1269_UgliesFreeBook

UGLIES 133
of your ability. I have every confidence that this is within
your ability.”
“But why me?”
“Listen carefully, Tally. Do you really think that this is
the first time we’ve been told about David? Or the Smoke?
Or found some scrawled directions about how to get there?”
Tally flinched at the razor-blade voice, turning away
from the anger on the woman’s cruel face. “I don’t know.”
“We’ve seen all this before. But whenever we go ourselves,
we find nothing. Smoke, indeed.”
The lump had return to Tally’s throat. “So how am I
supposed to find anything?”
Dr. Cable pulled the copy of Shay’s note toward herself.
“This last line, where it says to ‘wait on the bald head,’
clearly refers to a rendezvous point. You go there, you wait.
Sooner or later, they’ll pick you up. If I send a hovercar full
of Specials, your friends will probably be a bit suspicious.”
“You mean, you want me to go alone?”
Dr. Cable took a deep breath, a disgusted look on her
face. “This isn’t very complicated, Tally. You have had a
change of heart. You have decided to run away, following
your friend Shay. Just another ugly escaping the tyranny of
beauty.”
Tally looked up at the cruel face through a prism of
gathering tears. “And then what?”
Dr. Cable pulled another object from the briefcase, a
necklace with a little heart pendant. She pressed on its