Destination Unknown Read Online Free PDF Page B

put a sort of loose half nelson on her and two others in turn held Mo’Steel. Tamara Hoyle looked down at the drop, at least forty feet. She stepped back.

    “Rope is out. First of all, I don’t think there’s any aboard, and second—judging by the way our clothes have rotted — even if there was, we’d never be able to trust it. But there should be plenty of wire on this ship. We braid it together and make a cable.”

    “We can’t go ripping wire out of the ship,” Errol protested. “This ship is all we have.”

    “This ship is never going to fly again,” Olga Gonzalez said.

    “This ship is all we have,” Jobs said. “But we should be able to safely harvest wire from the hibernation berths that have failed.”

    “Good. Let’s do that,” 2Face said.

    And again Yago grated at her assumption of authority. Who was she to be making decisions? But now was maybe not the time for a fight. Although now was definitely the time to start looking at options. Surely one of these adults could be manipulated into pushing 2Face aside.

    Yago surveyed the disturbing landscape. Maybe it wasn’t much of a kingdom, but it was going to be his.

CHAPTER EIGHT
“USUALLY THERE’S NO PAIN, BUT THIS MAY BE DIFFERENT.”
     

    It took hours and Mo’Steel was growing ever more impatient. He assumed he’d be the first person down the wire, and he was totally adrenal. Slippy-sliding down a wire to be the first person to step foot on a new planet, that was exalted.

    Besides, he had to get away from his mom. She kept bursting into tears over his dad and over the whole world and all. Mo’Steel had loved his dad, but he lived by the creed of no regrets. Sooner or later you were going to miss your grip on the world, you were going to push the limit too far, and Mother G. would grab you, run you up to terminal velocity, and squash you flat.

    True, it wasn’t gravity that had killed his dad. But, Mother G. or whatever, the principle was the same: Sooner or later they canceled your account, had to happen, no point in boo-hooing over it. It was thedeal, if you wanted the rush of the big ride you had to accept the fact that every ride comes to an end.

    Still, he would miss his dad. He’d gone to cheese, and Mo’Steel regretted seeing him that way. He regretted that memory maybe squeezing out the good stuff his dad had been.

    “Come here, I need your help.”

    It was the doctor. Mo’Steel glanced at Jobs to see whether his friend needed him, but Jobs was underneath one of the berths working away at removing wire and optical cable.

    “All yours, Doc,” Mo’Steel said.

    He stepped over a prone and still-staring Billy Weir, then climbed down the ladder to a berth where the doctor had laid Tamara Hoyle and her baby.

    “You don’t faint at the sight of blood, do you?” the doc asked.

    Mo’Steel laughed. “I’ve seen my own bones poking out through my own skin and didn’t faint,” Mo’Steel answered. It was something he was proud of. He was the Man of Steel, with more titanium and petri-dish replacement parts than the whole rest of his class put together.

    The doctor nodded. “Okay. How about bashful? You’re not going to go all giggly, right?”

    Mo’Steel frowned. What did she mean? Then helooked at Tamara Hoyle and her baby. And the weird piece of skin that kept them attached.

    He swallowed hard and tried not to lose his balance. Blood was one thing. This was different.

    “Uh, maybe you need to get, like, one of the femmes,” Mo’Steel protested.

    “I tried. That girl, the one in the frilly dress and the antique shoes? What’s her name? Miss Blake? She agreed to help, but I don’t think she’s physically strong enough. 2Face is stronger, but she’s busy and your mom, she’s . . . she’s upset. I need someone steady.”

    “Okay,” Mo’Steel moaned. “Okay. Okay. I can do it.”

    She drew Mo’Steel close and spoke in a whisper. “My surgical steel instruments are in decent shape, but I