1269_UgliesFreeBook

UGLIES 103
designed to make its occupants vaguely nauseated.
There were more people like the man.
They were all dressed in formals, raw silks in black and
gray, and their faces had the same cold, hawkish look. Both
the men and women were taller than pretty standard, and
more powerfully built, their eyes as pale as an ugly’s. There
were a few normal people as well, but they faded into
insignificance next to the predatory forms moving gracefully
through the halls.
Tally wondered if this was someplace where people
were taken when their operations went wrong, when
beauty turned cruel. Then why was she here? She hadn’t
even had the operation yet. Tally swallowed. What if these
terrible pretties had been made this way intentionally?
When they had measured her yesterday, had they determined
that she would never fit the vulnerable, doe-eyed
pretty mold? Maybe she’d already been chosen to be
remade for this strange, other world.
The man stopped outside a metal door, and Tally
halted behind him. She felt like a littlie again, jerked along
by a minder on an invisible string. All her ugly senior’s
confidence had evaporated the moment she’d seen him
back at the hospital. Four years of tricks and independence
gone.
The door flashed his eye and opened, and he pointed
for her to go in. Tally realized he hadn’t said a word since
collecting her at the hospital. She took a deep breath, which