This chapter just goes on. And on. And fucking on. The author thinks Connor is the hottest shit in the desert so why wouldn’t you want thousands of words about him?

Like Risa, Connor finds his niche by accident. Connor never considered himself mechanically capable, but there are few things he can stand less than a bunch of morons standing around looking at something that doesn’t work and wondering who’s going to fix it.

Yes, because that only happens because they’re stupid and lazy.

There are plenty of other kids who claim to be mechanics, and are really good at explaining why things won’t work. Connor, on the other hand, actually fixes them.

Just fuck this book.

Everything about it is terrible! The environment fades in and out like it’s a lazy webcomic and the details that appear never make sense. The only thing worse than the politics is the author’s claim that it’s those other people and their politics that are the real evil. And it hates everyone but Connor and sometimes Risa and Lev.

So anyway, fixing junk with sue power gets him noticed and moved to the repair crew. Meanwhile Roland, because god knows I’m not totally sick of that stupid subplot, managed to get himself one of the best assignments in the Graveyard. By working the angles and applying plenty of flattery, he’s been taken on as the pilot’s assistant which given there is no current one, is apparently a special villain-sue post they made up just for him. Why would you even bother training up a kid to learn to fly the helicopter if he’s leaving in two years while your current pilot is an actual adult who’ll be saying for the conceivable future?

It’s also a position that means he’d kept away from the rest of the kids, who are in groups of their own, so it doesn’t even make sense as something he’d want.

Connor shudders to think of Roland behind the controls of a helicopter

I’m pretty sure the only dangerous thing you can do in one is crash it.

Everyone else is falling under Roland’s sway, again, except that last time people really weren’t under his sway because they spent all their time muttering meaningfully about how Connor sure should deal with this.

Social manipulation is not one of Connor’s strengths. Even among his own team, he’s a bit of a mystery. Kids know not to tread on him, because he has a low tolerance for irritation and idiocy. But there’s no one they’d rather have on their side than Connor.

Or, sueity sue sue.

Hayden continues brown-nosing by saying he’s because Connor has such integrity. He then explains that really he’s better because he imagines Risa telling him not to get into fights, so consider the romantic plotline officially checked. Who better for Risa than the guy okay with letting her get raped?

Also, he’s a possessive little fuck. Roland tried to be friendly after the attempted rape, and apparently he’s still trying to be charming, and Risa, the little slut whore, actually takes his gifts!!!! So Connor demands to know if she’s falling for the guy. The guy who tried to rape her to get to Connor.

“I’ll pretend you didn’t just ask that,” she tells him in disgust. Rut Connor has reasons to wonder.

By which it means he completely ignores what she said and starts listing off every gift Roland offered her. She points out that she’s taking it because then he doesn’t have it, which convinces Connor that she’s telling the truth and then he’s all impressed at how logical and calculating it is, despite the fact she’s just saying obvious things.

Risa, as much as I wish I could congratulate you for a YA romance plot that doesn’t involve falling for someone who attempted to rape you, falling for someone who gave two enthusiastic thumbs up to the idea just to win the dickwaving contest and then said he should have let you get raped because you weren’t grateful enough then later demands you justify your behavior to him is actually worse.

Wither continues to be better than this fucking book.

The scene mercifully ends.

Next up we learn that once a week there’s a “work call”. Basically, the kids can volunteer as illegal workers somewhere. Also, we learn that there’s videocameras everywhere that admiral-guy uses to keep an eye on things, because that sure wouldn’t be incredibly hard to set up and maintain.

“A man in Oregon needs a team of five to clear cut a few acres of forest,” Amp announces. “You’ll be given room and board, and taught to use the tools of the trade. The job should take a few months, and at the end you’ll get new identities. Eighteen-year-old identities.”
Amp doesn’t let them know the salary, because there is none. The Admiral gets paid, though. He gets paid a purchase price.

Connor proceeds to bitch heartily about this, because hiring completely unskilled illegal sixteen year olds and training them in a useful skill for a few months is obviously something people pay through the nose to get to do.

I can’t believe there’s even a purchase price involved. Just feeding and housing them might put you at a loss, especially for such a short job – the longer the job, the less proportion of it is spend on training. And then they’re handed free false IDs at the end? For “a few months” work? Even assuming a very generous interpretation where that means five months and not two, that’s still an impossibly good deal.

Honestly, I’d assume there is no price paid beyond taking a kid off his hands so he doesn’t have to feed them and for this to be an extension of the general network thing, especially when we know there seem to be much stricter punishments for helping unwinds than for, say, hiring Mexicans. (But then, it does seem likely Mexico is too nuked to be our slave labor anymore.)

Furthermore, the book says only the sixteen year olds are interested because it’s not worth it to the seventeen year olds to work for getting out less than a year early, because apparently the trained-in-a-marketable-skill thing isn’t a factor. Considering these kids aren’t even getting an education, I’d think that’d be the much bigger draw.

Hayden is also there because the book is really attached to the first characters it introduced, and he’s agreeable to Connor’s nonsense rant about being used and just says it’s better to be used without getting chopped up.

“Housecleaning services,” he says. “Three are needed, female preferred. No false IDs, but the location is secure and remote—which means you’ll be safe from the Juvey-cops until you turn eighteen.”

The book is also blissfully aware of the idea the kids might actually be abused. Connor bitches about how “This place isn’t a refuge, it’s a slave market. Why doesn’t anyone see that?” and Hayden says unwinding makes slavery look good. and could you both shut up and pay attention to the fact someone just requested underage girls to a “secure and remote” location for an indefinite period of time? There’s been no mention here of if there’s any followup or anything to make sure people aren’t being raped, murdered, and buried in the basement.

Just like the other job, the book’s description of who volunteers is weird, apparently all seventeen year olds because no one wants to be stuck housecleaning more than a year, even though they’re employed to do work here and housecleaning seems a lot nicer of a way to pass the time than being stuck in the desert.

And it seems all jobs are either until eighteen or end with false IDs, which is really, really suspicious. No one ever comes back and yet your complaint is just that you’re not getting paid?

So anyway, the once a week job meeting breaks up, having listed a total of eight slots. If we assume the average is 10, then that’s moving 500 kids out a year, which does a lot of fix the numbers given before. Keeping pace with 60 new kids a month would require twice that, though.

Roland then comes over to chat. Connor tells him to go wash the helicopter and Roland grins and says he’s more about flying now because he’s been made copilot yay. Seriously why didn’t they train a kid for this before now if the guy wanted one?

“The Admiral’s got some racket going here, doesn’t he?” he says. “Most of the losers here don’t care. But it bothers you, doesn’t it?”

Roland claims to feel similarly, but he’s probably just thinking he wants in on that sweet racket. Then he tells Connor that the admiral’s teeth are from some poor unwind.

I hear he keeps a picture of the kid he got them from in his office.

Why on earth would he do that, though? No one else appears to care where they get their parts.

Makes you wonder if there’s anything left of the original Admiral at all.”

Well, obviously the skin, since he’s badly scarred. And probably the muscle, since I think Risa would have mentioned it if he looked really worn down except for the part where he looked in great shape.

For a week the seed that Roland planted in Connor’s brain grows. It’s fertile ground, because Connor already distrusted the Admiral.

Dear god Connor is so fucking stupid. The guy has enough money to buy planes as a cover. If he wanted parts, he can get them legitimately.

The next plane comes down and it has someone he recognizes.

It’s the kid he kidnapped for his own good.

I feel it says so much that this is how Connor sees it.

He starts to run over but then remembers emotional displays are for the uncool and slows down. He spends the time thinking about how wait, also he’s mad at Lev. But really happy. But mad.

Lev no longer looks so angelic but more grungy and hard, and Connor is stunned and can barely process it.

Connor knows what he has to do. It’s the only thing that will ever make things right between him and Lev. Once again, it’s instinctive action without time for thought. Instinctive, not irrational. Impassioned, but not impulsive. Connor has come to know the difference.
He hauls off and punches Lev in the eye. Not hard enough to knock him down, but hard enough to snap his head halfway around and give him a nasty shiner.

this
fucking
book

He explains that’s for betraying them, then hugs him because he’s glad he’s alive.

tightly—the way he hugged his own little brother last year when he took first place in the district pentathlon.

See, I hug my little brother because he’s my little brother, not just when he wins a trophy.

Then he takes Lev over to get Risa to fix up the eye, because that’s what Risa does, fix people Connor punches.

That night, Lev violates nighttime curfew (wouldn’t it make sense to do a lot of the work at night so it’s cool instead of being hell on earth?) by showing up in Connor’s area next to his bed. Connor is stunned anew by the idea Lev now breaks rules. Lev explains that he understands the punch.

I deserved it, and so it’s okay,” says Lev. “But don’t you ever hit me again, or you’ll regret it.”
Although Connor has no intention of ever punching Lev-out again, he does not respond well to ultimatums.

Connor continues to be a terrible person. Because Lev didn’t say this submissively enough, he then says he will if he thinks Lev deserves it. Lev continues to be creepy accepting of this but says Connor had better be sure he’s right if he does and leaves. Connor lies awake thinking how Every Unwind has a story you don’t want to know. He supposes that Lev now has his. because somehow this can only happen because of tragic backstory that can never be spoken of.

This chapter is very long and very stupid, so I’m quitting here and you’ll get the rest tomorrow.