'But you can't feel it?'
'Not through these gloves. I think the material was invented for shuttles coming back through the atmosphere. It can reflect a couple of thousand degrees.'
Tally nodded. 'And they're really thin, aren't they? From across the room, I couldn't even tell you had them on.'
'That's right.' The woman nodded happily. 'You can feel the texture of the glass right through them.'
'Wow.' Tally smiled prettily. The gloves would fit on under the cuffs, she could see now. 'Where can I get a pair?'
The woman nodded at a cupboard. Tally opened it and found dozens of gloves crammed inside, their reflective material glittering like fresh snow. She pulled two out. 'They're all the same size?'
'Yeah. They stretch to fit, all the way up past the elbows,' the woman said. 'Just make sure you throw them away after one use. They don't work very well the second time.'
'No problem.' Tally turned away with the gloves in a tight grip, relief flooding through her as she realized she wouldn't have to pull the triggers, wouldn't have to watch the crusher snap down on Zane's hand. A new and better plan unfolded in her mind like clockwork — she knew exactly where to find a powerful furnace, one they could take right to the edge of the city.
'Wait a second, Tally,' the woman said, a troubled note entering her voice.
Tally froze, realizing that the woman had recognized her. Of course, everyone who watched the feeds knew Tally Youngblood's face now. She wracked her brain for an innocent reason for needing the gloves, but everything she thought of sounded totally bogus. 'Um, yeah?'
'You've got two left gloves there.' The woman laughed. 'Not very useful, whatever trick you're planning.'
Tally smiled, letting a slow chuckle escape her lips. That's what you think. But she turned back to the cupboard and fished out two right gloves. It wouldn't hurt to protect both hands. 'Thanks for all your help,' she said.
'No problem.' The woman smiled beautifully, turning away, staring again into the curves of her piece of glass. 'Just be careful.'
'Don't worry,' Tally said. 'I always am.'
'Are you kidding? How do we requisition one in the middle of the night?' Fausto asked.
'We can't. We'll have to hijack it.' Tally put a backpack over her shoulder, and snapped for her board to follow. 'In fact, we should get a few. The more of us who go out that way, the better.'
'Hijack?' Zane said, checking the rewrapped scarf around his forearm. 'You mean steal them?'
'No, we'll ask nicely.' She grinned. 'Don't forget, Zane, we're the Crims. We're famous. Follow me.'
Outside the shop shed, she jumped on board and headed up toward the center of the island, where the tops of the party spires were always surrounded by parasails, hot-air balloons, and fireworks. The other two scrambled to follow. 'You pass the word to the rest of the Crims,' she shouted to Fausto. 'Tell them about the change in plans.'
He glanced at Zane for approval, then nodded, relieved that the crusher concept had been replaced by something less violent. 'How many of us do you want to go up with?'
'Nine or ten,' she said. 'Anyone who's not afraid of heights — the rest can go by hoverboard, as planned. We'll be ready in twenty minutes. Meet us in the center of town.'
'I'll be there,' Fausto said, and angled away into the night sky.
Tally turned to Zane. 'You okay?'
He nodded, slowly flexing the fingers of his gloved hand. 'I'll be fine. It's just taking me a second to switch gears.'
She brought her board closer to Zane's, taking his bare hand. 'It was brave, what you wanted to do.'
He shook his head. 'I guess it was stupid.'
'Yeah, maybe. But if we hadn't gone to the shop, I wouldn't have thought of this.'
He smiled. 'I'm pretty glad you did, to tell you the truth.' His hand flexed nervously again. Then he pointed ahead of them. 'There's a couple.'
She followed his gaze to the center of the island, where a pair of hot-air balloons floated like big bald heads above a party spire, the tethers that kept them in place catching the trembling light of safety fireworks.
'Perfect,' she said.
'One problem,' Zane said. 'How do we get that high on hoverboards?'
She thought for a moment. 'Very carefully.'
They climbed higher than she ever had, rising slowly alongside the party spire, close enough to reach out and touch its concrete wall. The metal inside the building provided barely enough push for the boards' lifters, and Tally felt a nervous-making tremble under her feet, like standing at the end of the highest diving board as a littlie. After a slow minute, they reached the spot where one of the balloons was tethered to the tower. Tally touched the tether with her bare hand, feeling its rain-slick links. 'No problem. It's metal.'
'Yeah, but is it enough metal?' Zane asked.
Tally shrugged.
He rolled his eyes. 'And you thought my plan was risky. Okay, I'll take the stupid-looking one.' He slid around the tower's girth to where the other balloon bobbed in the breeze. Tally grinned, seeing that it was shaped like a giant pig's head, with protruding ears and two big eyes painted on the pink nylon of its envelope.
At least her own balloon was a normal color: silvery and reflective, with a blue stripe around its equator. From up in the gondola she heard the unmistakable sound of a champagne cork popping, then laughter. It wasn't far away, but getting up was going to be tricky.
Her eyes followed the length of the tether, which drooped down before curving up to where it was attached to the gondola's bottom. The sinuous line reminded her of the roller coaster out in the Rusty Ruins. Of course, the roller coaster had a lot more metal in it, almost as if it had been designed for hoverboarding. This slender length of chain would provide slim pickings for her boards magnetic lifters.
And, unlike the roller coaster, the tether was in constant motion; the balloon was drifting slowly downward as the air in its envelope cooled, but Tally knew it would suddenly jump up and pull the tether taut if the burner was ignited. Worse, the Hot-airs might get bored of hovering around and decide to go for a night ride, releasing the tether and leaving nothing between Tally and the ground.
Zane was right: This wasn't the easiest way to get hold of a balloon, but there was no time to requisition one properly, or wait for the Hot-airs in the gondola to get bored and decide to land. If they were going to make it to the Rusty Ruins before dawn, the escape had to start soon. Maybe someone would find Shay while this new plan was unfolding.
Tally crept farther up the spire wall, rising until the tether ring was just under the center of her board. She nudged herself away from the party spire, drifting out over open space, balancing her hoverboard across the tether like a tightrope walker on a plank of wood.
She moved slowly forward, the lifters straining and trembling, their invisible magnetic fingers pushing down the chain. Once or twice, the board actually scraped the links, sending a shudder through Tally. She saw the balloon dip a little as her weight disrupted the delicate balance between hot air and gravity.
Tally descended until she reached the halfway point, then began to climb toward the balloon. Her board trembled harder as it left the party spire behind, until she was certain the lifters were about to fail, dumping her into a fifty-meter fall. From this height, crash bracelets were much worse than a bungee jacket — being jerked to a halt by her wrists would probably dislocate a shoulder.
Of course, that was nothing compared to what the crusher might have done.
But the lifters didn't fail; the board continued to rise, climbing up toward the gondola of the balloon. She heard a few shouts from the party spire's balcony behind her, and knew she and Zane had been spotted. What sort of bubbly new game was this?
A face appeared over the edge of the gondola, looking down with a surprised expression.
'Hey, look! Someone's coming!'
'What? How?'
