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Infiltrator

The cruel pretties seemed even more unearthly to exhausted eyes Tally felt like afor one to swoop down and take her The trip in the hovercar had been eventhis ti away at her stoet why she was here As Tally and her escort ether, tucking in her shirt and tugging at her hair

Dr Cable certainly didn’t look like she’d just gotten up Tally tried without success to i,enough to sleep

"So, Tally You’ve reconsidered"

"Yes"

"And you’ll answer all our questions now? Honestly and of your own free will?"

Tally snorted "You’re not giving me a choice"

Dr Cable smiled "We always have choices, Tally You’ve made yours"

"Great Thanks Look, just ask your questions"

"Certainly First of all, what on earth happened to your face?"

Tally sighed, one hand touching the scratches "Trees"

"Trees?" Dr Cable raised an eyebrow "Very well On a more important subject, what did you and Shay talk about the last time you saw her?"

Tally closed her eyes This was it, the moment when she would break her vow to Shay But a small voice in her exhausted brain re a promise Now she could finally join Peris

"She talked about going away Running aith someone called David"

"Ah, yes, the mysterious David" Dr Cable leaned back "And did she say where she and David were going?"

"A place called the Se there, and no one was pretty"

"And did she say where it was?"

"No, she didn’t, not really" Tally sighed and pulled Shay’s crumpled note from her pocket "But she left me these directions"

Dr Cable didn’t even look at the note Instead, she pushed a piece of paper froh bleary eyes, Tally saw that it was a 3-D copy of the note, perfect down to the slight incisions of Shay’s labored penmanship on the paper

"We took the liberty ofa copy of that the first tilared at Dr Cable, realizing she’d been duped "Then why do you needmore than what I just said I didn’t ask her to tell o with her, because I justwantedto bepretty !" A lump rose in her throat, but Tally decided that under no circu to cry in front of Dr Cable

"I’m afraid that we find the instructions on the note rather cryptic, Tally"

"You and me both"

Dr Cable’s hawk-eyes narrowed "They seened to be read by someone who knows Shay quite well By you, perhaps"

"Yeah, well, I get some of it But after the first couple of lines, I’m lost"

"I’ht oftrees I still think you can help us, however"

Dr Cable opened a small briefcase on the desk between theled to make sense of the objects in the case A firestarter, a cru

"Hey, that’s like the survival stuff that Shay had"

"That’s right, Tally These ranger kits goevery so often Usually just about the salies disappears"

"Well, mystery solved Shay was all ready to travel to the Smoke with a bunch of that stuff"

"What else did she have?"

Tally shrugged "A hoverboard A special one, with solar"

"Of course a hoverboard What is it about those things and miscreants? And what did Shay plan to eat, do you suppose?"

"She had food in packets Dehydrated"

"Like this?" Dr Cable produced a silvery food pack

"Yeah She had enough for four weeks" Tally took a deep breath "Teeks, if I’d gone along

More than enough, she said"