“Hmm,” I said. “Something’s missing down below. Some important puzzle piece. Oh, I know: It’s me. Hang on, guys.” I folded my wings and aimed myself downward.
91
I shot toward the ground at two hundred miles an hour. It was a total rush, over in a split second, and then I was braking, snapping my wings out to catch the air. I began running before my feet hit the ground, and came to a stop fifteen feet from the Terrible Trio.
Aware of the Erasers at my back, I walked up to Anne, Jeb, and Ari.
“Well, looks like the gang’s all here,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest. “Anne, meet Jeb. Jeb, meet Anne. Oh, sorry . . . looks like you two already know each other really well!”
“Hello, sweetheart,” Jeb said, gazing at me as if I held the secret to the world. Oh, wait, I guess I did.
“I’m not your sweet anything,” I said.
“No—you’re mine,” Ari spit, pacing angrily.
“In your nightmares,” I said, sounding bored, and he lunged at me, snarling. Jeb shot out an arm and held him back. Anne looked at me with concern.
“Are you all right?” she said. “I got a call from the school—”
“I bet you did,” I said. “Their school emergency plan went to heck in a handbasket. Well, they were too rigid anyway.” I turned back to Jeb. “What do you want? Every time you show up, my life nose-dives. And believe me, it’s not that far till I hit rock bottom.”
“You got that right.” Ari sneered.
“Shut up, dog boy,” I said. I felt sorry for the seven-year-old Ari who’d been victimized. This creature shared no part of him.
“Max, as always, I’m here to help,” said Jeb, channeling sincerity. “This . . . experiment isn’t working out. I’m here to help you get to the next phase.”
“You’re out of bounds here,” said Anne angrily. “This is my situation.”
Jeb’s anger flared. “You don’t know what you’re doing. Max is a multimillion-dollar, finely tuned instrument. You’ve almost ruined her. She’s not a lapdog! She’s a warrior—the best there is. I made her what she is and I won’t let you destroy her.”
“Whoa,” I said, holding my hands up. “This is getting a little dysfunctional, even for me. I have an idea: How about the three of you take flying leaps off a cliff? That would solve most of our problems right there.”
“That would suit me just fine,” Ari snarled. “Then it would be just you and me.”
“Please. The way you fly? There wouldn’t be enough left to fill a garbage bag.”
He lunged at me again. Both Anne and Jeb stopped him.
“I’m going now,” I said, “and I’m going to stay gone. If I see any one of you again, I’ll take you out. And that’s a euphemism, by the way.”
Jeb sighed and shook his head. “It’s not that simple, Max. There’s nowhere for you to go. This whole planet is one big maze, and you’re the rat running through it.”
My eyes narrowed coldly. “That’s what you think. You and your psycho-scientist pals can play out Act Three by yourselves. As far as I’m concerned, this experiment, this training scenario, is over. Way over. Don’t come knocking again. I mean it.”
“The decision, unfortunately, isn’t yours to make,” Jeb said patiently. “But you don’t have to believe me. You can ask my boss, the one who’s pulling all the strings.”
“Jeb . . . ,” Anne said, a warning tone in her voice.
“Yeah, right.” I sneered. “Call him on your cell phone. I’ll wait.”
“I don’t have to. She’s right here,” Jeb said with a gentle smile.
Well, the only other “she” around was Anne.
She was his boss, the one who was running things.
The one who was running me.
92
I should have known.
Maybe, deep down inside, I had known. Maybe that was why I had never been able to trust Anne, to relax. Or maybe that had just been my total paranoia coming in handy again.
“You’re the lead dog?” I asked Anne, then shook my head. “No, I can’t even pretend to be surprised. Nothing you guys throw at me could surprise me anymore.”
“Let’s put that to the test,” Ari said tightly. His whole body was rigid, his eyes bloodshot. His ragged claws were curling up into his palms over and over.
“Down, boy,” I said, expecting him to snap at any second.
“It’s not like that, Max,” said Anne, her face sincere and concerned. “I wanted to be part of your becoming. You’re not just an experiment. To me, you’re almost like a daughter.” Her eyes were warm and pleading. I thought of all the nights she’d tucked us in, the many disastrous attempts to put dinner on the table. How she’d bought us clothes, books, art supplies. She’d held Nudge when she cried, she’d patched up Gazzy’s skinned knees.
You know what? I’d done all that stuff too. And I was better at it. And, bonus, I wasn’t evil.
“I’m guessing that almost is the operative word here,” I said. “Part of my becoming? Congratulations. You’re part of my becoming pissed off.” I realized how crushed Gazzy, Nudge, and Angel would be when they found out Anne was in this mess even deeper than the spawn of Satan, Jeb himself. Suddenly I’d had enough, more than enough. I shook my head, subtly loosening my wing muscles. “You can’t even make decent cookies,” I told her, and then jumped straight up into the air, the way we’d practiced so many times. With one bound, I was over their heads, and then I unfurled my wings and pushed down with all my might. I almost clipped them—I have a thirteen-foot wingspan. I soared up to where my flock was waiting.
“Vámonos,” I said. “There’s no one here but people to leave.”
93
That would have been too easy, right?
Within seconds, Ari’s control broke. Even as I was speeding away, I heard him shouting orders. Glancing over my shoulder, I saw a swarm of heavy, clumsy Erasers rising darkly into the air. Only—hello—these weren’t that clumsy.
“Uh-oh—this is a new batch, guys,” I called. “These Erasers can actually fly. Move it!”
“Through the woods!” Fang called, and I nodded.
“Rendezvous at the bat cave,” I added. “Make sure you aren’t followed!”
The six of us dived into the trees, effortlessly slipping among the branches and trunks. We’d practiced moves like this hundreds of times, and it was exhilarating, like playing a video game, only, you know, in real life. In less than a minute we heard crashes and yells behind us. Several Erasers had already misjudged their wingspans and almost ripped their wings off on unforgiving tree trunks.
It was pretty funny.
“No one touches Max! She’s mine!” I heard Ari shout, and thought, Oh, brother.
We split up, each leading a bunch of Erasers on a crazy zigzag path. Together again, Iggy and Gazzy flew in tandem, with Iggy able to mimic Gazzy’s moves within milliseconds. Angel was a blur of white through the green and brown of the forest. I knew Fang was holding Total and hoped that didn’t cramp his style too much.
“This is where it ends,” I heard Ari snarl, surprisingly close. I took a split-second look back and saw that he was barely thirty feet behind me. Okay, time to pour on the power. I sucked in a deep breath and surged forward, putting some of my newfound speed into action.
And practically almost killed myself, because trees were popping in my way faster than I had ever practiced. Get it together, Maximum, I told myself grimly. React faster. You can do it.
Concentrating fiercely, I aimed myself like a bullet through and over and between the thick trees and scrubby undergrowth. All sound faded away as I focused intently on finding a path for myself through the woods. Again and again I flipped sideways, shooting through impossibly narrow gaps. Several times I clipped my wing tips against something and even ripped some feathers out, making me hiss in a breath.
There was no way Ari could keep up with me at this speed, being such a bad flyer, with patched-on wings. I slowed, and time slow
ed with me. Sound reached my ears again—I was far away from everyone. Uh, too far, actually. I turned around and headed back.
I came up behind Ari, all stealthy wings, where he was perched on a branch.
“No! I told you—she’s mine!” Ari was shouting into an earpiece. “This time no one’s going to stop me. You take care of the others. I’ll find Max.”
He tapped his com unit off and took out a small pair of military binoculars. He peered through them, and I was practically holding my sides to keep from laughing. Finally he turned enough to see me—a hundred miles wide, filling his vision.
“Ah!” he cried in surprise, and dropped the binoculars.
Then I laughed. “So, what plans do you have for me, dog boy?”
I expected him to snarl and lunge, as usual. But he sat back on his branch and looked at me, seeming almost calm and roughly in the neighborhood of sane.
“Plans,” he said. “I don’t want to kill you. But I will if I have to. If you don’t cooperate.”
“Cooperate? This is me you’re talking to.”
Ari reached behind him and took a large, lethal-looking knife out of his pack. “I’m going to ask you once, nicely. What happens after that is up to you.”
What was he up to? “Uh, okay. Ask away.”
“You come with me. The two of us disappear. We never have to deal with Jeb and the whitecoats and everyone else again.”
“Disappear where?” You know what they say: Curiosity killed the mutant bird kid. But I couldn’t help myself.
“A place I know.”
“And I would be stuck there? With you as my guard? I have to tell you, this isn’t among my top-ten offers.”
“Not as your guard. As your friend.”
“You and me.” This was throwing me for a loop—and then I remembered Angel telling me that she’d picked up on Ari actually loving me. In a hateful, twisted way, of course.
“Yes. This is your one chance.”
“Uh-huh.” I couldn’t for the life of me see where this was headed in his mind. Unless—ick. “Ari, I can’t leave the flock,” I said, straight out. “Not for you, not for Jeb, not for anyone.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Ari said evenly, then he lunged at me with the knife.
I let myself fall backward off my branch, doing a flip in the air and unfurling my wings as I came right-side up. I didn’t even look back as I took off through the woods again, fast, heading back to the general area where the flock had split up. I felt sorry for Ari. Or, at least, I potentially felt sorry for him, if he would quit trying to kill me.
94
Max!” It was Fang. Immediately I zoomed upward and burst through the treetops into the open sky above. He was up there, fighting three Erasers at once. I streaked over and chopped one right where his neck met his shoulder. He cried out, and then I grabbed his wings and pulled them together, hard, in back of him. He shrieked in pain and started to drop like a rock. It was a little trick we’d learned back when we were first starting to fly. I’d forbidden us to do it to one another.
That Eraser crashed down into the trees below and disappeared from sight.
“Where’s everybody else?” I called to Fang as I moved in.
“Gone—Total too,” he said. “This is all that’s left.” He circled up to the right and then fell down sideways, landing hard on an Eraser’s wing. Their wings were heavier than ours but not nearly as smoothly integrated into their bodies. This one folded also and fell clumsily downward. He tried to get aloft again, but just as his wings extended, he hit the trees. We heard him screaming all the way down to the ground.
“That had to hurt,” said Fang.
“Should we go—,” I began, but just then Ari shot out of the trees and smashed right into Fang at full speed. He wheeled around surprisingly quickly and hovered in the air, facing us.
“We end this now!” he growled.
“I agree,” said Fang in a low, deadly tone, and he rushed Ari.
Remembering what had happened when they’d fought on the beach, I got ready to fling myself between them, but Fang zipped in like a hawk and managed a snap kick to Ari’s chest so hard that Ari started coughing. Before I could even say, “Good one,” Fang had circled and chopped the side of his hand down on Ari’s neck. Ari dropped about ten feet because he momentarily forgot to flap, but then his face set in anger and he surged upward again. His wingspan must have been eighteen feet, because he was a full-size Eraser. I could only imagine how hard he had to work just to stay aloft.
Fang whirled in a tight circle, like a hawk ballet, and flew in sideways before Ari could even react. His fist crashed against the side of Ari’s face, and I saw Ari’s nose start to bleed. I guessed Fang was remembering the beach incident too.
Ari roared and came right at Fang, claws slashing the air, teeth bared, eyes burning. He had power, hatred, and Eraser strength on his side. But Fang was fast and nimble, and had a truckload of resentment and hunger for revenge.
It was a pretty even match.
I wanted to jump in and help, but I sensed it was one of those boy things and I should stay out of it unless Fang was really getting his butt kicked. So I hovered nearby, scanning the horizon, hoping the rest of the flock was safe at the bat cave. No other Erasers seemed to be around, amazingly, and choppers didn’t suddenly appear. It was just your basic one-on-one mutant-vs.-mutant fight.
Which Fang seemed to be winning. I mean, let’s hear it for resentment and revenge. Even though Ari was probably actually stronger than Fang, Fang was so quick and so, so mad.
I winced as I heard the bone-jarring crack of Fang’s fist against the side of Ari’s head. The blow spun his head sideways, and Fang darted in with a fast side kick right to Ari’s ribs. I saw Ari’s grimacing face and hoped this would be over soon, before he got in a lucky hit.
Again Fang swung a hard left punch. Ari turned at the last minute and caught it right in the muzzle. Blood started dripping out of his mouth. “You—,” Fang said as he punched him from the right. “Quit—” Ari tried to back up, but he was clumsy with his wings and ended up dropping several feet. Fang dropped also, with precision, and rammed an uppercut into Ari’s ribs. I heard Ari’s breath leave in a whoosh. “Attacking—” Finally Fang drew back, gave one big beat of his wings, and shot forward, feetfirst. Both feet connected forcefully with Ari’s stomach, and Ari wheezed for air. “Us!” Fang finished, delivering an uppercut to the chin that literally made Ari spin backward through the air.
And he kept tumbling. I got a glimpse of his battered, rage-filled face as he fell toward the treetops, sixty feet below. He tried to catch himself, working his wings, but it was too late. He crashed into the greenery, and we heard branches snapping from up where we were.
He’d hardly managed to touch Fang.
I looked over at Fang. He was panting, sweating, watching Ari’s fall with a look of cold satisfaction.
“So—working out some issues here, are we?” I said.
He gave me a dry look. “Let’s go find the others.”
95
Fang and I kept a lookout all the way to the bat cave. We had no way of knowing if someone was tracking us with a telescope or whatever. But we took a complicated, mostly hidden route, and ended up shooting quickly in through the overhanging vines at the cave entrance.
“Max!” Nudge said, jumping up to give me a hug. Then we were all hugging one another, and Total was jumping up and down with excited little yips.
“Are they gone?” Gazzy asked.
“For now,” I said. “Fang kicked Ari’s butt.”
“Way to go!” Iggy said, holding up his fist. Fang bumped fists with him, trying not to look too pleased with himself.
“He has issues,” Nudge whispered knowingly out of the side of her mouth. I laughed.
“Okay, guys,” I said. “New agenda. Forget looking for our parents. We’ve hit a dead end. And besides, I don’t think I could bear to give one of you up again right now. How about moving on to sa
ving the world?”
“Yeah, let’s get out of here,” said Total, looking up at me.
“But where to?” asked Nudge.
“I’ve been thinking about that,” I began.
“Florida,” said Angel.
“What? Why?” I asked.
“I just feel like Florida is where we should go,” Angel said, shrugging. “Plus, you know, Disney World.”
“Yes! Disney World!” said Gazzy.
“Swimming pools, sunshine—I am so there,” Total agreed.
I looked at Fang. He shrugged. And actually, I didn’t really have any other plan.
Go with the flow, Max. Ride the flow.
After that pithy nugget from my Voice-turned-travel-agent, I said, “Well, okay, then. Florida it is. Grab your packs.”
PART 5
BACK TO SAVING THE WORLD
96
I see. You had a plan.” Jeb poured himself a cup of coffee.
“Yeah,” Ari said sullenly. He wasn’t sure if Jeb was mad at him or not. Sometimes Jeb didn’t seem mad, but then it would turn out that he was. Ari hated that.
“You were going to steal Max for yourself.”
“Yeah.”
Jeb took a sip of his coffee. “And why were you going to do that?”
Ari shrugged. “I just want to have her to myself. I’m tired of chasing the others. I don’t care about them.”
“But you care about Max. How old are you now?”
“Seven.” Which was another thing. Jeb never remembered his birthday. “But I’m big. Bigger than you.”
“Yes.” Jeb made it sound totally unimportant. “Ari, I’m proud of you.”
“Wh-what?”
Jeb turned and smiled at him. “I’m proud of you, son. I’m impressed that you made a plan for yourself, and that you chose Max.”
Ari felt like the sun was shining warmly on his shoulders. But—was this a trap? He looked at Jeb warily. “Oh, yeah?”
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