Jonny whooped at the sight. Three Croakers were chained to the roof as the hovercar flew unsteadily twenty stories above the city.
'I can't keep it steady,' the pilot said. 'There's something wrong.'
Julio, leaned forward. 'Look up, stupid,' he said.
The pilot turtled his head forward as an ax cracked the windshield just above him. He pulled back on the control stick, rocking the hovercar violently from side to side. The sound of metal and fragmenting plastic came from above. The Croakers were spread out on the roof, methodically hacking away at the canopy.
Stearn had his gun out, pointing it up at the crotch of a Croaker kneeling on the canopy above him. The pilot was still struggling with the stick. The car pitched to the left, a complaining animal, and the boy lost his aim.
'Hold it still. I can't get a shot off,' he yelled.
'No!' screamed the pilot. 'You might hit the stabilizers! It's hard enough to control now.'
'Then shake them off,' said Stearn.
'Right, hang on.'
The pilot cranked the stick hard to the left and the hovercar flipped. Jonny's feet left the floor. He reached out for the ceiling, dangling a few centimeters above the seat by his safetybelt. The Croakers were still outside, secured to the car by their chains.
'I can't hold it,' said the pilot. 'Load's too much.'
'Hold it,' Stearn ordered. He took aim at the Croaker by his window.
Jonny braced his back against the roof and rabbit punched the Meat Boy with both fists, driving his face into the glass. The Futukoro went off, blasting out the window. Shattered glass blew in on them like a thousand flying knives. The sound of hot wind and the scream of overworked turbines.
The pilot righted them. The Croakers clambered back onto the roof and went to work, hacking away at the body of the hovercar.
Stearn turned and stared at Jonny, jagged wedges of glass embedded around the boy's eyes and mouth, glittering there like savage jewels.
Stearn lunged and locked his thick fingers around Jonny's throat, squeezing. Jonny went for the boy's eyes, but missed, felt muscles in his neck tear, felt his breath stop, the world begin to slide away.
'Stop it!' Julio's voice cut through the wind. 'We've got to get him to detention,' he said. 'He's not yours!'
But Stearn kept on squeezing. Jonny heard a muffled explosion, and felt the fingers on his neck go slack. He struggled back. Stearn had jerked upright, his shoulders twitching convulsively. Then he fell forward, revealing a wet hole in his back.
'Move!' yelled the Croaker with the gun. She was leaning in the broken window, upside down, trying to get a shot at the other Meat Boy.
Jonny threw himself down on Stearn's body, heat of gunfire across his back. When he dared to look up, Jonny saw the Croaker out the window, lifeless puppet, chain slipping from around her wrist, dead already as she tumbled from the car.
Julio grunted some obscenity in Spanish. Jonny found him stuffing a handkerchief into the hole in his shoulder. The Committee boy smiled.
'I won't kill you,' he said, and pressed the barrel of his Futukoro into Jonny's groin. 'But I'll make you wish you were dead.'
'We're near the detention center,' shouted the pilot. 'I'm going to set us down there.'
'Do it fast,' Julio said. He pressed his back to the shattered window and slid part-way out.
Jonny felt his skin prickle at the thought of returning to Committee headquarters. The hovercar was skimming over the roofs of blacked-out skyscrapers. They neared Union Bank Plaza, with its dry fountains and dead, brittle trees. Jonny saw the freeway. If he could get the pilot to put the hovercar down there, he thought, he and the Croakers could hijack a car and disappear. Jonny glanced at Julio and saw the boy occupied with a Croaker who refused to hold still and get shot.
Using Stearn's body for cover, Jonny stamped his boot down and drew out his long bladed knife. Leaning between the forward seats, he touched the tip of the blade to the pilot's throat, pressing just hard enough to draw blood. The pilot's head snapped back. 'Set it down by that fountain,' Jonny whispered.
'Yes sir,' he said, and started a slow bank toward the Plaza.
Jonny heard a voice: 'What the hell are you doing?'
He swung around. Julio was pulled his head in through the window, and Jonny caught him on the chin with his boot heel. Two leather clad arms shot in behind the Meat Boy, latching onto handfuls of his hair, dragging him back out the window. Julio seemed to panic then; he waved his Futukoro all around the cabin, pointing it one moment at the Croaker who had him, then swinging the gun back at Jonny. As the he disappeared out the window, he pulled the trigger.
The pilot's head exploded, and the hovercar angled forward, nose-diving for the pavement.
Jonny reached under the body of the dead pilot and grabbed the stick. Above him, he could hear Julio still
