'Calm down?' Tally muttered, her eyes scanning the room. The walls were lined with machines, all of them flickering with activity. In the room's center was an operating tank, life-support liquid slowly gurgling into it, a breathing tube hanging loosely, waiting to be put to use. Scalpels and vibrasaws waited on a nearby table.
Lying on the floor were a pair of unconscious men in hospital scrubs—one a middle pretty, the other young enough to sport leopard spots all over his downy fur. At the sight of them, the past twenty-four hours came rushing back to Tally: Random Town, being captured, the threatened operation to make her average again.
She twitched against the ankle restraints, needing to escape this room now.
'Almost got it,' Shay said soothingly.
Tally's right arm itched, and she found a braid of wires and tubes stuck into it, life support for major surgery. She hissed and ripped them out. Blood spattered across the spotless white floor, but it didn't hurt—the collision between anesthetic and whatever Shay had used to awaken her had filled Tally with a pain-numbing fury.
When Shay finally got the second ankle strap unlocked, Tally leaped up, her fingers curled.
'Um, maybe you better put this on,' Shay said, tossing her a sneak suit. Tally looked down at herself. She was wearing another disposable nightgown: pink with blue dinosaurs.
'What is it with hospitals?' she shouted, ripping the gown off and sticking one foot into the suit.
'Quiet down already, Tally-wa,' Shay hissed…'I've plugged the sensors, but even randoms can hear you shouting like that, you know. And don't turn on your skintenna yet. It'll give us away.'
'Sorry, Boss.' A sudden wave of dizziness came over Tally; she'd stood up too fast. But she managed to slide her legs into the sneak suit and pull it up around her shoulders. Detecting her wild heart rate, it booted up straight into armored mode, scales rippling, then lying flat and hard.
'No, tune it this way,' Shay whispered, one hand on the door. Her own suit was set to a pale blue, the color of hospital scrubs.
As Tally tuned her suit, trying to match the color of Shay's, her head still spun with wild energy. 'You came for me,' she said, trying to keep her voice low.
'I couldn't let them do this to you.'
'But I thought you hated me.'
'I hate you sometimes, Tally. Like I've never hated anybody else before.' Shay snorted. 'Maybe that's why I keep coming back for you.'
Tally swallowed, looking around once more at the operating tank, the table full of cutting instruments, all the tools that would have turned her average again—despecialized her, as Shay had put it. 'Thanks, Shay-la.'
'No problem. Ready to get out of here?'
'Wait, Boss.' Tally swallowed. 'I saw Fausto.'
'So did I.' There was no anger in Shay's voice, simply a statement of fact.
'But he's …'
'I know.'
'You know …' Tally took a step forward, her mind still spinning from waking up, from everything that was happening. 'But what are we going to do about him, Shay?'
'We have to go, Tally. The rest of the Cutters are waiting for us on the roof. Something big is coming. A lot bigger than the Smokies.'
Tally frowned. 'But what—?'
The shriek of an alarm split the air.
'They must be getting close!' Shay cried. 'We have to go!' She grabbed Tally's hand and pulled her through the door.
Tally followed, her mind reeling, her feet still unsteady beneath her. Outside the room, a long, straight hallway stretched in both directions, the alarm echoing down its length. People in hospital scrubs were spilling out of doors on either side, filling the hallway with confused babble.
Shay sprinted away, slipping among the stunned doctors and orderlies like they were statues. She was so light-footed and quick, the milling crowd hardly noticed the matching pale blue streak hurtling through them.
Tally thrust aside her questions and followed, but her just-woken-up dizziness was fading very slowly. She dodged people as best she could, plowing straight through any who got in her way. She caromed off bodies and the walls, but managed to keep moving, letting her wild energy carry her.
'Stop!' a voice shouted. 'Both of you!'
In front of Shay, a cluster of wardens stood in their yellow-and-black uniforms, shock-sticks glowing in the soft, pastel light.
Shay didn't hesitate, her suit turning black as she plunged into them, hands and feet flashing. The air filled with the smell of fresh lightning as shock-sticks struck her armored scales, sizzling like mosquitoes frying on a bug light. She spun wildly amid the fracas, sending yellow figures staggering in all directions.
By the time Tally reached the struggle, only two wardens were left standing, backing down the hall and trying to ward off Shay, their shock-sticks flailing through the air. Tally stepped up behind one and grabbed her by the wrist, twisting it with a snap and pushing her into the other, sending them both sprawling to the floor.
'No need to break them, Tally-wa.'
Tally looked down at the woman, who was clutching her wrist, a pained cry spilling from her lips. 'Oh, sorry, Boss.'
'It's not your fault, Tally. Come on.' Shay pushed through the stairwell door and headed upward, taking each flight in two long bounds. Tally trailed behind, her dizziness almost under control, the manic energy from the wake- up shot fading a little as she ran. The stairwell doors closed behind them, dampening the earsplitting shriek of the alarm.
She wondered what had happened to Shay, where she had been all this time. How long had the other Cutters been here in Diego?
But the questions could wait. Tally was simply glad to be free again, fighting alongside Shay and being special. Nothing could stop the two of them together.
A few flights up, the stairs came to an end. They burst through the last door and onto the roof. The night overhead glittered with thousands of stars, beautifully clear.
After the padded cell, it felt glorious to be out under the open sky. Tally tried to suck in a breath of fresh air, but the smell of hospital still poured from the forest of exhaust chimneys around them.
'Good, they're not here yet,' Shay said.
'Who isn't?' Tally asked.
Shay led her across the roof, toward the huge, darkened building next to the hospital—Town Hall, Tally remembered. Shay peered over the edge.
People were streaming out of the hospital, staff in pale blue and white, and patients in flimsy gowns—some walking, some being pushed along on hovercarriers. Tally heard the alarm echoing out of the windows below, and realized that the sound had changed to a two-toned evacuation signal.
'What's going on, Shay? They're not evacuating just because of us, are they?'
'No, not us.' Shay turned to her, put a hand on her shoulder. 'I need you to listen carefully, Tally This is important.'
'I'm listening, Shay. Just tell me what's going on!'
'All right. I know all about Fausto—I tracked down his skintenna signal the moment I got here, more than a week ago. He explained everything.'
'Then you know…he's not special anymore.'
Shay paused. 'I'm not sure if you're right about that, Tally.'
'But he's different, Shay. He's weak. I saw it in his …' Tally's voice faded as she peered closer, breath catching in disbelief. In Shay's eyes was a softness that had never been there before. But this was Shay, still so fast and deadly— she'd cut through those wardens like a scythe.
'He's not weak,' Shay said. 'Neither am I.'
Tally shook her head, pulled away, and stumbled back. 'They got you too.'
Shay nodded. 'It's okay, Tally-wa. It's not like they turned me into a bubblehead.' She took a step forward. 'But you have to listen.'
'Don't come near me!' Tally hissed, her hands curling.
'Wait, Tally, something big is happening.'
