55
“WILL IT HURT?” Nudge asked quietly as she put on her shoes. Early-morning light was breaking through the leafy trees outside and sprinkling sun across the room, and the flock was gathering for their next “field trip.”
“Oh, I’m sure not,” Angel said vaguely, digging around in her backpack for her coupon. “I mean, not more than, like, getting punched by an Eraser. Or a sprained wing.”
“Comforting,” Iggy commented. “I think it’s a great idea, personally, but I don’t think Gazzy’s so thrilled.” Iggy went to look for the Gasman as the others headed toward the front door.
“Are you sure everyone wants to go through this, Angel?” Dylan asked. “I mean, most of us aren’t… fond of needles. Lab associations and all.”
“Come on, guys. If Max were here, you’d be all into this,” Angel said a little testily. “The tattoos were Max’s birthday presents to us, after all.”
“Not to me,” Dylan said, wistful.
Just then, Jeb strode in, looking like he’d just rolled out of bed. “Good lord, Angel! What did I just hear you talking about?”
“We’re going to get our tattoos. Max gave us gift certificates for our birthdays.”
“You most certainly are not!” Jeb said firmly, just like the old days. “You’re underage – it’s illegal. I won’t hear of it.”
“You’re not the leader, Jeb,” Angel reminded him. “I am.”
“Well, Jeb’s a grown-up,” Nudge pointed out.
Angel’s eyes narrowed. “You guys elected me leader.”
“Hmm,” said Nudge, sounding doubtful. “More like we elected Max
“You mean besides not worrying about us?” Angel started to feel angry. “I’ll tell you what she’s doing – she and Fang are off somewhere, having a great time, not even thinking about us! They’re all cozy, just the two of them, and’ve probably forgotten our names by now!”
“I bet not,” Nudge said stubbornly, as Iggy and Gazzy entered the room.
“Look, everyone, I have news for you,” Jeb said. “In the future, it might be that each one of you has a flock of his or her own to lead.”
Everyone looked around, blinking in surprise. Jeb sat down on the floor and motioned for them to do the same. He had a lot of explaining to do.
“Max has actually been a pretty good leader – she’s kept you alive; she’s taught you how to survive. I know you have your problems with her. I do too.” He gave a little laugh. “But here you are: You’re a flock and you need a leader. Angel says that she’s the leader, and I guess you guys are agreeing to it. So here are my questions:
“What are you going to do differently from Max? How will it be an improvement? How will you handle another attack like the one yesterday? How will you all work together to grow and change and adapt, to maximize your chances of survival?”
Angel thought. She listened to her Voice. She thought some more.
“Jeb? I’ve been thinking about it and I have something to say to you. To everyone.” She paused. One by one they stopped what they were doing and looked at her. “Maybe
56
“THIS IS IT, SIR.” The lead geologist double-checked her GPS and overlaid its image with a satellite-based graph. “Satellite and radar confirm it. This stream leads to the underground source that the subjects get their water from.”
“I hope you’re right,” Dr. Gunther-Hagen said icily. He was irritated at the Cirque du Soleil blunder, tired from the late-hour flight, and altogether eager for some progress in this project. “Your performance up till now has been pathetic. Be glad I’m somewhat more forgiving than Mr. Chu.”
The geologist swallowed and rechecked her instruments with fingers that trembled slightly. “No, this is it,” she said, trying to make her voice strong. “I’m positive.”
“Okay, then,” said Dr. Gunther-Hagen. “Release the reactant.”
Another agent opened a foam cooler. A fog of dry ice swirled around them like early-morning mist. He carefully pulled on heavy gloves that protected him from fingertip to elbow. Following that, a gas mask covered his face. The others moved away to stand upwind. The agent carefully removed a test tube from the dry ice with tongs. He uncapped it, and after a moment’s hesitation, tipped the test tube so its pale pink liquid flowed into the thin mountain stream.
“Of course, this will affect everything it comes into contact with,” he murmured, praying that Dr. GuntherHagen knew what he was doing.
“Not necessarily,” said Dr. Gunther-Hagen. “It’s been specialized to bind only to certain receptors. These mutants have them; not many other species do.”
The team was silent as the reactant blended invisibly with the crystal-clear stream. Within thirty minutes, it would infiltrate the natural water reservoir that served the flock’s house.
Dr. Gunther-Hagen could barely contain his excitement. Now the real experiments would start.
57
ALL EYES WERE ON ANGEL. She was almost vibrating with anticipation. Max would never have been able to do this in a million years. Max never would have wanted to. In fact, she would have threatened to lock them all in their rooms if someone suggested it.
Now she tapped a pencil against the tabletop. “Attention! Everybody, listen up! I’ve called you all here to make my announcement!” she said. “Get ready, because I have a huge surprise!”
“Do we need any more surprises?” Iggy asked.
“I’m the leader of this flock,” she announced, “and I want to announce some improvements we’re going to make.”
“What kind of improvements?” Iggy asked, leaning on his broom.
“Well, first, I’m abolishing bedtime,” Angel said, nodding firmly.
“We didn’t have much of a bedtime before,” Nudge pointed out.
Angel frowned at her. “I mean, if we want to sleep all day and stay up all night, then that’s what we’ll do!”
Gazzy shrugged. “Okay.”
“No more homeschooling!” Angel said. “Hear, hear,” said Iggy, clapping.
“I’m still going to learn stuff,” Nudge said. “I’m halfway through the Rosetta Stone level one for French.”
“If you want to, that’s fine,” said Angel graciously. “But right now, I’m going to announce our best, most exciting project ever!”
“We’re going to buy our own car?” Gazzy asked with raised eyebrows.
“Have parties every week?” Nudge guessed.
“How about a little order, a little taking care of business?” Total muttered as he trotted into the room. “That would be a huge surprise.”
Angel ignored him. Even though she was the one who had rescued him from the lab back in New York, secretly she wondered if he was more on Max’s side now. “Okay, everyone, saddle up!” She beamed at them. “We have a long flight ahead of us!”
“To where?” Nudge asked.
“A concert!” Angel said. “In Hollywood! Where we’ve signed up to appear as special celebrity guests!”
Blank faces looked back at her.
“Is this a joke?” Iggy finally asked.
“No! It’s going to be so fabulous!” Angel said. “The concert is a benefit, for fixing up a section of Santa Monica Boulevard. All kinds of famous people are part of it, and they want us to help. If they advertise that the flock will be there, thousands more people will come!”
“And a percentage of them will be toting semiautomatic handguns, or weird mind-control chips, or heck, even bows and arrows!” said Iggy. “There’s a reason we don’t go out in public much.”
“Is this a CSM benefit?” Nudge asked. “I mean, Santa Monica Boulevard?”
“No,” said Angel. “But it’s totally cool. I’ve talked to our agents -”
“What agents?” Nudge interrupted.
“The ones I’ve been interviewing,” said Angel smugly. “The ones who offered us the best deal. They’re going to pay us a whole bunch of money, and guarantee our safety too. We’re supposed to call them when we get to the Villa d’Arbanville.”
“Villa d’Arbanville? I’ve heard of that place,” said Nudge. “That’s where stars hang out! The lobby was voted ‘the best place to break up’ by
Finally, Dylan spoke up. “Sounds like fun, but… I think I’ll be staying here.”
All eyes turned to him in surprise. “C’mon, man – live a little,” Iggy said. He was just starting to get used to having Dylan around.
“Not sure I have time for partying.” He didn’t look anyone in the eye. “I’ve got to keep working on my flying,” he explained. It wasn’t a very good excuse, but Angel could work with it.
“Well, then you’re coming with us, Dylan,” she announced, feeling decisive and leaderly. “We’re gonna fly eight hundred miles to get there. Practice makes perfect.” Angel tried to zero her powers of influence in on Dylan. She wouldn’t take no for an answer.
“I’ll see if I can hitch a ride on a private jet,” said Jeb. “Total, you and Akila are welcome to come with me. Dylan, you can come with us too,” said Jeb.
Dylan shook his head, making some of his shaggy, sunstreaked hair fall into his turquoise eyes. “No. I’ll fly with the others,” he said determinedly, but he seemed sad.
Angel saw the intent look in his eyes. And for the first time, she picked up on some of his thoughts.
He had been hoping Max would come home.
58
