Скотт Вестерфельд - Uglies

A disturbance caught her eye. Three of the invaders were carrying a struggling figure, bound hand and foot, through the pen. They marched straight to the resistors' corner and dumped her onto the ground.

It was Shay.

"Watch this one."

The two Specials guarding them glanced at the still writhing figure. "Armed resistor?" one asked.

There was a pause. Tally saw that one of the Specials had a bruise marring his pretty face.

"Unarmed. But dangerous."

The three left their captive behind, their cruel grace marked with a touch of hurry.

"Shay!" Croy hissed.

Shay rolled herself over. Her face was red, her lips puffy and bleeding. She spat, saliva trailing from her mouth to a blood red glob on the dusty ground.

"Croy," she managed with a thick tongue.

Then her eyes fell on Tally.

"You!"

"Uh, Shay…," Croy began.

"You did this!" Her whole body writhed like a snake in its death throes. "Stealing my boyfriend wasn't enough? You had to betray the whole Smoke!"

Tally closed her eyes and shook her head. It couldn't be true. She had destroyed the pendant. The fire had consumed it.

"Shay!" Croy said. "Calm down. Look at her. She fought them."

"Are you blind, Croy? Look around you! She did this!"

Tally took a deep breath and forced herself to look at Shay. Her friend's eyes burned with hatred.

"Shay, I swear to you, I didn't. I never…" Her voice faltered.

"Who else could have led them here?"

"I don't know."

"We can't blame each other, Shay," Croy said. "It could've been anything. A satellite image. A scouting mission."

"A spy."

"Will you look at her, Shay?" Croy cried. "She's tied up, like us. She resisted!"

Shay slammed her eyes shut and shook her head.

The two Specials with the eye-reader had reached the resistors' corner of the pen. One stood back while the other stepped forward warily. "We don't want to hurt you," she announced. "But we will if we have to."

The cruel pretty grabbed Croy's chin and flashed the reader in his eye. She looked at its readout.

"Another one of ours," she said.

The other Special raised an eyebrow. "Didn't know we had so many runaways."

The two hauled Croy to his feet and marched him toward the largest group of Smokies outside. Tally bit her lip. Croy was one of Shay's old friends, so these two Specials were from her own city. Maybe all the invaders were.

It had to be a coincidence. This couldn't be her fault. She'd seen the pendant burn!

"So you've got Croy on your side too now, I see," Shay hissed.

Tears began to fill Tally's eyes, but not from the pepper this time. "Look at me, Shay!"

"He suspected you from the beginning. But I told him every time, 'No, Tally's my friend.

She'd never do anything to hurt me.'" "Shay, I'm not lying."

"How did you change Croy's mind, Tally? The same way you changed David's?"

"Shay, I never meant for that to happen."

"So where were you two last night?"

Tally swallowed, trying to hold her voice steady. "Just talking. I told him about my necklace."

"That took all night? Or did you just decide to make your move before the Specials came?

One last game with him. With me."

Tally lowered her head. "Shay…"

A hand grabbed her chin and forced it up. She blinked, and a dazzling red light flashed.

The Special looked at the device closely. "Hey, it's her."

Tally shook her head. "No."

The other Special looked at the readout, nodding confirmation. "Tally Youngblood?"

She didn't answer. They lifted her to her feet and dusted her off.

"Come with us. Dr. Cable wants to see you immediately."

"I knew it," Shay hissed.

"No!"

They pulled Tally toward the gate of the pen. She twisted her head around to look back, trying to think of words that would explain.

Shay glared up at her from the ground, bloody teeth gritted, her eyes falling to Tally's bound wrists. A second later, Tally felt the pressure release, and her hands popped apart.

The Specials had cut her handcuffs.

"No," she said softly.

One of the Specials squeezed her shoulder. "Don't worry, Tally, we'll have you home in no time."

The other chimed in. "We've been looking for this bunch for years."

"Yeah, good work."

They took her to the library. It had been transformed into a headquarters for the invasion, the long tables filled with portable workscreens manned by Specials, its usual quiet replaced by a buzz of clipped exchanges and commands. The razor voices of the cruel pretties set Tally's teeth on edge.

Dr. Cable waited at one of the long tables. Reading an old magazine, she seemed almost relaxed, at a remove from the activity around her.

"Ah, Tally." She bared her teeth in an attempt at a smile. "Nice to see you. Sit down."

Tally wondered what was behind the doctor's greeting. The Specials had treated Tally like an accomplice. Had some signal from the pendant reached them before she had destroyed it?

In any case, her only chance of escape was to play along. She pulled out a chair and sat down.

"Goodness. Look at you," Dr. Cable said. "For someone who wants to be a pretty, you're always such a sight."

"I've had a rough morning."

"You seem to have been in a scrape."

Tally shrugged. "I was just trying to get out of the way."

"Indeed." Dr. Cable placed the magazine facedown on the table. "That's something you don't seem to be very good at."

Tally coughed twice, the last bit of pepper leaving her lungs. "I guess not."

Dr. Cable glanced at her workscreen. "I see we had you among the resistors?"

"Some of the Smokies already suspected me. So when I heard you guys coming, I tried to get out of town. I didn't want to be around when everyone realized what was happening.

In case they got mad at me."

"Self-preservation. Well, at least you're good at something."

"I didn't ask to come here."

"No, and you took your time, too." Dr. Cable leaned back, making a steeple of her long, thin fingers.

"How long have you been here exactly?"

Tally forced herself to cough again, wondering if she dared lie. Her voice, still harsh and uneven from inhaling the pepper, wasn't likely to give her away. And although Dr. Cable's office back in the city might be one big lie detector, this table and chair were solid wood, without any tricks inside.

But Tally hedged. "Not that long."

"You didn't get here as quickly as I'd hoped."

"I almost didn't make it at all. And when I did, it was ages after my birthday. That's why they suspected me."

Dr. Cable shook her head. "I suppose I should have been worried about you, out in the wild all alone. Poor Tally."

"Thanks for your concern."

"I'm sure you would have used the pendant if you'd gotten into any real trouble. Self-preservation being your one skill."

Tally sneered. "Unless I'd fallen off a cliff. Which almost happened."

"We still would have come for you. If the pendant had been damaged, it would have sent a signal automatically."

The words sunk in slowly: If the pendant had been damaged… Tally gripped the edge of the table, trying not to show any emotion.

Dr. Cable narrowed her eyes. She might not have machines to read Tally's voice and heartbeat and sweat, but her own perceptions were alert. She'd chosen those words to provoke a reaction. "Speaking of which, where is it?"

Tally's fingers went to her neck. Of course, Dr. Cable had noticed the pendant's absence immediately.

Her questions had been leading to this moment. Tally's brain raced for an answer. The handcuffs were off. She had to get out of there, to the trading post. Hopefully, her hoverboard still lay on the roof, unfolded and charging in the morning sun. "I hid it," she said. "I was scared."