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It&039;s as if in an instant, a paintedshatters, revealing the ugly world behind it Laughter changes to screams, blood stains pastel stones, real smoke darkens the special effect stuff made for television

A second explosion see But I can&039;t s first, try toto ste open a first-aid kit Boggs clutchesand ash, see But his next words are an order "The Holo"

The Holo I scrah chunks of tile slick with blood, shuddering when I encounter bits of wars&039;s boots Retrieve it, wiping it clean with bare hands as I return it to s&039;s left thigh cupped by soe, but it&039;s already soaked through He&039;s trying to tourniquet the other above the existing knee The rest of the squad has gathered in a protective for to revive Messalla, as thrown into a wall by the explosion Jackson&039;s barking into a field co unsuccessfully to alert the camp to sendmy mother work, I learned that once a pool of blood has reached a certain size, there&039;s no going back

I kneel beside Boggs, prepared to repeat the role I played with Rue, with thehim sos has both hands working the Holo He&039;s typing in a conition, speaking a string of letters and nuht bursts out of the Holo and illuminates his face He says, "Unfit for command Transfer of prime security clearance to Squad Four-Five-One Soldier Katniss Everdeen" It&039;s all he can do to turn the Holo toward my face "Say your nareen shaft Suddenly, it has ht I can&039;t es flicker rapidly beforeme? It vanishes, and I shake my head to clear it "What did you do?"

"Prepare to retreat!" Jackson hollers

Finnick&039;s yelling so to the end of the block where we entered Black, oilybetween the buildings, creating an impenetrable wall of darkness It seeas, mechanical nor natural Surely it&039;s lethal There&039;s no heading back the e cain to blast a path across the stones toward the far end of the block I don&039;t knohat they&039;re doing until another bo a hole in the street Then I realize this is a rudis and begin to drag hi out in pain and I want to stop, to find a better way, but the blackness is rising above the buildings, swelling, rolling at us like a wave

I&039;s, sla back into the land of the hijacked, his gun raised overto crush my skull I roll, hear the butt slam into the street, catch the tumble of bodies out of the corner of round But Peeta, always so powerful and now fueled by tracker jacker insanity, gets his feet under Mitchell&039;s belly and launches him farther down the block

There&039;s a loud snap of a trap as the pod triggers Four cables, attached to tracks on the buildings, break through the stones, dragging up the net that encases Mitchell It makes no sense - how instantly bloodied he is - until we see the barbs sticking from the wire that encases him I know it immediately It decorated the top of the fence around 12 As I call to hi on the smell of the blackness, thick, tarlike The wave has crested and begun to fall

Gale and Leeg 1 shoot through the front door lock of the corner building, then begin to fire at the cables holding Mitchell&039;s net Others are restraining Peeta now I lunge back to Boggs, and Hoh so roo with family photos, onto the marble floor of a kitchen, where we collapse Castor and Pollux carry in a writhing Peeta between theets cuffs on him, but it only makes him wilder and they&039;re forced to lock hi room, the front door slams, people shout Then footsteps pound down the hall as the black wave roars past the building Froroan, shatter The noxious tar s 1 and Cressida stu

"Gale!" I shriek

He&039;s there, sla out one word "Furab towels, aprons to stuff in the cracks as Gale retches into a bright yellow sink "Mitchell?" asks Hos forces the Holo into , but I can&039;tI lean my ear down to his mouth to catch his harsh whisper "Don&039;t trust theo back Kill Peeta Do what you came to do"

I draw back so I can see his face "What? Boggs? Boggs?" His eyes are still open, but dead Pressed in lued to it by his blood, is the Holo

Peeta&039;s feet sla of the others But even as we listen, his energy see Then nothing I wonder if he, too, is dead

"He&039;s gone?" Finnick asks, looking down at Boggs I nod "We need to get out of here Now We just set off a streetful of pods You can bet they&039;ve got us on surveillance tapes"

"Count on it," says Castor "All the streets are covered by surveillance cameras I bet they set off the black wavethe propo"

"Our radio communicators went dead alnetic pulse device But I&039;ll get us back to camp Give me the Holo" Jackson reaches for the unit, but I clutch it to ave it to me," I say

"Don&039;t be ridiculous," she snaps Of course, she thinks it&039;s hers She&039;s second in command

"It&039;s true," says Homes "He transferred the pri I saw it"

"Why would he do that?" de fros e, Mitchell bloody and netted and sed by that foul black wave I turn to Boggs, very badly needing him alive Suddenly sure that he, and maybe he alone, is completely on my side I think of his last orders

"Don&039;t trust theo back Kill Peeta Do what you came to do"

What did he mean? Don&039;t trust who? The rebels? Coin? The people looking at o back, but he h Peeta&039;s head Can I? Should I? Did Boggs guess that what I really came to do is desert and kill Snow on my own?

I can&039;t work all of this out now, so I just decide to carry out the first two orders: to not trust anyone and to move deeper into the Capitol But how can I justify this? Make them let me keep the Holo?

"Because I&039;s was the only one who knew about it"

This in no way convinces Jackson "To do what?"

Why not tell the I&039;ll coe "To assassinate President Snow before the loss of life from this war makes our population unsustainable"

"I don&039;t believe you," says Jackson "As your current commander, I order you to transfer the prime security clearance over to me"

"No," I say "That would be in direct violation of President Coin&039;s orders"

Guns are pointed Half the squad at Jackson, half at me Someone&039;s about to die, when Cressida speaks up "It&039;s true That&039;s e&039;re here Plutarch wants it televised He thinks if we can fil Snow, it will end the war"

This gives even Jackson pause Then she gestures with her gun toward the closet "And why is he here?"

There she has me I can think of no sane reason that Coin would send an unstable boy, progranain "Because the two post-Games intervieith Caesar Flickerman were shot in President Snow&039;s personal quarters Plutarch thinks Peeta uide in a location we have little knowledge of"