"You'll pay for this," the whitecoat said, flashing his ID card at the automatic lock.
"Boy, if I had a nickel for every time I've heard that," I mused.
52
See, when you're an evil, endlessly funded insane scientist, you have both the means and the motive to, say, suddenly gas a whole room of hostage bird kids.
Causing said bird kids to pass out without even realizing it and then wake up in a metal cage in the middle of a field.
At night.
Some of you have probably jumped ahead and are already at the place where you realize this happened to us, and I'm not just rattling on hypothetically, so good on ya!
"Unhhh," Gazzy moaned, starting to stir.
I forced myself to sit up. There were no lights. Even the moon and stars were blocked by thick, low-lying clouds.
"You are avake, yah?" said a voice in a horribly recognizable accent.
"Yah," I muttered, rubbing my head. "And you are still a butthole, yah?"
"It's time for you to be eliminated," ter Borcht said, sounding gleeful. "You don't cooperate vis de tests, you are useless to us."
I helped Nudge sit up, rubbing her back as she cleared her throat.
"I don't believe this," Fang muttered, rolling his shoulders. He looked around at our cage. It was big enough to hold us, as long as we didn't want to do anything frivolous, like stand up or move around.
"Believe it," said ter Borcht, clapping his hands together. "Tonight ve implement our Re-Evolution Plan! Vhen ve are done, ve vill haf a world of less dan a billion people. Each country vill be under our control! Dere vill be no illnesses, no veakness. De new strong, smart population vill save dis planet und take us into de tventy-second century!"
"Yeah," I said. "And if you look in the dictionary under 'delusional megalomaniac,' you'll see your picture."
"Nussing you say vill bozzer me," ter Borcht said more calmly. "It is time to eliminate you. You haf failed all de tests. You are not useful."
"No, but we're dang cute," I said, willing my brain to start churning out ideas. I scanned the sky and the field as best I could through the bars, but I saw nothing. Come on, come on, I thought.
"Max?" Nudge whispered. She edged closer to me and took my hand. I squeezed hers reassuringly, but I was thinking that maybe our time really was up. The five of us were hunched back-to-back inside the cage, all of us looking out.
Then a clumpy blob was coming toward us, growing larger. It took only a second for me to see that it was a group of people walking across the field. Probably here to get good seats for the fun. Some of them were wearing white coats, of course, but not all of them. My eyes picked out Jeb and Anne Walker.
"How can we break out of here?" Gazzy whispered so only the flock could hear.
"There's a plan," I murmured back. "There's always a plan." Well, it sounded good.
"Children," said Jeb when he was close enough. "It doesn't have to be this way."
"Okay," I said. "Let's have it be different. Let us out of the cage!"
He pressed his lips together, giving his head a tiny shake.
Next it was Anne's turn. Inside the cage, we were practically vibrating with tension.
"Do you know what's really sad?" she asked.
"That pin-striped pantsuit?" I guessed. "Those sensible shoes?"
"We gave you every chance," Anne said.
"No, see, giving us every chance would be opening this cruel and inhuman cage and letting us out," I said, ready to explode. "That would be every chance. This way, you've only given us some chances. You see the difference?"
"Enough!" ter Borcht barked. "Dis is pointless. Ve're just vaiting for de executioners. Say your good-byes."
"Good-bye," said a sweet little-girl voice.
And then a shiny metal bar swung through the air and smacked ter Borcht's head with a sickening, melonlike splat.
53
Well. It certainly got exciting as heck after that.
"Angel!" Nudge screamed, echoed closely by Gazzy. Fang and I threw ourselves against the cage bars, shaking them hard, searching for weak points.
Angel nimbly bobbed and weaved, her white wings beating as fast as my heart. She dive-bombed the group of scientists, who scattered, screaming for Flyboys to come to the rescue.
"I can't break it!" Fang said, slamming his fists against the cage.
"But I can!" The gravelly voice from behind made us spin in time to see Ari do a full morph into a good ol' old-fashioned Eraser. I'd forgotten how wolfish he could get, and his face, with its full snout packed with yellow, dripping teeth, was horrible up this close.
"Get back!" I shouted, pushing the flock away from him. Two ragged-clawed paws gripped the metal bars, and Ari lunged at us, fangs snapping.
I gasped as his teeth crunched down on the bars-and then, with grisly twisting-metal sounds, he started to chew through.
Outside, Angel hovered like a demonic hummingbird, swinging her bar, keeping everyone and everything away from us.
"She's going to let Ari eat us!" Nudge cried. She braced herself against the cage and clenched her hands into fists. "But it won't be easy for him!"
Time-out. Okay, now, tell the truth: When's the last time you had to decide to make it hard for someone to eat you? That's just the zany, roller-coaster life of a lab rat on the run.
It was time to spill. "Angel's not a traitor," I said. "She and I agreed that she would do this so she'd be on the inside and could get us out if anything happened. She's been my spy."
Time halted as four dumbstruck bird kids turned to gape at me.
"We came up with this plan in case the worst happened," I said fast. "Which it did, of course. Angel's not a traitor-never was."
Smash! Time sped up again as Ari managed to gnaw through one of the bars. It was stomach churning to see-the ripped metal cut his mouth up something awful, and blood mingled with foul Eraser spit was flying everywhere.
Crack! Ooh-Angel had whacked another whitecoat. Like ter Borcht, this one dropped like a stone. In fact, ter Borcht hadn't gotten up-he was rolling on the ground, moaning.
Riiip! Ari broke through another bar of the cage, and his unnaturally strong arms began to wrest the surrounding bars apart. His face was a repulsive bloody-meat picture as he snarled and grunted with the effort.
"I'll take him out," Fang whispered tensely in my ear. "Then you grab the others and get out of here."
I quickly tapped everyone's hands twice. They caught my eye and nodded, and we all braced for Fang's move.
With a final, wrenching, earsplitting screech, Ari forced the bars apart, making an Eraser-sized hole in the cage wall.
"Ready." Fang's voice was deadly quiet in the screaming chaos around us.
We all tensed, ready to spring out as soon as Fang took Ari down-but instead of coming in after us, Ari backed away quickly.
"Come on!" he shouted. "Get out of there! We'll hold these guys back!"
Wha?
"He's on our side!" Angel yelled from above. "He's with me! He's getting you out! Ari! Release the secret weapon!"
Ari fumbled with his jacket, and a small coal-colored shadow popped out of it and began to race around, growling and snapping.
Was it-could it be?
"Move it or lose it!" Total shouted. "Let's go, go, go!"
54
Fang shot through the hole in the cage, grabbed Total, and was up in the air before three seconds had passed. Amazingly, Ari stood off to the side and let him go.
I shoved Nudge through next, and she took a running leap, faltered for a moment, then stroked hard and rose into the air.
Still Ari stood back.
Watching him closely, I pushed Iggy out. "Four steps, up at ten o'clock," I hissed. He nodded, then followed my instructions.
"Come on, Gasman, you're last," I said, and practically threw him out of the cage, wincing as the torn metal scratched him. A minor concern at this point.