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them.”
    “But if we don't have any cans to spare, then what would we trade for the parts?”
    “The upper class in Ra-Shet have a thing for luxury items. They like jewelry, statues, and dishes, pretty much anything pretty or shiny enough to catch their attention.”
    “And they'll actually give up their canned food for baubles?” I asked in disbelief.
    Drake nodded his head. “If you have enough power in Ra-Shet, you don't have to worry about food.”
    “That doesn't make sense.” I took a deep breath and tried to gather my thoughts. My gut instinct was telling me that I was missing something and that Drake wasn't giving me the whole story, but for the life of me I couldn't figure out what kind of information he might be leaving out.
    “It will. Give the idea a little time to sink in,” Drake said.
    The idea that there was an entire city nearby was shocking in and of itself. I wondered what it looked like. I wondered if everyone was crammed into tiny little apartments or if people had their own homes. I wondered if the king of Ra-Shet would kick you out of your house if you didn't meet an occupancy requirement.
    Maybe I was wrong about Mom and Dad's disappearance. If Dad had known about a city nearby he would have left the Cube. He hated the Powers That Be. He thought they were idiots who made bad decisions for the people of the Cube. He'd never been shy about sharing those thoughts either.
    Drake's arms went around my waist and suddenly all I could feel was the proximity of his skin to mine. His lips brushed against my neck. “You're taking this better than I thought you would,” he told me.
    I sighed and leaned back against him. “Right now none of it seems real,” I admitted.
    “How about this part?” He turned me around so that my eyes were even with his chin. He ducked his head down so that his lips were even with mine. “Does this feel real?” he asked as he kissed me.

CHAPTER 7
     
    It was raining when the sun came up. The weather was doing absolutely nothing to improve anyone's lousy mood. I was exhausted as I zipped my jacket up and wrestled my frizzy, tangled hair into a somewhat manageable braid that ran down the center of my back. I kept sneaking glances across the bus at Drake, wondering if he would be as affectionate this morning as he had been last night on the roof of the bus. So far, aside from a wink he'd shot me as he'd handed me half a can of creamed corn for breakfast, he was acting like last night had never happened.
    I wished I could act like last night had never happened. Drake had been telling the truth when he'd said what he told me would change the way I viewed the world.
    “We need to try to find a working radiator for our bus today,” Drake announced as I scraped the last of my cold, miserable meal off the walls of its corroded can. “I want to split up into groups of two. We have three experienced hunters and three newbies so I'm thinking we'll split up by experience. I'll take Pilar with me since this is her first time out of the Cube.”
    “I'm not taking that girl,” Shayla announced loudly. She pointed to where Cya was huddled in a shivering lump against the side of the bus. Her thin, fragile clothes were providing her with no protection at all against the steady drizzle of rain. I'd assumed she would have brought a jacket in her bag, but if she had then she wasn't making any move to go get it and put it on.
    “Me neither,” Kennedy said. “Don't even think about sticking me with her, Drake. I'll have to pull a radiator if I find one. I can't lug it and her back here. If I have to choose between carrying a radiator and carrying a recruit who can't carry her own weight, I'm fixing our bus.”
    Cya let out a low moan as she tried to stand up. It was clear that she couldn't put any weight on her leg. “Just leave me here.”
    Drake scowled. “No one gets to stay here. We have to go out on foot then we all have to go out on foot. No one gets special treatment in the