UnWholly Read Free Page B

should have read it a little more closely, because then we’d have something to talk about.” He grins. “You know, I’m pretty good with magic.”
    “That so?” says Mouthpiece, with a twisted sneer. “Too bad you can’t make yourself disappear.”
    “Who says I can’t?”
    Then, in his finest Houdini fashion, he raises his right hand, revealing the cuff no longer on it. Instead, it dangles free from his left hand. Before they can even react, Starkey slides the penknife he used to pick the lock out of his sleeve, grips it in his hand, and slashes it across Lady-Lips’s face.
    The man screams, and blood flows from a four-inch wound. Mouthpiece, for once in his miserable life of public disservice, is speechless. He reaches for his weapon, but Starkey is already on the run, zigzagging in the shadowy alley.
    “Hey!” yells Mouthpiece. “You’re only making it worse for yourself.”
    But what are they going to do? Reprimand him before they unwind him? The Mouthpiece can talk all he wants, but he’s got no bargaining position.
    The alley turns to the left and then to the right like a maze, and all the while beside him is the tall, imposing brick wall of the county jail.
    Finally he turns another corner and sees a street up ahead. He charges forward, but just as he emerges into that street,he’s grabbed by Mouthpiece. Somehow he made it there before Starkey. He’s surprised, but he shouldn’t be, because doesn’t every Unwind try to run? And couldn’t they build a twisting alley specifically designed to waste your time and give the Juvey-cops an advantage that they never really lost?
    “You’re through, Starkey!” He crushes Starkey’s wrist enough to dislodge the knife and brandishes a tranq gun with trigger-happy fury. “Down on the ground, or this goes in your eye!”
    But Starkey does not go down. He will not humble himself before this legalized thug.
    “Do it!” says Starkey. “Tranq me in the eye and explain to the harvest camp why the goods are damaged.”
    Mouthpiece turns him around and pushes him against the brick wall, hard enough to scrape and bruise his face.
    “I’ve had enough of you, Starkey. Or maybe I should call you Storky .” Then Mouthpiece laughs, like he’s a genius. Like every moron in the world hasn’t already called him that. “Storky!” he snorts. “That’s a better name for you, isn’t it? How do you like that, Storky?”
    Blood boils hotter than water. Starkey can vouch for that, because with adrenaline-pumped fury, he elbows Mouthpiece in the gut and spins around, grabbing the gun.
    “Oh no, you don’t.”
    Mouthpiece is stronger—but maybe animal-style beats strength.
    The gun is between them. It points at Starkey’s cheek, then his chest, then to Mouthpiece’s ear, then under his chin. They both grapple for the trigger and— Blam!
    The concussive shock of the blast knocks Starkey back against the wall. Blood! Blood everywhere! The ferrous taste of it in his mouth, and the acrid smell of gun smoke and—
    That was no tranq bullet! That was the real thing!
    And he thinks he’s microseconds away from death, but he suddenly realizes that the blood isn’t his. In front of him, Mouthpiece’s face is a red, pulpy mess. The man goes down, dead before he hits the pavement and—
    My God, that was a real bullet. Why does a Juvey-cop have real bullets? That’s illegal!
    He can hear footsteps around the bend, and the dead cop is still dead, and he knows the whole world heard the gunshot, and everything hinges on his next action.
    He is partners with the Akron AWOL now. The patron saint of runaway Unwinds is watching over his shoulder, waiting for Starkey to make a move, and he thinks, What would Connor do?
    Just then another Juvey-cop comes around the bend—a cop he has never seen and is determined to never see again. Starkey raises Mouthpiece’s gun and shoots, turning what was just an accident into murder.
    As he escapes—truly escapes—all he can think about