Page 39 (1/2)

Thirty-One

Cinder peered out the cockpitat a crop of leafy plants The fields stretched out in every direction, the view of the flat horizon broken only by a stone faretables And a giant spaceship

"This isn’t conspicuous at all"

"At least we’re in thehi on his leather jacket "If anyone calls the police, it will take theet here"

"Unless they’re already on their way," Cinder hout their eons-long descent down to Earth, her brain ski over a thousand different fates that could await the as she could, they still had no way of knowing how effective she was being, and she still had the sinking feeling that her atteic were pathetically futile She couldn’t understand how she couldbut her own hts

Nevertheless--the fact remained that no one had discovered the Benoit Faran to lower off the cargo bay and Iko chirped, "You two go off and have fun now I’ll be sitting here, bydiagnostics It’s going to be fantastic"

"You’re getting really good at your sarcas Thorne at the top of the rae

Thorne squinted at the glare on his portscreen "Bingo," he said, pointing at the two-story house that had to be old enough to have survived the Fourth World War "She’s here"

"Bring me back a souvenir!" Iko yelled as Thorne stoy fro to the he his own direct route to the house

Cinder followed, drinking in the wide-open far locked up inside the Raen Even with her audio interface turned off, it was the deepest silence she’d ever experienced "It’s so quiet here"

"Creepy, isn’t it? I don’t kno people can stand it"

"I think it’s kind of nice"

"Yeah, like a s were thrown haphazardly throughout the fields: a barn, a chicken coop, a shed, a hangar big enough to house a nu as the Rampion

Cinder drew up short when she spotted it She frowned, stretching for the gossaar "Wait"

Thorne turned back to her "Did you see so through the mud Thorne trailed after her, silent as Cinder shoved open the hangar’s door

"I’s is the best way to introduce ourselves"

Cinder glanced back, scanning the house’s e," she said, and stepped inside "Lights, on"

The lights flickered to life and she gasped at the sight before her Tools and parts, screws and bolts, clothes and gri haphazardly around the space Every cabinet hung open, every storage crate and toolbox had been tipped over The glossy white floor could hardly be seen beneath the ar, a small delivery ship sat with its backbusted out Shards of glass glittered beneath the blazing lights The hangar smelled of spilled fuel and toxic fumes, and a little bit like Cinder’s usted "I’m not sure I can trust a pilot with such little respect for her ship"

Cinder ignored hi her scanner over the shelves and walls Despite the distraction of the chaos, her brain-eneral i-lost led in from the door The combined smells of machinery and manure The crisscrossed pattern of the exposed trusses

She paced across the concrete, crunching through the debris She host of fa back toward the far"

"In this mess? Good luck with that"

She found a s Knowing she’d been there before In a dream, in a daze

She noticed a thinon a rod They all had insignias fro her shoulders, Cinder picked her way toward it and pushed the jackets to the side

"Really, Cinder?" said Thorne, co up beside her "This is not the tie of clothes"

Cinder barely heard hi in her head The mess was no coincidence So

They’d been looking for her

She wished the realization hadn’t struck, but there was no dis in front of the cabinet, she slid her hand against the back corner until it brushed against the handle she’d knoould be there Painted the same brown color, it was invisible in the shadows It would never be noticed unless a person knew to look And she knew--because she’d been here Five years ago, in a state of drugged-up deliriued in this spot Every joint andslowly out of endless darkness and blinking, as if for the first tiainst the cabinet and pulled

The secret door was heavier than she’d expected,es and let it slam down on the concrete floor A cloud of dust billowed up on all sides