Book Three 4 страница

Margaret A. glanced at the mirror, and I met her eyes. Crocodile tears started to roll down her sculpted cheeks, and she broke my gaze. But then, in the mirror, I saw what she’d really been looking at – an imperfection, some kind of seam.

A door.

Dylan pushed through the mirrored door to find a winding metal staircase that reached down what looked like several hundred feet into darkness. It was so narrow, there was no question that only one of us could fit at a time.

Max protested, of course, but Dylan insisted on going first. Even aside from Angel’s warnings about protecting Max, Gunther‑ Hagen was Dylan’s maker, and he needed to face him alone.

“Don’t fall off, ” Margaret warned him.

That warning seemed obvious, but the staircase was so narrow it hugged Dylan’s hips, and as he descended into what felt like the center of the earth, it shuddered and creaked under his weight, threatening to pitch him into the abyss beneath him. He thought he could hear creatures in water splashing somewhere far below, hissing and snapping their jaws.

But when he finally reached the bottom, the staircase ended on solid ground – a street. Dylan blinked up at a door, confused. It looked exactly like the door to the mansion where he’d first found the doctor. The streets were holographic projections, Dylan knew, but the reproduction was incredible.

The odd sense of dé jà vu continued as his boots echoed across the marbled tile and he approached the grand ballroom and saw Dr. Gunther‑ Hagen sitting in his office chair, just as he’d left him. Alone.

However, this time, hundreds of screens lined the walls – world maps, weather reports, graphs of ash trajectory, and recordings from his Horsemen.

“A10103, ” the doctor said, swiveling to greet him.

“Actually, it’s just Dylan. ” He removed his worn leather gloves and tossed them to the floor between them.

“How disappointing, ” the doctor said, but he was grinning with satisfaction, and it made Dylan’s skin crawl.

“I am not the monster you think I am, Dylan. I only wanted to make you stronger, ” he said earnestly. “Look around. You can have the life you want. You don’t even realize you’re fighting against your own kind. ”

Dylan laughed aloud, and the harsh sound echoed up into the frescoes. He saw nothing of himself reflected in this egomaniacal man who had created him. Once, this had been the person Dylan knew best. But he’d become more and more unrecognizable, and now Dylan felt that he had nothing in common with him.

Absolutely nothing.

“You failed, ” Dylan announced, leaning menacingly over the doctor. “Jeb is dead, and so are the other Horsemen. ” Dylan tapped the screen on his wrist, and the bloody battle replayed on‑ screen. “You did make me stronger. Stronger than all of them – I’m the only one left. ”

“Not only you. ” Dr. Gunther‑ Hagen lifted the sleeve of his white coat, revealing a screen on his wrist that matched Dylan’s. “I injected myself with the serum, of course. ” The doctor’s eyes glittered. “My creations shouldn’t be the only ones with a chance at eternal life. You and I are left together, son. Something tells me you didn’t completely overcome your programming, hmm? ” He pursed his lips.

Had he? Dylan dropped his eyes. This was what the doctor had done to him – made him question, made him doubt. Dylan had struggled with his origin from the beginning, trying to determine how much was really him and how much was... everything else. He hadn’t become a mindless killer, but apart from that, did he really have any control at all?

Dylan heard footsteps echoing through the entryway and looked at his maker.

“No. ” Dylan shook his head sadly. “I just did what you first programmed me to do: I couldn’t stop loving Maximum Ride. ”

“You thought you’d won, didn’t you? ” Max looked at the doctor from the doorway, her eyes like skewers.

“Oh, I have won, child. ” Gunther‑ Hagen sank back in his office chair, unperturbed. “I was just telling Dylan about our coming eternal life. ”

“He injected himself with Fang’s DNA, ” Dylan explained.

“Is that so? ” Max shook her head sadly at the doctor, but she was smiling. “Jeb told me the serum wasn’t quite there yet. You might’ve been trying to live forever, but I’m afraid forever’s going to stop a little shorter than you’d planned.

“And, bummer for you, there’s been a change in power, so things are probably going to get a little rough from here on out. There’s no way you’re getting out of here, Hä agen‑ Dazs. We have you completely surrounded. ”

“The last of the world’s righteous survivors, all in one place? ” For the first time, Dylan noticed that the doctor was tapping his fingertips carefully against the screen at his wrist. “How convenient. ”

Dylan! Max! There’s a bomb! Angel’s voice rang through his head.

“Where is it? ” Max growled, her body rigid with caution, her face muscles twitching in fury.

Dr. Gunther‑ Hagen opened his pristine white lab coat and started to unbutton his expensive collared shirt, fixing them with his icy, amused gaze.

But when the shirt fell open, there was a mass of wires and steel canisters where his chest should have been. The doctor wasn’t rigged to the bomb.

He was the bomb.

“Jeb was kind enough to hook me up to the last reactor... ” The doctor swirled slowly around in his office chair, his voice trailing off. “It’s a pity you’ve killed him – how will you disable it now? ”

“I guess we’ll just have to kill you, ” Max snapped.

“Oh, I hope so, ” Gunther‑ Hagen said, still smiling. “If I die, the bomb engages, and your little army goes down with me. ”

I thought of what Angel had said before the battle. The Remedy thinks he’s won. But he can’t see the future. I can.

We will see him fall.

There was nowhere for him to fall, though. We were already at the bottom of the earth.

“We have to get him out of here, ” I told Dylan as quietly as I could. “I’ll fly him as high as I can, and you start getting people underground. ”

“Max, no, let me do it. He wouldn’t blow me up. ”

But I was the one who was supposed to save the world. Angel had said that all along. Everything I’d survived so far had been building to this moment. It was the last chance I was going to get.

“He’s mine, ” I said, and my tone left no room for argument. “Let’s go, Hansy. ”

Dr. G‑ H gave a philosophical shrug and got up, as if he was indulging my silly whim. Pushing him toward the door, I grabbed the collar of his white coat, balling the fabric in my fist. As I started to drag him up the eleventy million steps of the medieval staircase, Gunther‑ Hagen kept that supercilious grin plastered to his face.

“I guess there’s a way out after all, ” he said smugly.

He didn’t set off the bomb while we climbed, nor when we went out Margaret’s door and through the dark passageways. Out on the bloodstained battlefield, the Remedy stood still when I hooked my arms around him and took off, my wings carrying us high over where Gazzy and Iggy were leading the other kids in rounding up the prisoners.

“I’ve so missed the great outdoors, ” the doctor said. He closed his eyes, seeming to blissfully savor the wind on his face, despite the air, which was becoming more and more ash laden.

Now that I had him in my hands, I didn’t want him to enjoy a single second of his life. He was brilliant and could have helped humanity so much. But he’d thought the only solution was to wipe people off the earth.

“No, ” I said, shaking him. “You don’t get to close your eyes, Hä agen‑ Dazs. Look at all those people down there. ” I pointed to the kids below, the ones who were helping the wounded, the ones who were carrying their dead comrades off the field. “You killed their families, their friends. You destroyed their homes, but they’re survivors. They’re free, because you failed. Look! ”

Gunther‑ Hagen craned his neck to look at me. “You want me to stay and watch their expressions as the reactor detonates, is that it? I agree, it would be most entertaining to watch. ”

I ground my teeth together and shot upward, flying high into the atmosphere and east over the ocean, until I was sure the kids would be safe.

“Now I’m the one who’ll be making threats. ” I hooked one arm beneath his neck and gave a little yank. He coughed, his hands reaching for my arm. “So you’d better start talking. ”

“Ask me anything you’d like, Maximum, ” Gunther‑ Hagen said, evidently enjoying this. “I know once you hear my reasoning... ”

“Don’t count on it. Now, how did you plan it? ” I demanded. “And who helped you? ”

If any of those scumbags were still alive, we’d deal with them as well.

Dr. Gunther‑ Hagen pressed his lips together into an ironic smile. “The fates aligned, you might say. I barely had to plan at all... Dr. Martinez did most of the work for me. ”

I blinked hard at that. “I was with my mom the day of the explosion, ” I snapped. “She was trying to protect everyone she could. ”

“Oh, her work with me started much earlier than that. You’ll remember her involvement in Angel’s modification, I’m sure. ”

My gaze faltered.

“Jeb knew about Angel’s gift, but it was Dr. Martinez who founded the Psychic Initiative, ” Dr. G‑ H continued. “She said Angel was just a child – a powerful child who didn’t know how to manage her power. That capable, responsible adults needed to take over, so we could learn about the risks of the future. ” His voice had a dark edge to it. Though I was the one gripping his throat, it felt like he was moving toward checkmate. “All I had to do was fund it. ”

“My mom was just trying to save the planet! ” I said defensively.

“Oh, I assure you, Maximum, so am I. We just had different ideas about how to go about it. Dr. Martinez wanted to alert the world powers about the asteroid and blow it out of the sky with nuclear missiles. But I persuaded her that we should handle things more privately. ” The corners of his eyes wrinkled with amusement. “So as to prevent panic. ”

“So instead you unleashed a deadly plague to kill ninety‑ nine percent of the world, let the asteroid destroy even more people, then nuked all the cities for good measure, ” I said.

I remembered the pictures we’d scrolled through on the computer. The images of people sobbing, people praying, people running even when they had nowhere to go.

I didn’t know how he could live with himself. But then, he wouldn’t have to much longer.

The icy wind whipped through my tangled hair and tugged at my aching arms, and I almost dropped the psychopath to his death right then. But I wasn’t done yet.

Find. Truth.

Dr. Gunther‑ Hagen was shaking his head. “The virus wasn’t my work, I’m afraid. The Apocalypticas left us that little gift, and they leaked it all on their own. ”

So my mom was right about that.

“I don’t think they imagined such initial success. A hundred dead in a couple of days, millions within a week, and by the end of the month, a quarter of the world. ” The doctor spoke breathlessly, his eyes lighting up. “It was extraordinarily impressive. ”

“Impressive? ” My mouth gaped. “Is that what you call murdering billions of people? ”

I loosened my grip on his neck, and the doctor slipped down a few inches. His face blanched a light shade of green, but when he answered me, his tone was still measured.

“Let me remind you, child, I did the honorable thing: I developed a vaccine. ”

“You can buy a lot with a vaccine when the population is in the grips of a global pandemic. ” I narrowed my eyes. “Like... a bunch of nuclear bombs, for example. ”

“Actually, those were a gift. My staff had the technology to accurately target the asteroid, after all. With your mother’s political connections, the Russians were easily persuaded to hand over the stockpile if it finally meant some good PR for them. ”

He betrayed her – along with the rest of the world.

“Why develop the vaccine, then? ” I pressed. “What was it worth? ”

“I do love an eager pupil. ” The doctor smirked. “It bought me a name. ”

“A name? ” I repeated.

“When the virus was released and so much of the population was infected, you can imagine how much media attention the discovery of a vaccine received. ”

Yeah, I could. I pictured his face covering the newspapers, his smile flashing out of televisions. They probably called him a freaking hero. The thought made me so furious I couldn’t speak. I glared at him, daring him to continue.

“After the asteroid hit, suddenly everyone wanted another quick remedy. They looked to me again, of course. Who else could they trust more? ”

“So you’re saying you were able to push the world into a dictatorial state through branding? ” I said in disbelief.

“A remedy gave them permission to look away, ” he explained. “It assured them that someone was capable of eliminating their problems. And I have. ”

“How can you call yourself a doctor? ” I asked in disgust. “Didn’t you, like, take some kind of oath saying, ‘I will not unleash death and destruction on my patients and all of modern society’? ”

“The earth is my primary patient, ” the doctor reasoned calmly. “And the ecosystem will recover much better with fewer people to compromise it. ”

“Right, because radioactive debris is super healthy for the planet! ” I sneered. “Wait, you didn’t really think this little confession was gonna save you, did you? ” I loosened my grip a bit more.

He flinched, instinctively grasping at air, and I smiled faintly as I pulled him back. Gunther‑ Hagen’s eyes hardened, and his fingers locked around my wrists. “You still don’t understand. I don’t need to be saved. Humans aren’t supposed to be saved. My work will live on. My legacy–”

I cut him off. “Your legacy is dead. Jeb is dead. He’ll never make another Horseman. ”

“Dylan is my legacy, ” the doctor countered. “A truly evolved specimen, despite some remaining glitches. He and the female mate I created for him will help repopulate the earth with a genetically ideal species. You were never worthy of him. ”

The thing was... that last part was completely true.

My expression must have faltered, because the doctor smiled. “You’re really very ordinary, you know, Maximum Ride, ” he said sympathetically. “Weak. And soon, you and your kind will die out, just like your boyfriend did. ”

He tapped the screen on his wrist. I couldn’t see the image, but I could hear that it was the video Dylan had shown me. Even above the howling wind, I heard Fang’s screams.

Too. Far.

“Nothing’s dying out, you disgusting supremacist, ” I snapped. My arms quivered with rage as I held him in front of me. I felt the heat rushing to my cheeks as I said the words:

“I’m pregnant. ”

The confession hung in the air between us, and I instantly wished I could snatch it back. I hadn’t told anyone – until that moment, I hadn’t fully admitted it to myself. But I couldn’t hide from it now. Saying it aloud made it real.

More than that – from the doctor’s expression, I knew it had power.

“It can’t be, ” the doctor whispered, his face twisting in horror. “Fang is dead. ”

I remembered when the doctor had kidnapped Fang. He’d told Dylan that Fang had to die because his invincible DNA posed too high a risk. I’d wondered why they didn’t kill him that day, and realized the doctor was too power‑ hungry to destroy the key to immortality.

Wordlessly, I switched my grip to one hand and unzipped my hoodie with the other. The wind whipped open the fabric, and Gunther‑ Hagen’s gaze traveled down to where the T‑ shirt underneath pulled taut against my stomach, revealing the smallest hint of a curve.

“It’s over, ” he murmured.

“Oh, it’s just beginning, ” I said.

And that’s when he pressed the screen on his arm again. “Reactor, engage, ” he commanded.

I inhaled sharply, wincing as I waited for the explosion in the distance, praying that Dylan had managed to save as many kids as he could.

But there was no explosion, no far‑ off mushroom cloud that spelled death and destruction.

There was no beeping, either, or suggestion of a countdown, and I saw from Dr. G‑ H’s fury that it hadn’t worked. There was something wrong with the signal.

I didn’t know what had happened any more than Gunther‑ Hagen did, but I thought of Nudge’s hacking abilities, and Angel’s mind‑ reading, and Gazzy’s bomb knowledge, and I knew my flock had probably just saved my life for the thousandth time.

“What’s the matter, Hans? Is your final plan not working? I guess it doesn’t matter if you die now, after all. ” My tone was biting, but my brain was flooded with such a surge of relief I felt like I was about to pass out.

I guess that’s why I was so unprepared for what happened next.

The old man lunged forward, gouging at my stomach with a silver pen. “That child is the virus that will plague the whole world! ” Gunther‑ Hagen shrieked. “And I am the Remedy! ”

“You’ve killed enough people already, ” I snarled at him. “You don’t get to kill Fang’s child. ”

Then, with all my strength, I flung him away from me, into the empty sky.

For a fraction of a second, he hung in the air, his white coat billowing around him, his eyes snapped open in surprise, his mouth frozen in a perfect O.

Then he fell.

I fluttered my wings, watching as the Remedy, the supreme terrorist of the world, plunged to the ground. I thought of Fang, how he must have grabbed at the air in the same panicked way.

Just before the body hit, I crossed my arms over my stomach and turned away.

Everything seems starker in the daylight, doesn’t it? It’s easier to see all that you’ve lost, and all that you’ve gambled, and how hard it’s going to be to get back to where you started.

We never did have a victory celebration. After all the bombs and burned homes, no one was very excited about fireworks. And with blood still staining the field around us, no one could really imagine partying.

Not here, anyway. Not now.

Instead, for the past week, crews had worked on burying the dead and cleaning up the tent city. Others questioned captives and explored Himmel’s labyrinth of tunnels.

I had started hauling food up from the vast storage supplies of Himmel. I needed to do something with my hands – organize supplies and make plans for shelter, or plant some of the seedlings we’d found in the giant greenhouse. I needed to focus on the future.

But everything is so stark in the daylight.

I felt the faintest, mostly healed scratches on my stomach chafing against my shirt. Now that I’d said a certain two words aloud, the future was feeling like a pretty scary place.

I patted my belly button, feeling the swell that was growing a tiny bit bigger every day. I pressed my knuckles against the small curve, kneading in, but it always rebounded.

I really hoped this wasn’t going to be a great big egg to lay. How could I possibly sit still on it for nine months?

“What are you doing? ” Angel asked from behind me.

I dropped my hand from my stomach and tried to clear my thoughts.

“Sorting supplies for distribution. ” I tossed one of the frozen meals to her. “Dr. G‑ H sure loved him some TV dinners. ”

“You have to put them back. ” Angel was already messing with the piles I’d made. “Right now. The plants, too. ” She nodded at the bean plants sprouting in the plastic containers. “They won’t survive out here in the cold, and we have to eat what we can in the forest before it’s gone. ”

“What do you mean, ‘gone’? The woods are full of wild game. We’ll have lots of time to build shelters and get set up out here before winter. ”

“Try nuclear winter. ” Angel squinted at the hazy sky. “Do you see how thick the dust is getting? The asteroid and all the bombs sent tons of stuff into the air, and that cloud is coming our way. It’ll totally block out the sun. ”

She looked at the thousands of makeshift tents strewn around us. “Tomorrow we’ll get organized, try to contact any other survivors. We’ll probably have to go underground in less than a month. ”

“You want to live in the Remedy’s city? ” My body recoiled instinctively at the thought of those claustrophobic tunnels, and I shook my head. “I can deal with the cold. ”

“Not cold like this, ” the little prophet insisted. She pinched the top of a bright green bean sprout. “They’ll grow fine in artificial light. ”

Could I, though? I thought of the small life taking shape inside me, never seeing the sun, and I started to shake.

Just focus on stacking supplies, I thought, gripping the packaged food so tightly I was crushing the boxes.

You don’t have to hide it from me, Angel’s voice said in my mind. I already know.

My eyes flew to hers.

Angel smiled. “Why do you think I made Dylan and Kate stay glued to your side during the battle? ” she said with a smirk.

I was confused about so many things – including whether I wanted to strangle Angel or hug her.

“I’m not ready to be a mom, ” I whispered. “I don’t know what to do. ”

I’d fought super‑ mutants and defeated dictators, but this was so far out of the realm of things I could handle, I was asking a seven‑ year‑ old for parenting advice.

“Yeah, you do. ” Angel smiled, bumping my shoulder. “You mothered us, didn’t you? ”

I remembered the flock’s food fights at breakfast. My utter hatred of school. The way Nudge had to remind me to brush my teeth.

Not really.

Angel giggled and snuggled against me. I smoothed her pale curls away from her forehead like I had since our days in dog crates.

“I never got to tell Fang, ” I said after a minute, my voice flat with defeat.

That was partly why I had been tracking him so desperately. I’d needed his help to find the Remedy, but I’d also had something urgent to tell him.

“Excuse me, ladies. ”

I looked up to see Dylan standing in front of us – I’d been so wrapped up in talking to Angel that I hadn’t even noticed him coming.

“Hey, ” I said, my face burning. I pictured the day that Dylan found out about the baby and just wanted to curl up.

“Max, can you come with me? ” he asked. “I need to show you something. ”

Angel looked at Dylan, her head tilted to one side. She frowned, but he met her gaze evenly.

“It’ll just take a minute, ” Dylan said.

“Sure, ” I said, standing up. I gave Angel a “we’ll finish talking later” look and she nodded solemnly at me. Dylan and I set off, and I couldn’t help smiling when I saw Iggy demonstrating a homemade wrist rocket to Margaret A.

Dylan saw her, too, and gave me a rueful smile.

“So where are we going? ” I asked.

“Remedy’s lair. ”

My head whipped around and I stared at him. “What? What for? ”

“I need to show you something, ” Dylan said again, and I felt the slightest twinge of fear. Now that I was paying attention, he seemed kind of different. I’d hardly seen him for the past week – sometimes in the evening around a fire, he’d show up, looking exhausted. Almost haunted.

Again and again, Dylan had proven his loyalty to me and the flock, but the whole world had spun out of control and I couldn’t help wondering if being one of the Horsemen had changed him forever in ways I couldn’t imagine.

Or maybe I could imagine them. Maybe that was what the hint of fear was about.

“I am not going down that billion steps again, ” I said lightly. “My legs are still aching from that. ”

Dylan gave me an almost sad, distant smile and shook his head.

All around us, kids were working to build us a better future. I took comfort in the fact that there seemed to be people everywhere – no place felt deserted or lonely. Still, when Dylan led me inside Himmel and through the tunnels, I felt myself going on guard. And when he stopped in front of Jeb’s old lab, I hesitated and looked up at him.

“What are we doing here, Dylan? ” I asked softly.

Again that slightly sad smile. “I have... a present for you. I think. ”

Okay, that sounded ominous. I took a breath and felt my muscles tense. I really didn’t want to go back into that place. Looking up into Dylan’s crystalline aqua eyes, I searched them to read his intent. But I couldn’t.

He pushed open the door to the lab and gestured to me to go in. The last kids we’d seen had been a couple of minutes ago – out of screaming range. Pressing my lips together, I stepped in, praying that someone had gotten rid of Jeb’s body.

The lab had been cleaned up. Everything broken was gone, everything left was neatly arranged and labeled. I looked around in surprise.

“Who did this? ” I asked.

“I did, ” Dylan said. “I’ve been working in here. ”

My eyebrows knitted together. “Doing what? ”

“In a way, continuing my father’s work. ”

I stared at him, unconsciously moving away and glancing around for possible weapons. “Dylan, come on, ” I said, keeping my tone even. “What are you talking about? ”

“This. ” Dylan turned and went through a door on the other side of the lab. I instantly sprang over and grabbed a scalpel, though what I would do with it, I had no idea... Dylan was much stronger than me now. Hiding the scalpel behind my back, I waited, and in just a minute Dylan came back – pushing a hospital bed.

Someone was lying on that bed, covered by a sheet.

I saw just a bit of black hair spilling out from beneath the white cloth and almost screamed. My breath came shallowly as I stared at the bed, and then at Dylan.

“What... what in the world have you been doing? ” My voice was high and squeaky. “Wh‑ who... who is that? ”

“You know who it is, ” Dylan said softly, and pulled back the sheet. “It’s Fang. ”

And... that was when my pregnant self fainted like a schoolgirl, right onto the floor.

Or i would have hit the floor, if Dylan hadn’t had enhanced reflexes and superhuman strength. My eyes fluttered open just seconds later to see him looking down at me in concern.

He was holding me in his arms as if I weighed nothing, and now he gently lowered my feet to the floor. I grabbed hold of a lab table to steady myself and felt anger rising in me.

“I know what you’re trying to do, ” I practically spat. “You know how I feel about clones. Your so‑ called dad was nuttier than a fruitcake, and you know it! Why would you do this? Why would you make a fake Fang? ”

Dylan held up his hands, then pushed them through his dark blond hair in frustration, seeming to hold his head for a second. His jaw twitched and his teeth clamped together. Suddenly I realized I had dropped the scalpel when I fainted. Dylan must have seen it, must have known I’d picked it up as a weapon.

“Max, ” he said tightly. “Everything I’ve ever done has been for you. It’s not like I’m a hero – we both know I was programmed to want to... be with you, above anyone else. ” His eyes met mine. “You know how I feel, and how I would feel about you no matter what, whether I was programmed to love you or not. ”

My cheeks heated and I swallowed, not knowing what to say. Why is he telling me this?

“I love you, ” he said steadily. “I always have, and I always will. You know that. ”

I looked away, not wanting him to humble himself this way.

“And I know you love Fang, ” he went on more softly. “You always have, and you always will. ”

Now I felt really bad.

“I–” I started, but he held up his hand to stop me.

“It’s not anyone’s fault. It’s just how it is, ” he said, and I felt a hormonal tear come to my eyes. “Once I hoped – I hoped maybe Fang was your first love, and I... I would be your last. ”

“I’m sorry, ” I whispered, feeling an ache in my throat that might never go away.

“It’s not your fault, ” he said again, gently. “This hasn’t turned out the way I hoped, but then, what has? The world hasn’t turned out the way we hoped, either, right? ”

I nodded, praying I wouldn’t start blubbering.

Dylan swallowed again and glanced at the hospital bed. “I pretended to kill the flock, so they would be safe. I had less control over what happened to Fang. The Horsemen were there – Jeb and the doctor were trying out a new upgrade – and there was only so much I could do. You saw how Fang dragged them all over the cliff with him. You saw how one of them... took off Fang’s wing. ” The last words ended in a whisper.

I nodded and wiped away a single tear, feeling like the most ancient fifteen‑ year‑ old in the world. What was left of it.

“I... waited until everyone was gone, and then... I flew down into the canyon. ”

My eyes widened. No. I knew Fang was dead. Angel knew Fang was dead – she had felt it.