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"Tricky place to hide it," Zane said as they approached the sprawling mansion "Easier to keep secrets where the walls don’t talk"

"That’s probably why they hacked a Valentino bash and not one in soo and screw everything up," Zane said

Tally looked at him "You?"

"We started off down in the stone uys anywhere, I said we should go up into the new party spire so the smart walls would find you"

"We had the same idea," Tally said

Zane shook his head "Yeah, well, if we’d all stayed down in Valentino, the Specials wouldn’t have spotted Croy so fast He would have had tih the walls?"

"Yeah" Zane grinned "Why do you think I suggested a picnic on this bogusly cold day"

Tally nodded, thinking it through The city interface brought you pings, answered your questions, rehts on and off in your room If Special Circu you did and half of what you were thinking She re on her finger, the walls catching every word"Do they watch everybody?"

"No, they couldn’t, and et special treatment

As in Special Circumstances"

Tally swore The Specials had shown up so quickly last night She’d only had a fewclose by Maybe they’d already spotted that the party had been hacked

Or blood

She looked into the trees Shadows shifted in the wind, and she i theht was because of you, Zane It was my fault"

"How do you us, Tally," Zane said softly "There’s nothing wrong with being special"

His voice trailed off as they passed through the main arch of Valentino Mansion Within the cool stone walls, it was as silent as a to e left," Zane whispered "They probably all just went to bed"

Tally nodded There weren’t even any maintenance robots at work yet Bits of torn costumes littered the hallways Spilled drinks filled the air with a sickly sweet perfulamour of the party had been stripped away like bubbliness turned into a hangover

Her finger felt naked without an interface ring, bringing back ly, the terror of being caught But fear kept her bubbly her senses sharp enough to hear stray party rubbish shifting in the drafty corridors, to separate the raisiny scent of spilled chane from the stale funk of beer Besides their own footsteps, theto be asleep," Tally whispered

"Then we’ll wake the in the seround-floor rooms were all numbered in the one hundreds, so they looked for a way up

New elevators had been added to the s, the doors wouldn’t open for theht Tally and Zane to the third floor, across from 301

The numbers counted up as they walked down the hall, odds on one side and evens on the other Zane squeezed her hand when they reached 315

But the next roo the other side of the hall, but found only doors nu the rest of the floor, they found more 320s and the 330s, odd and even, but no Valentino 317

"This is a bubbly puzzle," Zane said, chuckling to hihed "Maybe it was all a joke"

"You think the New Smokies would hack a citywide invitation, sneak across the river, and crash a party just to waste our ti in her starting to fade She found herself wondering if this whole expedition was kind of lalies had left behind Sneaking around in sous, after all "You think breakfast is still waraze on her With tre hands, he pushed her hair behind her ears "Stay with ht here," she said

He drew closer, until his lips almost brushed hers "I mean, stay bubbly"

Tally kissed hiain She pushed the hunger out of her mind and said, "Okay What about the elevator?"

"Which one?"

She led hi expanse of stone as interrupted by an elevator door

"There used to be a rooot rid of it when they put in the elevator" Zane laughed "Lazy pretties Can’t clihts of stairs"

"So us," Zane said "We can’t s"

"We could wait around until someone else calls the elevator, and slip in"

Zane looked up and down the empty hallway, piled with plastic cups and torn paper decorations