James Patterson - Two Schools Out - Forever

They had put me in a freaking tank!

I was amazed I was still coherent at all, could fly at all. I stayed out of sight, under the tree canopy, zipping through and among and between the pine trees.

When I shot out of the woods, I did a fast, fast circle around the whole compound, seven huge buildings. I backtracked my path, looking for a telltale broken window. And I found it. I'd just needed the confirmation that I'd really been held here, that this company was behind it. That Jeb was associated with Itex.

Now to find the flock.

Racing back to the woods, I screamed to a halt at the dark edge of the trees. I dropped lightly to the ground, shaking out my wings. I felt okay. Like I'd had the flu but was better now. My hands clenched and unclenched at my sides. I was eager for Erasers to show up. I was ready to rip something apart.

I pulled in my wings and sneaked through the shadows toward the main building.

I kept low to the ground, my eyes on the lighted windows of the building. Something hanging brushed my head, and I swiped at it absently. My hand touched something smooth and cool-and alive.

Stifling a gasp, I yanked my hand back, only to feel the something drop down on me with a thud. A snake!

I almost shrieked, but let out a horrified squeak instead.

Then there were snakes everywhere. Six- and seven-foot black snakes weredropping down on me, climbing my legs, winding around me, flicking me with their tongues. I was flinging them off me, doing a freaked-out dance, whirling, trying to shake them off. But they just kept coming.

I was about to completely lose it. If there was one thing I hated worse than small dark spaces, it was lousy snakes! "Oh God, oh God, oh God," I panted, ripping snakes off me. I felt hysteria rising and knew I was gonna blow.

Hunching down, I gathered my muscles and sprang straight up into the air. I whooshed my wings out as hard as I could, shaking and shuddering as I felt snakes slithering all over them. Oh God, help, help, help! In the air I shifted gears and went into hypersonic mode. The snakes began to peel away from me, dropping off and falling into the darkness below. I was trembling so hard I could barely fly, and I finally kicked off the last of them.

Snakes! Horrible snakes! Where had they come from? I hated, hated, hated snakes.

You're afraid of them, said my Voice, as cool and unruffled as always.

No freaking duh! I screamed inside my head.

Fear is your weakness. You must conquer all your weaknesses.

I was so horrified and furious that I thought I was gonna barf. Had that been another test? Had it all been in my imagination? My stomach was roiling, and adrenaline sang in my blood. My head was going to explode.

The flock. Have to get the flock.

Good, Max. Keep your eyes on the prize.

"Screw you, Voice." I put my shoulders back, set my jaw, and did a 180, back to Itex.

Excellent, Max. Sometimes you amaze me.

How did this blind guy Iggy know someone was coming? He was like a bat! Maybe he had some bat DNA-

Crash!

Ari burst through the computer room doors.

"Scatter!" Fang yelled, launching himself at canine boy. What's this bonehead doing here? I thought. I'd been expecting Itex's expert termination team, not any of those half-assed wolves. Where were they? I looked at the clock, then decided to watch the two male mutants tear each other up on the floor.

That is, until I heard Gasman shriek, "Spiders!" An enormous swarm of spiders poured under the doors, a black carpet of crawly legs moving toward him like lava.

Ari suddenly broke free from Fang to explore other mealtime options. "Here!" I said. I grabbed Angel's skinny arms and held her. She tried to push me toward the exit, but I braced my feet.

Grinning, Ari sprang forward and ripped a bite out of Angel's forearm. She gave an earsplitting scream, and I winced.

"Nooo!" Fang bellowed across the room, but a cage dropped down out of nowhere and covered him.

"Rats! Rats!" Nudge wailed, scrambling onto a counter. She jumped from counter to counter, heading toward the door, but wherever she went, a river of squeaking pink-tailed rats scurried after her. Several ran up her jeans, and finally she just stood there shrieking, covering her face with her hands.

By now all of them were screaming at the top of their lungs. It was total craziness. Each person here, except me, was living out his worst nightmare, facing his biggest fear-even the dog. It was under a counter, staring horror-stricken at a bowl of generic dog food.

I was still holding Angel, who was struggling much harder than I thought she would. She kicked at both me and Ari, even though the huge gouge on her arm was running blood over my hands.

I couldn't help smiling-she was a tough little mutant.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Fang staring at me in disbelief, hurling himself against the bars of his cage.

"Guys, guys!" Fang shouted. His deeper voice cut through the high-pitched wailing. "This can't be real! It isn't real!"

You wish, freak, I thought.

Get this: I could follow their scent. I didn't know if this was a newly enhanced skill or if they were just riper than usual, but I could actually follow where the flock had gone.

They'd gotten in through the air vents, and I tracked them, even reversing course a couple times, as they must have done. Finally I knew that they were near, and by concentrating, I picked up on whispered conversation. I found a ceiling vent that looked down into a computer room in the basement, kind of similar to the computer room at the Institute. As if there were an interior decorator who specialized in working with mad scientists.

I saw Fang! He was standing guard at the door. Angel was keeping Total quiet. I changed my angle and looked farther into the room. Nudge was at a computer, reading something. Her cheeks were streaked with tears, which made my heart tighten. Then-I saw her.

The other me.

"Max, Max, look at this," Nudge said, turning to her, and my blood ran cold.

I mean, she looked exactly like me, and as I watched, she flipped her hair back impatiently, the way I always did.

Fresh rage ignited in my chest, making it hard for me to breathe. They had actually made a backup Max and substituted her for me.

This was, like, a seventeen on a diabolical scale of one to ten.

I was going to kill the other Max. And what about my flock? How could they not know? How could she be that perfect a copy? But I swear, it was like watching a hologram of me, a video of me, interacting with Nudge.

I glanced around again-and saw Angel looking directly at me through the vent.

I pulled back immediately, not wanting her to give me away. Then I had a horrible thought: What if Angel thought I was the impostor? What if the fake Max had them snowed?

Oh God, I had to stop this now.

Grimly I started to undo the clips that held the ceiling vent in place. Then, below me, I spotted my favorite combat partner barreling toward the computer room. Ari. I would have to take care of him for good this time.

At the same time, I would have to take care of my ultimate enemy: me.

In the middle of the chaos and screaming, a crashing sound made our heads whip around. Unbelievably, the old Max, Maximum Ride, dropped through the ceiling vent into the room. Where had she come from? She was supposed to have been taken care of!

But here she was, and she looked sooo mad.

"My invite must have gotten lost in the mail," she said venomously. "But I don't mind crashing this party."

In that instant, the rats, the spiders, and the cage disappeared. While everyone else blinked, looking around-giving new meaning to the word dumb-I cursed under my breath. A fine time for the big guys' latest super-top-secret holographic virtual-reality system to crash. This-along with the untimely arrival of my charming predecessor-was going to make my job a little more difficult.