Dark Life by Falls Kat

Author:Falls, Kat [Falls, Kat]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9780545347563
Publisher: Scholastic Paperbacks
Published: 2011-08-01T06:00:00+00:00

“Then poof, he was gone?” the ranger scoffed, without taking his eye from one of the many telescopes set up around the Observatory.

Here was the ranger’s chance to arrest Shade, yet Grimes seemed like he couldn’t care less.

“You have to believe me,” I fumed. I was risking the outlaws’ wrath by talking to the ranger, as well as guaranteeing that my parents would hear about me sneaking into the Saloon. Still, I had to convince Grimes to use the information. “We were face-to-face yesterday on the Peaveys’ property. The man in the Saloon is Shade.”

The Observatory was walled with glass. Only the elevator shaft in the center of the trapezoidal room kept the view from being nonstop ocean and horizon. I had ditched the roustabout jumpsuit but Gemma was still wearing the dirty red sweatshirt and baggy pants. She sat calmly enough on the bench that bounded the entire space and kept her face hidden inside her hood. Still, I could tell that she was itching to leave the ranger’s office.

Straightening, Ranger Grimes glared at me. “What were you and your cousin even doing on the Rec Deck? Don’t try to tell me either one o’ you is eighteen.”

It took me a second to realize he meant Gemma. I knew she’d come up with something. “It’s his first visit,” I said. “I wanted to show him —”

“How to waste a government official’s time?” Grimes asked with a derisive snort. “There ain’t but one way out of the Saloon, boy, and that’s up the stairs. So where’d your outlaw go?”

“I told you, I don’t know.” I gritted my teeth. Another adult treating me like a kid.

“And aside from that, the man is albino,” Grimes said in a patronizing tone. “Everyone he’s ever robbed says so.”

“He must smear his face with zinc-paste,” I guessed. “So he can drink in the Saloon and no one will recognize him.”

“You did. Or so you say.”

“By the shape of his face.”

Ranger Grimes shot me a dubious look.

“Sometimes,” I explained haltingly, “I don’t see things in color.”

“You’re color-blind … sometimes?”

“Yeah. So, I focus on the contours of an object.” I stole another glance at Gemma, but she didn’t seem to be paying attention. She was too busy patting the glass wall as if to assure herself that it was impossible to fall onto the Surface Deck several stories below. “Look, I know for a fact he’s Shade,” I told Grimes. “Will you at least go down to the lower station and look for him?”

“You people give me the bends.”

Gemma’s hand froze midpat. “What people?” she asked gruffly.

“Not you. The Dark Life.” Grimes pointed at me. “They’re all oxygen deprived. Especially the kids.”

“They don’t like to be called Dark Life.” Her chin tilted mutinously.

“How long have you been here visiting? A day? Stick around, you’ll see. Living in the dark makes them crazy. Makes them see things that aren’t there.”

“Ty doesn’t live in the dark.”

“He sure don’t live in the sunshine.” Ranger Grimes faced me. “What’s the longest you ever been Topside, boy? A whole day? Not even.

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