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The only other plane with a ramp is the infirmary jet, where she works It leaves Risa with a very limited choice of interior spaces, so she spends her free time outside when she can stand the heat

Every day at five o’clock, Risa waits for Connor beneath a stealth bomber they’ve nicknamed Hush Puppy Every day, Connor is late

The boe of shade, and its radar-resistant skin wicks heat right out of the air It’s one of the coolest spots in the Graveyard, in more ways than one

She finally sees hiure in blue camo that sets hiht you weren’t co," Risa says as he reaches the shade of Hush Puppy

"I was supervising an engine disrin "That’s what they all say"

Connor brings his tension with hi with her is the only tiets to feel normal, but he never truly relaxes In fact, since she first met him, she’s never known hiends are out there, living lives of their own Stories of Connor and Risa have already grown deep roots inthan an outlaw romance They are Bonnie and Clyde for a new era; the subjects of buine that sothe blast at Happy Jack Harvest Cah to be the first Unwind ever to walk out of a Chop Shop in one piece Of course, as far as the rest of the world knows, Connor died there and Risa isdeep within so anyend would hold up if people knew she was right here in the Arizona desert, sunburned and dirty

A breeze blows beneath Hush Puppy’s belly, getting even more dirt in Risa’s eyes She blinks it away

"Are you ready?" Connor asks her

"Always"

Then Connor kneels before Risa’s wheelchair and begins toto coax circulation to those parts of her that can no longer feel It’s part of their daily ritual together, this physical contact between theely intimate at the same time Today, however, Connor is detached Distant

"So you even more than usual," Risa says A statement of fact, not a question "Go on, spill it"

Connor sighs, looks up at her, and asks the big question

"Why are we here, Risa?"

She considers the question "Do you mean why are we here philosophically, as a species, or why are we here, doing this in full view of anyone who cares to watch?"

"Let them watch," he says "I don’t care" And clearly he doesn’t, because privacy is the first casualty when you live in the Graveyard Even the small private jet Connor claimed as his quarters has no curtains on its s No, Risa knows that this has nothing do with their daily ritual, or the grand question of humanity It has to do with survival

"What I mean is, why are we still here in the Graveyard? Why haven’t the Juvies tranq’d and yanked us all?"

"You’ve said it yourself--they don’t see us as a threat"

"But they should," Connor points out "They’re not stupidwhich means that there’s some other reason why they haven’t taken this place down"

Risa reaches over, rubbing Connor’s tense shoulder "You think too much"

Connor smiles at that "When you h"

"Well, your brain isup for lost tih--after e’ve seen--can you blame me?"

"I like you better as a ht out You taught hs "Yes, I suppose I did And I created a monster"

She realizes that both of theed in the wake of the Happy Jack Harvest Caalvanized like iron in a furnace, but soed by those harsh flalad she had survived to see the far-reaching effects of that day Like Cap-17

Even before Happy Jack, there had been a bill in Congress calling for the lowering of the legal li by a whole year, to one’s seventeenth birthday instead of eighteenth The "Cap-17" bill had never been expected to pass--in fact, most people didn’t even know about it until Happy Jack made the news--and until poor Lev Calder’s face becaazine: the innocent boy clothed all in white A bright-eyed, clean-cut kid s out from a school picture How the perfect child became a clapper was a question that made parents everywhere stop and take noticebecause if it could happen to Lev, who’s to say that their own child ht not turn their blood explosive soe? And the fact that Lev chose not to detonate himself troubled people even more, because they couldn’t just file him away as a bad seed They had to accept that he had a soul--a conscience--whichhie everyone’s feelings of cultural guilt--the Cap-17 bill became law No one could be unwound after their seventeenth birthday

"You’re thinking about Lev again, aren’t you?" Connor asks

"How do you know?"