More cheers, while we five looked at one another in horror and then quickly remembered to cheer along with the others.
The woman looked out from the screen with the sincere zeal of a serious nut job. "We are creating a new world. A world where there is no hunger, no sickness, no weakness."
"Because they killed everyone," I muttered.
"The causes of war will be eliminated," she went on earnestly. "There will be plenty of food for everyone. There will be plenty of room for everyone. People will cease to fight over property, food, wealth, energy resources."
Everyone in the room cheered.
"Yep, no reason to fight," I whispered. "Unless, of course, you're persnickety about religion. I bet everyone will be so healthy and happy that it won't even matter anymore. It's not like people take it that seriously." I rolled my eyes and shook my head.
Every so often someone would walk past us, not giving us a second glance. We cheered with the others and tried to look busy by smoothing beds, lining up shoes, picking lint off blankets.
"Remember," said the whitecoat, "we can't achieve Re-Evolution without you, our chosen ones. The new order must be pure. All races are equal. All genders are equal. But illness, weakness, and other flaws must be eliminated."
"All genders?" whispered Nudge. "Aren't there just the two? Or did I miss something?"
I shrugged. "No idea. Maybe they've created others."
The thought was fairly repulsive, and we made "eew" faces at each other.
"So if you know of anyone who should experience the glory of martyrdom so that others may live in paradise, please inform your supervisor immediately," said the woman. "It will reflect well on you, and you will be praised."
I looked at the others, appalled. "Oh, my God," I said softly. "They want people to turn in anyone who isn't perfect. Which is, like, everyone! No one is perfect!"
I couldn't have said it better myself, Max, said the Voice.
So what now? I thought.
You're where you need to be, doing what you need to do, said the Voice. It was so rare that I got approval from the Voice that I was taken aback. But are you sure you can do this alone?
I've got Nudge and Angel and Total and Ari, I thought.
You're missing half your family, said the Voice. Who are also half your army.
Not my fault, I thought testily. Not my decision.
Does that mean it isn't your problem and you don't have to fix it?
I narrowed my eyes suspiciously. On the TV screen, the whitecoat had switched back to German.
And your point is...? I thought.
You need the rest of the flock. You need more fighters on your side. Get them back.
I groaned to myself. Oh, just heck.
86
"We would be amazing spies," Nudge whispered into my ear, "don't you think so?"
The five of us were crawling silently through a ventilation duct, in search of a computer. So far we had passed another barracks, a cafeteria, bathrooms-I guess even perfect people have to "go" sometimes-and a couple of offices with workers in them.
We needed an empty room with a computer. And then, like, a bunch of hot food! And comfy beds! After what felt like miles of crawling on hard metal, we looked down into a room that was dimly lit by a computer screen saver.
As quietly as possible, we unscrewed the grate, then dropped one at a time down into the room, waiting for the blare of motion detectors. But it remained quiet.
"Okay, make this fast," I told Nudge. "There might be silent alarms, hidden infrared cameras, whatever. We probably have about a minute."
Nudge nodded and sat down in front of the computer. She put her hands on the keyboard and closed her eyes. Seconds ticked by, with me getting more and more nervous and twitchy.
Suddenly she opened her eyes, looked at the computer keyboard, and started to type.
In seconds she had cleared the computer screen and pulled up an e-mail program.
"I have no idea how she does that," I whispered, and Total nodded.
"Okay," said Nudge. "I'm connected."
"Great job," I said, my heart hammering, and not only because I was expecting to be caught any second. "Tell Fang to come to Lendeheim right away, with everybody. Tell him things are really, really bad."
Nudge typed quickly.
"Tell him that the really evil stuff has started and that we have days, maybe hours, to throw a wrench in it."
"Wrench starts with w," said Total, reading over her shoulder.
"It doesn't matter," I hissed. "Just tell Fang to get his butt here, now!"
Nudge nodded and typed, then hit the Send button. And our message was off, hopefully to make its way to Fang's e-mail account.
True, he got a katrillion messages a day, but I hoped his eye would be caught by the all-cap THIS IS FROM MAX. READ IT NOW!!!! in the subject line.
"Well," I said, "that's all we can do. We just have to hope it gets through."
The computer screen blinked, and then the whitecoat we'd seen on TV earlier popped up, looking straight at us.
"Very good, Max," she said, sending chills down my spine. "You got further than I thought you would. I should have given you more credit."
Behind my back I made motions with my hands that meant, Up and out of here, now!
"No, there's no point in that," said the woman. "Look up."
So of course I looked up. The ceiling was absolutely covered with hovering, silent Flyboys, clinging like hairy bugs, their red eyes glowing.
"Oh, crap," I said.
"How eloquent," said the woman. And then, "Attack them!"
87
It wasn't pretty. We did manage to take out six or so Flyboys, but after all the metal springs and fur had settled, we were captured, our hands cuffed, our legs shackled.
My nose was bleeding, and a cut on the inside of my mouth stung. Ari had fared badly, and his recently healed face showed newly split skin and two black eyes. Both Angel and Nudge had nasty bruises, but nothing seemed to be broken. Total of course had done his best, biting the Flyboys, but he hadn't done much damage.
The Flyboys carried/dragged us through a series of tunnels, and I tried to memorize the route. We went up and down stairs, through a round tower, and finally came to a pivoting stone slab that became a secret door. Through this door was an office, like a business office. It looked totally out of place, with fluorescent lighting and a modern wooden desk, instead of, say, a medieval torture device.
The Flyboys dropped us roughly on the stone floor, which was padded here and there by Oriental carpets. None of us made a sound as our knees slammed against the stone, our shackled hands unable to break our fall. In a second we all scrambled up, standing with our backs to one another, searching for exits, counting guards, seeking out anything we could use for weapons. We're just funny that way.
My eye was caught by something on the big desk. A little plaque that said DIRECTOR.
Ooh, the Director! At last! The head honcho, big cheese, big kahuna! The one pulling all of our strings! The one in charge of everything and everyone! The completely insane psychopath who was trying to eliminate most of the world's population! Finally we would meet. And I would take him apart using only my teeth if necessary.
I elbowed the others and nodded my head at the desk.
"You know what to do," I breathed to Angel. Time for a little mind puppet.
The heavy stone wall pivoted again, and the fair-haired woman from the TV came in, followed by several other whitecoats. The whitecoats had the inevitable stethoscopes, blood pressure cuffs, etc. This was going to be amusing. A "totally horrible" kind of amusing.
"Hello, Max," said the woman. She was about my height, with a slender build. Glancing at the others, she said, "Angel, Nudge, Ari. And the dog."
I knew that killed Total, but he didn't say anything.
"I've been waiting to meet you for a long time," said the woman. "It's very important that we speak, face-to-face. Don't you think so?"