1269_UgliesFreeBook

104 Scott Westerfeld
made the paralyzed muscles in her chest flinch with pain,
and managed to croak, “Say please.”
“Inside,” was his answer.
Tally smiled, silently declaring a small victory that she
had made him speak again, but she did as she was told.
“I’m Dr. Cable.”
“Tally Youngblood.”
Dr. Cable smiled. “Oh, I know who you are.”
The woman was a cruel pretty. Her nose was aquiline,
her teeth sharp, her eyes a nonreflective gray. Her voice had
the same slow, neutral cadence as a bedtime book. But it
hardly made Tally sleepy. An edge was hidden in the voice,
like a piece of metal slowly marking glass.
“You have a problem, Tally.”
“I had kind of guessed that, uh . . .” It was strange, not
knowing the woman’s first name.
“Dr. Cable will do.”
Tally blinked. She’d never called anyone by their last
name in her life.
“Okay, Dr. Cable.” She cleared her throat and managed
to say more, in a dry voice. “My problem right now is that I
don’t know what’s going on. So . . . why don’t you tell me?”
“What do you think’s going on, Tally?”
Tally closed her eyes, taking a rest from the sharp angles
of the woman’s face. “Well, that bungee jacket was a spare,
you know, and we did put it back on the recharge pile.”