Chapter 9
Scout had never been so close to a firing weapon before. Under the octagonal room’s cavernous ceiling, the echoing noise was painfully loud. Scout flinched, her whole body contracting into itself and her eyes closing. She stayed like that as the echoes died away. The plasma bolt must have struck somewhere quite close to her, the ozone filling her sinuses.
The silence after the echoes faded was worse. She knew she hadn’t been shot, but she was afraid to open her eyes to look at her dogs. Shadow must be okay; he had been close beside her, and she was unharmed.
And it had been Girl who had crushed Tubbins. Why had she done that? Such cruelty—was she really capable of that? She with her big eyes and dopey manner. She and Shadow had chased many a critter through the grainfields and
