'Must be tough on Zane, though,' Tally said. Hoverboards were heavy carrying without a grid beneath them.
'If you're going to worry about him this whole trip, Tally-wa, it's going to be extremely boring.'
'Sorry, Boss.'
'Relax, Tally. We won't let anything happen to your boy.' Shay dropped into the pine trees. Tally stayed up high for another moment, watching the little group's slow progress. It would be an hour before they made the river and could use their boards again, but she was reluctant to lose sight of the runaways out here in the wild.
'A little early in the trip to burn your fans out, don't you think?' Shay's voice came from below, intimate in the skintenna network's feed.
Tally sighed softly, then let herself descend.
An hour later, they were sitting on the riverbank waiting for the Crims to catch up.
'Eleven,' Shay said, tossing another rock. Spinning wildly, it skipped across the water as she counted aloud, finally sinking after the eleventh bounce.
'Hah! I win again!' Shay announced.
'No one else is playing, Shay-la.'
'It's me against nature. Twelve.' Shay threw again, the rock bouncing happily out into the middle of the river, dropping to the bottom after exactly twelve skips. 'Victory is mine! Come on, you try.'
'No thanks, Boss. Shouldn't we check on them again?'
Shay groaned. 'They'll be here soon, Tally. They were almost at the river last time you checked, which was about five minutes ago.'
'So why aren't they here yet?'
'Because they're resting, Tally. They're all tired after lugging their crappy boards through the forest.' She smiled. 'Or maybe they're cooking up a delicious feast of Spagbol.'
Tally grimaced. She wished the two of them hadn't flown ahead. The whole point of this trick was to stay close to the runaways. 'What if they went the other way? Rivers go two ways, you know?'
'Don't be so random, Tally-wa. Why would they head away from the ocean? Once you get past the mountains, there's nothing but desert for hundreds of kilometers. The Rusties called it Death Valley even before the weeds took over.'
'But what if they arranged to meet the Smokies back there? We don't know how much contact the Crims have had with outsiders.'
Shay sighed. 'Fine. Go and check.' She kicked at the dirt between her feet, trying to find another flat rock. 'Just don't stay up too long. They might have infrared.'
'Thanks, Boss.' Tally stood, snapping for her board.
'Thirteen,' Shay answered, and threw.
From up high, Tally could make out the runaways. As Shay had suspected, they were on the riverbank, unmoving, probably resting their feet. But as she tried to figure out which was Zane, Tally frowned.
Then she realized what was bothering her: There were nine glowing blobs of heat, not eight. Had they built a fire? Was some self-heating meal tricking her infrared?
She adjusted her vision to bring them into focus. The silhouettes sharpened until Tally was certain that all of them were human-size.
'Shay-la,' she whispered. 'They did meet someone.'
'Already?' Shay answered from below. 'Huh. I didn't think the Smokies would make it this easy.'
'Unless it's another ambush,' Tally said softly.
'Let them try. I'm coming up.'
'Hang on, they're moving.' The glowing forms were slipping out onto the river, headed toward her and Shay at hoverboard speed. But one remained behind, walking into the cover of the forest. 'They're on their way here, Shay. Eight of them, anyway. Somebody's going the other direction.'
'Okay, you follow that one. I'll stick with the Crims.'
'But—'
'Don't argue with me, Tally. I won't lose your boyfriend. Just get moving, and don't let them see you.'
'Okay, Boss.' Tally dropped toward the river to let her hoverboard's fans cool. Zooming toward the approaching Crims, she booted her suit, pulling the hood over her face. Tally angled closer to the bank and its cover of overhanging plants, slowing almost to a halt.
Within a minute, the Crims shot past, unaware, and she recognized Zane's unsteady form among the others.
'Got them,' Shay said a moment later. Her voice was already fading. 'If we go off river, I'll leave a skintenna beacon for you.'
'Okay, Boss.' Tally leaned forward, heading toward the mysterious ninth figure.
'Be careful, Tally-wa. I don't want to lose two Cutters in the one week.'
'No problem there,' Tally said. She wanted to get back to following Zane, not get captured herself. 'See you soon.'
'Miss you already…,' Shay said as her signal faded.
Tally's senses scanned the forests on either side of the river. The dark trees crowding the banks were full of infrared phantoms; small animals and nesting birds flashed past as random flickers of heat. But nothing human- size…
As Tally neared the spot where the Crims had met their mysterious friend, she slowed, crouching low on her board. She smiled, beginning to feel icy and excited. If this was another ambush, the Smokies were going to discover that they weren't the only ones who could turn invisible.
She glided to a halt on the muddy riverbank, stepping from her board and sending it into the sky to wait for her.
The spot where the Crims had stood was marked by a swarm of footprints. The smell of an unwashed human lingered in the air, someone who had been days or longer without a bath. That couldn't be one of the Crims, who'd smelled like recyclable clothes and nervousness.
Tally moved carefully into the trees, following the trail of scent.
Whoever she was following knew something about woodcraft. No broken branches marked a clumsy passage, and the undergrowth showed no telltale signs of footsteps. But the smell grew stronger as Tally moved ahead, enough to make her nose wrinkle. Running water or not, even Smokies didn't smell this bad.
A flicker of infrared glow came through the trees, a human form ahead of her. She paused a moment to listen, but hardly a sound carried through the forest: Whoever it was could move as silently as David.
Tally crept forward slowly, eyes scanning the ground for the subtle markers of a trail. Seconds later she found it—an almost invisible channel through the dense trees, the path that the figure was following.
Shay had warned her to be careful, and whoever this person was—Smokie or not—they wouldn't be easy to sneak up on. But perhaps one ambush deserved another…
Tally veered off the trail, running deeper into the forest. She moved silent and light-footed through the soft undergrowth, sweeping around her quarry in a slow arc until she found the trail again. Then she crept forward, ahead of them now, until she spotted a high tree branch that stretched directly over the path.
The perfect spot.
As she climbed, her suit-scales sprouted the rough texture of bark, its colors shifting into a dappled moonlit pattern. She clung to an overhanging branch, invisible and waiting, her heartbeat quickening.
The glowing figure came through the trees in total silence. There were no synthetic smells among those of unwashed humanity: no sunblock patches, insect repellent, or even a trace of soap or shampoo. As Tally flipped through vision overlays, she detected no signs of electronics or a heated jacket, and her ears didn't catch the slight buzz of night-vision goggles.
Not that equipment would help her quarry. Absolutely motionless in her sneak suit, hardly breathing, Tally was undetectable even to the best technology…
And yet, just as the figure passed below her, it slowed, cocking its head as if listening for something.
Tally held her breath. She knew she was invisible, but her heart beat faster, her senses amplifying the sounds
