Flood City by Daniel José Older

Author:Daniel José Older [José Older, Daniel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Published: 2021-02-08T00:00:00+00:00

Max wound semi-aimlessly through some back alleys near Flood City Plaza. Surely Ato hadn’t gotten far. Plus, thanks to the curfew, the city was virtually empty, and the only sounds were crashing waves and occasional iguanagull cries from above.

The Star Guard ruined everything, Max thought. They literally stuck their big ridiculous blue hands into every situation and caused endless amounts of trouble. It almost made it worse that half the trouble they caused was from sheer obliviousness. They just bumbled through their ludicrous protocols and bylaws and got in the way. Sure, they handed out food, but it was barely enough for everyone to survive, and they could make things difficult for the black market whenever they felt like it. And maybe they had played a crucial role in saving Flood City from the Chemical Barons all those years ago, but they obviously weren’t doing a very good job right now. Cloud cruisers were falling out of the sky. Barons had infiltrated the city. Everything was a great big—

A shrill whisper sounded from the shadows of a nearby alleyway. “Pssst!”

Max froze.

“Psst!”

“Who is it?”

“Come here.”

There was too much intrigue in the air for that kind of nonsense. Max stood his ground, plotting the quickest escape route in his head.

“Come here!” the voice repeated.

Max shook his head. “Nope. You wanna talk to me, you come and do it. I’m not disappearing into some shadow never to be heard from again.”

“Good lad,” Old Man Cortinas said, buzzing out of the alleyway. “This isn’t the time to be trusting strangers.”

“Cortinas!” Max gasped. “What are you … What’s up?”

The old rebel shrugged and swiped at the air. “Eh, you know—been lying low ever since the crash. Heard the Star Guard had a little bounty on my head.”

“I saw you what you did that night,” Max said. “I didn’t know … you … knew how to do that.”

“From the old days, is all. A few tricks I picked up back during the original Flood City rebellion.” The original Flood City rebellion. Old Man Cortinas had been a fierce leader back in the day, people said. Max was suddenly full of questions, but Cortinas stopped him with a single look. “Max, I need you to do something for me while I’m in hiding.”

Max tried to imagine what that entailed, being in hiding. It sounded terrifically exciting but was probably pretty drab after a couple of days. “Anything, Mr. C. Whatever I can do to help.” Images of dashing into secret hideaways to deliver encrypted messages raced through Max’s mind.

“Cause trouble.”

“Um … what?”

“I … we really, the rebels, need you to cause as much trouble as possible.”

“What kind of trouble?”

“That’s up to you. Search within your wicked little heart and find that place of love for your city and wrath toward the big blue boneheads. But mostly, we want to make them feel like there’s lots and lots and lots of us. Cause a little confusion, you know? Wreak some havoc of the highest order.”

“I guess I understand.”

“You’ll figure it out.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.