Выбрать главу

Fang nodded and shrugged off his jacket. He made note of where the windows were and gauged whether they were single or double paned, in case he had to jump through one any time soon.

Slowly, Fang unfolded his wings, stretching his muscles, enjoying the sensation of extending them after holding them tight against his back for hours. He shook them out, feeling the feathers align. The tips of his wings almost touched the walls on both sides of the room. He wished he could take off right now and fly for hours, wheeling through the open sky.

Mike's mouth was slightly open. "Dude. That is so awesome." He looked at Iggy and the Gasman. "You guys got 'em too? What about those chicks that were with you?"

"We all have them," said Fang. "Now, howsabout sending that message?"

93

Mike's fingers flew over the keyboard of Fang's laptop. "I just gotta write a bit of code here," he muttered. "Get you in through a bunch of different back doors. Lotsa people got firewalls up, stuff like that, but this should bypass most of 'em."

He opened Fang's main blog page and scanned it quickly. "Okay, I've gotta try to get access to them through their IP addresses, since you don't have most of theire-mail addresses," he said. "This could be tricky, but I'll give it a shot."

"You are a criminal mastermind," the Gasman said admiringly.

"I try," Mike said.

"Wait," said Fang, reading over his shoulder. "Switch over to my e-mail for a sec. I just saw a pop-up alert on the bottom of the screen."

"Yeah, this one has three red flags for priority," Mike said, pointing.

Fang's heart sped up.

THIS IS FROM MAX. READ IT NOW!!!!

We're in Germany. Town of Lendeheim. Big castle here, head of Itex. Lots of really bad stuff. Come as fast as you can. (Hi Fang! From Nudge. I miss you!) Do NOT blow this off. Come!!! We have days, maybe hours. I mean it, you better get your butt over here. Max.

Huh. Fang sat back and nodded at Mike to keep working.

So. Max wanted him back, eh? She didn't say whether she still had Frankenbirdy with her. If she did, Fang didn't want any part of it.

On the other wing, it had cost her a lot of pride to ask him to come. She'd never even taken his blog that seriously, and now she was using it to beg him to come back. Well, order him to come back. Which was as close to begging as Max would get.

What were they doing in Germany? How had they gotten to Europe? How did she expect him to get to Europe?

He looked at the date on the e-mail. Early this morning. And Germany was about ten hours or so ahead...

How would Max define "really bad stuff"? As opposed to just ordinary bad stuff? Stuff bad enough to make her swallow her pride and ask him to come help.

So they were talking pretty unimaginably bad.

"Okay, I got it," said Mike, sitting back. He had a proud, satisfied smile on his face. "It'll work a little like a virus, in that it'll access other addresses through people's e-mail programs, but it won't cause any damage." He frowned. "I think. Anyway, type your message and then hit this special Send box I created. Let's see what happens."

Fang swallowed. This was it. This was his chance to get kids to take this seriously, tell them what was going on. All over the planet, kids would read this message.

This was his chance to save the world.

He started writing.

94

To: undisclosed recipients

From: Fang

Subject: URGENT! We want our planet back!

Hey. If you get this message, we might have a chance. I mean the world might have a chance. Long story short: The grown-ups have taken a nice clean planet and trashed it for money. Not every grown-up. But a bunch of them, over and over, choose money and profits over clean air and water. It's their way of telling us they don't give a rat's butt about us, the kids, who are going to inherit what's left of the Earth.

A group of scientists want to take back the planet before it's too late and stop the pollution. Good, right? Only problem is they think they need to get rid of half the world's population to do it. So it's like: Save the planet so the pollution doesn't kill people, or...just kill people to start with, save everyone time. For you kids at home, that's called "flawed logic." I mean, call me crazy, but that seems like a really bad plan.

The other thing about these scientists is that they've tried to create a new kind of human who might survive better, like if there's a nuclear winter or whatever. I won't go into the details, but let me just say that this idea is as boneheaded and dangerous as their "kill half the people" plan.

What I'm saying is: It's up to us. You and me. Me and my flock, you and your friends. The kids. We want-we deserve-to inherit a clean, unmessed-up planet, and still keep everyone who's already living on it.

We can do it. But we have to join together. We have to take chances. Take risks. We have to get active and really do something, instead of just sitting at home playing Xbox. This isn't a game. We can't defeat the enemy by hitting them with our superlaser guns.

We want our planet back.

Kids matter. We're important. Our future is important.

ARE YOU WITH ME?

95

The Gasman finished reading over Fang's shoulder.

"I wish I had an Xbox," he said. Fang rolled his eyes.

"Cool message, dude," said Mike. "I feel like jumping up and starting a rally. Now what?"

"Now," said Fang, starting to type another message, "we go to Germany."

He ignored the way his heart thumped when he thought about seeing her-them-again. If she still had the cretin with her, he was going to be pissed. But cretin or no, splitting up the flock was wrong. If the world was coming to an end, they needed to be together.

To: Max From: Fang Subject: Yo

Yo, Max. We're on our way. This better not be a joke. Fang.

He clicked the Send button.
96

You know that old saying "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade"? Well, we were chained in a dungeon in Germany, my mother was a power-hungry, psychotic refrigerator, and my best friend and half my flock were MIA.

These were definitely lemons, so I thought about that saying.

And you know what? Whoever coined the phrase ought to have been smacked senseless. I mean, how lamebrained was that? "Life totally messing you up? Just turn that frown upside down!" What a moron!

"Max? You're muttering again." Nudge sounded tired.

I looked at her. "Sorry." I sighed and got to my feet. We were each now chained to the wall by one ankle. Our chains were about eight feet long, so we could walk around. See? My mom had a soft heart after all! Instead of being chained by both wrists, we were only chained by one ankle!

I mean, if I'd been looking for proof that she really did love me, this was it, right?

Total reached out and very gently closed his teeth around my ankle as I went past. "Muttering," he said.

"Sorry." I moved as far away as my chain allowed.

I was making the kids crazy with my barely suppressed rage and disappointment. And here's the kicker: I had asked Fang for help. I had asked him to come back because I needed him. My stomach churned just thinking about it. That was me: Maximum Ride, Damsel in Distress.

I know this will surprise you, but I don't damsel well. Distress, I can do. Damseling? Not so much.

"I don't remember you muttering this much, before," Ari said, crouching next to me.

"I was a little saner then," I said.