Скотт Вестерфельд - Extras

"Agreed," Aya said.

"You two are very strange sometimes," Frizz said. "Can I point out that how you kick this story is not our biggest problem."

Aya sighed. "You're right about that."

Ren's excited expression fell, and he let out a slow breath. "Radical Honesty."

"So what?" Hiro said. "Can't you just keep quiet?"

Frizz shook his head. "I can't even keep a surprise party a secret. How am I supposed to hide the fact that the world's most famous person is standing next to me in disguise?"

"You can't keep a birthday party secret?" Hiro said. "Okay, Radical Honesty is officially the most brain-missing clique I've ever heard of!"

"Well, when I came up with it, I wasn't planning on sneaking Tally Youngblood into someplace full of aliens, okay?" Frizz cried. "And neither were you, until you found out you could kick the story!"

"What's your point?" Hiro asked.

"There's one more thing," Aya interrupted. "I think Tally's a little…unstable."

Hiro and Ren looked at her like they thought she was kidding, but Frizz nodded. "When I first got the idea for Radical Honesty, I spent some time studying the history of brain surge. Not just the bubbleheads, but everything, including what Tally's city did to Specials." Frizz glanced at the three Cutters. "They could be deadly when people got in their way. Their motto was, 'I don't want to hurt you, but I will if I have to.' And they did. They even killed people."

Hiro gave Aya a sidelong glance. "And you want us to be 'Honorary Cutters'?"

"But I thought they were all cured," she said.

Frizz nodded. "Most of them were completely despecialized. But the Cutters who'd protected Diego in the war were allowed to keep their reflexes and strength, because their brains were cured." He leaned in closer. "But Tally Youngblood never changed at all. She didn't want anyone 'rewiring' her, she said—that's why she disappeared into the wild."

"Crap," Ren said. "They really don't tell it that way on the history feeds."

Aya swallowed. This was much worse than she'd thought.

She turned to Frizz. "So you understand the problem? You can't let Tally know about Radical Honesty. There's no telling what she'll do if she finds out you could ruin her plans."

Frizz's eyebrows rose. "So let me get this straight, Aya-chan. You want me, a person who can't lie, to lie about the fact that I can't lie?"

"We need another plan," Hiro said.

"What about the language barrier?" Ren said. "Maybe you could just tell her everything…but in Japanese."

Frizz shook his head. "It doesn't work that way, Ren. Speaking the wrong language is just another way of hiding the truth. I can't deceive people."

"But couldn't you, sort of, forget they don't speak Japanese?" Ren asked.

"I can't lie to myself any more than I can to them." Frizz groaned with frustration. "The more we talk about this, the more I'll think about it. And the more I think about it, the more I'll need to let them know we have a secret!"

He groaned again, looking in Tally's direction.

Tally returned his gaze. "So how's that going over there? Coming to any decisions?"

In perfect English, Frizz said, "They don't want me to talk to you!" He choked to a halt, clamping both hands over his mouth.

Tally raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"Nothing!" Aya said in English. "We're still discussing everything, that's all."

Shay gestured with her chin. "Well, you better hurry up. Looks like someone's coming to visit."

Aya looked up and saw that the metal door to the drivers' cabin was swinging open.

Oh, great, she thought.

More people for Frizz to talk to.

Two of the inhumans floated in.

Even here inside the car, they wore their hoverball rigs. The man glided across the cargo hold over their heads. The other, a woman, waited, hands grasping the edges of the doorway, fingertips glistening with needles. Behind her Aya could see the drivers' cabin, where two more inhumans were seated at the car's controls.

This close, the freakish faces were even more unsettling. The inhumans' eyes were so far apart that they seemed to point in different directions, like the gaze of a fish. The floating man took them all in without turning his head, fixing Aya with one steely eye. He kept himself in place by stirring the hot, muggy air with his hands and strange bare feet.

"I see you are awake," he said. "And no one is injured?"

His Japanese was imperfect—Aya realized that after six hours in flight the hovercar could be anywhere in Asia. She wondered where the inhumans really came from.

"We're all in one piece," she said. "But not very happy."

"We did not expect to have to take seven of you," he answered, performing a little midair bow.

"We apologize for any discomfort."

"Discomfort!" Hiro cried. "You kidnapped us!"

The inhuman nodded, an expression of regret passing over his strange features. "It is necessary to hide ourselves for the moment. You have to be silenced."

"Silenced?" Aya said, swallowing. "You mean you're going to kill us?"

"No, indeed! And I am sorry for my Japanese," he said. "I only mean you cannot communicate with your home. But very soon there will be no more need for secrecy, and you may return."

"Why can't we go now?" Aya asked.

"We land shortly, then we can explain everything," he said. "In the meantime, my name is Udzir.

May I ask yours?"

Aya paused for a moment, then bowed and introduced herself. Ren and Hiro followed suit. The Cutters got the hint, giving false names when Udzir turned to them.

But his stare lingered on Tally.

"You do not seem like the others," he said.

Aya wondered exactly what he meant. Back in the Prettytime, the Global Concord Committee had averaged the different regions of the world, and the crazy surgery since the mind-rain had only further confused the old Rusty genetic categories. But uglies still showed their heritage, and the Cutters' smart-plastic masks didn't look particularly Asian.

But Udzir was singling Tally out—had he glimpsed a hint of uncured Special in her eyes?

"It's true," Frizz said through gritted teeth. "She isn't like the rest of us."

Aya snapped out of her silence. "What Frizz means is that our friends are students from another city. They don't speak Japanese very well."

"They don't speak it at all!" Frizz proclaimed. Aya squeezed his hand, willing him to stay silent.

"English, then?" Udzir switched effortlessly.

Tally nodded. "Yes, English is better. Did you say where we're going?"

"You will see soon."

"We've been flying south for hours," Fausto said. "And it's pretty hot. We must be near the equator."

Udzir nodded, smiling. "And you are very good students, I see. Let me reward your cleverness: We will soon land on an island that the Rusties called Singapore."

Aya frowned, trying to remember her geography. The name wasn't ringing any bells, but there were hundreds of Rusty cities that had been lost. At least the change in subject had quieted Frizz's need for Radical Honesty.

The hovercar was descending now, the ride growing rougher as clouds darkened the windows.

The hold began to pitch from side to side, setting the cargo straps swinging. Aya felt her stomach lurch, and was suddenly glad she hadn't eaten anything since dinner the night before.

Tally, Fausto, and Shay seemed unfazed by the turbulence. They shifted their weight like hoverboard riders, compensating for every movement of the car. It was as if they'd learned to read the storm's howls and anticipate the next assault of the wind.

Udzir, unperturbed in midair, looked down at the Cutters with renewed interest. "You've ridden in a tropical storm before?"

"We travel a lot," Tally said simply.