7

Grady clutches a fragment of steel that might’ve come from a train track. His hands shake. An odd, mad look flickers across his face.

Nellie takes a step toward us, twirling her own weapon. Her lips curl into a smile.

One of these four must’ve seen me in the crowd. They saw us slip into this alleyway, and followed.

“Did you change your mind, Clementine?” Nellie asks. “Did you realize you don’t deserve to be an Extraction?”

I press my lips together. She doesn’t deserve an answer.

“What are you doing here?” Logan asks.

“We’re here for her,” Carter says. “Step aside, and we won’t hurt you.”

“I was asking Grady,” Logan says.

“What do you think?” Grady’s voice is hoarse. His raw, red eyes find mine. “The backup plan. Remember?”

My eyes cling to the steel weapon in his hand: a piece of the train track Nellie said they planned to use against the adults and the officials if they weren’t picked for Extraction. But there are no adults here. There are no officials or cam-bots in this alleyway.

There’s only me and Logan.

I clench my hands into fists so they won’t tremble. I can tell by the look in Grady’s eyes and the scowls on Carter’s and Larry’s faces that they blame me for stealing one of the spots. Even though they should blame the Developers.

“You think killing me will save you?” I ask, trying to keep my voice steady. “Because it won’t.”

“You don’t deserve what you won more than any of us,” Larry spits. “Why should we let you leave?”

“Grady, why are you with them?” Logan asks angrily.

Grady’s bottom lip trembles, but he doesn’t answer.

Nellie speaks for him. “He’s never fit in with you, that’s what he told me. He said you two are one thing and he’s always separate, so why should he care what happens to her? She doesn’t even care that he didn’t get picked.” She shakes her head at me.

My mouth has fallen open. “Of course I care—”

“Then why didn’t you say something?” Grady cries. Tears spill from his eyes, and he’s shaking so badly the weapon looks like it’ll slip from his hand any second now. “You didn’t even look for me earlier. I called your name in the processing building, and you didn’t answer.”

“What?” I ask. “I didn’t hear you, Grady. I didn’t—I didn’t mean…”

But he’s right. I was so worried about myself and about Logan, I didn’t spare even a second to worry about him. Not even after the brain scans. But I shake my head, as if that will make it less true.

“Besides,” Grady says, his voice growing steadier, “if you’re gone, that’ll open a spot. That’ll open a spot for someone like me.”

“No, it won’t.” I choke on the words, shaking my head fast. “They’ll whip you for killing me. They’ll send you to quarantine.”

But would they? Would the Developers really care if they lost me? There are plenty of others who must’ve been almost as Promising. They could easily replace me.

“You won’t kill her. I won’t let you,” Logan says, moving so he’s a foot in front of me. I grab hold of his arm, afraid he might do something stupid.

“We’ll blame him.” Carter jabs a finger in Logan’s direction.

“Notice how no one’s here yet?” Nellie says to me. “If they really cared about you, wouldn’t they have noticed you left right away and come looking?”

“There’s still a riot going on, in case you forgot,” I say, though my heart can’t seem to find its normal rhythm.

She’s right; they might get to the departure bay and leave without me. They might decide I’m not worth finding.

Please don’t, please don’t, please don’t.

“Logan, leave.” Grady swallows. “I don’t want to hurt you, but I will if I have to.”

“You think we can’t fight you?” Logan says, his voice hard.

“There are four of us.” Larry snorts. “And we aren’t crippled.”

“I’m serious.” Grady’s voice is anxious. “I’m giving you one more shot.”

“Logan, you should go,” I say. “I don’t want you to get hurt for me.”

“It’d be nice if you’d make this easy for us,” Nellie says, closing the gap between us. “Taking care of two dead bodies might be a bit harder than one.”

“Go,” Logan says to me.

“What—” I start.

He shoves me to his right. Nellie makes for me, while the other three charge at Logan. He doesn’t even try to get out of the way.

Someone’s fist collides with his jaw. I scream.

Nellie gets in my face. She brings her weapon down, but I grab hold of her wrist. She snarls and wraps her other hand around what she stole from the train track. I don’t have enough strength to stop her, so I let go and duck aside. A sharp bit of steel scrapes my cheek.

I slam my knuckles into her stomach. She groans and falters, giving me time to see Logan on his side in the gravel. Carter and Larry laugh as they kick him, while Grady mostly watches. With every grunt and slam, my heart shatters into a million pieces.

“Let him go!” I yell. “It’s me you want, isn’t it?”

Nellie lashes at me again. I jump out of her way, turning and racing toward the end of the alley.

“Get her!” Nellie shrieks.

Blood pounds in my temple as I run to draw them away from him. The rain makes it hard for me to see, but this street seems empty. I gnash my teeth together. Where are cam-bots and officials when I need them?

When I glance over my shoulder, relief fills me. They’ve left Logan in the alley. They’re following me instead. Nellie, Carter, Larry, and Grady. The boy who I thought was my friend, who wants to kill me because he’s selfish and afraid.

I stumble around a street corner, past a CorpoBot still showing the portraits of the newly chosen. A dark restricted building lies across the empty plaza. Made of glass and iron crossbeams, it towers over my head. Lightning flashes in the clouds, lighting up the rooftop.

A thrill of excitement rushes through me, mingling with my worry. All my life I’ve dreamed of scaling one of these buildings. They’re so much taller than the shacks I’m used to climbing. But I bet I can climb this, if I try. Who cares if I break a million rules? I’m faster at climbing than I am at running. And if those four are really set on murdering me, this could save my life. That should be a good enough excuse.

I force my feet to move until I reach a spot to the right of the building entrance. The lowest iron beam attached to the glass becomes a handhold. I heave and swing my legs onto the beam, which is wide enough that I could probably sit on it without falling, if it weren’t wet.

My footing isn’t as solid as I’d like. But I reach for the next beam anyway, gasping for breath.

This is dangerous in the dark, especially with the beams slippery because of the rain. There are spare lights from the surrounding buildings, and light from the moon, but it’s hard to see details. Even when I squint I can’t see many cracks in the steel. But I’ll have to manage.

Nellie and her gang stumble to a stop below me when I’m on the fourth beam, a good twenty feet off the ground.

“One of you go after her, will you?” Nellie pushes Grady toward the wall.

He sticks his weapon between his teeth and pulls himself onto the first beam. After he’s up, he glances at me, his cheeks pale. I smirk as I get to my feet, though I feel a little sorry for him. He’s afraid of heights, and he’s always been a terrible climber.

“Bet you I can get to the top!” I shout.

“Bet your life, you mean,” Nellie says.

“Sure thing.”

She doesn’t say anything to that. I take a breath and focus on my game. I don’t know that there’s any speed record to beat, but if there is, I’m going to beat it.

The seventh beam is a little harder; it’s diagonal and slippery, and my fingers grope for a crevice or hold. I feel cracks here and there, but I can’t see them, and most seem too small. I grasp one anyway and start to heave myself up.

My foot slips—

The bottom of my stomach drops out—

My fingers fumble and catch a bigger crack. I pull myself up, shaking, until I reach the flatter part. Below me, Nellie snarls in agitation.

The higher I climb, the more the icy wind and the rain rip at my curls. I glance down and my stomach squeezes. It’s a long drop to the street. One slip and I’ll turn to pulp in the gravel. I wonder if any kid has ever made Extraction and died before getting to see the Core, before getting a taste of safety.

I wonder again if Cadet Waller and the Extractions already made it to the departure bay, if they’re going to leave without me.

My throat tightens, and I clench my teeth hard to keep from crying. I shouldn’t have run away and gone looking for Logan.

But I had to. I never would’ve forgiven myself otherwise.

Five beams higher, I glance at the ground and pause, catching my breath and trying desperately not to think about the drop. My feet fit on the beam so I can stand, but just barely. I cling to a panel of glass by the tips of my fingers.

Below me, Grady has given up. Carter is taking his place.

I don’t see Logan. I hope he’s all right.

I’m about to continue up the ledges when I realize Carter isn’t climbing anymore, either. He’s scrambling back down to the street.

I hear a faint voice—Nellie, maybe. Before I can guess what she might’ve said, she’s running. Carter hops down into the gravel. He and the others race to my left, not the way we came but down a different road. They disappear around a corner.

Two officials stalk into view from around the corner we came from, their helmets casting green light in the dark. I lean instinctively into the glass. A cam-bot hovers beside them, its fake eyes two pinpoints of red.

“Is someone up there?” an official calls. His helmet magnifies his voice.

I’m frozen on the iron foothold, my heart knocking against my ribs. I wanted someone to come, but now I’m not sure anymore. I’m hanging off a restricted building and my attackers have disappeared, taking proof of the incident with them. These officials might not believe my story. They might not recognize me as an Extraction.

They might send me straight to quarantine.

Four more figures round the street corner before I decide what to do. One is a woman with a high ponytail and scarlet uniform dress, and two male officials are leading a boy who limps with every step.

Logan.

“Citizen S68477, we know you’re up there,” the first official says, his voice rank with annoyance.

They know. Logan must’ve told them. But what will they do when they catch me? The air I’m sucking into my lungs is cold, too cold for me to think properly.

Two fierce spotlights flood the gravel road, originating from the cam-bot’s fake eyes. They hit the glass far below me and run along the iron beams.

I don’t know if I can trust the officials. I just don’t know.

So I do what feels natural: I keep climbing. I reach for the beam above and heave myself up with fumbling fingers.

I’m barely seven beams higher and getting to my feet when the floodlights from the cam-bot reflect off the glass in front of me, blinding me. I gasp and squeeze my eyes shut, clutching the window. My foot almost slipped just then. I almost fell.

“Stay where you are,” the official says.

I open an eye. The lights flit away from me, so they’re not blinding me anymore. I can see the ground below me again, so very far. There are more people down there: officials and even some adults who look like they just stumbled out of bed.

They’re so far below me. I’m afraid to move an inch. I don’t want to slip; I don’t want to fall. I don’t want to be up this high anymore.

A loud whirring reaches my ears. From around the street corner, a silver ball lifts into the air, its rotors spinning a cloud of dust.

A flight pod, come to rescue me. I hope; I plead.

I hold my breath as it nears my beam. I wish I’d climbed all the way to the top of the building, so I wouldn’t be sitting here worrying about how I’m going to get from here into the flight pod without splattering in the gravel.

The side door zips open, and an official reaches his gloved hand out. “You’ll have to jump,” he shouts over the rotors.

I take two seconds. I take two breaths, and pretend the gap between me and the doorway is a centimeter instead of two feet.

I jump with a cry into the pod and stumble when my feet touch the ground. The patrol catches me as the door slides shut, silencing the wind’s roar.

I expect him to release me right away, but he doesn’t. His arms tighten around my shaking body, pulling me against his chest. It feels wrong.

“You all right?” he asks. “Those kids didn’t hurt you, did they? I’ll make sure they’re sent to quarantine if they did.”

My body tenses. He knows about my attackers. Logan must’ve told them what happened.

“I’m fine,” I say, pulling away. “And they were just messing around—you don’t have to send them to quarantine.” Please don’t, I want to add. They did hurt Logan, and Carter and Larry used to bully me all the time, but they don’t deserve to die. Especially not Grady.

“Well, we’ll see if they have other infractions,” the official says. The slits in his helmet are open, and I can see his eyes. I’ve never seen an official’s eyes before. They’re wide with relief, almost a smile, and seem more youthful than I expected. He’s maybe twenty-three or twenty-four.

“I’m vruxing glad you’re fine,” he says. “Commander Charlie would’ve blasted us all if you’d ended up dead.”

The pod jolts me as it lands in the gravel. I clutch a ceiling strap like the ones we hang on to in the hovercraft, frowning at him. He means Charlie the Developer: the leader of our planet, who goes by the title of commander to set him apart from the other four Developers. But it seems rash for this patrol to assume Commander Charlie would kill his soldiers because they let me die.

“Before you go,” the official says, “can I ask how you climbed so high?”

The pod door zips open. He slips his hand around the upper part of my arm to lead me out into the moonlight.

“I don’t know, I just did,” I say, distracted. I need to find Logan.

Cadet Waller steps in front of me. “Are you hurt anywhere?” she asks.

I shake my head. She observes me for a moment, her eyes narrowed slightly and her cheeks pinched, as if she doesn’t believe me. Or maybe she doesn’t believe whatever story she heard. But her face softens and she sighs, pulling me into a hug that feels a bit awkward. “I’m so sorry you got separated from us, sweetie. Everyone else is waiting at the departure bay. Do you need anything before we join them?”

Over her shoulder, I see Logan standing there. His arm is scraped and bloody, and the dirt running in a band along his jaw looks too much like my scar. I want to strangle Nellie and those boys.

Logan gives me a pained smile.

I close my eyes for a moment and take a breath. “I think I’m okay,” I say.

“Great.” Cadet Waller pulls away from me. “Let’s get going, then.”

I chew on my lip as she turns to say something to one of the officials.

“Wait,” I say, and she stops. I hesitate once more. “Would … would it be all right if Logan comes with us? He could see me off at the shuttle bay.”

Cadet Waller frowns a deep frown that forms several creases in her forehead. She opens her mouth to reply.

“Please,” I add quickly.

She presses her lips into a line. She sighs and rubs the crease between her eyebrows. “All right. But he’s not allowed far inside the station. You’ll have to say goodbye near the entrance.”

I nod, though that doesn’t sound like enough time at all. I’m not sure there will ever be enough time. “Thank you.”

She steps past me. “Well, come along, then, We’ll take this pod to the station.”

Logan glances at me, his eyes still weary, but focused now too. He knows this will be it.

I grab his hand as I turn back to the pod, so for a few minutes at least, I won’t lose him.