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"You tell them," she said "Tell thehed and waved off the randfather the sa, and his father before him"

The Crow smiled as if this were true "Predict the inevitable," she said, "and you’re bound to be right one day"

Mission smiled He liked that "Still, I wish you wouldn’t talk about dying Nobody likes to hear it"

"They ood" She held out her ar away and revealing the bandage once more "Tell me, what do you see when you look at these hands?" She turned theed to another

"I see tiht ca her skin to be grotesque Like shriveled potatoes found deep in the soil long after harvest ti it

"Time, sure," Mrs Crowe said "There’s tis being better, once You think on the bad to reood"

She studied her hands aelse When she lifted her gaze and peered at Mission, her eyes were shining with sadness Mission could feel his own eyes watering, partly from discomfort, partly due to the somber pall that had been cast like a cold and wet blanket over the conversation It rehtened his neck and emptied his chest He was sure the Crohat day it was She just loved hih not to say

"I was beautiful, once, you know" Mrs Croithdrew her hands and folded theood, no one will ever see it again"

Mission felt a powerful urge to soothe her, to tell Mrs Crowe that she was still beautiful in plenty of ways She could still make music Could paint Few others remembered how She couldforgotten

"When I was your age," the Crow said, shed, dispelling the tension and casting away the shadows that had fallen over their talk, but Mission believed her He believed her even though he couldn’t picture it, couldn’t i strands of hair on her knuckles Still, he believed her He always did

"The world is a lot likeand perhaps beyond "The world was beautiful once, too"

Mission sensed an Old Ti like a storm of clouds More lockers were sla

"Tellthe hours that had passed like eyeblinks at her feet, the songs she sang while children slept "Tell me about the old world"

The Old Crow’s eyes narrowed and settled on a dark corner of the room A deep breath rattled in her once-proud chest Her lips, furroith the wrinkles of tian, a story Mission had heard a thousand ti this land of the Crow’s iination And as the little ones skipped into the rooathered around They slipped into their tiny desks and followed along with the widest of eyes and theminds these tales of a world, once beautiful, and now fairly forgotten

•11•

The stories Mrs Crowe ht froreen, white clouds and rainbows, anier than people Juvenile stuff And yet, these fantastic tales of a better place sory at the world he was stuck with He thought this as he left the Up Top behind and wound his way past the farms and the levels of his youth The prohted the flaws of the faone off to be a porter, to fly away and be all that he wished, and what he wished was to be further away than this world would allow

These were dangerous thoughts They reminded hio to the day

Past the far further down the silo The air was hazy, and there was the bitter tinge of sue A trash pile, maybe Someone who didn’t want to pay the fee to have it ported to recycling Or soh to need to recycle

It could be an accident, of course It could be a legitier But that’s not where Mission’s ht that way anymore He could see it on the faces of those on the stairwell He could see by the way belongings were clutched, children sheltered, that the future of everything was in doubt There hadn’t been nearly as un to wonder: What’s the point?

Mission adjusted his light pack and hurried down to the IT levels He re the silo after the last outbreak of violence There were physical things to patch, like the stairwell, but the population, too Physical explosions led to population explosions Record nu His father spoke of so many bodies to dispose of that the airlock had been e the dead by the score, their ashes set loose to blur the view It made clear the link between life and death, that each birth ed to another’s passing The difference with Mission was that he kneho that other person was

He reached IT and pushed his way through a crowd on landing thirty-four It was nized, a lot from the mids Several who didn’t match this profile stood with co with the rest Mission picked his way through the throng A co Inside, he found a barrier had been set up just beyond the door Two ate and allowed only cruh

"Delivery," Mission shouted He worked his way to the front, carefully extracting the note Mrs Crowe had written "Delivery for Officer Jeffery"

One of the security ainst the barrier by those behind A woh She hurried toward the proper security gate leading into theher coveralls with obvious relief There were crowds of young iven instructions in one corner of the wide hall They stood at attention in neat rank and file, but their eyes ide as the stairwell

"What the hell is going on?" Mission asked, as the barrier was parted for hiuards rejoined "Power spike last night took out a load of co a double There’s a fire down in Mechanical or soet the wire?"

Mechanical That was a long ay to nose a fire And as out about last night’s raid,him self-conscious of the cut on his nose "What wire?" he asked