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"Yeah A lot of people do"

"Did you ever meet anyone there?"

Tally bit her lip "What’s Special Circue in her voice was suddenly sharp as a razor blade

"If you tell me what Special Circumstances is, I’ll answer you"

Dr Cable sat back She folded her hands and nodded "This city is a paradise, Tally It feeds you, educates you, keeps you safe It makes you pretty"

Tally couldn’t help looking up hopefully at this

"And our city can stand a great deal of freedosters room to play tricks, to develop their creativity and independence But occasionally bad things come fromoutside the city"

Dr Cable narrowed her eyes, her face beco even more like a predator’s "We exist in equilibriu the water that we put back in the river, recycling the bio only power drawn from our own solar footprint But sometimes we can’t purify e take in from the outside Sometimes there are threats from the environment that must be faced"

She smiled "Sometiuys are like minders, but for the whole city"

Dr Cable nodded "Other cities soe And sometimes those few people who live outside the cities can make trouble"

Tally’s eyes widenedOutside the cities? Shay had been telling the truth - places like the Smoke really existed

"It’s your turn to answer my question, Tally Did you ever meet anyone in the ruins? Someone not frorinned "No I never did"

Dr Cable frowned, her eyes darting doard for a second, checking sorown even colder Tally sain, certain now that Dr Cable knehen she was telling the truth The roo her heartbeat, her sweat, her pupil dilation But Tally couldn’t tell what she didn’t know

The razor blade slid back into the woames with me, Tally Your friend Shay will never thank you for it, because you’ll never see her again"

The thrill of her small victory disappeared, and Tally felt her smile fade

"Six of her friends disappeared, Tally, all at once None of them has ever been found Another tere meant to join them chose not to throw their lives away, however, and we discovered a little about what had happened to the others They didn’t run away on their own They were tempted by someone frolies We realized that this was a special circumstance"

One word sent ice down Tally’s spine Had Shay really beenstolen ? What did Shay or any ugly really know about the S Shay since then, hoping she ht lead us to her friends"

"So why didn’t you," Tally blurted out "You know,stop her!"

"Because of you, Tally"

"Me?"

Dr Cable’s voice softened "We thought she had ht she’d be okay"

Tally could only close her eyes and shake her head

"But then Shay disappeared," Dr Cable continued "She turned out to be trickier than her friends You taught her well"

"Idid?" Tally cried "I don’t know any lies"

"You underestimate yourself," Dr Cable said

Tally turned away from the vulpine eyes, shut out the razor-blade voice This wasnot her fault She had decided to stay here in the city, after all She wanted to become pretty She’d even tried to convince Shay

But failed

"It’s not my fault"

"Help us, Tally"

"Help you what?"

"Find her Find them all"

She took a deep breath "What if they don’t want to be found?"

"What if they do? What if they were lied to?"

Tally tried to reht, how hopeful she had been She’d wanted to leave the city as much as Tally wanted to be pretty However stupid the choice seemed, Shay had made it with her eyes open, and had respected Tally’s choice to stay

Tally looked up at Dr Cable’s cruel beauty, at the puke-yellon of the walls She remembered all the tricks Special Circumstances had played on her today - how they’d kept her waiting for an hour in the hospital, waiting and thinking she would soon be pretty, the brutal flight here, and all the cruel faces in the halls - and she decided "I can’t help you," Tally said "I made a promise"

Dr Cable bared her teeth This time, it wasn’t even abut a eful and inhublood Until you do help us, to the very best of your ability, you will never be pretty"

Dr Cable turned away

"You can die ugly, for all I care"

The door opened The scary