Pretties 02 by Scott Westerfeld

Author:Scott Westerfeld [Westerfeld, Scott]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon Pulse
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

HIJACKING

“Are you kidding? How do we requisition one in the middle of the night?” Fausto asked.

“We can’t. We’ll have to hijack it.” Tally put a backpack over her shoulder, and snapped for her board to follow. “In fact, we should get a few. The more of us who go out that way, the better.”

“Hijack?” Zane said, checking the rewrapped scarf around his forearm. “You mean steal them?”

“No, we’ll ask nicely.” She grinned. “Don’t forget, Zane, we’re the Crims. We’re famous. Follow me.”

Outside the shop shed, she jumped on board and headed up toward the center of the island, where the tops of the party spires were always surrounded by parasails, hot-air balloons, and fireworks. The other two scrambled to follow. “You pass the word to the rest of the Crims,” she shouted to Fausto. “Tell them about the change in plans.”

He glanced at Zane for approval, then nodded, relieved that the crusher concept had been replaced by something less violent. “How many of us do you want to go up with?”

“Nine or ten,” she said. “Anyone who’s not afraid of heights—the rest can go by hoverboard, as planned. We’ll be ready in twenty minutes. Meet us in the center of town.”

“I’ll be there,” Fausto said, and angled away into the night sky.

Tally turned to Zane. “You okay?”

He nodded, slowly flexing the fingers of his gloved hand. “I’ll be fine. It’s just taking me a second to switch gears.”

She brought her board closer to Zane’s, taking his bare hand. “It was brave, what you wanted to do.”

He shook his head. “I guess it was stupid.”

“Yeah, maybe. But if we hadn’t gone to the shop, I wouldn’t have thought of this.”

He smiled. “I’m pretty glad you did, to tell you the truth.” His hand flexed nervously again. Then he pointed ahead of them. “There’s a couple.”

She followed his gaze to the center of the island, where a pair of hot-air balloons floated like big bald heads above a party spire, the tethers that kept them in place catching the trembling light of safety fireworks.

“Perfect,” she said.

“One problem,” Zane said. “How do we get that high on hover-boards?”

She thought for a moment. “Very carefully.”

• • •

They climbed higher than she ever had, rising slowly alongside the party spire, close enough to reach out and touch its concrete wall. The metal inside the building provided barely enough push for the boards’ lifters, and Tally felt a nervous-making tremble under her feet, like standing at the end of the highest diving board as a littlie. After a slow minute, they reached the spot where one of the balloons was tethered to the tower. Tally touched the tether with her bare hand, feeling its rain-slick links. “No problem. It’s metal.”

“Yeah, but is it enough metal?” Zane asked.

Tally shrugged.

He rolled his eyes. “And you thought my plan was risky. Okay, I’ll take the stupid-looking one.” He slid around the tower’s girth to where the other balloon bobbed in the breeze. Tally grinned, seeing that it was shaped

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