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"I’m not sure if these missions of yours are noble or stupid," Risa once told him

"Why can’t they be both?" he responded The fact is, saving individual kids is so for hi the Graveyard These side trips keep hie, it was only supposed to be temporary The Anti-Divisional Resistance was supposed to find a suitable replacee that the public could believe would be running an airplane salvage operation But then they realized that they didn’t need that They had people in the Graveyard’s front office--a trailer near the entrance--and those e as Connor kept the kids working, fed, and quiet, the ADR found no reason to hire so your do up to him

"It’s not mine, I only work here," Connor tells him "The new kid settled in?"

"Yeah--a real coh"

"He’ll get over it We all do"

Trace Neuhauser is an air force boeuf who gave it up to join the resistance when his sister was unwound He’s AWOL from his unit for six months now, but still a boeuf in every sense of the word He’s all steroid bulk, with a tunnel-vision education in the martial sciences

Connor never liked boeufs Maybe because they know their purpose in the world, and generally serve it well Seeing them always made Connor feel useless That a boeuf has becoe Trace is twenty-three but see orders from a seventeen-year-old

"Chain of coe restrictions," he once told Connor "You could be six, but if you were my superior, I’d still do as I was told"

Maybe that’s why Connor likes hiuy like that can respect Connor’s lead, maybe he’s not such a lousy leader after all

- - -

The next day begins as every day begins in the Graveyard With things to be done "The Firefighters’ Treadmill," the Admiral called it: an endless trot to sto toilets flushing," the Admiral once said "Unless you’re on the battlefront Then it’s about staying alive Neither are pleasant"

On thebeneath the recreation jet, watching TV, or playing video ga or rebuilding aircraft parts, as per the orders co in from the front office So on in spite of him, rather than because of him

As soon as Connor is spotted on the ins

"Hey, Connor," says a kid running up to hiet soars can’t be choosers and all, but if I gotta eat beef-flavored steith no actual beef in it one onna hurl"

"Yeah, you and everyone else," Connor tells hiirl, fourteen or so--he can’t get over the fact that so er ones, are not only ridiculously respectful, but think that Akron is somehow part of his name--"I don’t know if you know this, but the fans in Crash Maht"

"I’ll send someone to fix the that there’s tooabout it

"I swear, half the time I feel like a janitor," he tells Trace "I need a dozen more hands just to keep this place afloat"

"You do have a dozen hands," Trace re to use the heard it before He shouldn’t be s out--after all, that’s why he keeps Trace so close: to advise hie Connor has already accepted the odd reality that he’s some sort of leader, but, as the Admiral pointed out, it’s a pretty thankless job

After the Ade, Connor had set up a power structure: an inner circle, an outer circle, and everyone else Those in his inner circle are supposed totaken care of, because Connor hasthe after I meet with the rep from the resistance," Connor tells Trace "And I’ll ated"

"Maybe," says Trace, "you need to take a look at who you’re delegating to"

Connor never knew he could handle this kind of responsibility, but now that he knows, he wishes he could go back to just being responsible for his he feels he still needs to do Thanks to Lev, and hisunwound, but he still doesn’t feel entirely whole

6 - Risa

There is only one permanently disabled resident of the Graveyard Since the disabled are a protected class, they’re never at risk for being unwound, so they never turn up at the Graveyard with all the other kids who ran from their unwind order It’s a testimony to the swiss-cheese nature of public corace is extended, but unlucky for those ind up in the holes

Risa is disabled by choice That is to say, she refused surgery that would repair her severed spine, because it involved giving her the spine of an unwound kid It used to be that spinal dae was irreversible, and if that was the card you were dealt, you spent the rest of your days with it She wonders if it’s harder to live like that, or to live knowing you can be fixed but choose not to

Now she lives in an old McDonnel Douglas MD-11, for which they built a wooden switchback ramp to the main hatch The plane has been aptly named Accessible Mac, or AcMac for short There are about ten kids with sprained ankles or other temporary conditions who currently share AcMac with Risa, each in sections divided by curtains, providing the illusion of personal space Risa has the old first-class cabin of the jet, which is forward of the hatch It gives her a larger living area, but she can’t stand the fact that it singles her out The whole lousy jet singles her out--and although her shattered spine is a well-earned ound, it doesn’t change the fact that she is constantly condemned to receive special treatment