The predawn air was bitingly cold, but Tally hardly seemed to notice. Aya turned up the heating in her Ranger coverall, thankful that she'd ditched the slime-spattered party dress.
The Cutter boards were amazingly powerful, even carrying two riders each. Of course they'd slow down once they left the grid and had to tow Hiro.
And once out of the city, Moggle wouldn't be able to follow at all.
"Tally-wa?" she ventured. "We could take the mag-lev line out of town. Plenty of metal."
Tally shook her head. "Too much traffic out there. Tons of wardens are headed out to the mountain, not to mention the Global Concord Committee on its way."
"But they'd be happy to let you through, right? You're Tally Youngblood! You must have stacks of merits."
"Merits?"
"Oh. In my city, merits are " Aya's mind spun for the right English. "Respect from authority Like fame, but for doing community things. Because you saved everyone from the Prettytime, my city would give you any assistance you needed."
"I'm not interested in their help."
Aya paused, wondering if the Nameless One's groupie had been right after all. "Are you worried that my city built this weapon?"
Tally shrugged. "I wouldn't say worried.
In fact, that would make things simpler. Governments have been taken down before, after all." She turned around and gave Aya a sharp-toothed smile. "By me."
Dawn began to break, and the wild stretched out before them, black and endless. The factory lights below grew sparser, and Aya's eyescreen began to lose the feeds.
Not that they'd been kicking anything new: Where was Aya Fuse headed off to now? Were all these dramatic disappearances nothing but publicity stunts? Was the mass driver the beginning of a new dark age of warfare?
Nobody had realized yet that Tally Youngblood was in town. Maybe Aya's first night of fame hadn't exactly worked out as she'd planned, but at least she had a big follow-up for the City Killer story.
She smiled. Rescued from aliens by Tally Youngblood!
As they neared the edge of the grid, the formation drew closer, their magnetics interweaving. Aya felt the shudder of Hiro's rig connecting with the boards.
"Bye, Moggle," Aya whispered in Japanese.
"Get home safe."
"You ready?" Tally asked. "Things might get a little nervous-making now."
"Don't worry about me. This can't be any worse than mag-lev surfing."
"It might be." Tally looked over her shoulder, eyes narrowing. "When Shay and I watched your feed story and saw all those tricks you pulledgoing undercover, mag-lev surfing, flying up the mass driverwe decided you were a pretty tough girl."
Aya bowed a little, feeling herself blushing. "Really?"
"Really. We figured you wouldn't mind having one more adventure, Aya-la, seeing as how saving the world is so high on your list of priorities."
Aya looked into Tally's eyes, trying to read her expression. She was pretty sure that
— la was a good title. Tally had called her friend Shay-la at least once.
"An adventure?"
"That's why we're here, to take you on an adventure."
Aya nodded, but she was still unsure. "But you came to protect me from the " She didn't know the English word for freaks.
"The strange people. Right?"
"Well, partly." Tally shrugged. "We also want to get to the bottom of all this, and find our friend who disappeared. So we figured a tough girl like you would want to help with that, Aya-la. As a sort of honorary Cutter."
Aya felt a smile spreading across her face, and she had to remind herself not to bow. "Of course.
I would be honored."
"Thought you'd say that. I'm just sorry your friends have to come along."
"They must be honored too, Tally-wa."
"Don't be so sure. You know that tracking signal you've been sending to your hovercam?"
"Um, my what?"
"Your hovercam, Aya-la the one that's been conveniently following us." Tally's toothy smile appeared again. "We've been boosting your signal just a little. Not so much that your local wardens will bug us, but enough."
Aya swallowed. "Enough for what?"
Tally turned to face the front of the board. "For that."
Aya stared ahead into the distance. She couldn't see anything but the blackness of the wild, and the glow of dawn beginning to encircle the horizon.
"Let me know when you can see them," Tally said. "I want this to look realistic."
"Realistic?" Aya murmured, and a few moments later her eyes caught a glimmering cluster among the fading stars. She squinted, clearing the last bit of city interface from her eyescreen, and realized what they were.
The running lights of three hovercars.
"Are those friends of yours, Tally-wa?"
"I've never met them. But I think you have."
Aya blinked, her excitement moving in a new and stomach-churning direction. The hovercars were closing fast, the scream of their lifting fans echoing across the wild the inhumans had found her again.
And Tally Youngblood had let it happen.
"Everyone!" Tally shouted. "Head back toward the city!"