Over the Edge

The two waited all day in the Rusty Ruins, patches of sunlight crawling across the floor through the crumbling roof, like slow searchlights marking the hours. It took Tally ages to get to sleep, imagining the leap from the hilltop down into uncertainty. Finally she passed out, too tired to dream.

Awakening at dusk, she found that David had already packed two knapsacks with everything they might need during the rescue. They hoverboarded to the edge of the ruins, riding two sandwiched hoverboards each. Hopefully, they would need the extra boards when they emerged from Special Circumstances, escapees in tow.

Eating breakfast by the river, Tally took time to appreciate her SwedeBalls. If they got caught tonight, at least she would never have dehydrated food again. Sometimes Tally felt she could almost accept brain damage if it meant a life without reconstituted noodles.

As darkness fell, Tally and David reached the white water, and they passed through the greenbelt at the very moment the lights winked off in Uglyville. By midnight, they were atop the hill overlooking Special Circumstances.

Tally pulled out her binoculars and trained them inward, toward New Pretty Town, where the party towers were just coming alight.

David blew into his hands, his breath visible in the October chill. " You really think they'll do it? "

" Why not? " she said, watching the dark spaces of the city's largest pleasure garden. " They seemed into it."

" Yeah, but aren't they taking a big risk? I mean, they just met us."

She shrugged. " An ugly lives for tricks. Haven't you ever done something just because a mysterious stranger intrigued you? "

" I gave my gloves to one once. But it got me into all kinds of trouble."

She lowered the binoculars and saw that David was smiling. " You don't look as nervous tonight, " she said.

" I'm glad we're finally here, finally ready to-do something. And after those three kids agreed to help us, I feel like…"

" Like this might actually work? "

" No, something better." He looked down at the Special Circumstances compound. " They were so ready to help, just to make trouble, just to play a trick. At first, it killed me to hear you act like the Smoke still existed. But if there are enough uglies like them, maybe it will again."

" Of course it will, " she said softly.

David shrugged. " Maybe, maybe not. But even if we blow it tonight, and both wind up under the knife, at least someone will still keep fighting. Making trouble, you know? "

" I hope it's us, making trouble, " Tally said.

" Me too." He drew Tally closer, and kissed her. When he released her, Tally took a deep breath and closed her eyes. It felt better to kiss him, more real, now that she was about to begin undoing the damage she had done.

" Look, " David said.

In the dark spaces of New Pretty Town, something was happening.

She raised her binoculars.

A shimmering line cut its way across the black expanse of the pleasure garden, like a bright fissure opening in the earth. Then more lines appeared, one by one, tremulous arcs and circles sweeping through the darkness. The various segments seemed to sparkle into existence in random order, but they eventually formed letters, and words.

Finally, the whole glittering thing was finished, some parts of it newly sprung to life, the first few lines already starting to fade as the sparklers exhausted themselves. But for a few moments, Tally could read the whole thing, even without her binoculars. From Uglyville, it must have been huge, visible to anyone staring longingly out their window. It said: THE SMOKE LIVES.

As Tally watched it fade, breaking down into random lines and arcs again as the sparklers extinguished, she wondered if the words were really true.

" There they go, " David said.

Below them, a large circular opening had appeared in the largest building's roof, and three hovercars rose up through the gap in quick succession, screaming toward the city. Tally hoped that An, Dex, and Sussy had followed her advice and were long gone from New Pretty Town. " Ready? " she said.

In answer, David tightened the straps of his bungee jacket and jumped onto his boards.

They rode down the hill, turned around, and started back up.

For the tenth time, Tally checked the light on the collar of her jacket. It was still green, and she could see David's light bobbing along beside her. No excuses now.

They gained speed as they climbed toward the dark sky, the entire hill like a giant ramp before them.

The wind pushed Tally's hair back, and she blinked as bugspinged against her face. She slid carefully toward the front of the paired boards, the toes of one grippy shoe sticking out past the riding surface.

Then the horizon seemed to slip away in front of her, and Tally crouched, ready to jump.

The ground disappeared.

Tally pushed off with all her strength, forcing her hoverboards down the steep side of the hill, where they would bring themselves to a halt. She and David had switched off their crash bracelets-they didn't want the boards following them over the wire. Not yet.

Tally soared into midair, still climbing for a few more seconds. The outer city lay below her, a vast patchwork of light and dark. She spread her arms and legs.

At the peak of her arc, the silence seemed to overwhelm everything-her stomach-churning weightlessness, the mix of excitement and fear rushing through her, the wind against her face. Tally tore her eyes from the silently waiting earth and dared a glance at David. Hardly an arm's length away, he was looking back at her, his face alight.

She grinned at him and turned back to see that the ground was approaching now, the speed of her fall building slowly. As she'd calculated, they were coming down right in the middle of the wire. Tally began to anticipate the sickening jolt of her bungee jacket pulling her up.

For long moments nothing happened, except the ground getting closer, and Tally wondered again if bungee jackets could handle a fall from this distance. A hundred versions of what a hard landing would feel like managed to squeeze into her head. Of course, it probably wouldn't feel like anything.

Ever again.

The ground grew closer and closer, until Tally was certain something had gone wrong.

Then, with sudden violence, the straps of the jacket came alive, cutting cruelly into her thighs and shoulders, crushing the air from her lungs, the pressure building as if a huge rubber band were wrapped around her, trying to bring her to a halt. The bare dirt of the compound rushed up toward her, looking flat and packed and hard, the jacket fighting her momentum desperately now, crushing her like a fist in its grasp.

Finally, the invisible rubber band stretching toward its breaking point, she slowed to a shuddering halt within reach of the ground, pulling her hands back to keep from touching it, her eyeballs straining forward as if they wanted to pop out of her skull.

Then her fall reversed, and she pulled back upward, hover-bouncing head over heels, sky and horizon spinning around her like a playground ride. Tally had no idea where David was-or where up and down were, for that matter. This jump was ten times her plunge off Garbo Mansion. How many bounces would it take to come to a stop?

Now she was falling again, the dirt of the compound replaced by a building below her.

One foot almost touched down onto the roof, but Tally was pulled up again, still barreling forward with the momentum of her leap off the hill.

She managed to orient herself, sorting out up and down just in time to see the edge of the roof coming toward her. She was overshooting the building….

Flailing in the grasp of the jacket, flying helplessly upward and then down again, she passed the roof's edge. But her outstretched hand caught a rain gutter, bringing Tally to a sudden halt. " Phew, " she said, looking down.

The building wasn't very tall, and Tally would bounce in her jacket if she fell, but the moment her feet touched the ground, the wire would sound an alarm. She gripped the rain gutter with both hands.

But the bungee jacket, satisfied that her fall had stopped, was shutting itself down, gradually returning her to normal weight. She struggled to pull herself up onto the roof, but the heavy knapsack full of rescue equipment dragged her downward. It was like trying to do a pull-up wearing lead shoes.

She hung there, out of ideas, waiting to fall.

Footsteps came toward her along the roof, and a face appeared.

David.

" Having trouble? "

She grunted an answer, and he reached over, grabbing a strap of the knapsack. The weight mercifully lifted from her shoulders, and Tally pulled herself over the edge.

David sat back onto the roof, shaking his head. " So, Tally, you used to do that for fun? "

" Not every day."

" Didn't think so. Can we rest for a minute? "

She scanned the rooftop. No one coming, no alarms ringing. Apparently, the wire wasn't built to sense them up there. Tally smiled.

" Sure. Take two minutes, if you want. It looks like the Specials weren't expecting anyone to jump out of the sky."

Inside

The roof of Special Circumstances had looked flat and featureless from way up on top of the hill. But standing on it, Tally could see air vents, antennae, maintenance hatchways, and of course the big circular door that the hovercars had come through, now closed. It was a wonder neither she nor David had cracked their heads hover-bouncing across it.

" So how do we get in? " David asked.

" We should start with this." She pointed toward the hovercar door.

" Don't you think they'll notice if we come through there and we're not a hovercar? "

" Agreed. But what if we jam the door? If any more Specials show up, we don't want to make it easy for them to come in after us."

" Good idea." David searched through his knapsack, bringing out what looked like a tube of hair gel. He squeezed out white goo along the edges of the door, careful not to let any touch his fingers.

" What's that? "

" Glue. The nano kind. You can stick your shoes to the ceiling with this stuff and hang upside down."

Tally's eyes widened. She'd heard rumors of tricks you could play with nanotech glue, but uglies weren't allowed to requisition it. " Tell me you haven't done that."

He smiled. " I had to leave them up there. Waste of good shoes. So how do we get down? "

Tally pulled a powerjack from her pack and pointed. " We take the elevator."

The big metal box sticking up from the roof looked like a storage shed, but the double doors and eye-reader gave it away. Tally squinted, making sure the reader didn't flash her, and worked her powerjack between the doors. They crumpled like foil.

Through the doors, a dark shaft dropped away to nothingness. Tally clicked her tongue, and the echoes indicated that it was a long way down. She glanced at her collar light. Still green.

Tally turned to David. " Wait for me to whistle."

She stepped off into thin air.

Falling down the shaft was much scarier than leaping off Garbo Mansion, or even flying into space from the hilltop. The darkness offered no clue how deep the shaft was, and it felt to Tally as if she might fall forever.

She sensed the walls rushing past, and wondered if she was drifting toward one side as she fell, about to crash against it. She imagined herself bouncing from one wall to another all the way down, coming to a soft landing already broken and bleeding.

Tally kept her arms close to her sides.

At least she was sure the jacket would work in here. Elevators used the same magnetic lifters as any other hovercraft, so there was always a solid metal plate at the bottom.

After a long count of five, the jacket gripped Tally. She bounced twice, straight up and down, then settled onto a hard surface and found herself in silence and absolute blackness.

Stretching out her hands, she felt the four walls around her. Nothing suggested the inside of closed doors. Her fingers came away greasy.

Tally peered upward. A tiny shaft of light shone above, and she could just make out David's face peering down. She pursed her lips to whistle, but stopped.

A muffled sound came from below her feet. Someone talking.

She crouched, trying to grasp the words. But all Tally could hear was the razor sound of a cruel pretty's voice. The mocking tone reminded her of Dr. Cable.

Without warning, the floor dropped out from under her. Tally struggled to keep her footing. When the elevator stopped again, one of her ankles twisted painfully under her weight, but she managed not to fall.

The sound below her faded. One thing was certain now: The complex wasn't empty.

Tally lifted her head and whistled, then huddled in one corner of the shaft, hands covering her head, counting.

Five seconds later, a pair of feet dangled next to her, then jerked back up, the beam of David's flashlight swinging around drunkenly. Gradually, he settled beside her. " Wow. It's dark down here."

" Shhh, " she hissed.

He nodded, sweeping the flashlight around the shaft. Just above them, it fell on the inside of closed doors. Of course. Standing on the elevator's roof, they were midway between floors.

Tally interlaced her fingers, locking her hands together to give David a boost up to where he could wedge the powerjack between the doors. They crumpled open with a metal screech that set her hair on end. He pulled himself through, then extended his hand back down to her. Tally grabbed it and pulled, her grippy shoes squeaking on the walls of the elevator shaft like a herd of panicked mice.

Everything was making too much noise.

The hallway was dark. Tally tried to convince herself that no one had heard them yet.

Maybe this whole floor was empty at night.

She pulled out her own flashlight, pointing it at the doors as they walked down the hall.

Small brown labels marked each of them.

" Radiology. Neurology. Magnetic Imaging, " she read softly. " Operating Theater Two."

She looked at David. He shrugged and gave the door a push. It opened.

" I guess when you're in an underground bunker, there's no point in locking up, " he said softly. " After you."

Tally crept inside. The room was big, the walls lined with dark and silent machines. An operating tank stood in the middle, the liquid drained out of it, tubes and electrodes hanging loosely in a puddle at the bottom. A metal table glistened with the cruel shapes of knives and vibrasaws.

" This looks like photos Mom showed me, " David said. " They do the operation here."

Tally nodded. Doctors only put you in a tank if they were doing major surgery.

" Maybe this is where they make Specials special, " she said. The thought didn't cheer her up.

They returned to the hall. A few doors later, they found a room labeled MORGUE.

" Do you…, " she started to ask.

David shook his head. " No."

They searched the rest of the floor. Basically, it was a small, well-equipped hospital. There were no torture chambers or prison cells.

And no Smokies.

" Where to now? "

" Well, " Tally said. " If you were the evil Dr. Cable, where would you put your prisoners."

" The evil who? "

" Oh. That's her name, the woman who runs this place. I remember from when I got busted."

David frowned, and Tally wondered if she'd said too much.

Then he shrugged. " I guess I'd put them in the dungeon."

" Okay. Down, then."

They found a set of fire stairs that led down, but they ended after only one flight.

Apparently, they had reached the bottom floor of Special Circumstances.

" Careful, " Tally whispered. " Before, I heard people getting out of the elevator below me.

They must be somewhere down here."

This floor was lit by a soft glowstrip running down the middle of the hallway. A cold finger crept down Tally's spine as she read the labels on the doors.

" Interrogation Room One. Interrogation Room Two. Isolation Room One, " she whispered, her flashlight flickering across the words like an anxious firefly. " Disorientation Room One. Oh, David, they must be down here somewhere."

He nodded, and pushed one of the doors softly, but it didn't budge. He ran his fingers around the edge, searching for a place where the powerjack could get purchase.

" Don't let the eye-reader flash you, " Tally warned softly. She pointed at the little camera by the door. " If it thinks it sees an eye, it'll read your iris and check with the big computer."

" It won't have any record of me."

" And that will freak it out totally. Just don't get too close. It's automatic."

" Okay, " David said, nodding. " These doors are too smooth, anyway. No place to fit a jack in. Let's keep looking."

Farther down the hall, a label caught Tally's eye. " Long-Term Detention, " she whispered.

The door had a long expanse of blank wall on either side, as if the room behind it was bigger than the others.

She put her ear to it, listening for any hint of sound.

She heard a familiar voice. It was coming closer. " David! " she hissed, pulling away from the door and throwing herself against the wall. David looked around frantically for a place to hide. Both of them were in plain view.

The door slid open, and Dr. Cable's malevolent voice poured out.

" You're simply not trying hard enough. You just have to convince her that-" " Dr. Cable, " Tally said.

The woman spun to face Tally, her hawklike features twisted in surprise.

" I'd like to give myself up."

" Tally Youngblood? How-" From behind, David's powerjack thudded against the side of Dr. Cable's head, and she slumped to the floor.

" Is she…, " David stammered. His face was white.

Tally knelt and turned Dr. Cable's head to inspect the wound. No blood, but she was out cold. No matter how formidable cruel pretties were, surprise still had its advantages.

" She'll be okay."

" Dr. Cable? What's going-" Tally turned toward the voice, her eyes taking in the young woman before her.

She was tall and elegant, every feature perfection. Her eyes-deep and soulful, flecked with copper and gold-widened with a troubled look. Her generous lips parted wordlessly, and she raised one graceful hand. Tally's heart almost stopped at the beauty of her confusion.

Then recognition filled the woman's face, her broad smile illuminating the darkness, and Tally felt herself smiling in return. It felt good to make this woman happy.

" Tally! It is you."

It was Shay. She was pretty.

Rescue

" Shay…"

" You made it! " Shay's stunning smile faded as she looked down at the crumpled form of Dr. Cable.

" What's with her? "

Tally blinked, awed by the transformation of her friend. Shay's beauty seemed to snuff out everything inside Tally; her fear, surprise, and excitement fled, leaving nothing but amazement. " You…turned."

" Duh, " she said. " David! You're both okay! "

" Uh, hi." His voice was dry, his hands shaking as they gripped the powerjack. " We need your help, Shay."

" Yeah, I guess you do." She looked down at Dr. Cable again and sighed. " You guys still know how to make trouble, I see."

Tally averted her eyes from Shay's beauty, trying to focus her thoughts. " Where's everyone else?

David's parents? Croy? "

" Right in here." Shay gestured over one shoulder. " All locked up. Dr. C has been totally bogus to us."

" Keep her here, " David said. He pushed past Shay and through the door. Tally saw a row of small doors inside the long room, each with a tiny window set in it.

Shay beamed at her. " I'm so glad you're all right, Tally. The thought of you all alone in the wild…of course, you weren't alone, were you? "

Meeting Shay's eyes, Tally was overwhelmed all over again. " What did they do to you? "

Shay smiled. " Besides the obvious? "

" Yeah. I mean, no." Tally shook her head, not knowing how to ask Shay if she was brain damaged.

" Are any of the rest of them…"

" Pretty? No. I got to be first, because I made the most trouble. You should have seen me kicking and biting." Shay chuckled.

" They forced you."

" Yeah, Dr. C can be a major pain. It's kind of a relief, though."

Tally swallowed. " A relief…"

" Yeah, I hated this place. The only reason I'm here is that Dr. C wanted me to come by and talk to the Smokies."

" You live in New Pretty Town, " Tally said softly. She tried to see past the beauty, to find whatever was behind Shay's wide, perfect eyes.

" Yeah. I just came from the best party."

Tally finally heard how slurred Shay's words were. She was drunk. Maybe that was why she was acting so strangely. But she had called the others " the Smokies." She wasn't one of them anymore.

" You go to parties, Shay? While everyone here is locked up? "

" Well, I guess so, " Shay said defensively. " I mean, they'll all get out once they turn. Once Cable gets over her stupid power trip." She looked at the unconscious form on the floor and shook her head.

" She's going to be in a bad mood tomorrow, though. Thanks to you two."

The sound of complaining metal came from the detention room. Tally heard more voices.

" Of course, sounds like no one'll be around to see it, " Shay said. " So how are you two doing, anyway? "

Tally opened her mouth, closed it, then managed to answer. " We're…good."

" That's great. Listen, sorry I was such a pain about all that. You know what uglies are like." Shay laughed. " Well, of course you do! "

" So you don't hate me? "

" Don't be silly, Tally! "

" I'm glad to hear that." Of course, Shay's blessing was meaningless. It wasn't forgiveness, just brain damage.

" You did me a big favor, getting me out of that Smoke place."

" You can't really believe that, Shay."

" What do you mean? "

" How could you change your mind so quickly? "

Shay laughed. " It took exactly one hot shower to change my mind." She reached out and touched Tally's hair, tangled and knotted from two weeks of camping out and riding all day. " Speaking of showers, you are a total mess."

Tally blinked. Hot tears were forcing themselves into her eyes. Shay had wanted so much to keep her own face, to live on her own terms outside the city. But that desire had been extinguished.

" I didn't mean to…betray you, " she said softly.

Shay glanced over her shoulder, then turned back and smiled. " He doesn't know that you were working for Dr. C, does he? Don't worry, Tally, " she whispered, putting one elegant finger to her lips. " Your ugly little secret is safe with me."

Tally swallowed, wondering if Shay had found out the whole story. Maybe Dr. Cable had told them all what she'd done.

A buzzing sound came from beside Dr. Cable. On the work tablet she had been carrying, a request light blinked with an incoming call.

Tally picked up the tablet and handed it to Shay. " Talk to them! "

Shay winked, pushed a button, and said, " Hey, it's me, Shay. No, I'm sorry, Dr. Cable's busy. Doing what? Well, it's complicated…" She muted the device. " Shouldn't you be rescuing people or something, Tally? That is the point of this little trick, right? "

" You'll stay here? "

" Duh. This looks bubbly. Just because I'm pretty doesn't mean I'm totally boring."

Tally brushed past her and into the room. Two doors had been ripped open, David's mother and another Smokey freed. The two were dressed in orange jumpsuits, with stunned and sleepy looks on their faces. David was working another door, his powerjack thrust into a small slot at floor level.

Tally saw Croy's face peering wide-eyed through one of the tiny windows, and planted her powerjack under his door. It whined to life, and the thick metal screeched as it bent upward. " David, they know something's up! " she called.

" Okay. We're almost done here."

Her jack had wrenched a small gap in the metal, not big enough. Tally reset the tool, and the metal groaned again. Her days of pulling up railroad ties soon paid off, the jack tearing a hole the size of a doggy door.

Croy's arms appeared, then his head, his jumpsuit ripping on jagged spurs of metal as he wriggled.

Maddy grabbed his hands and pulled him through. " That's everyone who's left, " she said.

" Let's go."

" What about Dad! " David cried.

" We can't help him." Maddy ran into the hall.

Tally and David shared an anxious look, and followed.

Maddy was dashing down the hall toward the elevator, dragging Shay by the wrist behind her. Shay stabbed the tablet's talk button and said, " Wait a second, I think she's just coming back now. Hold please." She giggled and muted the device again.

" Bring Cable! " Maddy called. " We need her! "

" Mom! " David ran after her.

Tally looked at Croy, then down at Dr. Cable's crumpled form. Croy nodded, and they each took a wrist, dragging the woman along the slick floor at a trot, Tally's grippy shoes squealing.

When the party reached the elevator, Maddy grabbed Dr. Cable by the collar and pulled her up to the eye-reader. The woman groaned once, softly. Maddy carefully pried open one of her eyes, and the elevator pinged, its doors sliding open.

Maddy tugged off the doctor's interface ring and dropped her to the floor, then pulled Shay inside. Tally and the other Smokies followed, but David stood his ground. " Mom, where's Dad? "

" We can't help him." Maddy yanked the tablet away from Shay and cracked it against the wall, then pulled David in against his protests. The doors closed, and the elevator asked, " Which floor? "

" Roof, " Maddy said, the interface ring still in her hand. The elevator began to move, Tally's ears complaining at the swift ascent.

" What's our escape plan? " Maddy snapped. The glazed look was completely gone from her eyes, as if she'd gone to sleep last night expecting to be rescued this morning.

" Uh, hoverboards, " Tally managed to answer. " Four of them." Realizing that she hadn't done so yet, Tally adjusted her crash bracelets to call them in.

" Oh, cool! " Shay said. " You know, I haven't been boarding since I left the Smoke? "

" There's seven of us, " Maddy said. " Tally, you take Shay. Astrix and Ryde, double up.

Croy, you go alone and throw them off the track. David, I'll ride with you."

" Mom…, " David pleaded, " if he's pretty, can't you cure him? Or at least try? "

" Your father's not pretty, David, " she answered softly. " He's dead."