Special Circumstances

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Тот, кто работает в сфере услуг, знает — без ведения записи клиентов никуда. Мало того, что нужно видеть свое раписание, но и напоминать клиентам о визитах тоже. Проблема в том, что средняя цена по рынку за такой сервис — 800 руб/мес или почти 15 000 руб за год. И это минимальный функционал. Нашли самый бюджетный и оптимальный вариант: сервис VisitTime.
⚡️ Для новых пользователей первый месяц бесплатно. А далее 290 руб/мес, это в 3 раза дешевле аналогов. За эту цену доступен весь функционал: напоминание о визитах, чаевые, предоплаты, общение с клиентами, переносы записей и так далее.
✅ Уйма гибких настроек, которые помогут вам зарабатывать больше и забыть про чувство «что-то мне нужно было сделать».
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The trip was much less pleasant than Tally's first ride that day. The strange-looking man flew with an aggressive impatience, dropping like a rock to cut between flight lanes, banking as steeply as a hoverboard with every turn.

Tally had never been airsick before, but now she clutched the seat restraints, her knuckles white and eyes fixed on the solid ground below. She caught one last glimpse of New Pretty Town receding behind them.

They headed downriver, across Uglyville, over the greenbelt and farther out to the transport ring, where the factories stuck their heads aboveground. Beside a huge, misshapen hill, the car descended into a complex of rectangular buildings, as squat as ugly dorms and painted the color of dried grass.

They landed with a painful bump, and the man led her into one of the buildings, and down into a murk of yellow-brown hallways. Tally had never seen so much space painted in such putrid colors, as if the building were designed to make its occupants vaguely nauseated.

They were all dressed in formals, raw silks in black and gray, and their faces had the same cold, hawkish look. Both the men and women were taller than pretty standard, and more powerfully built, their eyes as pale as an ugly's. There were a few normal people as well, but they faded into insignificance next to the predatory forms moving gracefully through the halls.

Tally wondered if this was someplace where people were taken when their operations went wrong, when beauty turned cruel. Then why was she here? She hadn't even had the operation yet.

Tally swallowed. What if these terrible pretties had been made this way intentionally?

When they had measured her yesterday, had they determined that she would never fit the vulnerable, doe-eyed pretty mold? Maybe she'd already been chosen to be remade for this strange, other world.

The man stopped outside a metal door, and Tally halted behind him. She felt like a littlie again, jerked along by a minder on an invisible string. All her ugly senior's confidence had evaporated the moment she'd seen him back at the hospital. Four years of tricks and independence gone.

The door flashed his eye and opened, and he pointed for her to go in. Tally realized he hadn't said a word since collecting her at the hospital. She took a deep breath, which made the paralyzed muscles in her chest flinch with pain, and managed to croak, " Say please."

Tally smiled, silently declaring a small victory that she had made him speak again, but she did as she was told.

The woman was a cruel pretty. Her nose was aquiline, her teeth sharp, her eyes a non reflective gray.

Her voice had the same slow, neutral cadence as a bedtime book. But it hardly made Tally sleepy. An edge was hidden in the voice, like a piece of metal slowly marking glass.

" I had kind of guessed that, uh…" It was strange, not knowing the woman's first name.

" Okay, Dr. Cable." She cleared her throat and managed to say more, in a dry voice. " My problem right now is that I don't know what's going on. So…why don't you tell me? "

Tally closed her eyes, taking a rest from the sharp angles of the woman's face. " Well, that bungee jacket was a spare, you know, and we did put it back on the recharge pile."

Of course. Shay's disappearing trick had gone too far, leaving Tally to explain. " I don't know where she is."

Dr. Cable smiled. Only her top teeth showed when she did. " But you do know something."

First Dr. Cable asked her a lot of questions. " You didn't know Shay long, did you? "

Tally swallowed. How much did this woman know about her? " Yeah. Like Peris and me."

Tally took a slow breath, remembering her promise to Shay. She didn't want to lie, though. Dr. Cable would know if she did, Tally was sure. She was in enough trouble already. " Why wouldn't they? "

" We didn't talk about stuff like that. We just hung out. Because…it hurt being alone. We were just into playing tricks."

Tally looked up into Dr. Cable's eyes. They were almost as big as a normal pretty's, but they angled upward like a wolf's.

Dr. Cable sat back. She folded her hands and nodded. " This city is a paradise, Tally. It feeds you, educates you, keeps you safe. It makes you pretty."

" And our city can stand a great deal of freedom, Tally. It gives youngsters room to play tricks, to develop their creativity and independence. But occasionally bad things come from outside the city."

Dr. Cable narrowed her eyes, her face becoming even more like a predator's. " We exist in equilibrium with our environment, Tally, purifying the water that we put back in the river, recycling the biomass, and using only power drawn from our own solar footprint. But sometimes we can't purify what we take in from the outside. Sometimes there are threats from the environment that must be faced."

Dr. Cable nodded. " Other cities sometimes pose a challenge. And sometimes those few people who live outside the cities can make trouble."

Tally's eyes widened. Outside the cities? Shay had been telling the truth-places like the Smoke really existed.

" It's your turn to answer my question, Tally. Did you ever meet anyone in the ruins?

Dr. Cable frowned, her eyes darting downward for a second, checking something. When they returned to Tally, they had grown even colder. Tally smiled again, certain now that Dr. Cable knew when she was telling the truth. The room must be reading her heartbeat, her sweat, her pupil dilation. But Tally couldn't tell what she didn't know.

The razor blade slid back into the woman's voice. " Don't play games with me, Tally. Your friend Shay will never thank you for it, because you'll never see her again."

" Six of her friends disappeared, Tally, all at once. None of them has ever been found.

Another two who were meant to join them chose not to throw their lives away, however, and we discovered a little about what had happened to the others. They didn't run away on their own. They were tempted by someone from outside, someone who wanted to steal our cleverest little uglies. We realized that this was a special circumstance."

One word sent ice down Tally's spine. Had Shay really been stolen? What did Shay or any ugly really know about the Smoke?

" We've been watching Shay since then, hoping she might lead us to her friends."

Dr. Cable's voice softened. " We thought she had made a friend, a reason to stay here in the city. We thought she'd be okay."

" But then Shay disappeared, " Dr. Cable continued. " She turned out to be trickier than her friends. You taught her well."

Tally turned away from the vulpine eyes, shut out the razor-blade voice. This was not her fault. She had decided to stay here in the city, after all. She wanted to become pretty.

Tally tried to remember Shay's face that last night, how hopeful she had been. She'd wanted to leave the city as much as Tally wanted to be pretty. However stupid the choice seemed, Shay had made it with her eyes open, and had respected Tally's choice to stay.

Tally looked up at Dr. Cable's cruel beauty, at the puke-yellow-brown of the walls. She remembered all the tricks Special Circumstances had played on her today-how they'd kept her waiting for an hour in the hospital, waiting and thinking she would soon be pretty, the brutal flight here, and all the cruel faces in the halls-and she decided. " I can't help you, " Tally said. " I made a promise."

Dr. Cable bared her teeth. This time, it wasn't even a mockery of a smile. The woman became nothing but a monster, vengeful and inhuman. " Then I'll make you a promise too, Tally Youngblood. Until you do help us, to the very best of your ability, you will never be pretty."