Disclaimer: this story is my original work, even if the characters aren't really my ideas, except in this chapter, and in further ones including Tally, the dialogue has been lifted right out of the books. Anything in quotation marks is the work of Scott Westerfeld. Well anyways, this was a really fun chapter to write because it really showcases what this story is all about: playing around with point of view. Enjoy! (If you have the book on hand, it might be cool to read the two stories side by side, just saying.)

INFILTRATOR

"I'm Dr. Cable."

The girl sitting before her was definitely an ugly. Frizzy, poufy, light brown hair. Too-high forehead. Thin lips. An unattractively small, flattened nose. And lastly, dull, mud-brown eyes that were set too close together, giving her a perpetually squinting expression.

She was Tally Youngblood.

Apparently, Tally hadn't figured out what was up, yet. "Tally Youngblood," she answered, like Minerva didn't already know everything useful about her.

"Oh, I know who you are," Min said smugly, a smile spreading across her face. She decided to give the dumb girl a little hint that something was up. "You have a problem, Tally."

"I had kind of guessed that, uh…" It took Min a second to realize that Tally was wondering what to call her; uglies weren't used to last names.

"Dr. Cable will do."

"Okay, Dr. Cable," Tally began, clearing her throat. "My problem right now is that I don't know what's going on. So…why don't you tell me?"

Was the girl really that stupid? "What do you think's going on, Tally?"

Tally closed her eyes. "Well, that bungee jacket was a spare, you know, and we did put it back on the recharge pile."

Minerva was not amused. "This isn't about some ugly-trick."

Tally sighed and opened her eyes. "No, I didn't think so."

Minerva, sick of the bullshit by now, cut to the chase. "This is about a friend of yours. Someone missing."

"I don't know where she is."

Min smiled again. They never "knew." "But you do know something," she said conspiratorially.

"Who are you, anyway?" Tally so rudely blurted. "Where am I?"

Min didn't say any more than what was necessary. "I'm Dr. Cable," she answered. "And this is Special Circumstances."

Now that Tally was finally cooperating, it was time to begin the interrogation.

"You didn't know Shay long, did you?"

"No. Just this summer. We were in different dorms."

"And you didn't know any of her friends?"

"No. They were all older than her. They'd already turned."

Of course they did, Min thought, chuckling inside her head. It was still hard to believe how stupid Tally was, but even more amusing was how stupid Tally seemed to think she was. "Like your friend Peris?" Min continued.

The expression on Tally's face at the mention of Peris was priceless. "Yeah, like Peris and me," she replied, bewildered over the fact that Min knew about him.

"But Shay's friends didn't wind up pretty, did they?" Min asked.

Tally took a deep breath, still playing dumb. "Why wouldn't they?"

"Did she tell you about her friends?"

"We didn't talk about stuff like that. We just hung out. Because…it hurt being alone. We were just into playing tricks."

There was no way Min was going to take pity on Tally because of that little sob-story. But still, it made her think: what was it like, being abandoned by your friends because you had such a late birthday? Min couldn't say.

"Did you know she's been in a gang?" she asked.

"A gang?" Tally's widened eyes made it clear that she actually didn't know. "How do you mean?"

"Tally, did you and Shay ever go to the Rusty Ruins?"

"Yeah. Everyone does."

"But did you ever sneak out to the ruins?"

"Yeah. A lot of people do?"

"Did you ever meet anyone there?"

Tally bit her lip, the last question making her visibly uncomfortable. She attempted to divert the conversation. "What's Special Circumstances?"

"Tally." Min said sharply. She wasn't going to put up with any of Tally's nonsense.

"If you tell me what Special Circumstances is, I'll answer you."

Fair enough. Minerva decided to throw Tally a bone, if it would keep up the decent level of cooperation so far. She leaned back in her desk-chair, looking to the ceiling, searching for words that a stupid little ugly would understand, yet still were vague enough. Finally, she folded her hands and nodded.

"This city is a paradise, Tally. It feeds you, educates you, keeps you safe. It makes you pretty."

Tally looked up at this, with the expression of a little puppy hoping for a treat. Pathetic.

"And our city can stand a great deal of freedom, Tally. It gives youngsters room to play tricks, to develop their creativity and independence. But occasionally, bad things come from outside the city."

Minerva narrowed her eyes, getting to the more serious part. "We exist in equilibrium with our environment, Tally, purifying the water that we put back in the river, recycling the biomass, and using only power drawn from our own solar footprint. But sometimes we can't purify what we take in from the outside. Sometimes there are threats from the environment that can't be faced."

Minerva smiled. Explaining her own brilliant ideas was always one of her favorite pastimes. "Sometimes there are Special Circumstances," she concluded.

"So, you guys are like minders, but for the whole city."

A grossly simplified explanation. Min resisted the urge to snort. Instead, she nodded and clarified a bit. "Other cities sometimes pose a challenge. And occasionally, those few people who live outside the cities can make trouble."

Tally's eyes widened once again, like she had no idea what they were talking about.

"It's your turn to answer my question, Tally. Did you ever meet anyone in the ruins? Someone not from this city? Not from any city?"

A big, stupid grin filled Tally's face. "No. I never did."

Minerva frowned, not fooled in the least. She surreptitiously glanced down at the room's lie detector readout. The sensors weren't reading that as a full-blown lie, but Tally was still nervous. She was hiding something.

Minerva looked back up at Tally, giving her the death-stare. It was time to stop being so nice. Tally only gave another stupid smile. Min wanted to slap it right off her ugly face. "Don't play games with me, Tally. Your friend Shay will never thank you for it, because you'll never see her again."

Tally thankfully wiped the smile right off.

"Four of her friends disappeared, Tally, all at once. None of them has ever been found. Another two who were meant to join them chose not to throw their lives away, however, and we discovered a little bit about what had happened to the others. They didn't run away on their own. They were tempted by someone from outside, someone who wanted to steal our cleverest little uglies. We realized that this was a Special Circumstance."

Minerva continued. "We've been watching Shay since then, hoping she might lead us to her friends."

The hurt and anger suddenly seemed to break through Tally's calm and collected mask. "So why didn't you…you know, stop her!" she blurted.

"Because of you, Tally."

"Me?" Tally asked incredulously.

Minerva softened her demeanor, in an attempt to seem sympathetic. "We thought she had made a friend, a reason to stay here in the city. We thought she'd be okay."

That was a lie, of course. They hadn't been watching Tally. At least not until Shay had run away. The truth? They hadn't tried to stop Shay from running away. At all. In fact, Minerva had wanted Shay to run away. Shay was only the bait, something they could use to send an ugly looking for the Smoke. An ugly who ended up being Tally Youngblood.

"But then Shay disappeared," Min continued. "She turned out to be trickier than her friends. You taught her well." If Minerva was going to send Tally on a trip looking for the Smoke, there wasn't any harm in boosting her confidence.

"I did?" Tally exclaimed, shocked. "I don't know any more tricks than most uglies!"

"You underestimate yourself," was all Min said.

"It's not my fault," Tally managed.

"Help us, Tally."

"Help you what?"

"Find her. Find them all."

Tally took a deep breath. "What if they don't want to be found?"

Of course they didn't want to be found. Min searched for a response. "What if they do? What if they were lied to?"

Good one. Tally had nothing to say to that. She only stared unintelligently in a long and awkward silence. Finally, Tally spoke. "I can't help you," she said. "I made a promise."

That did it. Minerva curled her upper lip back in a snarl, not even making the slightest attempt to mask all her anger and frustration. It was time to drop it. "Then I'll make you a promise too, Tally Youngblood. Until you do help us, to the very best of your ability, you will never be pretty." Min spun around in her desk-chair, facing away from Tally.

"You can die ugly, for all I care." She flicked her interface ring, and the office door slid back open, Tally's escort waiting for her. Min was done with Tally, for now.

Once Tally was long gone, a ping sounded. It was Max. "How did it go?" she asked in a low voice.

Minerva thought for a moment. "She'll come around eventually," was all she said.

After the Tally ordeal, Min took a walk down to the 3-D printing laboratory. "You scanned the contents of that duffel Youngblood was carrying, right?" she snapped at the Specials working there.

"Of course, Doctor," one of them said nervously, sensing her pissed-off mood.

"Well? Bring them up!" she demanded.

The Special pulled up the scan on the wallscreen. It looked like just a bunch of random crap…

Minerva zoomed in on the piece of paper. "Well…a handwritten note…" she murmured. "Print it," she ordered, and a minute later, Minerva was holding a perfect copy of the article in her hands. She strode out of the room with it, not even bothering to say goodbye or thank you.

Minerva didn't even glance once at the note until she had made it back to her room. Then, she sat down on the bed and read it aloud to herself:

"Take the coaster straight past the gap,

Until you find one that's long and flat.

Cold is the sea and watch for breaks,

At the second, make the worst mistake.

Four days later take the side you despise,

And look in the flowers for fire-bug eyes.

Once they're found, enjoy the flight.

Then wait on the bald head until it's light."

Min read it several times more until it was committed to memory. It would probably sound like gibberish to most people, but to Minerva, it was obvious what the note was: more directions to the Smoke. Written in some sort of secret best-friend code, of course. It wasn't like she and Max had never done anything similar when they were young.

Tally Youngblood's operation had been cancelled. Min smiled smugly to herself. It was only a matter of time before Tally came crawling back, crying for mercy.

Minerva Cable had been waiting thirty years to hurt Maddy and Az like they had her. She could wait a few more days for Tally.

On the fourth morning since Tally Youngblood's initial interrogation, Minerva received a ping. Tally, sounding bedraggled and exhausted: "I'll do what you want. Just let me sleep for a while."

Min rolled her eyes and scoffed at the request. There was no way she was going to wait for that. Besides, Tally would be more vulnerable in a sleep-deprived state. She replied: "A car will be sent for you, arriving in twenty minutes."

Less than an hour later, her office door slid open, revealing a very disheveled Tally: hair a disaster, rumpled clothes, and a face covered in dozens of little red scratches. And it was obvious she had been crying.

Min smiled as pleasantly as she could. "So, Tally. You've reconsidered."

Tally was having none of it that morning. "Yes," she answered sullenly.

"And you'll answer all our questions now? Honestly and of your own free will?"

Tally snorted. "You're not giving me a choice."

Minerva attempted a smile. "We always have choices, Tally. You've made yours."

"Great. Thanks. Look, just ask your questions."

Min ignored the attitude for now. "Certainly. First of all, what on earth happened to your face?"

Tally sighed and touched her mangled face with one hand. "Trees," was all she said.

"Trees?" Minerva raised an eyebrow. A strange and vague response. "Very well. On a more important subject, what did you and Shay talk about the last time you saw her?"

Tally closed her eyes, and Minerva inwardly gloated at her victory. "She talked about going away. Running away with someone called David."

"Ah, yes, the mysterious David." Min leaned back in her chair, looking to the ceiling. "And did she say where she and David were going?"

"A place called the Smoke. Like a city, only smaller. And no one was in charge there, and no one was pretty."

"And did she say where it was?"

"No, she didn't, not really." Tally sighed and pulled an unpleasant-looking wad of paper from her pocket. "But she left me these directions."

Minerva had pulled out the copy of the note, just for this meeting, ahead of time. She pushed it over to Tally's side of the desk so she could see. Tally studied the perfect facsimile. "We took the liberty of making a copy of that the first time you were here," Min said.

Tally looked up at her and glared. "Then why do you need me? I don't know anything more than what I just said. I didn't ask her to tell me any more. And I didn't go with her, because I just…wanted…to be pretty!" Tally was on the verge of tears by now.

"I'm afraid we find the instructions on the note rather cryptic, Tally."

"You and me both."

Min gave Tally a pointed stare. "They seem to be designed to be read by someone who knows Shay quite well. By you, perhaps."

"Yeah, well, I get some of it. But after the first couple of lines, I'm lost."

"I'm sure it's very difficult. Especially after a long night of…trees." Tally wasn't the only one in the room who could use attitude and sarcasm. "I still think you can help us, however."

Minerva opened the ranger kit, filled with supplies for Tally's journey, on her desk. Tally stared stupidly again at it. "Hey, that's like the survival stuff that Shay had."

"That's right, Tally. These ranger kits go missing every so often. Usually just about the same time that one of our uglies disappears."

"Well, mystery solved. Shay was all ready to travel to the Smoke with a bunch of that stuff."

"What else did she have?"

Tally shrugged. "A hoverboard. A special one, with solar."

"Of course a hoverboard. What is it about those things and miscreants? And what did Shay plan to eat, do you suppose?"

"She had food in packets. Dehydrated."

"Like this?" Min held up a food packet. Just to spite Tally for not easily cooperating the first time, she had gathered only the most revolting meal available: SpagBol.

"Yeah. She had enough for four weeks." Tally took another deep breath. "Two weeks, if I'd gone along. More than enough, she said."

"Two weeks? Not so very far." Min pulled a plain black backpack from next to her desk and began packing it full of supplies. "You might just make it."

"Make it? Make what?"

Min silently applauded herself, for choosing to reveal Tally's mission this way. If she had outright told Tally, the girl never would have consented. But she was too far in, now.

Min looked up at Tally, feigning surprise at Tally's lack of comprehension. "The trip. To the Smoke," she answered.

"Me?"

"Tally, only you can understand these directions."

"I told you: I don't know what they mean!"

"But you will, once you're on the journey. And if you're…properly motivated."

"But I already told you everything you wanted to know. I gave you the note. You promised!"

Minerva shook her head. "My promise, Tally, was that you wouldn't be pretty until you helped us to the very best of your ability. I have every confidence that this is within your ability."

"But why me?"

Minerva had had it by now. Some of her frustration escaped. "Listen carefully, Tally. Do you really think this is the first time we've been told about David? Or the Smoke? Or found some scrawled directions about how to get there?" she said angrily.

Finally, Tally showed some real fear. That was probably what Min had instantly hated about her: she hadn't shown enough. Tally turned away. "I don't know."

"We've seen all this before. But whenever we go ourselves, we find nothing. Smoke, indeed."

Tally sounded close to tears again. "So how am I supposed to find anything?"

Min pulled the copy of the note towards herself, tracing the lines with her finger. "This last line, where it says to 'wait on the bald head,' clearly refers to a rendezvous point. You go there, you wait. Sooner or later, they'll pick you up. If I send a hovercar full of Specials, your friends will probably be a bit suspicious."

"You mean, you want me to go alone?"

Minerva took a deep breath, trying to control another outburst of annoyance. She turned her eyes to the ceiling again, feeling her mouth curl into a snarl of disgust over Tally's thickness. "This isn't very complicated, Tally. You have had a change of heart. You have decided to run away, following your friend Shay. Just another ugly escaping the tyranny of beauty," she said grandly. Minerva couldn't believe she needed to explain all this. The girl was obviously an accomplished liar. Min looked back down at Tally. Tears were gathering in her eyes now.

"And then what?" Tally asked.

Finally, Min thought. It was time to showcase the most beautiful, elegant part of the plan. She reached into the briefcase and pulled out the necklace that had been given to her so long ago. The locket design happened to be perfect; the Special Circumstances tech experts had fitted the tiniest tracker into the empty space inside. The only thing that needed to be done now was take Tally's eye-print.

Minerva pressed on the sides of the heart and it popped open. She handed it to Tally. "Look inside."

Tally peered into the locket, a stupid expression on her face. "I can't see anything…ow!"

"The finder will only respond to your eye-print, Tally. Once it's activated, we'll be there within a few hours. We can travel very quickly." She snatched the locket back from Tally and dropped it onto her desk. "But don't activate it until you're in the Smoke. This has taken us some time to set up. I want the real thing, Tally."

Tally sat there like a blob, blinking after the tracker's flash. "I can't do this," she said finally.

"You can, Tally. You must. Think of it as an adventure," Min said, trying to put some encouragement into her voice, trying a different strategy.

"Please. I've never even spent the whole night outside the city. Not alone." A sob broke through Tally's voice. Min, never the most empathetic person, ignored it.

"If you don't agree right now, I'll find someone else. And you'll be ugly forever."

Tally looked up at Min, tears finally streaming down her face. Minerva stared her down.

"I have to think," Tally said eventually.

"Your story will be that you ran away the night before your birthday. That means you've already got to make up for four lost days. Any more delays, and they won't believe you. They'll guess what happened. So decide now."

"I can't. I'm too tired."

As a cruel but necessary last resort, Minerva did some finger twitches, turned in her desk chair, and pointed, setting the wallscreen to a magnifying mirror, focused on Tally. All the imperfections of Tally's face were projected above them: wild hair, red and puffy eyes, bad skin. Tally slowly opened her mouth in pure horror.

"That's you, Tally. Forever," Min said mockingly, suppressing an evil grin.

"Turn it off…" Tally moaned miserably.

"Decide," Minerva commanded, summoning all the razors in her voice.

"Okay, I'll do it. Turn it off."

Min flicked her finger, and the wallscreen shut down.

Author's Note: I did change something minor in the original dialogue. Dr. Cable says that six of Shay's friends ran away all at once in the book, but all other sources seem to say that there were six in the original group, but only four ran away that time (minus Shay and Zane). So I changed it. (I think it may be Scott's mistake, honestly…)The next chapter will be a good one, I've been waiting to write it for a long time! Just be prepared for a long one.