Specials by Scott Westerfeld

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

Part III

UNMAKING WAR

One faces the future with one's past.

—Pearl S. Buck

PAYBACK

Streams of cannon fire ripped through the air, their traces burning across Tally's vision.

Explosions battered her ears, and shock waves thudded against her chest, like something trying to tear her open.

The hovercraft armada rained its fire down onto Town Hall, cascades of projectiles flaring so brightly that for a moment the building disappeared. But Tally could still hear the sound of shattering glass and the shriek of tearing metal through the blinding display.

After a few seconds, the furious onslaught paused, and Tally glimpsed Town Hall through the smoke.

Huge holes had appeared—the fires burning inside the building made it look like some insane jack-o'-lantern carved with dozens of glowing eyes.

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From below, the cries rose up again, full of terror now. For a dizzying moment she remembered what Shay had said: "It's all our fault, Tally. Yours and mine."

She shook her head slowly What she was seeing couldn't be true.

Wars didn't happen anymore.

"Come on!" Shay cried, leaping onto her board and rising into the air. "Town Hall's empty at night, but we have to get everyone out of the hospital…"

Tally broke from her paralysis, jumping onto her hoverboard as the bombardment began once more.

Shay hurtled over the edge of the roof, silhouetted for a moment against the firestorm before dropping out of sight. Tally followed, vaulting the guardrail to hover a few seconds, peering down at the chaos below.

The hospital hadn't been hit, not yet anyway, but crowds of terrified people were still spilling from its doors. The armada didn't have to shoot anyone for people to wind up dead tonight—panic and chaos would do the killing. The other cities would see only a proportionate response to the attack on the Armory: one mostly empty building for another.

Tally cut her lifting fans and dropped, kneeling to hold her board tight. The pounding concussions from the attack had turned the air into something palpable and shuddering, like a choppy sea.

The other Cutters were already below, their sneak suits set to the yellow and black of Diego's warden uniforms. Tachs and Ho were herding the crowd around to the other side of the hospital, away from the debris spilling from Town Hall. The others were rescuing the pedestrians who had fallen between the two buildings; all the slidewalks had jammed, throwing their late-night passengers to the ground.

Tally spun for a moment in the air, overwhelmed and wondering what to do. Then she spotted a stream of littlies pouring from the hospital. They were lining up along the hedgerow barrier around the helicopter landing pad, their minders stopping to count them all before moving on to safety.

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She angled her board toward the landing pad and dropped as fast as gravity would take her.

Those helicopters had carried runaways from other cities to the Old Smoke and now here to the New System—Tally somehow doubted Dr. Cables attack was going to leave them untouched.

She brought

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