James Patterson - Two Schools Out - Forever

"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.

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.

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.

"Vamonos," I said. "There's no one here but people to leave."

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 slowed with me. Sound reached my ears again-I was far away from everyone. Uh, too far, actually. I turned around and headed back.