coming from. It's not showing up anywhere.'
Tally hoisted her pack and snapped her fingers, her board rising into the air. As she stepped on, her mind still racing from the freezing bath, she recalled something from earlier that day. 'Toothache,' she said.
'What?'
'Zane was in the hospital two weeks ago. It's inside him.'
They swept back up the mountain, banking hard against the high gravities of their turns. Tally stayed in the lead, positive that she was right. The doctors had made Zane unconscious for a few minutes in the hospital while they'd repaired his broken hand. They must have hidden a tracker in his teeth at the same time. Of course, regular city doctors wouldn't have done something like that on their own — it had to be the work of Special Circumstances.
The camp was bedlam when they arrived. New Smokies and Crims ran in and out of the observatory door with equipment, clothing, and food, making two piles beside Croy and Maddy, who stood waving scanners over everything wildly. Others hurriedly repacked the scanned gear, getting ready to flee once the bug was found.
Tally tipped back her hoverboard and forced it up as high as it would go, launching herself over the chaos, directly at the broken dome. When the board reached its maximum height the lifters shuddered, then firmed up as the magnets found the steel frame of the observatory. The crack in the dome was wide enough to glide through, and Tally dropped straight down through the rising smoke, jumping off next to Zane's makeshift bed.
He looked up at her with a soft smile. 'Nice entrance, Tally.'
She knelt beside him. 'Which tooth hurts?'
'What's going on? Everyone's freaking out.'
'Which tooth hurts, Zone? You have to show me.'
He frowned, but stuck a trembling finger into his mouth, tenderly probing the right side. Tally pulled his hand away and opened his mouth wider, and he made a whimper of protest.
'Shush. I'll explain in a second.'
Even in the dim firelight, she could see it: One tooth stood out from the others, its shade of white imperfectly matched — a rushed bit of dentistry, of course.
The signal was coming from Zane.
The wheep of a scanner booting up sounded beside her ear; David had followed her down the hole into the dome. He waved the scanner past Zane's face, and it buzzed angrily. 'It's in his mouth?' David asked.
'In his tooth! Get your mother.'
'But, Tally—' 'Get her! You and I can't take out a tooth!'
He put a hand on her shoulder. 'Neither can she. Not in a few minutes.'
She stood, staring into his ugly face. 'What are you saying, David?'
'Well have to leave him behind. They'll be here soon.'
'No!' she shouted. 'Go get her!'
David swore and turned away, running toward the door of the observatory. Tally looked down at Zane again.
'What's happening?' he asked.
'They put a tracker in you, Zane. At the hospital.'
'Oh,' he said, rubbing his face. 'I didn't know, Tally, honest. I thought my toothache was from all this wild food.'
'Of course you didn't know. You were unconscious for those minutes at the hospital, remember?'
'Are they really going to leave me?'
'I won't let them. I promise.'
'I can't go back,' he said weakly. 'I don't want to be pretty-minded again.'
Tally swallowed. If Zane was returned to the city now, the doctors would put the lesions back in, right on top of his blank new tissue. His brain would rewire around them…What chance would he have of staying bubbly?
She couldn't let this happen.
'I'll take you on my hoverboard, Zane — we'll escape on our own if we have to.' Her mind raced. She'd still have to get rid of the tracker somehow. She couldn't just bash it out with a rock…Tally looked around for some sort of tool, but the New Smokies had taken everything useful outside to be scanned.
Voices came from the darkness. It was Maddy, David, and Croy. Tally saw that Maddy was carrying some sort of forceps in her hand, and her heart skipped a beat.
Maddy knelt beside Zane and forced open his mouth. He whimpered in pain again as the metal tool probed his teeth.
'Be careful,' Tally pleaded softly.
'Hold this.' Maddy handed her a flashlight. When Tally pointed it into Zane's mouth, the discolored tooth was obvious.
After a moment, Maddy said, 'This isn't good.' She released Zane's head, and he fell back onto the blankets with a groan, his eyes closing.
'Just take it out!'
'They've rooted it to the bone.' She turned to Croy. 'Finish packing up. We have to run.'
'Do something for him!' Tally cried.
Maddy took the light from her. 'Tally, it's bonded to the bone. I'd have to shatter his jaw to remove it.'
'So don't take it out, just make it stop sending! Smash the tooth! He can take it!'
Maddy shook her head. 'Pretty teeth are made of the same stuff they use in aircraft wings. You can't just smash them. I'd need special dental nanos to break it down.' She turned the flashlight on Tally, reaching for her mouth.
Tally twisted away. 'What are you doing?'
'Just making sure about you.'
'But I didn't go into the hos—,' Tally began, but Maddy wrenched open her mouth. Tally growled at the back of her throat, but let the woman poke around for a moment; it was quicker than arguing. When she grunted and let go, Tally said, 'Satisfied?'
'For now. But we have to leave Zane behind.'
'Forget it!' Tally shouted.
'They'll be here in another ten minutes,' David said.
'Less.' Maddy stood.
Tally's vision swam with spots from the little flashlight. She could hardly see their faces in the firelight. Didn't they understand what Zane had gone through to get here, what he had sacrificed for the cure? 'I won't leave him.'
'Tally—,' David began.
'It doesn't matter,' Maddy interrupted. 'Technically, she's still a pretty-head.'
'I am not!'
'You didn't even take the right pill.' Maddy put a hand on David's shoulder. 'Tally's still got the lesions. Once they scan her brain, they won't even put her under the knife. They'll think she just came along for the ride.'
'Mom!' David shouted. 'We are not leaving her!'
'And I'm not coming,' Tally said.
Maddy shook her head. 'Perhaps the lesions aren't as important as we thought. Your father always suspected that being pretty-minded is simply the natural state for most people. They want to be vapid and lazy and vain' — Maddy glanced at Tally—'and selfish. It only takes a twist to lock in that part of their personalities. He always thought that some people could think their way out of it.'
'Az was right,' Tally said softly. 'I'm cured now.' David let out a pained growl. 'Cured or not, Tally, you can't stay here. I don't want to lose you again! Mom! Do something!'
'You want to argue with her? Go ahead.' Maddy spun on one heel and strode toward the observatory entrance. 'We're leaving in two minutes,' she said without turning around. 'With or without you.'
David and Tally were silent for a few moments. It was like when they'd first seen each other in the ruins that morning, neither knowing what to say. Though now, Tally realized, David's face no longer shocked her. Maybe the
