Extras by Scott Westerfeld Read Free Book Online Page A

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. Her whole hand throbbed.
    This was fast. … If only Moggle were watching.
    Ahead, Miki was only a meter from the train—another girl farther on was already reaching out a hand toward the roof. Aya had to get onboard before the mag-lev line straightened out.
    "Here goes," she said through gritted teeth.
    She crooked her left thumb, barely lifting it from the hoverboard's front edge. The board responded more evenly this time, angling toward the steady expanse of the mag-lev's roof. She drifted closer in cautious stages, like handling a kite with minute tugs on its strings. A few meters from the train, her board began to jump and shudder again. Jai had warned her about this, too: the shock wave, an invisible boundary of turbulence stirred up by the train's passage. Aya fought the tumult with twitches and gestures, every muscle straining. Her ears popped with pressure changes, and her eyes streamed tears into the wind.
    Suddenly she pulled free of the turbulence, sweeping across the remaining space to bump softly against the metal flank of the train. Aya felt the mag-lev's vibrations buzzing in the board beneath her as its magnets firmed up the connection.
    The wind was muted now—she was inside a thin bubble of calm surrounding the train, like the eye of a hurricane.
    Aya demagnetized her left crash bracelet, then slowly slid her hand across the board's grippy surface to the roof of the train.
    It smacked down hard and secure.
    But it was nervous-making, disconnecting her other crash bracelet. The hoverboard was Aya-size, the mag-lev inhumanly huge and powerful. She was like a rat hitching a ride on a stampeding dinosaur.
    Shutting her eyes, she pulled her right hand free, then hauled herself up onto the roof and slapped her wrist down.
    She'd done it! The tram rumbled below her like an unsettled volcano, and the half-muted wind still tore at her hair and clothes. But Aya was onboard.
    The humming rose up around her—the train's smart-matter joints pulling it back straight. She'd made it just in time.
    The train's roof stretched out dead straight ahead of her, dotted with nine Sly Girls along its length. Glancing back, the wind whipping handfuls of hair into her mouth, she saw the other three—everyone had made it.
    The wind built as the train accelerated, and most of them were already surfing, standing with their arms out to catch the wind. Just like flying, Eden had said.
    Aya sighed—as if riding on top of a mag-lev wasn't risky enough without standing up!
    But if the Girls were going to accept her, she'd have to be as crazy as they were. And it wasn't really surfing if you were