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She slowed down "You don’t have to whisper No one coly territory, and they’re all in bed, unless they’re tricking"

"Okay," he said "But shouldn’t we be more careful about hoverpaths?"

"Hoverpaths? David, hoverboards workeverywhere in the city There’s a ht"

Tally s in David’s world, it was good to be explaining things to him for once "What’s the matter," she taunted, "can’t keep up?"

David grinned "Try zag path between the tall poplars, letting her reflexes guide her

She remembered her two hovercar rides to Special Circureenbelt on the far side of town, then out to the transport ring, the industrial zone between the middle-pretty suburbs and outer Cru across the burbs, a risky place to have an ugly face Luckily, middle pretties went to bed early Most of thereenbelt, until the lights of the big hospital sat directly across the river fro, yanked away froated, her future pulled out fro that this ti for Special Circuh her as they left the greenbelt Ato warn her that she was leaving Uglyville How had she worn that stupid thing for sixteen years? It had see tracked and monitored and advised every minute of the day repelled Tally

"Stick close," she said to David "This is the part where you should whisper"

As a littlie, Tally had lived in the middle-pretty burbs with Sol and Ellie But back then her world had been pathetically tiny: a few parks, the path to littlie school, one corner of the greenbelt where she would sneak in to spy on uglies Like the Rusty Ruins, the neat row houses and gardens seee of dollhouses

They ski for a late-night run or walking a dog, they wouldn’t be looking up, hopefully Their boards barely a hand’s breadth above the housetops, the patterns of shingles passed underneath hypnotically All they encountered were nesting birds and a few cats, who flew or scrambled out of their way in surprise

The burbs ended suddenly, a last band of parks fading into the transport ring, where underground factories stuck their heads aboveground and cargo trucks drove concrete roads all day and night Tally lofted her board and gained speed

"Tally!" David hissed "They’ll see us!"

"Relax Those trucks are autoht"

He stared down at the lu vehicles nervously

"Look, they don’t even have headlights" She pointed down at a giant road-train passing below, the only light coation laser reading the bar codes painted onto the road

They rode on, David still anxious at the sight ofvehicles below

Soon, a familiar landmark rose above the industrial wasteland

"See that hill? Special Circumstances is just below it We’ll climb up top and take a look"

The hill was too steep to put a factory on, and apparently too big and solid to flatten with explosives and bulldozers, so it stood out on the flat plain like a lopsided pyra on the other, covered with scrub and brown grass They ski a few boulders and hardscrabble trees, until they reached the top

Froht, Tally could see all the way back to New Pretty Town, the glowing disk of the island about as big as a dinner plate The outer city was in darkness, and below her, the low, brown buildings of Special Circuhts "Down there," she said, her voice falling to a whisper

"Doesn’t look like round I don’t kno far down it goes"

They stared at the cluster of buildings in silence From up here, Tally could see the peris in an almost perfect square That meant serious security There weren’t many barriers in the city - not that you could see, anyway If you weren’t supposed to be so just politely warned you to h to fly over"

Tally shook her head "It’s not a fence, it’s a sensor wire You get within twenty meters of it and the Specials will know you’re there Saround inside it"

"Twenty h to clear on boards So what do we do, knock on the gate?"

"There’s no gate that I can see I went in and out by hovercar"

David dru one?"

"A hovercar?" Tally whistled "That’d be a pretty good trick I knew uglies who used to go joyriding, but not in Special Circumstances hovercars"

"It’s too bad we can’t just jump down"

Tally narrowed her eyes "Jump?"

"From here Get on our hoverboards back at the bottom of the hill, zoom up at maximum speed, then ju building dead center"

"Dead is right We’d splat"

"Yeah, I guess Even with crash bracelets, our arms would probably yank out of their sockets after a fall like that We’d need parachutes"

Tally looked down, plotting trajectories froain, the wheels of her brain spinning She remeo

Finally, she allowed herself to see jackets"