Angel: A Maximum Ride Novel

Just then, my eyes focused on a small black dot, right outside the barricades around the plaza. It was an open manhole cover, maybe two feet in diameter.

Angel was there. I was sure of it.

I tucked my wings against my back, angled down, and shot toward the small opening at a hundred miles an hour.

I’m on my way, I thought.

70

TRYING TO FLY through a target that small was like trying to spit from the top of the Empire State Building to hit a nickel on the ground below. But I’d done it before, and I knew I could do it again. I just needed to focus. And for everyone to stay the heck out of my way.

Max, maybe you shouldn’t come down here. I don’t know if we can fix this, Angel’s fuzzy, troubled thought said to me. There’s just too much. This might be… the end.

I couldn’t even think as I plunged downward. I tucked my wings back tight, pointed my hands forward, and dove into the darkness.

As soon as I was through, I tucked myself into a ball and flung my wings out wide. I hit a hard concrete floor and tumbled, scraping my face and hands, but my sneakers and my wings helped me stop. I skittered forward, slightly out of control, and halted just inches from the narrow canal that flowed through the sewer system.

Whew, I thought, then heard a whoosh. Something big and heavy plowed into me from behind and shoved me right into the water.

“Augh!” I said, as it followed me over the edge and landed in the water with a splash.

I could see Dylan well enough to whack him hard on the shoulder.

“Thanks! A girl always loves to take a dip in the sewer!” I said.

He scrambled onto the bank and held out his hand to help me up. I ignored it and got out by myself.

“What are you doing here?”

We spoke at the exact same time, the exact same words. He answered first.

“Saw you go down,” he said. “Followed you.”

I tried to shake some water off. “I got a message from Angel,” I said, scanning the tunnel. “She says there’s massive danger down here, something too big for us to fix or deal with.”

“So of course you immediately came down.”

“Yeah. That’s the way it works in the flock,” I said. “And you just left Nudge, Iggy, and Total alone up there?”

Dylan shook his head. “Fang and Maya showed up, just as you took your dive. They said they’d stay with them.”

Max? Angel’s voice trembled inside my head.

I turned this way and that, as if I could get a trajectory on a thought. Where are you? I asked her.

There was a long pause, then Angel said, This way.

I just slowly tried to follow her thought, and when it felt right, I started walking.

“What kind of danger? Did she say?” Dylan asked quietly.

I shook my head, trying to listen. The water trickled by in the middle canal. I heard the skittering of small feet, heard the clicks of insects. But nothing else.

This way…

“I think she’s nearby,” I said softly, frustrated. “It’s not clear. She’s not giving me directions.”

“Max.” Dylan took my arm. “Are you sure that you’re hearing Angel?”

I stopped in my tracks.

After a moment’s reflection, I nodded. “It sounds like her,” I said. “And not many people can send thoughts.”

Dylan hesitated, looking around. “It’s just… If this is a trap, it’s a really good one.”

Max?

I hadn’t felt Angel seem this frightened in… forever.

Where are you? I thought. What’s going on?

I can’t ever tell you, Max, Angel responded. Not ever. Just that now I know for sure what kind of evil they’re capable of.