"Scott Westerfeld - Uglies" - читать интересную книгу автора (Westerfeld Scott)

ages seemed like it would never matter.

тАЬBest friends for life,тАЭ Tally muttered, fingering the tiny scar on her right palm.

The water glistened through the trees, and she could hear the wavelets of a passing river skimmerтАЩs
wake slapping at the shore. She ducked, hiding in the reeds. Summer was always the best time for spying
expeditions. The grass was high, it was never cold, and you didnтАЩt have to stay awake through school the
next day.

Of course, Peris could sleep as late as he wanted now. Just one of the advantages of being pretty.

The old bridge stretched massively across the water, its huge iron frame as black as the sky. It had been
built so long ago that it held up its own weight, without any support from hoverstruts. A million years from
now, when the rest of the city had crumbled, the bridge would probably remain like a fossilized bone.

Unlike the other bridges into New Pretty Town, the old bridge couldnтАЩt talkтАФor report trespassers,
more importantly. But even silent, the bridge had always seemed very wise to Tally, as quietly knowing
as some ancient tree.

Her eyes were fully adjusted to the darkness now, and it took only seconds to find the fishing line tied to
its usual rock. She yanked it, and heard the splash of the rope tumbling from where it had been hidden
among the bridge supports. She kept pulling until the invisible fishing line turned into wet, knotted cord.
The other end was still tied to the iron framework of the bridge. Tally pulled the rope taut and lashed it to
the usual tree.

She had to duck into the grass once more as another river skimmer passed. The people dancing on its
deck didnтАЩt spot the rope stretched from bridge to shore. They never did. New pretties were always
having too much fun to notice little things out of place.

When the skimmerтАЩs lights had faded, Tally tested the rope with her whole weight. One time it had
pulled loose from the tree, and both she and Peris had swung downward, then up and out over the
middle of the river before falling off, tumbling into the cold water. She smiled at the memory, realizing she
would rather be on that expeditionтАФsoaking wet in the cold with PerisтАФthan dry and warm tonight, but
alone.

Hanging upside down, hands and knees clutching the knots along the rope, Tally pulled herself up into
the dark framework of the bridge, then stole through its iron skeleton and across to New Pretty Town.
She knew where Peris lived from the one message he had bothered to send since turning pretty. Peris
hadnтАЩt given an address, but Tally knew the trick for decoding the random-looking numbers at the
bottom of a ping. They led to someplace called Garbo Mansion in the hilly part of town.

Getting there was going to be tricky. In their expeditions, Tally and Peris had always stuck to the
waterfront, where vegetation and the dark backdrop of Uglyville made it easy to hide. But now Tally was
headed into the center of the island, where floats and revelers populated the bright streets all night.
Brand-new pretties like Peris always lived where the fun was most frantic.

Tally had memorized the map, but if she made one wrong turn, she was toast. Without her interface ring,
she was invisible to vehicles. TheyтАЩd just run her down like she was nothing.

Of course, Tallywas nothing here.