“Only at the end, sweetheart,” Jeb said, his voice very quiet. He was kneeling on the floor next to the cot I was on. “I don’t know what happened before then, how everything fell apart. I don’t know where the flock is headed now or what your plan is.”
Now I felt maybe 10 percent like myself. “Jeb, I’m afraid you’re going to have to learn to live with not knowing.” I chuckled a tiny bit. It sounded like a cat choking.
“That’s my Max,” Jeb said affectionately. “Tough till the end. Even after everything, you’re still in better shape than anyone else would be. But I have to tell you, you need to get on board with this saving-the-world project.”
“I’ll try to pencil it in,” I croaked. Now I felt enough like myself to be irritated.
Jeb leaned closer to me. I opened my eyes and looked him straight in the face, that familiar face that had represented everything good in my life, at one time. And now represented everything bad.
“Max, please,” he whispered. “Please just play along. They want to terminate you. They think you’re a lost cause.”
This was news.
“Who?”
“Itex. They’re keeping you here while they try out their latest, greatest invention. They wanted you to lead with your head, not your heart, Max. I tried to teach you that, but maybe I failed. They’re trying to take all of the heart out of you by keeping you here. But you care about things, and about people, Max. Like me. Please, don’t make everything that’s happened up till now meaningless. Don’t give them cause to take you out, start over with someone else. Show them they’re wrong about you. Show them you’ve got what it takes.”
“I’ll show them I’ve got what it takes to rip your spleen out through your nose,” I said weakly.
“Batchelder!” I suddenly heard a deep voice from behind me. “You’re not authorized to be in here.”
Then my light was blocked again, the blanket was pulled off, and big hands picked me up and dropped me back into the horrible tank.
127
I led the five mutant freaks through the shadows toward Itex.
“In here.” I held aside some bushes and motioned them through. It was dark, finally. I’d thought spending days watching a bunch of Erasers play Texas hold ’em was boring, but that didn’t compare to today.
I didn’t know how the original Max stood it. I’d lost count of how many times today I’d wanted to scream at them to shut up and get away from me. That Nudge never quit yapping, and Angel and Gasman had gotten into disputes like whether the sky was blue and what day this was. I hadn’t found any chinks in Fang’s armor, but it was just a matter of time. Angel frankly creeped me out—she was a loose cannon. Maybe she was kind of unstable. I would have to tell them that when I got back. Gasman seemed like a gullible idiot, and Iggy was dead weight, as far as I could tell. Except that he could cook, for some reason. Plus, they all talked to the dog like it was a person, asking it if it wanted this or that. I mean, it was a freaking dog.
But finally it was time. We’d gone on the tour of Itex today, and I’d made a big deal about noticing its weak points. Now we were “breaking in.” I was trying to be careful, look like I was on guard.
I have to say, I was doing great. They didn’t suspect a thing. All my training, the lessons, the practice—it was paying off. It was gratifying, how obvious it was that I was the new and improved version. In fact, it was weird how willing these freaks were to follow me around, do what I said. I’d told ’em we were going to break into Itex, and they were all on board. Even the dumb dog. When we were leaving the hotel, I’d tried to shut it inside the room, but Nudge had held the door open for it to trot out.
“The dog’s coming on a raid?” I’d asked, my eyebrows raised.
“Of course he’s coming,” Nudge had said, looking surprised. “He always comes.”
O-kaaay, I’d thought. I’m starting to put my finger on why you guys are slated for termination.
But whatever. They followed orders, anyway. I led them up a grassy hill, looking around—like someone was going to catch us, right? There was a huge HVAC box next to the main building, and we quickly unscrewed the cover. I jammed a stick in the enormous fan, and then we all hurried through. I yanked the stick out, the fan started spinning again, and we were in.
“That was a good idea,” said Fang. Which was about five more words than he’d said all day.
I shrugged. I knew Max was totally full of herself, but that didn’t mean I had to be. We started moving through the air vent system.
I was trying to remember to seem nervous, to look around, to act like I was considering which way to go. Sometimes I stopped everyone and put my finger to my lips, as if someone were coming. It was hysterical.
We got to the main branch of the HVAC system, and I pretended to hesitate before I led them all into the vent that went to the basement. Just a few more minutes, another couple hundred yards, and my job would be over.
And so would they.
128
Being back in the isolation tank after seeing Jeb was a huge relief—for about two milliseconds. Then I started thinking about what he had said. I remembered that I had a flock depending on me. I remembered that I was Invincible Max and that the whitecoats making me run through their maze were a bunch of losers.
Which left the question: how to get out of here?