'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.'
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
