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<p>Page 90.</p>
<p>&ldquo;You&rsquo;ve
killed him.&rdquo; Cassandra Cautery stepped carefully over the
broken glass, braced herself against what was left of the window
frame, and peered down. &ldquo;Look at him. He&rsquo;s just lying
there.&rdquo;</p>
<p>I tried to say: <em>I
didn&rsquo;t mean to</em>. But I couldn&rsquo;t get the words out. My
chest was squeezing tight my lungs.</p>
<p>&ldquo;That guy is
dead.&rdquo; There was a touch of awe in her voice. &ldquo;He is
definitely dead.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Against my better
judgment, I looked. Most of the space between Better Future and the
road was occupied by a wide, healthy lawn. It looked soft. But it was
bisected by a narrow concrete path, and on this lay the Manager. I am
tempted to claim this as really bad luck, but given his position, I
couldn&rsquo;t honestly say he would have survived if he&rsquo;d
landed on the grass. I couldn&rsquo;t see his head.</p>
<p>My legs took a step
forward, surprising me. Now I was teetering right on the edge. It was
as if my legs wanted to look at what they had done.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Oh,
Charlie,&rdquo; Cassandra Cautery murmured. Her eyes didn&rsquo;t
move from the Manager&rsquo;s tiny, broken body. &ldquo;You are in so
very, very much trouble.&rdquo;</p>
<p>My legs tensed.
Four key sections contracted two inches. I felt scared and confused,
because I wasn&rsquo;t making them do this. And maybe it was a fear
reaction: maybe my terrified brain was barfing out static that the
Contours misread. But that&rsquo;s not what it felt like. It felt
like they were making decisions on their own.</p>
<p>Behind me, someone
screamed. I didn&rsquo;t have to turn to see that picture: the
Manager&rsquo;s beautiful assistant, one hand on the door handle, the
other flying to her mouth, shocked eyes wide, drinking in the scene.
I didn&rsquo;t have to hang around to know what would happen next:
the alarm call, the security guards, the lockdown. My legs were
right, I realized. They had summarized the situation faster than I
had. Now we were on the same page, and I took a breath, and we
jumped.</p>