Once again, I was forcibly reminded of what slooow and hard work walking is, compared with flying. But I didn't want to take a chance of being seen, not this close to the castle. For all I knew, they had watchtowers or radar or searchlights. Possibly all three.
But we finally made it. Standing at the edge of the woods, looking across the moat at the thick, high castle wall, I felt like this was the most castley castle I'd ever seen. It was all pointy and chock-full o' turrets, with narrow slits for cute Robin Hood arrows, and other windows with many tiny panes of glass. Of course, the floodlights and razor wire at the top of the wall detracted a bit from its charm, but if you squinted, they faded a little.
"There's an iron gate," whispered Nudge, pointing. "We can see through it."
"Yep." Sticking to the shadows, we half crouched, half crawled toward the castle, checking carefully for trip wires or hidden traps. When we were within thirty feet of the gate, the sound of marching feet made us freeze, bellies to the ground.
My raptor vision showed me the next generation of Erasers goose-stepping in the courtyard. I saw just as clearly lines of people marching after them, fierce expressions on their faces. But there was something odd about them-something not entirely human. And then I saw my old clone double, Max II, who had tried to replace me, who Jeb had tried to make me kill. She was back.
82
Standing next to me, Ari had gone rigid, his eyes locked on the Max clone. I remembered that they had been an anti-real Max team and felt my stomach tighten. My vigilance about Ari cranked up a couple notches.
While I pondered this revolting development, Nudge elbowed me in the ribs.
"Oh, my God!" she whispered. "Do you see that?"
"Yep," I said, watching Max II grimly. "We meet again."
"What do you mean? We've never seen her before," said Nudge.
I turned and looked at Nudge. "Hello? You don't remember that topsy-turvy day when 'I' tried to cook and offered to fix your hair?"
Nudge frowned. "Yeah. That was Max Two. That's not what I'm talking about! Look, four rows behind her!"
I looked. Then I saw what Nudge meant.
There was a Nudge II-marching along with an un-Nudge-like solemnity. Other than that, she looked exactly like her.
"Holy moly," I breathed, hardly able to believe it.
"Uh-oh," said Angel quietly, then pointed. I swallowed a groan and dropped my head into my hands for a second. Excellent. Just what the world needed: another Angel. Because God knows, one six-year-old mind-controlling flying child just isn't enough.
"I don't believe it," said Nudge. "There's another me!"
"And another me," said Angel.
Was everyone here a clone? Maybe not, but they were all mutants of some kind, I was willing to bet.
"What, I'm not important enough to have a double?" Total sounded completely offended. "'No, let's not clone the dog. He's just a dog, after all.'"
I rubbed his head behind his ears, but he huffed and flopped over on the grass.
"I don't have a double either," said Ari. So Jeb hadn't cloned his son. How sentimental of him.
"Are they going to try to replace us, like they did with you?" Nudge asked.
"Yes," I said. "But we'll catch on immediately when the new Nudge is silent and mopey, and the new Angel acts like an actual six-year-old."
They smiled, and I congratulated myself on my ability to keep their spirits up even in the face of this new atrocity.
"Actually," I went on, "let's come up with a code word or phrase to use with one another when we need to make absolutely sure we're the right ones. Okay?"
"Okay," said Nudge.
"Ooh, I've got one," said Angel, and we put our heads together as she whispered it.
"Perfect!" said Nudge, breaking into a smile.
I laughed silently and slapped her a very quiet high five.
Ari grinned and nodded.
Even Total's furry black face seemed to smile.
So what was the secret word?
Yeah, like I'm gonna tell you.
83
What with all the stomping and the fiercely staring straight ahead, none of the Flyboys or clones or other mutants seemed to hear us when we flew over the wall as silently as we could. We caught up with the troops and started marching right behind them, a last line of followers eager to herald the beginning of the Re-Evolution.
I'm so sure.
Anyway, gutsy little devil-may-care freaks that we are, we trooped right into the building with them, our feet moving in lockstep, arms swinging tightly at our sides. We would see how long it took someone to notice. My guess is that it wouldn't be long. Call it a hunch.
We filed between tall metal double doors, which swung shut behind us with an ominous clang. Inside, we were surprised by how the Marching Gang o' Mutants immediately split up. The Flyboys veered off down one dimly lit stone hallway, and the others split up into several streams heading in different directions.
It was like a stone rabbit warren, with many hallways winding away from the main doors. Amber emergency lights barely lit the way.
Moving silently, we followed a group through another set of double doors, the surrealness of it giving me ill-advised giggles that I quickly swallowed.
Still no one seemed to notice us. We were heading deeper and deeper into one of Itex's most important strongholds without anyone getting in our way.
I looked down at Angel.
"Trap?" I said out of the side of my mouth.
She nodded. "Trap."
84
"Everyone on guard," I breathed, and then suddenly we were in an airplane hangar-sized room.
The ceiling was at least thirty feet high, and the only windows were narrow horizontal slits maybe a foot or two below the ceiling. The stone walls were hung with tremendous TV screens, several on each wall. The rest of the room was filled with gray metal bunks, each covered with a kicky olive drab army blanket suitable for bouncing quarters off.
You had to give it to them: These guys sure knew how to party!
The mutants filed off into the rows of metal bunks, and we found ourselves alone at the edge of the room.
Instinctively we formed a circle, our backs to one another, and cased the joint.
"This is so nice," said Total. "I want my room at home to look just like this. If we ever get a home."
"Shh," I said mildly. "Everyone keep an eye out, mark your emergency exits, and let's see what's going on."
All around us, everyone had moved with purpose to what I assumed were assigned chores: The products of the finest scientific minds in the world were busily sweeping, dusting metal beds, polishing their boots.
Nudge and I looked at each other at the same time, and Angel read our minds. In the next moment we had each found boots in our sizes beneath various beds. Ari copied us, managing to find some extra-large ones. In seconds we had laced them onto our feet and hidden our filthy, shredded sneakers.
"Oh, yeah," said Total. "Now we blend."
I made a face at him and then turned my attention to the TV screens. There were three screens on each wall, and if they'd been showing, say, a soccer game, I would have been in pig heaven.
However, they were broadcasting the earnest face of a fair-haired woman who was speaking in consecutive languages. We tapped our feet through German, French, Spanish, Italian, and Japanese, with our room's occupants scarily shouting agreement and praise every so often.
Nudge frowned. "Who does she remind me of? I feel like I've seen her before."
I thought, then shrugged. "No idea."
Finally the whitecoat got to English. "The time of the Re-Evolution is here!" she said forcefully. Various voices in the room cheered.
"We have begun implementing the By-Half Plan! Even as you watch this, the weak, the unnecessary, the ones who drain our resources, are being eliminated!"
85