"Max, I-" Ari stopped, pausing outside the door to the flock's ward.
I waited.
"I wish-," he said, his voice breaking.
I didn't know what he'd been about to say, but I didn't need to know. I patted his hand, perpetually morphed out into a heavy, hairy, Eraser-clawed mitt.
"We all wish, Ari."
46
The next day they let us loose.
"Is it time for us to die?" Nudge asked. She sidled closer to me, and I put my arm around her.
"I don't know, sweetie," I told her. "But if it is, I'm taking a bunch of 'em with me."
"Me too," said Gazzy bravely. I gathered the Gasman to my other side.
Fang leaned against a wall, his eyes on me. We hadn't had any time to talk privately since we'd gotten here, but I caught his gaze and tried to send him a look that had everything I was thinking in it. He was a big boy. He could handle the swear words.
The room's door swung open, with its peculiar air rush. A tall, sandy-haired man strode in as if he were the king of the world. He was followed by Anne Walker and another whitecoat I hadn't seen before.
"Dese are dey?" he asked, sounding like Ahnold in The Terminator.
Already he had me angry. "We be them," I said snarkily, and his pale, watery blue eyes focused on me like lasers.
"Dis vould be de vun called Max?" he asked his assistant, as if I couldn't hear.
"I not only would be Max, I am Max," I said, interrupting the assistant's answer. "In fact, I've always been Max and always will be."
His eyes narrowed. Mine narrowed back at him.
"Yes, I can see vhy dey've been slated for extermination," he said casually, as his assistant made notes on a clipboard.
"And I can see why you were voted 'least popular' in your class," I said. "So I guess we're even."
He ignored me, but I saw a tiny muscle in his jaw twitch.
Next, his eyes lit on Nudge. "Dis vun can't control her mouth or, obviously, her brain," he said. "Something vent wrong vis her thought processes, clearly."
I felt Nudge stiffen at my side. "Bite me," she said.
That's my girl.
"Und dis vun," he went on, pointing at Gazzy. "His digestive system has disastrous flaws." He shook his head. "Perhaps an enzyme imbalance."
Anne Walker listened expressionlessly.
"Dis vun-vell, you can see it for yourself," the man said, with a casual flick of his hand at Iggy. "Multiple defects. A complete failure."
"Yes, Dr. ter Borcht," murmured his assistant, writing furiously.
Fang and I instantly looked at each other. Ter Borcht had been mentioned in the files we'd stolen from the Institute.
Iggy, sensing ter Borcht was talking about him, scowled. "Takes one to know one," he said.
"De tall, dark vun-dere's nothing special about him at all," ter Borcht said dismissively of Fang, who hadn't moved since the doctor had come in.
"Well, he's a snappy dresser," I offered. One side of Fang's mouth quirked.
"Und you," ter Borcht said, turning back to me. "You haf a malfunctioning chip, you get debilitating headaches, and your leadership skills are sadly much less than ve had hoped for."
"And yet I could still kick your doughy Eurotrash butt from here to next Tuesday. So that's something."
His eyelids flickered, and it seemed to me that he was controlling himself with difficulty.
Well, I get under people's skins. It's a gift I have, what can I say?
47
Ter Borcht looked at his assistant. "Let's get on vis de questioning," he said abruptly. Turning to me, he said, "Ve need to gather some final data. Den you vill be exterminated."
"Ooh," I said. "If I had boots on, I'd be quaking in them." I tapped my bare toes against the floor.
I saw a quick flare of anger in his eyes.
"No, really," I said, mucho sincerely. "Totally quaking, I promise. You're really a very scary man."
"First you," he barked suddenly at Gazzy, and Gazzy couldn't help jumping a tiny bit. I looked at him reassuringly and winked, and his narrow shoulders straightened.
"Vhat ozzer abilities do you haf?" ter Borcht snapped, while his assistant waited, pen in hand.
Gazzy thought. "I have X-ray vision," he said. He peered at ter Borcht's chest, then blinked and looked alarmed.
Ter Borcht was startled for a second, but then he frowned. "Don't write dat down," he told his assistant in irritation. The assistant froze in midsentence.
Glaring at the Gasman, ter Borcht said, "Your time is coming to an end, you pathetic failure of an experiment. Vhat you say now is how you vill be remembered."
Gazzy's blue eyes flashed. "Then you can remember me telling you to kiss my-"
"Enough!" ter Borcht said. He turned suddenly to Nudge. "You. Do you haf any qualities dat distinguish you in any way?"
Nudge chewed on a fingernail. "You mean, like, besides the wings?" She shook her shoulders gently, and her beautiful fawn-colored wings unfolded a bit.
His face flushed, and I felt like cheering. "Yes," he said stiffly. "Besides de vings."
"Hmm. Besides de vings." Nudge tapped one finger against her chin. "Um..." Her face brightened. "I once ate nine Snickers bars in one sitting. Without barfing. That was a record!"
"Hardly a special talent," ter Borcht said witheringly.
Nudge was offended. "Yeah? Let's see you do it."
"I vill now eat nine Snickers bars," Gazzy said in a perfect, creepy imitation of ter Borcht's voice, "visout bahfing."
Ter Borcht wheeled on him as I smothered a giggle. It wasn't funny when Gazzy did a pitch-perfect imitation of me, but it was hilarious when he did it to other people.
"Mimicry," ter Borcht said to his assistant. "Write dat down."
Walking over to Iggy, he poked him with his shoe. "Does anysing on you vork properly?"
Iggy rubbed his forehead with one hand. "Well, I have a highly developed sense of irony."
Ter Borcht tsked. "You are a liability to your group. I assume you alvays hold on to someone's shirt, yes? Following dem closely?"
"Only when I'm trying to steal their dessert," Iggy said truthfully.
"Write that down," I told the assistant. "He's a notorious dessert stealer."
Ter Borcht moved over to Fang and stood examining him as if he were a zoo exhibit. Fang looked back at him, and probably only I could see his tension, the fury roiling inside him.
"You don't speak much, do you?" ter Borcht said, circling him slowly.
Fittingly, Fang said nothing.
"Vhy do you let a girl be de leader?" ter Borcht asked, a calculating look in his eye.
"She's the tough one," Fang said.
Dang right, I thought proudly.
"Is dere anysing special about you?" asked ter Borcht. "Anysing vorth saving?"
Fang pretended to think, gazing up at the ceiling. "Besides my fashion sense? I play a mean harmonica."
Ter Borcht locked his gaze on me. "Vhy haf you trained dem to act stupid dis vay?"
They weren't stupid. They were survivors.
"Why do you still let your mother dress you?" I countered snidely.
The assistant busily started writing that down but froze at a look from ter Borcht.
The scientist stepped closer to me, looking down menacingly. "I created you," he said softly. "As de saying goes, I brought you into dis world, and I vill take you out of it."
"I vill now destroy de Snickuhs bahrs!" Gazzy barked. Then the five of us were laughing-literally in the face of death.
48
"Oops," I said once we were alone again. "Guess they forgot to program us with any respect for authority."
"Those idiots," Gazzy said, scuffing his foot against the floor.
We were feeling victorious, but it was still clear: We were captive, and right now they held all the tarot cards.
"I miss Total," said Nudge.