She gave me a smile. “I don’t have any avian DNA. But you—you were the most brilliant success we ever had.”
I was still reeling from shock, so I went on “smart retort” autopilot. “Then why do you and ter Borcht keep trying to kill us?”
“You’re an older generation, Max,” she explained. “You have no proven life span. There’s no room for mistakes in the new world.”
I was floored. “Here’s a tip: Your protective maternal instinct sucks.”
“I’m your mother, Max, but I’m also a scientist. Believe me, watching you grow up from afar, devising this entire game, this series of tests—there were times that I didn’t think I could go through it.”
“Funny, I felt the same way. For completely different reasons. But you had a choice,” I pointed out, becoming more and more incredulous.
“I’m making the ultimate sacrifice to create a new world. I gave my only child to the cause.”
“That’s not the ultimate sacrifice!” I said, outraged. “Giving yourself would be the ultimate! Giving me up is like the second-to-ultimate! See the difference?”
She smiled somewhat sadly. “You’re so smart, Max. I’m so proud of you.”
“Which makes one of us,” I said. “I mean, God! It’s parents’ career day at school. I stand up and say, ‘My mother is an evil scientist who’s planning a holocaust that will eliminate half the people on Earth.’ How could I ever live that down?!”
She turned away and sat at her desk. “I blame Jeb for letting you be such a smart aleck.”
I stared at her. “I blame you for altering my DNA! I mean, I have wings, lady! What were you thinking?”
“I was thinking that the world’s population is destroying itself,” she said in a steely tone I recognized. (I have one just like it.) “I was thinking that someone had to stand up and take drastic action before this entire planet is incapable of supporting human life. Yes, you’re my daughter, but you’re still just part of the big picture, part of the equation. I was thinking I’d do anything to make sure the human race survives. Even if it seems awful in the short term. In future history books, I’ll be heralded as the savior of humanity.”
Perfect. I finally, after fourteen years, meet my mother, and she’s a raving lunatic. This day just could not get better.
I swallowed. “You give good megalomania,” I said.
The Director motioned to the Flyboys hovering around the edges of the room. “Take them to the place that I prepared,” she said. “You know what to do once you get there.”
89
“I don’t want to make you feel even worse, Max,” said Total. “But I can’t stand your mother.”
I looked at him. In the English/mad-scientist dictionary, you can translate “place I prepared” as “dank, ominous dungeon.” Literally a freaking dungeon! Cinderella’s castle had come complete with a real dungeon. And the “you know what to do” part translated to “chain them all to the walls like medieval prisoners.”
“Well,” I said, “at least with my parents, I don’t have to look hard for something to rebel against.”
Anyway, we seemed to be the only occupants in the dungeon, though it stretched on, out of sight. Loudspeakers were hung on the walls, and they were playing the Director’s brainwashing messages, which in itself was enough to drive anyone starkers.
Like, if the whole “chained to a wall in a dungeon” thing wasn’t enough to send you around the bend.
All of us were flying creatures, except for Total, and sort of halfway Ari. So chaining us to the wall, underground, was one of the worst things you could do.
My mother had done this to us.
I shook my head, unutterably depressed. “I mean, why couldn’t she have been a nice hooker, or a crack addict, like Fang’s mom?”
“Speaking of Fang,” said Nudge, “maybe he’s on his way here right now.”
A gleam of hope flared
and was just as quickly extinguished. “Yeah, if our message got through. If he’s gotten over Ari, which I doubt. If they can somehow get to Europe, like, right away.”
“Max?” said Angel. “You’re kind of making things worse.”
I was. I was being a jerk. Later, when I was alone, I would lie down and sob my guts out from the raw, acid disappointment about my mother. Right now I had to stop taking it out on everyone.