"Nervous?" a voice came from the darkness.
It was one of the other Sly Girls, crouching beside the next air vent. She looked younger than Jai and Eden - with the same Plain Jane surge and hole-in-the-wall rejects they all wore.
"No, I'm okay."
"But surfing's more fun if you're scared."
Aya laughed. With her mousy brown hair, the girl looked almost like an ugly. Her eyes were so lusterless and dull that Aya wondered if she'd surged them that way.
"This should be plenty of fun, then."
"Good." The girl grinned. "It's supposed to be!"
She certainly looked like she was having fun. As the rumble of the train built, her smile gleamed like a pretty's in the darkness. Aya wondered what made her so thrilled to be risking her life like this.
How many people even knew that she was a Sly Girl?
"Hey aren't you in my dorm?" Aya asked. "What's your name?"
The girl laughed. "You going to check my face rank later?"
"Oh." Aya looked away. "Is it that obvious?"
"Fame's always obvious - that's the point of it." She glanced back toward where Jai was hiding.
"I know you kick stories once in a while. We'll have to break you of that habit."
"Sorry I asked."
"No problem. Listen, if it makes you feel better, my first name's Miki. And my face rank's about nine hundred and ninety-seven thousand."
"You're kidding...right?"
"Pretty sly, huh?" Miki said with a grin.
Aya shook her head, trying to think through the building rumble of the train. It didn't make sense.
Anyone who pulled tricks like this should have cracked a hundred thousand, whether they'd been kicked or not. The city interface picked up any mention of your name, especially gossip, tall tales, and rumors.
And 997,000 was almost a million! That was the land of extreme extras, like newborn littlies and crumblies who'd never taken the mind-rain pills. Non-people, practically.
Miki just laughed at her dumbfounded expression. "Of course, Jai's even slyer. That's why she's the boss."
"You mean slyer ... as in less famous?"
Miki winked. "As in kissing a million."
"Get ready!" Eden Maru called, barely audible above the growing roar of the train.
"Surf's up!" Miki yelled, kneeling.
Aya grabbed her hoverboard's forward edge, trying to focus. This story was suddenly much stranger than just surfing a mag-lev. For some reason, the Sly Girls had turned the reputation economy upside down.
They wanted to disappear. But why?
Her crash bracelets snapped against the board, locking her down tight. The factory roof itself was shuddering now, the gravel strewn across it dancing like hailstones hitting grass.
She could finally kick a story like one of Hire's: long, dizzy-making interviews, a dozen background layers tracing the Girls' histories, wild footage of tram rides and underground meetings. If she could just shoot it without them finding out...and with her hovercam at the bottom of a lake.
Aya glanced over her shoulder at Jai, feeling a cold smile creep onto her face. Finally she knew how to take the perfect revenge for Moggle's watery burial. She was going to kick this story big, and make the Sly Girls famous beyond their wildest nightmares.
She'd make sure everyone knew their names.
"Hey, you look a little funny," Miki called above the roar. "Not finally getting scared, are you?"
Aya laughed. "No. Just getting ready!"
The thunder built louder and louder, finally exploding as the train arrived, a solid blur of lights and noise shooting past. A dozen whirlwinds of dust swirled to life across the rooftop.
Then the train leaned into the curve, and Aya heard a chorus of humming slowly build, like an orchestra of wineglasses tuning up. Three hundred tons of levitating metal and smart matter were bending into a new shape, slowing down just a little bit.
"Now!" Eden screamed.
And they rose into the air.
SURFING
The board shot forward, dragging Aya along by her wrists.
It wrenched and twisted like a bad spinout, when crash bracelets could almost jerk a rider's arms from their sockets. But spinouts never lasted this long. Aya's hoverboard was still accelerating, faster and faster along the slow curve of the mag-lev line.
She squeezed as flat as she could against the board, her feet dangling off the back end, her dorm jacket snapping like a flag in a gale.
Squinting against the wind, Aya could hardly see anything. Only a few meters ahead, Miki was nothing but a teary blur. Luckily, the board was programmed to fly itself until it matched the speed of the train.
Sneaking out the night before to look for Eden and her friends, Aya had never expected to wind up riding the train herself. She'd imagined zooming along at a safe distance, with Moggle closer in, capturing images for her feed.
Yet here she was, taking the most brain-kicking ride of her life, and it wasn't even being recorded!
The ground flashed by below, but the train beside her seemed to be gradually slowing down. The hoverboard was really catching up.
Soon she'd have to climb aboard.
For a second, she thought about veering off, shooting away into the night. She could still kick a secret clique bent on wild tricks and avoiding fame.
Of course, she'd have nothing to prove her story but two crash bracelets, a high-speed board, and a waterlogged hovercam. Except for Eden Mara, she didn't even know any full names. No one would believe her - especially not Hiro.
To get the footage she needed, she had to make the Sly Girls think that Aya Fuse was one of them. And to do that, she had to surf this train.
In the howling wind, she could feel the awesome physical forces all around her, waiting for any mistake. The mag-lev seemed to drift into place beside Aya as her board matched its speed.
The hoverboard's autopilot flashed once - it had done its job.
Now Aya was in control.
Jai had warned her about this part. Any sudden shift of weight could send the board crashing against the tram, or spinning away into a passing building.
Ahead of her, Miki was swaying back and forth, testing her control.
Aya held her breath...and lifted the fingers of her right hand. The wind bent them back painfully, and her board shuddered, veering away from the train.
She dragged her fingers back into a fist, and the stabilizers kicked in, steadying the hoverboard.