Dangerous by Shannon Hale Read Free Book Online Page B

food and
    supplies for the Beanstalk’s two space stations: Midway Station
    and the Asteroid Station.”
    “So you don’t have a lot of cargo this trip,” Wilder said, rest-
    ing his arm on one of the chairs. “You’re not overweight. You
    could take, say, five passengers on a quick jaunt?”
    For a few seconds, no one spoke. Then Howell said, “Well . . .”
    My legs turned cold.
    “Howell,” said Dragon in a warning tone.
    “We’re not overweight,” she said.
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    Shannon Hale
    “Howell,” said Dragon again.
    “Why not? It’s for education’s sake.”
    “Howell, it’s not safe for children. Their parents—”
    “Why would they protest? This is a singular opportunity!”
    She clapped her hands and gave a command. A horde of
    crew in white jumpsuits squeezed into the pod, fitting the fire-
    team with headsets under soft helmets, leading us to chairs, and
    harnessing us in. My stomach squelched.
    “Howell,” Dragon said with exasperation.
    “Don’t be such a wet blanket. We’ll only go up a bit.”
    Howell sat in the sixth and last chair. Dragon grumbled
    and sat on the floor, pulling his arms through some straps of
    the cargo bags.
    Howell tsked her tongue. “ You’re the one not being safe.”
    That phrase caught in my mind, stuck on repeat: not being
    safe, not being safe . . .
    “If you’re going, I’m going,” he said.
    The pod door sealed with a hiss.
    “Wait.” Jacques started fumbling with his harness. “What is
    ‘up a bit’? How far is a bit?”
    “Isn’t this exciting?” Howell said in a happy singsong voice.
    “Next stop: space!”
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    C h a p t e r 8
    “Stay strapped in and remember your training,” Dragon
    said.
    “What training?” Ruth yelled. “You mean kiddie camp?
    You’ve gotta be kidding me!”
    I was smiling but it was that freaky kind of smile, hard and
    frozen, as if my facial muscles couldn’t decide between ecstatic
    glee and eyeball-clawing horror.
    “If any of you want to turn down this chance, speak up now,”
    said Dragon. “Just say the word and we’ll open the door.”
    Ruth stopped squirming. No one answered.
    The pod rose slowly for a few of meters and then stopped
    with a loud click . I heard control counting down on my headset.
    Ten . . . nine . . . eight . . . seven . . .
    My parents would so not be okay with this. Was I okay with
    this? Space travel is not a field trip, and I was not an astronaut.
    Three Beanstalk astronauts were killed a couple of years ago.
    Their pod just cracked open on descent. I didn’t want to go to
    space like this, unprepared, unearned, rushed off in a possibly
    faulty space elevator. It was too dangerous.
    And then I thought, Danger is my middle name.
    I thought those very words.
    Six . . . five . . . four . . .
    Prove it, Maisie Danger Brown, I dared myself. Your name
    was supposed to be a joke. Prove it’s not.
    Three . . . two . . .
    I didn’t say no. I didn’t say anything at all.
    Shannon Hale
    One . . .
    The pod pushed up with a force that left my stomach on
    the ground. There was a lot of screaming. Mostly Jacques.
    “AAH! AAH! I DO NOT LIKE HEIGHTS! I DO NOT
    LIKE HEIGHTS!”
    “Say it, Jacques,” I said.
    “Ican’tIcan’tIcan’t—”
    “Come on,” I said. “Your war whoop, your rebel yell, your
    battle—”
    “Cry havoc,” he said, his voice trembling. “Cry havoc!
    CRY! HAVOC!”
    It was better than his screaming. I began muttering prayers
    in Spanish as my mother did when she was worried or scared.
    Padre nuestro, que estás en el cielo. Santificado sea tu
    nombre . . .
    We rose so fast, in seconds the ocean waves looked mo-
    tionless, a great expanse of cake frosting. I glimpsed red—la-
    sers pointed up at the photovoltaic cells on the pod’s wings,
    powering the elevator’s ascent. The whole pod was vibrating,
    a plucked elastic band. The vibration chattered my teeth. My
    vision wiggled. My bones felt too close together. Gravity would
    not let us go without a fight.
    I was