1269_UgliesFreeBook

180 Scott Westerfeld
followed the course of the river, and she saw the fires
spreading across to the other shore, driven by the wind of
its passage. Occasionally, the craft would shoot out a gout
of flame.
She looked at the faces of the crew. For new pretties,
they seemed so determined, so focused on their task. But
their actions were madness. “What are you guys doing?”
she said.
“A little burning.”
“I can see that. But why?”
“To save the world, kid. But hey, we’re real sorry about
your getting in the way.”
They called themselves rangers.
The one who’d pulled her from the river was called
Tonk. They all spoke with an accent, and came from a city
Tally had never heard of.
“It’s not too far from here,” Tonk said. “But we rangers
spend most of our time out in the wild. The fire helicopters
are based in the mountains.”
“The fire whats?”
“Helicopters. That’s what you’re sitting in.”
She looked around at the rattling machine, and shouted
over the noise, “It’s so Rusty!”
“Yeah. Vintage stuff, a few pieces of it are almost two
hundred years old. We copy the parts as they wear out.”
“But why?”