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"One of the most beautiful plants in the world But too successful They turned into the ultimate weed
What we call a monoculture They crowd out every other species, choke trees and grass, and nothing eats thebird, which feeds on their nectar But the hubirds nest in trees"
"There aren’t any trees down there," Tally said "Just the orchids"
"Exactly That’s what h orchids build up in an area, there aren’t enough hubirds to pollinate them You know, to spread the seeds"
"Yeah," Tally said "I know about the birds and the bees"
"Sure you do, kid So the orchids eventually die out, victiical zero We rangers try to keep theineered diseases, predators to target the hu that really works" He turned the orchid over in his hand and held up a firestarter, letting the flame lick into its mouth "Have to be careful, you know?"
Tally noticed the other rangers were cleaning their boots and unifor the mud and foam She looked down at the endless white "And you’ve been doing this for"
"Almost three hundred years The Rusties started the job, after they figured out what they’d done But we’ll never win All we can hope to do is contain the weed"
Tally sat back, shaking her head, coughing once more The floere so beautiful, so delicate and unthreatening, but they choked everything around the her his canteen She took it and drank gratefully
"You’re headed to the Smoke, aren’t you?"
Tally sed so way and sputtered "Yeah How’d you know?"
"Co around in the floith a hoverboard and a survival kit?"
"Oh, yeah" Tally re eyes" They lies before
"We help the Smokies out, and they help us out," Tonk said "They’re crazy, if you ask ly But they know more about the wild than most city pretties It’s kind of aduess so"
He frowned "You guess so? But you’re headed there Aren’t you sure?"
Tally realized that this here the lies started She could hardly tell the rangers the truth: that she was a spy, an infiltrator "Of course I’ you down soon"
"In the Sain "Don’t you know? The location’s a big secret Sers We’ll take you to the usual spot, and you know the rest, right?"
She nodded "Sure Just testing you"
The helicopter landed in a swirl of dust, the white flowers bending in a wide circle around the touchdown spot
"Thanks for the ride," Tally said
"Good luck," Tonk said "Hope you like the Se yourfor volunteers in the rangers"
Tally frowned "What’s a volunteer?"
The ranger smiled "That’s when you pick your own job"
"Oh, right" Tally had heard you could do that in soood work Speaking of which, you’re not setting any fires around here, are you?"
The rangers laughed, and Tonk said, "We just work the edges of the infestation, to keep the flowers froht smack in the middle No hope left"
Tally looked around There wasn’t a glimpse of any color but white as far as she could see The sun had set an hour ago, but the orchids glowed like ghosts in the ht chilled Tally What had he called it? Biological zero
"Great"
She jumped out of the helicopter and yanked her hoverboard fronetic rack next to the door
She backed away, careful to crouch as the rangers had warned her to
The machine whined back to life, and she peered upward into the shi disk Tonk had explained that a pair of thin blades, spinning so quickly that you couldn’t see theh the air
She wondered if he’d been kidding It just looked like a typical force field to her
The wind grew crazed again as the htly, waving until the aircraft disappeared into the dark sky She sighed
Alone again
Looking around, she wondered how she could find the Smokies in this featureless desert of orchids
"Then wait on the bald head until it’s light," was the last line of Shay’s note Tally scanned the horizon, and a relieved smile broke onto her face
A tall, round hill rose up not far away It ineered flowers had first taken root The top half of the hill was dying, nothing left but bare soil, ruined by the orchids
The cleared area looked just like a bald head
She reached the bald hilltop in a few hours
Her hoverboard was useless there, but the hiking was easy in the new shoes the rangers had given her, her own so burned that they had fallen apart in the helicopter Tonk had also filled her purifier ater
The ride in the helicopter had begun to dry out Tally’s clothing, and the hike had done the rest Her knapsack had survived the dunking, even the SpagBol re lost to the river was Shay’s note, reduced to a soggy wad of paper in her pocket
But she had almost made it As she looked out from the hilltop, Tally realized that, except for the burn blisters on her hands and feet, soone up in s as the Smokies knehere to find her, and believed her story that she was an ugly coure out that she was actually a spy, then everything was just great
She waited on the hill, exhausted but unable to sleep, wondering if she could really do what Dr Cable wanted The pendant around her neck had also survived the ordeal Tally doubted a little water would have ruined the device, but she wouldn’t know until she reached the Smoke and activated it
She hoped for a moment that the pendant wouldn’t work Maybe one of the bu the way had broken its little eye-reader and it would never send itsfor Without the pendant, Tally was stuck out here in the wild forever Ugly for life
Her only way home was to betray her friend