Specials

There was a brief pause, then the woman's voice came back, a

Tally swallowed. Dr. Cable was ru

"Okay, Feaster. Just tell her that the Cutters have been in Diego the last week—fighting the war, okay?—and that I have some very important intelligence for the Council. It concerns the safety of the city. Is that good enough for you?"

"You've been in Diego? How did you—" the subcommander started, but Tally gestured to cut the feed. She'd said enough to get the woman's attention.

She leaned forward and engaged the board's lifting fans, heading for the factory belt at top speed, hoping to get there before the City Council meeting had ended.

They were the perfect audience for her confession.

Special Circumstances headquarters stretched across the plain of the factory belt, low and flat and unimpressive. But it was bigger than it looked, descending twelve stories down into the earth. If the City Council was afraid of another attack, it was the logical place to hide. Tally was certain that Dr. Cable had welcomed the Council with open arms, happy to have the city government cowering in her basement.

Tally stared down from the summit of the long, tilted hill that overlooked the headquarters. Back in ugly days, she and David had jumped on hoverboards from here down to the roof. Since then, motion sensors had been installed to keep another break-in like theirs from happening again. But no fortress was designed to keep one of its own out, especially when she had important news to deliver.

Tally opened her skinte

This time, Subcommander Feaster's response was instantaneous. "Quit playing around, Youngblood."

"Let me talk to Cable."

"She's still with the Council. You have to speak with me first."

"I don't have time to explain everything twice, Maxamilla. My report concerns the entire Council." She paused to take a long, slow breath. "There's another attack coming."

"Another what?"

"An attack, and very soon. Tell the doctor I'll be there in two minutes. I'll come straight to the Council meeting."

Tally cut her skinte

The trick was to make her entrance as dramatic as possible, blustering past everyone and straight into the City Council meeting. Dr. Cable would probably enjoy one of her pet Cutters dashing in to deliver vital intelligence, proof that Special Circumstances was on the job.

Of course, the a

Tally urged her hoverboard forward, fans and magnetics fully engaged. She climbed the hill, building speed all the way.

At the top, the horizon suddenly slipped away the ground disappearing beneath her, and Tally soared into the sky.

She cut the fans and bent her knees, grasping the board with her fingers.

The silence stretched out, the roof of the headquarters growing as Tally fell. She felt a grin spreading on her face. This might be the last time she would do something this icy, with all her special senses sucking up the world; she might as well enjoy it.

A hundred meters from impact, her lifting fans spun to life. They pressed the board up against her, struggling to bring Tally to a halt. Her crash bracelets pushed against her wrists, straining against the force of the fall.

The hoverboard smacked hard and flat against the roof, and Tally rolled from its riding surface and straight into a run. Alarms were sounding all around her, but with a single gesture, her skinte

There was a short pause, then Feaster's anxious voice replied, "Youngblood?"

"I need in, double-quick!"

"I told Dr. Cable what you said. She wants you to head straight for the Council meeting. They're in the Level J operating theater."

Tally let herself smile. Her plan was working. "Got you. Open this door up."

"Right." With a lurching metal scrape, the landing pad beneath Tally began to part, as if the roof were splitting in two. She dropped through the widening seam, falling from bright sunlight into semidarkness and landing on top of a Special Circumstances hovercar. Ignoring the startled hangar workers around her, Tally rolled to the floor and kept ru

The voice popped into her ear again. "I've got an elevator waiting. Right in front of you."

"Too slow," Tally panted, coming to a halt before the elevator bank. "Just open an empty shaft."

"Are you kidding, Youngblood?"

"No! Seconds count here. Do it!"

A moment later, another door slid open, revealing darkness.

Tally stepped into the shaft.

Her grippy-soled shoes shrieked as she bounced from one side of the shaft to the other, her fall barely controlled, descending ten times faster than any elevator. On the headquarters' skinte

Tally caught the ledge of the floor above and swung herself through the opening, landing at a dead run. She dashed down the hallway at top speed, Specials pressing themselves against the wall to make way for her, as if Tally were some pre-Rusty messenger bringing news to the king.

At the entrance to the floor's main operating theater, Maxamilla Feaster waited with two Specials in full battle gear. "This had better be important, Youngblood."

"Believe me, it is."

Feaster nodded, and the door slid open. Tally ran through.

She skidded to a halt. The theater was silent, a great ring of empty seats staring down at her from all directions—no Dr. Cable, no City Council.

No one but Tally Youngblood, winded and alone.

She spun around. "Feaster? What is this—?"

The door slid closed, trapping her in the room.

Through her skinte

Tally shook her head. Her confession would be useless if Cable didn't want to believe it. She needed witnesses. "But this is happening now! Why do you think I ran all this way?"

"Why? Perhaps to tell the Council that Diego had nothing to do with the Armory attack? That it was really you?"

Tally's mouth dropped open, her next plea silenced on her lips. She replayed Feaster's words in her mind slowly, unable to believe she'd really heard them.

How could they have known?

"What are you talking about?" she finally managed.

The cruel sound of delight grew in Maxamilla Feaster's voice. "Be patient, Tally. Dr. Cable will explain."

Then the lights flicked off, leaving her in total darkness. Tally started to speak again, then realized that her skinte

Confession

The absolute darkness lasted what seemed like hours. A white-hot rage built inside Tally, a forest fire gaining strength with every passing second. She fought an urge to run blindly through the blackness, destroying everything she could lay her hands on, tearing her way through the ceiling and then the next floor, upward until she reached the open sky.