Uglies (12 page)

“Yeah. Some trick.”

“When did
you
get modest, Squint? All my friends are fascinated.”

She turned her puffy eyes to her friend, trying to figure out if he was kidding.

“I mean, I already told everyone about you after that fire alarm thing, but they're
really
dying to meet you now,” he continued.
“There's even a rumor that Special Circumstances is involved.”

Tally blinked. Peris was serious.

“Well, that's true,” she said. “They're the reason I'm still ugly.”

Peris's big eyes widened even more. “Really? That is so bubbly!”

She sat up and frowned. “Did
everyone
know about them but me?”

“Well, I had no idea what anyone was talking about. Apparently, Specials are like gremlins; you blame them when anything weird happens. Some people think they're totally bogus, and no one I know has actually
seen
a Special.”

Tally sighed. “Just my luck, I guess.”

“So they're real?” Peris lowered his voice to a whisper. “Do they really look different? You know,
not
pretty.”

“It's not that they're not pretty, Peris. But they're really . . .” Tally looked at him, gorgeous and hanging on every word. It felt so perfect to be sitting next to him, talking and touching, as if they'd never been apart. She smiled. “They're just not as pretty as you.”

He laughed. “You'll have to tell me all about it. But don't you dare tell anyone else. Not yet. Everyone's going to be so intrigued. We can throw a big party when you get yourself prettied up.”

She tried to smile. “Peris . . .”

“I know, you're probably not supposed to talk about it. But once you're across the river, just drop a few hints about Special-you-know-what and you'll get invited to all the parties! Just make sure you take me with you.” He leaned closer. “There's even a rumor that all the bubbly jobs go to people who had tricky records
as kids. But that's years from now. The main thing is to get you pretty already.”

“But, Peris,” she said, her stomach starting to hurt. “I don't think I'll . . .”

“You'll love it, Tally. Being pretty's the best thing ever. And I'll enjoy it about a million times more once you're there with me.”

“I can't.”

He frowned. “Can't what?”

Tally looked up at Peris, clutching his hand. “You see, they want me to tattle on a friend of mine. Someone I got to know really well. After you left.”

“Tattle? Don't tell me this is all about some ugly-trick.”

“Sort of.”

“So, tattle away. How big a deal can it be?”

Tally turned away. “It's important, Peris. It's more than a trick. I made my friend a promise that I'd keep a secret for her.”

His eyes narrowed, and for a moment he looked like the old Peris: serious, thoughtful, even a little bit unhappy. “Tally, you made me a promise too.”

She swallowed and stared back at him. His eyes shone with tears.

“You promised you wouldn't do anything stupid, Tally. That you'd be with me soon. That we'd be pretty together.”

She touched the scar on her palm, still there, even though Peris's had been rubbed away. He reached over and held her hand. “Best friends forever, Tally.”

She knew that if she looked into his eyes again, it would be all
over. One glance, and her resistance would evaporate. “Best friends forever?” she said.

“Forever.”

She took a deep breath and let herself stare into his eyes. He looked so sad, so vulnerable and wounded. So perfect. Tally imagined herself by his side, just as beautiful, spending every day doing nothing but talking and laughing and having fun.

“You'll keep your promise, Tally?”

A shudder of exhaustion and relief went through her. She had it now, an excuse to break her vow. She'd made that promise to Peris, just as real, before she'd ever met Shay. She had known him for years, and Shay for only a few months.

And Peris was right here, not out in some strange wilderness, and was looking at her with those eyes . . .

“Of course.”

“Really?” He smiled, and it was as bright as the daybreak outside.

“Yeah.” The words came out so easily. “I'll be there as soon as I can. I promise.”

He sighed and hugged her tight, rocking her softly. Tears rose up in her again.

Peris finally released her, and looked out at the sunny day.

“I should go.” He waved at the door. “You know, before the . . . thingies . . . all wake up.”

“Of course.”

“It's almost past my bedtime, and you've got a big day ahead of you.”

Tally nodded. She'd never felt so exhausted. Her muscles ached,
and her face and hands had started stinging again. But she was overwhelmed with relief. This nightmare had begun three months ago, when Peris went across the river. And soon it would end.

“Okay, Peris. I'll see you soon. As soon as possible.”

He hugged her again, kissed her salty, scratched cheeks, and whispered, “Maybe in just a couple of days. I'm so excited!”

He said good-bye and left, checking both ways down the corridor before departing. Tally looked out the window for another glance at Peris, and realized that a hovercar was waiting for him below. Pretties really did get whatever they wanted.

Tally wanted nothing more than to fall asleep, but acting on her decision couldn't wait. She knew that with Peris gone, the doubts would come back again and haunt her. She couldn't stand another day like this, not knowing if her ugly purgatory would ever end. And she'd promised Peris she'd be with him as soon as possible.

“I'm sorry, Shay,” Tally said quietly.

Then she picked up her interface ring from where it had lain on the bedside table all night, and slipped it on. “Message to Dr. Cable, or whomever,” she said to it. “I'll do what you want. Just let me sleep for a while. Message over.”

Tally sighed, and let herself fall back onto the bed. She knew she should spray her scratches again before passing out, but the thought of moving made her whole body ache. A few dozen scratches wouldn't keep her from sleeping today. Nothing would.

Seconds later, the room spoke. “Reply from Dr. Cable: A car will be sent for you, arriving in twenty minutes.”

“No,” she mumbled, but realized that it would be useless to argue. Special Circumstances would come, they would wake her up, they would take her.

Tally decided to try for a few minutes of sleep. It would be better than nothing.

But for the next twenty minutes, she never once shut her eyes.

INFILTRATOR

The cruel pretties seemed even more unearthly to exhausted eyes. Tally felt like a mouse in a cage full of hawks, just waiting for one to swoop down and take her. The trip in the hovercar had been even more sickening this time.

She focused on the nausea eating away at her stomach, trying to forget why she was here. As Tally and her escort made their way down the hall, she tried to pull herself together, tucking in her shirt and tugging at her hair.

Dr. Cable certainly didn't look like she'd just gotten up. Tally tried without success to imagine what a tousled Dr. Cable would look like. Her darting, metal-gray eyes hardly seemed as if they would ever close long enough to sleep.

“So, Tally. You've reconsidered.”

“Yes.”

“And you'll answer all our questions now? Honestly and of your own free will?”

Tally snorted. “You're not giving me a choice.”

Dr. Cable smiled. “We always have choices, Tally. You've made yours.”

“Great. Thanks. Look, just ask your questions.”

“Certainly. First of all, what on earth happened to your face?”

Tally sighed, one hand touching the scratches. “Trees.”

“Trees?” Dr. Cable raised an eyebrow. “Very well. On a more important subject, what did you and Shay talk about the last time you saw her?”

Tally closed her eyes. This was it, the moment when she would break her vow to Shay. But a small voice in her exhausted brain reminded her that she was also keeping a promise. Now she could finally join Peris.

“She talked about going away. Running away with someone called David.”

“Ah, yes, the mysterious David.” Dr. Cable leaned back. “And did she say where she and David were going?”

“A place called the Smoke. Like a city, only smaller. And no one was in charge there, and no one was pretty.”

“And did she say where it was?”

“No, she didn't, not really.” Tally sighed and pulled Shay's crumpled note from her pocket. “But she left me these directions.”

Dr. Cable didn't even look at the note. Instead, she pushed a
piece of paper from her side of the desk over to Tally's. Through bleary eyes, Tally saw that it was a 3-D copy of the note, perfect down to the slight incisions of Shay's labored penmanship on the paper.

“We took the liberty of making a copy of that the first time you were here.”

Tally glared at Dr. Cable, realizing she'd been duped. “Then why do you need me? I don't know anything more than what I just said. I didn't ask her to tell me any more. And I didn't go with her, because I just . . . wanted . . . to be
pretty
!” A lump rose in her throat, but Tally decided that under no circumstances—special or not—was she going to cry in front of Dr. Cable.

“I'm afraid that we find the instructions on the note rather cryptic, Tally.”

“You and me both.”

Dr. Cable's hawk-eyes narrowed. “They seem to be designed to be read by someone who knows Shay quite well. By you, perhaps.”

“Yeah, well, I get some of it. But after the first couple of lines, I'm lost.”

“I'm sure it's very difficult. Especially after a long night of . . . trees. I still think you can help us, however.”

Dr. Cable opened a small briefcase on the desk between them. Tally's tired brain struggled to make sense of the objects in the case. A firestarter, a crumpled sleeping bag . . .

“Hey, that's like the survival stuff that Shay had.”

“That's right, Tally. These ranger kits go missing every so often. Usually just about the same time that one of our uglies disappears.”

“Well, mystery solved. Shay was all ready to travel to the Smoke with a bunch of that stuff.”

“What else did she have?”

Tally shrugged. “A hoverboard. A special one, with solar.”

“Of course a hoverboard. What is it about those things and miscreants? And what did Shay plan to eat, do you suppose?”

“She had food in packets. Dehydrated.”

“Like this?” Dr. Cable produced a silvery food pack.

“Yeah. She had enough for four weeks.” Tally took a deep breath. “Two weeks, if I'd gone along. More than enough, she said.”

“Two weeks? Not so very far.” Dr. Cable pulled a black knapsack from beside her desk and started to pack the various objects into it. “You might just make it.”

“Make it? Make
what
?”

“The trip. To the Smoke.”

“Me?”

“Tally, only you can understand these directions.”

“I told you: I don't know what they mean!”

“But you will, once you're on the journey. And if you're . . . properly motivated.”

“But I already told you everything you wanted to know. I gave you the note. You promised!”

Dr. Cable shook her head. “My promise, Tally, was that you wouldn't be pretty until you helped us to the very best of your ability. I have every confidence that this is within your ability.”

“But why me?”

“Listen carefully, Tally. Do you really think that this is the first
time we've been told about David? Or the Smoke? Or found some scrawled directions about how to get there?”

Tally flinched at the razor-blade voice, turning away from the anger on the woman's cruel face. “I don't know.”

“We've seen all this before. But whenever we go ourselves, we find nothing. Smoke, indeed.”

The lump had returned to Tally's throat. “So how am I supposed to find anything?”

Dr. Cable pulled the copy of Shay's note toward herself. “This last line, where it says to ‘wait on the bald head,' clearly refers to a rendezvous point. You go there, you wait. Sooner or later, they'll pick you up. If I send a hovercar full of Specials, your friends will probably be a bit suspicious.”

“You mean, you want me to go
alone
?”

Dr. Cable took a deep breath, a disgusted look on her face. “This isn't very complicated, Tally. You have had a change of heart. You have decided to run away, following your friend Shay. Just another ugly escaping the tyranny of beauty.”

Tally looked up at the cruel face through a prism of gathering tears. “And then what?”

Dr. Cable pulled another object from the briefcase, a necklace with a little heart pendant. She pressed on its sides, and the heart clicked open. “Look inside.”

Tally held the tiny heart up to her eye. “I can't see anything . . . ow!”

The pendant had flashed, blinding her for a moment. The heart made a little beep.

“The finder will only respond to your eye-print, Tally. Once it's activated, we'll be there within a few hours. We can travel very quickly.” Cable dropped the necklace onto the desk. “But don't activate it until you're in the Smoke. This has taken us some time to set up. I want the real thing, Tally.”

Tally blinked away the afterimage of the flash, trying to force her exhausted brain to think. She realized now that this had never been simply a matter of answering questions. They had always wanted her as a spy, an infiltrator. She wondered just how long this had been planned. How many times had Special Circumstances tried to get an ugly to work for them before? “I can't do this.”