How did this blind guy Iggy know someone was coming? He was like a bat! Maybe he had some bat DNA-
Crash!
Ari burst through the computer room doors.
"Scatter!" Fang yelled, launching himself at canine boy. What's this bonehead doing here? I thought. I'd been expecting Itex's expert termination team, not any of those half-assed wolves. Where were they? I looked at the clock, then decided to watch the two male mutants tear each other up on the floor.
That is, until I heard Gasman shriek, "Spiders!" An enormous swarm of spiders poured under the doors, a black carpet of crawly legs moving toward him like lava.
Ari suddenly broke free from Fang to explore other mealtime options. "Here!" I said. I grabbed Angel's skinny arms and held her. She tried to push me toward the exit, but I braced my feet.
Grinning, Ari sprang forward and ripped a bite out of Angel's forearm. She gave an earsplitting scream, and I winced.
"Nooo!" Fang bellowed across the room, but a cage dropped down out of nowhere and covered him.
"Rats! Rats!" Nudge wailed, scrambling onto a counter. She jumped from counter to counter, heading toward the door, but wherever she went, a river of squeaking pink-tailed rats scurried after her. Several ran up her jeans, and finally she just stood there shrieking, covering her face with her hands.
By now all of them were screaming at the top of their lungs. It was total craziness. Each person here, except me, was living out his worst nightmare, facing his biggest fear-even the dog. It was under a counter, staring horror-stricken at a bowl of generic dog food.
I was still holding Angel, who was struggling much harder than I thought she would. She kicked at both me and Ari, even though the huge gouge on her arm was running blood over my hands.
I couldn't help smiling-she was a tough little mutant.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw Fang staring at me in disbelief, hurling himself against the bars of his cage.
"Guys, guys!" Fang shouted. His deeper voice cut through the high-pitched wailing. "This can't be real! It isn't real!"
You wish, freak, I thought.
135
Get this: I could follow their scent. I didn't know if this was a newly enhanced skill or if they were just riper than usual, but I could actually follow where the flock had gone.
They'd gotten in through the air vents, and I tracked them, even reversing course a couple times, as they must have done. Finally I knew that they were near, and by concentrating, I picked up on whispered conversation. I found a ceiling vent that looked down into a computer room in the basement, kind of similar to the computer room at the Institute. As if there were an interior decorator who specialized in working with mad scientists.
I saw Fang! He was standing guard at the door. Angel was keeping Total quiet. I changed my angle and looked farther into the room. Nudge was at a computer, reading something. Her cheeks were streaked with tears, which made my heart tighten. Then-I saw her.
The other me.
"Max, Max, look at this," Nudge said, turning to her, and my blood ran cold.
I mean, she looked exactly like me, and as I watched, she flipped her hair back impatiently, the way I always did.
Fresh rage ignited in my chest, making it hard for me to breathe. They had actually made a backup Max and substituted her for me.
This was, like, a seventeen on a diabolical scale of one to ten.
I was going to kill the other Max. And what about my flock? How could they not know? How could she be that perfect a copy? But I swear, it was like watching a hologram of me, a video of me, interacting with Nudge.
I glanced around again-and saw Angel looking directly at me through the vent.
I pulled back immediately, not wanting her to give me away. Then I had a horrible thought: What if Angel thought I was the impostor? What if the fake Max had them snowed?
Oh God, I had to stop this now.
Grimly I started to undo the clips that held the ceiling vent in place. Then, below me, I spotted my favorite combat partner barreling toward the computer room. Ari. I would have to take care of him for good this time.
At the same time, I would have to take care of my ultimate enemy: me.
136
In the middle of the chaos and screaming, a crashing sound made our heads whip around. Unbelievably, the old Max, Maximum Ride, dropped through the ceiling vent into the room. Where had she come from? She was supposed to have been taken care of!
But here she was, and she looked sooo mad.
"My invite must have gotten lost in the mail," she said venomously. "But I don't mind crashing this party."
In that instant, the rats, the spiders, and the cage disappeared. While everyone else blinked, looking around-giving new meaning to the word dumb-I cursed under my breath. A fine time for the big guys' latest super-top-secret holographic virtual-reality system to crash. This-along with the untimely arrival of my charming predecessor-was going to make my job a little more difficult.
"Max?" Ari asked, staring at the other Max.
"Max!" Nudge shouted.
"Yes," we both answered.
The other Max looked at me, and her eyes narrowed. "They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery," she said snidely. "So I guess you're really sucking up."
"Who are you?" I gasped, my eyes wide. "You're an impostor!"
"No, she isn't." The little creepy one, Angel, turned to look at me. Her arm was still bleeding where Ari had bitten it. "You are."
I swallowed my anger. Who did she think she was, her and her stupid dog? I gave a concerned smile. "But Angel," I said, sincerity dripping from my voice, "how can you say that? You know who I am."
"I think I'm Angel," she said. "And my dog isn't stupid. You're the stupid one, to think that you could fool us. I can read minds, you idiot."
137
My stomach dropped faster than a falling elevator. No one had told me that.
"Yeah, you idiot," said the dog.
I gaped at him. Had he just talked? Was this a trick?
Maximum Ride was checking out the mutants, one by one. They hugged her, and I glared at her. I couldn't believe she had shown up, ruining everything.
"Okay, let's solve your personality crisis," the other Max growled, turning to me. Her face was white, and her hands were clenched in fists.
"I was about to say the same thing," I growled back, getting ready to fight. "Keep your hands off my flock!"
"Oh good, you two have met each other."
We both whirled to see several scientists in white lab coats standing inside the doorway.
"Max, are you all right?" Jeb Batchelder asked.
I started to say yeah, but then saw he wasn't looking at me. It was the other Max he was concerned about, the other one he cared about. I was expendable.
Fury rose in me. I was exactly like Max, I was Max, I was better than she was in every way. But to everybody here, I was chopped liver. Nothing. Nobody.
But then I heard one of the other scientists step forward and say in a deep voice, "Take out the old version. She's no good. She's got an expiration date." He was looking at me to do the honors.
Without thinking, I launched myself at the other Max, right over a countertop, headfirst.
The other Max was braced, but I had insane jealousy and rage on my side. I managed to slam into her, knocking her against a wall. Instantly she regained her balance and squared off against me.
"You don't want to do this," she said in a low voice. "You don't want a piece of me."
"Wrong!" I said snidely.
"Uh, Max?" said Gasman. "There's something you should-"
"Shut up!" I snapped at him, and threw myself at Maximum Ride again. The scientists and Jeb eased out of the way as we got deadlocks on each other and rolled across the counters. She managed to pull a fist back and punch me in the head, making me cry out.
I kneed her in the stomach and heard a satisfying oof!