High above the dirty, twisting mountains of the junkyard, Rick crouched in the shadows. He sat on a rusted metal bridge. The bridge was broken and dangerous. It hung hundreds of feet in the air, right over Sector Nine of the scrap maze.Rick did not move. He breathed very slowly. His body was covered in dark purple bruises. His ribs ached with every breath. It had been three days since he escaped the bright, white tower of Auditor Isaac. He had exploded the silver Extraction Engine. He had shattered the thick glass cage. He had fallen back down into the dark, toxic mud of Rustgate to hide.Luna and Ash were safe. He had hidden them deep underground, far away from the city patrols. But Rick could not rest. A doctor cannot sleep when the city is bleeding.He looked down into the dark valley below him. The thick, yellow smog swirled slowly. It looked like a dirty, poisoned ocean.He pulled his new dark gray coat tightly around his shoulders. Luna had stitched the torn pieces of his old

Rick opened his eyes. They were completely flat and gray. He stepped back from the edge of the rusted bridge. He gripped his staff. He turned around. He was going to walk away into the dark. He was going to let them die to protect the greater good. It was the hardest, most terrible choice he had ever made.Down in the alley, Overseer Graves smiled. Graves dropped the screaming little girl into the mud next to her bleeding father. "Chain the brat," Graves ordered a silver guard.Then, Overseer Graves did something very strange. He did not look at the prisoners. He did not look at the fake doctor on the ground.Overseer Graves slowly tilted his head back. He looked straight up. He looked directly up at the tall, dark, rusted bridge hanging hundreds of feet in the air. He looked exactly at the spot where Rick was hiding in the shadows."I know you are up there, anomaly," Graves called out loudly. His cruel voice echoed through the deep scrap canyon, carrying perfectly up to the high bri

The warm water felt wonderful. Rick sighed. He opened his tired brown eyes and looked at her. "Thank you," Rick whispered."You are a fool, you know that?" Luna smiled gently, wiping a streak of dirt from his cheek. "You walked right into the smartest man's trap.""I know," Rick said. He frowned. He looked down at his own hands. "Isaac is a genius. He knew exactly what I would do. He knew I could not stand in the shadows and watch a little girl die. He used my vow against me as a weapon."Luna stopped washing his face. She let her hand rest on his knee. She looked at him with very serious, very deep brown eyes."I have been thinking about Auditor Isaac," Luna said quietly. The noise of the busy clinic covered her soft voice. No one else could hear them."He is evil," Rick stated flatly. "He is a greedy, heartless monster. He wants to put my magic in a bottle and sell it to the rich. He is worse than Yuren."Luna shook her head slowly. "No, Rick," Luna said. "That is the scary part. He

The glowing hologram of Auditor Isaac was gone. The fake doctor lay unconscious on the cold concrete floor. The fifty refugees held their breath.The clock was ticking.Rick had exactly fifty-nine minutes to surrender. If he did not walk out of the dark tunnels and give himself to the cruel city guards, Isaac would turn off the giant ventilation fans. The city would flood the entire junkyard with toxic, burning gas. Hundreds of thousands of innocent people would choke to death.Rick looked at his hands. They were covered in dirt and dried blood. He slowly reached up and untied the heavy, dark gray coat from his shoulders. The coat fell to the floor with a soft thud."What are you doing?" Luna asked. Her voice shook with pure panic. She grabbed his arm with her one strong hand."I am taking off my coat," Rick said. His voice was completely empty. It sounded like a man who was already dead. "I have to walk out there. I have to surrender.""No!" Luna cried loudly. Tears poured down her

Rick turned and ran. He sprinted toward the back of the station, dodging falling rocks and bending metal. He reached the heavy, rusted metal door that Forge had opened.Rick dove through the doorway just as the entire ceiling of the subway station caved in.A tidal wave of dirt, broken concrete, and rusted iron crashed down behind him. The door slammed shut, sealing the old clinic forever.Rick was plunged into absolute, pitch-black darkness. He lay on the cold, wet ground for a moment. He coughed up dust. His whole body ached. But he smiled. He had beaten Isaac's perfect trap.He slowly stood up. He summoned a tiny, soft green light to the tip of his wooden staff. It acted like a weak flashlight in the dark.He began to walk down the steep, sloping tunnel. The air here was incredibly cold. It smelled like ancient, forgotten stone. This was the Deep Rust.High above the burning junkyard, in the spotless white tower, Auditor Isaac stood in front of his giant digital screen.The screen