Youngbloods: Impostors 4 by Westerfeld Scott

Author:Westerfeld, Scott
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Published: 2022-01-13T00:00:00+00:00

34. BUSINESS

We climb out of the crater, until the lights of Shreve rise up on the horizon. They match the glare and dazzle of the party, as if Sara and I are a dark fulcrum balancing two bright and fragile chandeliers.

‘So the rumors are true,’ she says.

I face her. ‘Which rumors?’

‘That your crew was part of that mess the other night.’ Her smile drops away. ‘Chulhee, breaking into the Sarcophagus. Everyone knows the Youngbloods found that crashed hovercar. But not by chance, right?’

I hesitate. Tally and Shay would want me to admit nothing. But Sara’s too smart, and her trust is more important than the Youngbloods’ rep.

‘We didn’t help the Futures break in,’ I say carefully. ‘But it wasn’t exactly a chance encounter.’

She frowns a little. For a moment, she looks exactly like Col, the way he would puzzle out an unfamiliar English phrase.

I shut down that thought, forcing my attention to what’s wrong with her disguise. The slant of her eyebrows, her hair black instead of darkest brown. She isn’t him.

‘Okay,’ Sara says. ‘So you were watching the Sarcophagus, in case anyone made a play for the surveillance data.’

‘More or less,’ I say.

‘Which means you’re spying on the cliques here in Shreve.’ Her smile is back. ‘And you were looking for me by my dust name, which means …’

She’s going to get there anyway, so I might as well take credit for being honest. ‘You already met me, Sara. Just before the fall of Shreve.’

She looks me up and down, frowning.

‘I was in disguise,’ I add.

‘You’re still in disguise. No real Special would wear that boredom-causing face.’ Her eyes light up, a hand rising to touch her dust detector badge. ‘You were one of the commandoes! The ones looking for allies just before the attack—which means Tally Youngblood was behind the Fall of Shreve? That’s huge!’

‘But not true,’ I say, holding up my hands to steady her reeling guesswork. ‘I was an ordinary rebel then, trying to rescue a friend. I joined up with the Youngbloods later.’

Sara isn’t sure whether to believe me. Somehow uncertainty makes her look more like Col, so I have to turn away.

‘You happened to sneak in,’ she says carefully, ‘the same week that Shreve got attacked by every free city in the world?’

‘One thing led to another.’

‘You can say that again.’ Sara turns away, lets out a sigh into the darkness. ‘I should be mad at you. When you’re going to blow up someone’s city in a couple of days, you should probably tell them.’

‘We didn’t know the free cities were about to attack—they didn’t even know! But once they got wind of nuclear waste being dug up, our diversionary attack just sort of … escalated.’

Sara looks down into the crater, as if trying to imagine the explosion huge enough to excavate it.

‘Sure did.’ She turns back to me. ‘You were the one called Islyn, right?’

I nod. Even with a new body, she’s recognized the way I talk and move and think. Just as I still recognize her behind her Savior surge.

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