1269_UgliesFreeBook

134 Scott Westerfeld
sides, and the heart clicked open. “Look inside.”
Tally held the tiny heart up to her eye. “I can’t see anything
. . . ow!”
The pendant had flashed, blinding her for a moment.
The heart made a little beep.
“The finder will only respond to your eye-print, Tally.
Once it’s activated, we’ll be there within a few hours. We
can travel very quickly.” Cable dropped the necklace onto
the desk. “But don’t activate it until you’re in the Smoke.
This has taken us some time to set up. I want the real thing,
Tally.”
Tally blinked away the afterimage of the flash, trying to
force her exhausted brain to think. She realized now that
this had never been simply a matter of answering questions.
They had always wanted her as a spy, an infiltrator. She
wondered just how long this had been planned. How many
times had Special Circumstances tried to get an ugly to
work for them before? “I can’t do this.”
“You can, Tally. You must. Think of it as an adventure.”
“Please. I’ve never even spent the whole night outside
the city. Not alone.”
Dr. Cable ignored the sob that had cut through Tally’s
words. “If you don’t agree right now, I’ll find someone else.
And you’ll be ugly forever.”
Tally looked up, trying to see through the tears that
were flowing freely now, to peer past Dr. Cable’s cruel mask
and find the truth. It was there in her dull, metal-gray eyes,