Hawk - James Patterson Page 0,100

and I’d slipped a bunch of times. Soot was in my eyes, ears, nose, and mouth and had trickled down my neck beneath my shirt. I could feel it in a fine layer across my entire scalp. I would probably never be clean again. I didn’t care. It wasn’t like I’d been all that clean for the past ten years, anyway.

“Keep. Going. Hawk!” I hissed, and made myself move hand-hand, then foot-foot.

I heard pigeons. They made little cooing noises, calm and soft.

Suddenly the light above was mostly blocked! Had they found me? Was this where I would die? All someone had to do was lean over the chimney stack and fire!

Feeling like my blood had left my brain, I looked up. And saw… pigeon butts and little pigeon feet. Several fluffy gray pigeon butts, partially blocking the flue. How did they keep from getting sooty?

“Sorry, guys, coming through,” I whispered, and poked one with my finger. The bird jumped up with a squawk, which alarmed the other birds.

When I hooked my fingers on the flue’s edge and pulled myself up, several indignant pigeons were giving me the stink eye, hopping around and making it clear that I was in their territory, and they weren’t happy about it. Too bad. I was out in the air again. And that, my little pigeons, belongs to everyone.

I hauled myself the rest of the way out the chimney stack, to fall to the red tile roof. I just lay there, facedown, feeling my sweat rolling, cutting dirty paths through the soot all over my body. Carefully I spread my wings out—they been squished against me for a while and were numb. I wished I could just go to sleep here. I wished there wasn’t a revolution. I wished I knew where the Flock was.

I wished Clete was alive.

But, thank sun, I was out.

CHAPTER 99

It took a minute, but other noises started to get past the soot in my ears, other noises that were louder than the pigeons, who had finally settled. I shook my head to dislodge the soot, making the sounds clearer. Oh, good: What I was listening to was McCallum. Because he never shut the eff up.

“This misguided betrayal will only backfire onto you all!” he was ranting. “Where would you be without me?”

“Definitely someplace else,” I whispered, my eyes still closed.

“What would you be doing? Who would be taking care of you?” he demanded.

“Definitely something else,” I decided. “And, myself.”

“You citizens need to stop this pointless foolishness and go home!” McCallum said. “If you do, I may possibly forgive you in time. Who knows? Possibly. So drop your weapons and go home! What you’re doing is treasonous!”

I raised myself up a little and peered over the roof to the big vidscreen mounted on the building across the street. McCallum, red-haired and red-faced, was pointing at the camera. He leaned back, took a breath, and went on, “Are you serving your city, your home, right now? Or are you attacking it? If you’re trying to attack your city, then you’re attacking me and you’re committing treason! Who am I going to take care of? Treasonous people or patriots? People who love their leader, or not? Huh? Who? You tell me.”

Oh, sun, I hated him so much. What a bastard! What an unholy creep!

Peering over more, I saw soldiers, some of them wearing Pater colors, wandering around in the streets. They were prepared for a fight—but their guns looked weird. I squinted, peering down to get a better look. Their guns were old—not the new ones with the chips that Clete had disabled! Old guns didn’t have chips—so they weren’t disabled. They could shoot! I edged backward on the roof before someone spotted me. Crap! I needed to warn the Flock, wherever they were! And I needed to not get shot myself—I already had a gash in my wing. I was just hoping I could still fly.

Suddenly, stopping McCallum just seemed so… impossible. I was only a kid. An awesome, kickass kid, but still. What could I possibly do? Right now, I couldn’t think of a damn thing. I didn’t even have one of Gazzy’s bombs to drop down the chimney I’d just climbed up.

I sighed, feeling very tired and sad. Time to leave, before the guards came back and found that room full of soot and empty of myself.

CHAPTER 100

I stretched my wings out experimentally, knowing that flying was going to suck.

“Just do it,” I whispered, and launched myself off the roof,