Pretties u-2 Page 9

  "Evaporates? That's terrible." Tally made a serious face, and held her champagne up to the firelight. The news was giving hourly updates on the breakthrough investigation. A bunch of engineers were trying to figure out how twenty centimeters of lifter-supported ice could have buckled under the weight of a few dozen people. Blame had been assigned to shock waves from the fireworks show, heat from the stadium lights, even sympathetic vibrations from skaters moving in tandem like marching soldiers. But none of the experts had guessed that the real reason for the breakthrough had evaporated into thin air.

  She raised her glass, clinking it against Zane's. He drained his glass, then took hers, splashing some champagne into his. "Thanks, Skinny," he said.

  "For what?"

  "For sharing."

  She gave him a pretty smile. He meant the pills they'd split, of course, not the champagne. "Anytime. I'm glad there was enough for two."

  "Bubbly luck how it worked out."

  She nodded. The cure hadn't been perfect, but considering they'd each only had half a dose, the test had been a success. The cure had affected Zane almost instantly, shattering his pretty-mindedness in a few days. Tally's pill had worked more slowly, and she still woke up fuzzy most mornings, needing Zane to remind her to think bubbly thoughts. The good part was, she never got Zane's awful headaches.

  "It's better shared, I think," Tally said, clinking his glass again. She remembered the warning in the letter from herself, and shivered despite the fire. Maybe two pills was actually too much, and if Tally had taken both she would have been brain-dead by now.

  Zane pulled her closer. "Like I said…thanks." He kissed her, his lips warm in the cold night air, eyes flickering with bonfire reflections, and held his mouth to hers for a long time. Between the oxygen-missing kiss and the champagne, Tally felt herself getting pretty-minded, the edges of the firelit party turning fuzzy. Which maybe wasn't always a bad thing…

  Zane finally let her go and turned toward the bonfire, nuzzling her ear to whisper, "We have to get these things off."

  "Shhh." Even with winter coats and gloves covering their cuffs, Tally felt a little too famous at the moment to make plans out loud. The Crims had already thrown rocks to drive away one hovercamera covering the party for some follow-up story on the rink collapse.

  "It's driving me crazy, Tally."

  "Don't worry. We'll figure it out." Just stop talking, she pleaded silently.

  Zane kicked a fallen branch into the bonfire. As it burst into flame, he let out a pained sound.

  "Zane?"

  He shook his head, fingers at his temples. Tally swallowed. Another headache. Sometimes they ended after a few seconds, sometimes they lasted for hours.

  "No. I'm okay." He sucked in a deep breath.

  "You know, you could go to a doctor," she whispered.

  "Forget that! They'll know I'm cured."

  She pulled him closer to the crackle of the fire and pressed her lips to his ear. "I told you about Maddy and Az, David's parents? They were doctors — surgeons — and for a long time even they didn't know about the brain lesions. They just thought most people were stupid. A regular doctor won't think there's anything wrong with fixing you."

  Zane shook his head furiously and turned to whisper in her ear. "It won't stop with a regular doctor, Tally. New pretties don't get sick."

  She looked around the fire at the glowing faces. The Crims wound up at the hospital often enough, but only for injuries, not illness. The operation boosted your immune system, strengthened your organs, fixed your teeth forever. An unhealthy new pretty was such a rarity, there would probably be a ton of tests. And if Zane's headaches persisted, the test results would be passed on to experts.

  "They're keeping an eye on us already," he whispered. "We can't afford anyone poking around inside my head." He flinched again, pain contorting his features.

  "We should go home," she said softly.

  "You stay. I can make it to Pulcher okay."

  She groaned and pulled him away from the fire. "Come on."

  He let her lead him into the darkness, circling around the other Crims. Shay called out to them, but Tally waved her away, saying, "Too much champagne." Shay smiled sympathetically and turned back to the fire.

  They trudged home, the bare ground glistening with frost in the moonlight, the cold wind sharp after the lulling heat of the fire. The night was beautiful, but Tally could only wonder about what was happening inside Zane's head. Was it just a minor side effect of the cure? Or a sign of something gone terribly wrong?

  "Don't worry, Zane," she said, just above a whisper. "We'll figure this out. Or we'll get out of here and get help from the Smokies. This is Maddy's cure — she'll know what's going on."

  He didn't answer, just stumbled up the hill beside her.

  When Pulcher Mansion came into view, Zane pulled her to a halt. "Go back to the party. I can make it home okay from here." His voice was too loud.

  She looked around, but they were alone — no pretties or hovercams in sight. "I'm worried about you," she whispered.

  He lowered his voice. "It's silly to worry, Skinny. It's just a headache. Same thing as always. Probably because I was pretty longer than you." He forced a smile. "It's just taking me longer to get used to having a brain again."

  "Come on. Let's get you in bed."

  "No, you go back. I don't want them to know about…this."

  "I won't say anything," Tally whispered. They had told no one about the cure, not until they absolutely trusted that the other Crims were bubbly enough to keep their mouths shut. "I'll just say you drank too much."

  "Fine, but go back to the party," he said firmly. "You have to keep them bubbly. Make sure they don't get drunk and start saying stupid things."

  Tally looked back at the fire, just visible through the trees below. With enough champagne, someone might start bragging. She looked back at Zane. "You'll be okay?"

  He nodded. "Better already."

  She took a breath of the cold air. He didn't look any better. "Zane …"

  "Listen, I'll be fine. And no matter what happens, I'm glad we took the pills."

  Tally took a deep breath to steady herself. "What do you mean, 'no matter what happens?"

  "I don't mean tonight. Just whenever. You know."

  Tally looked into his gold-flecked eyes, and saw in them the pain he was silently carrying. Whatever was happening to Zane, staying bubbly wasn't worth losing him. She shook her head. "No, I don't know."

  He sighed. "I guess that was a stupid way to put it. I'm fine."

  "I'm worried about you."

  "Just go back to the party."

  Tally sighed softly. There was no point in arguing. She held up one arm, indicating the scarf wrapped around her wrist. "Okay. But if you feel worse, ping me."

  He smiled bitterly. "At least those things are good for something."

  She kissed him softly, then watched him trudge up to the door of the mansion and inside.

  On the lonely trip back down to the party, the air seemed to grow colder. Tally almost wished she could be pretty-minded again, just for one night, instead of having to keep watch on the Crims. From the very first kiss, being with Zane had made things complicated.

  She sighed. Maybe that was the way it always worked.

  Zane would never go to a doctor, Tally knew. If his headaches turned into something worse, could she make him go? Of course, Zane was right: Any doctor who could fix his problem could probably figure out what had caused it, and that was someone who could make Zane pretty-minded again.

  If only Croy hadn't disappeared. Tally wondered how long it would take for the New Smokies to get in touch with them now. After the breakthrough, they had to realize the cure had worked. Even if wherever they were hiding didn't have newsfeeds, every ugly in the world would be chattering about the rink collapse, talking about Tally Youngblood looking innocent on their wallscreens.

  Of course, she and Zane still had to escape the city. Tally had no idea how
to get the cuffs off. As they grew thinner, it seemed like the rings of steel were closer to coming off, but how long was it going to take? Tally didn't much like being in a race between her own starvation and Zane's brain melting.

  And when they escaped, she didn't want to go without the other Crims. Peris and Shay, at least. The Crims were so bubbly tonight, they'd probably all jump on hoverboards and head out if she said the word. But how bubbly would they be tomorrow?

  Suddenly, Tally felt exhausted. There were too many things to juggle. Too many worries all falling on her alone. All she'd wanted was to become a Crim, to feel safe inside a clique of friends, and now she'd found herself in charge of a rebellion.

  "Your friend have too much champagne?"

  Tally froze. The words had come out of the darkness, cutting her ears like fingernails scraping metal.

  "Hello?"

  A figure emerged from the shadows in a hooded winter coat, moving with total silence through the fallen leaves. The woman stood in a shaft of moonlight, ten centimeters taller than Tally, taller even than Zane. She had to be a Special.

  Tally forced herself to relax, trying to conquer her nerves and make her face melt into the soft expression of a brand-new pretty. "Shay? Is that you being all scary-making?" she said angrily The figure took another step forward into the light of a walkway torch. "No, Tally. It's me." The woman pulled off her hood.

  It was Dr. Cable.

  The Dragon

  "Do I know you?"

  Dr. Cable smiled coldly. "I'm sure you remember me, Tally."

  Tally took a step back, letting some of her fear show; even the most innocent new pretty would be frightened by the sight of Dr. Cable. Her cruel features, exaggerated by the moonlight, made her look like a beautiful woman half transformed into a werewolf.

  Memories flooded into Tally's mind. Being trapped in Dr. Cable's office that awful first time they'd met, learning of the existence of Special Circumstances, and then again when she had agreed to find and betray Shay, the price for becoming pretty. Then, in the Smoke, after Cable had followed Tally with an army of Specials to burn her new home to the ground.

  "Yeah," Tally said. "I think I remember. I used to know you, right?"

  "Indeed, you did." Cable's sharp teeth glowed in the moonlight. "But what's more important, Tally, is that I know you."

  Tally managed a vacant smile. Dr. Cable no doubt remembered their last meeting — Tally and David's rescue of the Smokies — when it had been necessary to crack her on the head.

  Dr. Cable gestured at the black scarf that bound Tally's cuff tightly under her glove and winter coat. "Interesting way to wear a scarf."

  "What, are you fashion-missing? Everybody does this."

  "But I imagine you started the trend. You always were tricky."

  Tally beamed prettily. "I guess. I used to play all kinds of tricks back when I was ugly."

  "Nothing like today, though."

  "Oh, you saw the feeds? Wasn't that totally bogus? The ice just falling out from under us like that!"

  "Yes…just like that." Dr. Cable's eyes narrowed. "I must admit, at first you had me fooled. That floating rink was a typical architectural folly designed to amuse new pretties. An accident waiting to happen. But then 1 thought about the timing — the stadium full, a hundred cameras ready."

  Tally blinked, shrugged. "I bet it was those fireworks. You could feel them right through the ice. Who's missing idea was that?"

  Dr. Cable nodded slowly. "An almost believable accident. And then I saw your face on the newsfeeds, Tally. All wide-eyed and innocent and telling your bubbly little tale." Cable's upper lip curled into something that was not a smile. "And I realized that you were still playing tricks."

  Tally felt something punch into her stomach, something from ugly days: the old feeling of being caught. She tried to turn her fear into a look of surprise. "Me?"

  "That's right, Tally: you. Somehow."

  Under Dr. Cable's gaze, Tally imagined herself being hauled into the depths of Special Circumstances, the cure reversed, her memories erased again. Or maybe this time they wouldn't bother returning her to New Pretty Town at all. She tried to swallow, but her mouth felt full of cotton. "Yeah, right. Like everything's my fault," she managed.

  Dr. Cable stepped closer, and Tally fought to hold her ground, though her whole body screamed run. The woman gazed at her coldly, as if peering at a specimen cut open on a table. "I certainly hope that it was your fault."

  Tally frowned. "You hope what?"

  "Let's speak frankly, Tally Youngblood. I've had enough of your pretty act. I'm not here to take you away to my dungeon."

  "You're not?"

  "Do you really think I care if you break things in New Pretty Town?"

  "Um…kind of?"

  Dr. Cable snorted. "Maintenance is not my department. Special Circumstances is only interested in outside threats. The city can take care of itself, Tally. There are so many safety backups, it's hardly worth worrying about. Why do you think skaters on that rink had to wear bungee jackets?"

  Tally blinked. It hadn't crossed her mind to wonder about the jackets; everything was always ultra-safe in New Pretty Town, otherwise new pretties would kill themselves left and right. She shrugged. "In case the lifters failed? Like in a power blackout?"

  Cable let out a razor-sharp laugh that lasted less than a second. "There hasn't been a blackout in a hundred and fifty years." She shook her head at the thought and continued. "Knock down anything you want, Tally. I don't care about your little tricks…except for what they reveal about you."

  The woman's gaze focused on her once more, and Tally again had to fight the urge to run. She wondered if this was simply a way to get her to admit what the Crims had done. Probably she'd said too much already. But something about Dr. Cable's cold stare — her razor voice, her predatory movements, her very existence in the world — made it impossible for Tally to act pretty-minded. By now, any real new pretty would have fled screaming or dissolved into a puddle on the spot.

  Besides, if Special Circumstances really wanted Tally to confess her tricks, they wouldn't have bothered with a conversation.

  "So why are you here?" Tally said in her normal voice, trying hard to keep it steady "I've always admired your survival instinct, Tally. You were a good little traitor when you had to be."

  "Uh, thanks … I guess."

  Cable nodded. "And now it turns out you have more of a brain than I gave you credit for. You resist conditioning very well."

  "Conditioning. That's what you call it?" Tally swore. "Like it's a hair treatment or something?"

  "Amazing." Dr. Cable leaned close again, her eyes focusing on Tally's as if trying to bore through to her brain. "Somewhere in there, you're still a tricky little ugly, aren't you? Most impressive. I could use you, I think."

  Tally felt a flush of anger, a fire inside her head. "Um, like, didn't you already use me?"

  "So, you do remember. Superb." The woman's cruel-pretty eyes, flat and lusterless and cold, somehow showed pleasure. "I know that was an unpleasant experience, Tally. But it was necessary We needed to take our children back from the Smoke, and only you could help us. But I do apologize."

  "Apologize?" Tally said. "For blackmailing me into betraying my friends, for destroying the Smoke, for killing David's father?" She felt an expression of disgust on her face. "I don't think you'll be using me, Dr. Cable. I've already" done you enough favors."

  The woman only smiled again. "I agree. So it's time I did you a favor. What I am offering is something quite…bubbly."

  The word on Cable's thin, cruel lips made Tally laugh dryly. "What would you know about being bubbly?"

  "You'd be surprised. We at Special Circumstances know all about sensations, especially the ones you and your so-called Crims are always searching for. I can give it to you, Tally. All day, every day, bubblier than you can imagine. The real thing. Not just an escape from the haze of being pretty — something better."

  "What are you t
alking about?"

  "Remember flying on a hoverboard, Tally?" Cable said, her dull eyes igniting with cold fire. "That feeling of being alive? Yes, we can make people pretty inside — empty and lazy and vapid — but we can also make them bubbly, as you call it. More intense than you ever felt as an ugly, more alive than a wolf taking its prey even bubblier than ancient Rusty soldiers killing one another over some plot of oil-rich desert. Your senses sharper, your body faster than any athlete's in history, your muscles as strong as any human's in the world."

  The woman's razor voice fell silent, and Tally could suddenly hear the night around them perfectly — icicles dripping against hard ground, trees creaking in the wind, the bonfire below spitting out random showers of sparks. She could hear the party perfectly: Crims shouting about the exploits of the day, arguing about who had bounced highest or landed hardest. Cable's words had left the world as sharp as broken crystal.

  "You should see the world as I see it, Tally."

  "You're offering me a … job? As a Special?"

  "Not a job. A whole new being." Dr. Cable said each word with deliberate care. "You can be one of us."

  Tally was breathing hard, her pulse pounding through her entire body, as if the very idea was already changing her. She bared her teeth at Dr. Cable. "You think I'd work for you?"

  "Consider your other choice, Tally. Spending your life looking for cheap thrills, managing a few moments at a time truly awake. Never clearing your head completely. But you'd make a fine Special. Traveling to the Smoke on your own was impressive; I always had hopes for you. But now that I see you're still tricky even after the operation" — Dr. Cable shook her head—"I realize that you're a natural. Join us."

  A ping went through Tally as she understood something at last. "Tell me something. What were you like as an ugly?"

  "Outstanding, Tally." The woman barked her one-second laugh. "You already know the answer, don't you?"

  "You were tricky."

  Cable nodded. "I was just like you. All of us were. We went to the ruins, tried to run farther, had to be brought back. That's why we let uglies play their little tricks — to see who's cleverest. To see which of you fights your way out of the cage. That's what your rebellion is all about, Tally— graduating to Special Circumstances."