1269_UgliesFreeBook

356 Scott Westerfeld
He stared down at the lumbering vehicles nervously.
“Look, they don’t even have headlights.” She pointed
down at a giant road-train passing below, the only light
coming from it a dim red flicker from underneath, the navigation
laser reading the bar codes painted onto the road.
They rode on, David still anxious at the sight of moving
vehicles below.
Soon, a familiar landmark rose above the industrial
wasteland.
“See that hill? Special Circumstances is just below it.
We’ll climb up top and take a look.”
The hill was too steep to put a factory on, and apparently
too big and solid to flatten with explosives and
bulldozers, so it stood out on the flat plain like a lopsided
pyramid, steep on one side and sloping on the other,
covered with scrub and brown grass. They skimmed up the
sloping side, dodging a few boulders and hardscrabble
trees, until they reached the top.
From this height, Tally could see all the way back to
New Pretty Town, the glowing disk of the island about as
big as a dinner plate. The outer city was in darkness, and
below her, the low, brown buildings of Special Circumstances
were lit only with the harsh glare of security lights.
“Down there,” she said, her voice falling to a whisper.
“Doesn’t look like much.”
“Most of it’s underground. I don’t know how far down
it goes.”