Extras by Scott Westerfeld

Author:Scott Westerfeld
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2011-05-07T05:00:00+00:00

Part III LEAVING HOME

Reputation is an idle and most false imposition; oft got without merit, and lost without deserving.

—Othel o (Iago, Act I , scene iii)

CAPTIVE AUDIENCE

The whole world was dizzy-making.

Everything spun and whirled, dreamlike and unsteady beneath her. A confusion of anger,exhilaration, and terror tumbled through her thoughts, cut with the cold taste of betrayal. Al five senses blurred into a constant roar, as if every certainty had tangled.

Then a sudden focus: a mote of pain amid the jumble of sensations. Something fierce stabbing her shoulder, rushing red-hot through her veins…

Aya Fuse came suddenly awake.

"No!" She sat bolt upright, the sudden fury roiling through her, but strong hands pushed her back down.

"Don't yel ," someone said. "We're supposed to be asleep."

Asleep? But Aya's heart was pounding, her blood sizzling with energy. Her body convulsed, hands flexing and clawing at the hard metal floor beneath her.

A shuddering moment later, her vision final y cleared.

An ugly face looked down at Aya. Two fingers reached out and careful y pul ed her eyes wider—checking one, then the other.

"Try to relax. I think I gave you too much."

"Too much what?" Aya asked breathlessly.

"Wake-up juice," the ugly girl said. "You'l be okay in a minute, though."

Aya lay there, her heart pounding, the burning sensation fading in her shoulder. She took steadying breaths, waiting until reality stopped spinning.

But steady was a relative concept. As her body soaked up the mad energy that had possessed her, Aya gradual y realized where she was: the cargo hold of a large hovercar that was passing through a violent storm. The frame shuddered, the metal floor bucking beneath her, and rain battered the windows.

Lifting fans shrieked as they fought to keep the craft level, adding their cacophony to the howling wind.

In the dim and shifting light, it took Aya a moment to remember that the ugly girl who'd awakened her was in disguise.

"Tal y Youngblood," she breathed. "You're a truth-slanting, trust-wrecking waste of gravity!"

Tal y chuckled. "I'm glad that was in Japanese, Aya-la. Because it didn't sound very respectful."

Aya squeezed her eyes shut, forcing the sticky gears of her mind to switch to English. "You…lied to us."

"I never lied," Tal y said calmly. "I just didn't explain the details of our plan."

"You cal this a detail!" Aya looked around the dark, storm-tossed hold. A windowless metal door separated them from the drivers' cabin. The wal s were lined with cargo webbing, which twisted and swung with the rocking of the car. The air was hot and muggy, and Aya felt trickles of sweat inside her heavy coveral . "We trusted you, and you got us captured by those freaks! On purpose!"

"Sorry, Aya-la. But explaining our plans to some feed-happy random didn't seem like a very icy idea. This was our one chance to find out where these kidnappers come from. We couldn't risk you turning it into your next big story."

"I never would have done that!"

"That's what you told the Sly Girls."

Aya's mouth opened, but no words came out. Her fury began to rise again, the last dregs of wake-up juice boiling in her blood.

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