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"Yeah, and he&039;s up in Victoria," Dana said "They think different up there You know they split them up so if they shoot somebody it won&039;t be family"

"That&039;s not true!" Flutterby said "They just don&039;t want the the same district as their fa to walk in here if we don&039;t get busy," Jaka interrupted His voice was changing, and he tried to e of Kalaloch&039;s largest refugee camp He was er and the reprisals of security At twelve, he had already seen enough death from both He uncased his orn flute and snapped the sections together

Dana shrugged, sighed and uncased her caracol Its new strings glistened in a stray sliver of sunlight The swirled black back of its huge shell shone with the polish of four generations of fingers

"Give ed, and as they proceeded to tune the caracol the other two youngsters tore the cloth into four equal lengths of about three meters each

"Has your brother ever killed anybody?" Leet whispered

"Of course not," Flutterby said She s the other girl&039;s eyes

"He&039;s not like that You&039;ve met him"

"Yeah," Leet said Her brown eyes brightened and she giggled

"He&039;s so cute"

Flutterby found that she got her banner lettered with less than half a tube of green It was dark green and would be nearly as visible as black The large block letters read, "WE&039;RE HUNGRY NOW!" It had becoees, but she&039;d heard it mumbled everywhere lately As scarcity spread and rations declined, Flutterby had even heard it whispered in The Line

The Line, where everyone stood for hours to get into the food distribution centers, here she chose to hang her banner Leet&039;s would go over their school, which faced the concrete-and-plasteel offices of Merle his into Mer hers from the ferry dock, within easy view of Holovision&039;s offices on the pier

Dana ran up and down the scales a few ti dance piece they&039;d practiced at school Flutterby thought it the best her friend had ever played Jaka struggled, as usual, but diligently played on

"Do you think the Shadows kidnapped Crista Galli?" Leet asked

The bulky tube was difficult for her to handle, and she was going over her letters twice to h to be read at a distance

"I don&039;t know," Flutterby said "I don&039;t knohat to believe anyrew up on Vashon, and she says that Crista Galli is so My dad says she&039;s just another freak"

"Your led, "Crista Galli, you stoop He says that the only way to feed the world is to keep control of the currents, and that if Crista Galli helps control the kelp then the Director is right to ainst us What do your parents think?"

Leet frowned

"They don&039;t say , any all the time, every day Mom says she&039;s too tired to hear herself think My dad won&039;t even watch the news anyoes to bed I think they&039;re afrai"

An explosion in the harbor startled them both Dana set her caracol on the deck with a thump

"That was close," she said Dana had a lisp that came out when she was nervous, and it slipped out now

The four of them crowded the tiny plaz porthole at the far end of the attic A sht at the end of the street Looking up the street to the left, Flutterby watched the giant cup on the Ace of Cups sign swing to and fro fro comasp froht beneath the the hatch They ot to hide this stuff," Jaka said, his whisper cracking into its high range "If they find this, they&039;ll kill us"

"Or worse," Dana ather up the paints and to roll up the tet banners, but it was too late

The flimsy hatch burst aside as a fat, no-neck security kicked it in Another, nearly identical to him, slipped inside and waited with his back to the wall

"Look here," he said, straightening the banners with the s, no?"

Without waiting for a reply he snapped two bursts froun Jaka and Leet dropped to the deck, dead

Flutterby wanted to scream, but she couldn&039;t catch her breath

"They&039;re wots," his partner said "What did yo ?"

"Maggots make flies," the other said "We have orders" The ain and Flutterby didn&039;t even see the flash that killed her

Mankind owns four things

that are no good at sea:

rudder, anchor, oars

and the fear of going down

- Antonio Machado

Ben undogged the hatch and Rico LaPush rushed inside Rico nodded once to the girl, who looked ghastly pale, and handed Ben the pocketon it was already outdated, but Ben would want to hear it, anyway Rico was careful to keep froirl

"Ready?" he asked

"Ready," Ben said

"Yes," said the girl

Rico scratched his chin stubble and adjusted the lasgun in the back of his pants He had been with Ben since Guemes island was sunk, more years than Crista Galli had been alive His mistrust of people had kept theuard doith Her Holiness

"Deja vu," he said to Ben, nodding at her Islander dress "She reh The streets are crawling with security, she&039;ll need a good ac"

"You can speak to er "I have ears to hear, lass of water on her brother&039;s table"

Rico had toperfect She was a very quick study - of course, she hadinside people&039;s head

"Thank you for the lesson, sister," he said "You are most cheerfully dressed, my compliments"

Rico noted Ben&039;s saze never wavered from Crista Galli&039;s perfect face

Rico&039;s cameras had taped the faces of many beautiful wo he&039;d heard about Crista Galli was true When Ben becaulator with the holography creell-placed lie got hi kept it He had filiven year than most cameramen witnessed in a lifetiht Maybe the sun will give her some color

Operations said to keep her out of the sun, but Rico thought that, given their recent bad luck, this would be impossible Operations, whoever they were, didn&039;t have their butts on the line

"We&039;ll be walking for a while," Rico told theer in Ben&039;s hand

"Don&039;t bother," he said "You oing by air but the airstrip&039;s already locked up by Flattery&039;s boys We&039;ll have to do it by water"

"But they sai"

"I knohat they said," Rico snapped "They said the airstrip would be secure They said keep her away from water Let&039;s move"

Crista Galli carried a sadness about her that Rico didn&039;t like He could take fear, or anger, or even hysteria but sadness felt too much like bad luck They&039;d started out with that When she reached out a tentative hand toward Ben, Rico stopped her with a word

"No," he said "I&039;m sorry I can&039;t let you touch him"

"Your fear?" she shot back, "or this &039;Operations&039;? He is clothed"

"My fear"

She was hurt when Ben remained silent

Crista shrank back from him, and Rico slipped into the Gue Islanders, I anize the depth of trust and love that the people have for her," he said, with a curt nod of his head "They speak out to her when the speaking is painful"