“Give me a knife.” Maddy held out her hand, ignoring theshocked look on her son’s face.
Tally scrambled through her knapsack. She passed hermultiknife to Maddy, who pulled out a short blade and cuta piece from the arm of her jumpsuit. When the elevatorreached roof level, its doors slid halfway open and groanedto a halt, revealing the uneven hole Tally had torn to gainentry. They slipped through one by one and ran for the edgeof the roof.
A hundred meters away, Tally saw the hoverboardscruising across the compound, called by her crashbracelets. Alarms were ringing all around them now. If bysome magic the Specials hadn’t noticed the escape so far,the riderless boards had tripped the wire.
Tally spun around, looking for David. He was stumblingalong at the back of the group, half in a daze. Shecaught him by his shoulders. “I’m so sorry.”
He shook his head. Not at her, not at anything in particular.
390 Scott Westerfeld“I don’t know what to do, Tally.”
She took his hand. “We have to run. That’s all we cando right now. Follow your mother.”
He looked into her eyes, his face wild. “Okay.” Hestarted to say more, but the words were drowned out by anoise like huge fingernails scraping metal. The hovercardoor was fighting against the nanotech glue, setting thewhole roof shuddering.
Maddy, last out of the elevator, had jimmied its dooropen with a powerjack. Its voice kept repeating, “Elevatorrequested.”
But there were other ways onto the roof. Maddy turnedto David. “Glue down those hatches so they can’t get out.”
His gaze cleared for a moment, and he nodded.
“I’ll get the boards,” Tally said, turning to dash for theedge of the roof. When she reached it, she jumped intospace, hoping her bungee jacket still had some charge.
After one bounce, Tally was on the ground running. Theboards sensed her crash bracelets and sped toward her.
“Tally! Look out!”
She looked over her shoulder at Croy’s shout. A squadof Specials was headed toward her across the compound, anopen door behind them at ground level. They ran inhumanlyfast, covering the ground with long, loping strides.
The boards nudged her calves from behind, like dogsready to play. Tally leaped up, teetering for a moment withone foot on each pair of sandwiched boards. She’d neverheard of anyone riding four boards at once. But the closestcruel pretty was only a few strides away.
Tally snapped her fingers and rose swiftly into the air.
The Special jumped, amazingly high, the fingers of oneoutstretched hand just brushing the front edge of theboards. The contact set them wobbling beneath Tally. It waslike standing on a trampoline while someone else jumpedon it. The other Specials watched from the ground below,waiting for her to fall.
But Tally regained her balance and leaned forward,heading back toward the building. The boards picked upspeed, and seconds later Tally leaped off onto the roof,kicking one pair of hoverboards to Croy. He pulled themapart while she separated the other two.
“Go now,” Maddy said. “Take this.”
She handed Tally a swatch of orange fabric, a small bitof circuitry visible on one side. Tally noticed that Maddyhad cut pieces from the forearms of all the jumpsuits.
“There’s a tracker in that cloth,” Maddy said. “drop itsomewhere to throw them off.”
Tally nodded, looking around for David. He was runningtoward them, his face set into a grim mask, the tube ofglue crushed and empty in his hand. “David—,” she started.
“Go!” Maddy shouted, pushing Shay onto the boardbehind Tally.
“Um, no crash bracelets?” Shay said, her feet unsteady.
“This is not my first party tonight, you know.”
UGLIES 391“I know. Hold on,” Tally said, and shot away from theroof.
The two of them teetered for a moment, almost losingtheir balance. But Tally steadied herself, feeling Shay’s armswrap tightly around her waist.
“Whoa, Tally! Slow down!”
“Just hang on.”
Tally leaned into a turn, sickened by the sluggishness ofthe board. Not only was it carrying two, but Shay’s wobblymoves were freaking it out.
“Don’t you remember how to ride?”
“Sure!” Shay said. “Just a little rusty, Squint. Plus a littletoo much to drink tonight.”
“Just don’t fall off. It’ll hurt.”
“Hey! I didn’t ask to be rescued!”
“No, I guess you didn’t.” Tally looked down as theysoared over Crumblyville, skipping the greenbelt to headstraight back toward the river. If Shay hit the ground at thisspeed, she’d be worse than hurt. She’d be dead.
Like David’s father. Tally wondered how he’d died. Hadhe tried to escape the Specials, like the Boss? Or had Dr.
Cable done something to him? One thought stuck in hermind: However it had happened, it was her fault.
“Shay, if you fall off, take me with you.”
“What?”
“Just hold on to me and don’t let go, no matter what.
I’m wearing a bungee jacket and bracelets. We should392 Scott Westerfeldbounce.” Probably. Unless the jacket pulled her one wayand the bracelets the other. Or Tally’s and Shay’s combinedweight was too much for the lifters.
“So give me the bracelets, silly.”
Tally shook her head. “No time to stop.”
“Guess not. Our Special friends are going to be royallypissed.” Shay clung tighter.
They were almost at the river, with no sign of pursuitbehind them. The nanotech glue must have beenputting up quite a fight. But Special Circumstances hadother hovercars—the three they’d seen leave earlier, atleast—and regular wardens had them too.
Tally wondered if Special Circumstances would call forhelp from the wardens, or whether they’d keep the wholesituation a secret. What would the wardens think of theunderground prison? Did the regular city govern............