1269_UgliesFreeBook

UGLIES 183
ing, but they choked everything around them.
The ranger leaned forward, handing her his canteen.
She took it and drank gratefully.
“You’re headed to the Smoke, aren’t you?”
Tally swallowed some water the wrong way and sputtered.
“Yeah. How’d you know?”
“Come on. An ugly waiting around in the flowers with
a hoverboard and a survival kit?”
“Oh, yeah.” Tally remembered the clue: “Look in the
flowers for fire-bug eyes.” They must have seen uglies
before.
“We help the Smokies out, and they help us out,” Tonk
said. “They’re crazy, if you ask me—living rough and staying
ugly. But they know more about the wild than most city
pretties. It’s kind of admirable, really.”
“Yeah,” she said. “I guess so.”
He frowned. “You guess so? But you’re headed there.
Aren’t you sure?”
Tally realized that this was where the lies started. She
could hardly tell the rangers the truth: that she was a spy,
an infiltrator. “Of course I’m sure.”
“Well, we’ll be setting you down soon.”
“In the Smoke?”
He frowned again. “Don’t you know? The location’s a big
secret. Smokies don’t trust pretties. Not even us rangers. We’ll
take you to the usual spot, and you know the rest, right?”
She nodded. “Sure. Just testing you.”