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They gained speed as they cliiant ramp before them

The wind pushed Tally’s hair back, and she blinked as bugspinged against her face She slid carefully toward the front of the paired boards, the toes of one grippy shoe sticking out past the riding surface

Then the horizon seemed to slip away in front of her, and Tally crouched, ready to juround disappeared

Tally pushed off with all her strength, forcing her hoverboards down the steep side of the hill, where they would bring themselves to a halt She and David had switched off their crash bracelets - they didn’t want the boards following them over the wire Not yet

Tally soared intofor a few more seconds The outer city lay below her, a vast patchwork of light and dark She spread her ars

At the peak of her arc, the silence seehtlessness, the ainst her face Tally tore her eyes frolance at David Hardly an arht

She grinned at hi now, the speed of her fall building slowly As she’d calculated, they were coan to anticipate the sickening jolt of her bungee jacket pulling her up

For longcloser, and Tally wondered again if bungee jackets could handle a fall fro would feel like ed to squeeze into her head Of course, it probably wouldn’t feel like anything

Ever again

The ground grew closer and closer, until Tally was certain so Then, with sudden violence, the straps of the jacket cahs and shoulders, crushing the air froe rubber band rapped around her, trying to bring her to a halt The bare dirt of the co flat and packed and hard, the jacket fighting her rasp

Finally, the invisible rubber band stretching toward its breaking point, she slowed to a shuddering halt within reach of the ground, pulling her hands back to keep fro forward as if they wanted to pop out of her skull

Then her fall reversed, and she pulled back upward, hover-bouncing head over heels, sky and horizon spinning around her like a playground ride Tally had no idea where David was - or where up and doere, for that e off Garbo Mansion How many bounces would it take to coain, the dirt of the co below her One foot alain, still barreling forith the ed to orient herself, sorting out up and down just in ti toward her She was overshooting the building

Flailing in the grasp of the jacket, flying helplessly upward and then down again, she passed the roof’s edge But her outstretched hand caught a rain gutter, bringing Tally to a sudden halt "Phew," she said, looking down

The building wasn’t very tall, and Tally would bounce in her jacket if she fell, but the round, the ould sound an alarutter with both hands

But the bungee jacket, satisfied that her fall had stopped, was shutting itself down, gradually returning her to norled to pull herself up onto the roof, but the heavy knapsack full of rescue equip to do a pull-up wearing lead shoes

She hung there, out of ideas, waiting to fall

Footsteps ca the roof, and a face appeared David

"Having trouble?"

She grunted an answer, and he reached over, grabbing a strap of the knapsack The weight mercifully lifted froe

David sat back onto the roof, shaking his head "So, Tally, you used to do that forfun ?"

"Not every day"

"Didn’t think so Can we rest for a , no alar Apparently, the asn’t built to sense them up there Tally smiled

"Sure Take two minutes, if you want It looks like the Specials weren’t expecting anyone to jump out of the sky"