Page 66 (1/2)

PART 1

NO PARENTS, NO SCHOOL, NO RULES

1

Sweeping, swooping, soaring, air-current thrill rides—there’s nothing better For s in the infinite, wide-open, clear blue sky You want an adrenaline rush? Try tucking your wings in, dive-bos out, grab an air current like a pit bull, and hang on for the ride of your life God, nothing is better,

Okay, ere —well, there’s a reason people always dream about it

“Oh, osh!” the Gasman said excitedly He pointed “A UFO!”

I silently counted to ten There was nothing where the Gasman had pointed As usual “That was funny the first fifty ti old”

He cackled, several wingspans away froht-year-old’s sense of humor

“Max? How long till we get to DC?” asked Nudge, pulling up closer to ly day Well, another long, ugly day in a whole series of long, ugly days If I ever actually had a good, easy day, I’d probably freak out

“Another hour? Hour and a half?” I guessed

Nudge didn’t say anything I cast a quick glance at the rest ofsteady, but we had er set also had stamina, especially coave out eventually

Here’s the deal—for anybody new on this trip There are six of us: Angel, who’s six; Gase, eleven; Fang and me (Max), we’re fourteen too We escaped fros and other assorted powers They want us back—badly But we’re not going back Ever

I shifted Total to h htly, then draped hi through his black fur Did I want a dog? No Did I need a dog? Also no We were six kids running for our lives, not knohere our next ? Wait for it—no

“You okay?” Fang cruised up alongsidehimself

“In ay?” I asked I mean, there was the headache issue, the ch

ip issue, the Voice-in- bullet wound“Can you be more specific?”

“Killing Ari”

My breath froze in ht to the heart of theknew me that well, and went that far

When we’d been escaping from the Institute, in New York, Erasers and whitecoats had shown up, of course God forbid we should etaway Erasers, if you don’t know already, are wolflike creatures who have been chasing us constantly since we escaped from the lab, or School as we call it One of the Erasers had been Ari We’d fought, as we’d fought before, and then suddenly, with no warning, I was sitting on his chest, staring at his lifeless eyes, his broken neck bent at an aard angle

That enty-four hours ago

“It was you or hilad you picked you”

I let out a deep breath Erasers si, so you had to lose your squeanized him, remembered him as a little kid back at the School I knew him

Plus, there was that last, awful bellow froain as I flew through the tunnels: