Hawk - James Patterson Page 0,49

and rose into the air. Iggy rose more quickly beside him, and Nudge and I surrounded them as we all shot through the grim clouds that almost always covered the City of the Dead.

Below us, people shouted and fired into the air but couldn’t hit what they couldn’t see. In seconds we were well out of any bullet range.

“Max,” Fang said again, one arm looped around Gazzy’s neck, with Gazzy holding it tightly.

“Yes, Max!” Nudge said. “Max is alive!”

“Or will be for another half hour,” Iggy said darkly.

“Max,” Fang mumbled, then seemed to fall asleep.

Ten minutes of fast flying high above the city brought us back to the Flock’s base at the top of the tall, skeletal building. We circled it a couple times to make sure it wasn’t surrounded, there weren’t snipers anywhere, nothing unexpected.

We landed on the same floor I’d found them on, what felt like several months ago. Gazzy set Fang down gently onto one of the pallets they’d been sleeping on, and Nudge quickly went to him. “Iggy?” she said.

Iggy began to feel Fang’s face, tracing over the lumps of swollen purple flesh, his hairline, his ears and chin.

“Fang! I just can’t believe it!” Nudge said, starting to cry. “And now Max!” She turned to me with a tear-stained smile. “And Phoen—Hawk. Oh, my god, we’re going to be all together again!”

She hunched over Fang as sobs shook her slender body.

“No bones broken, amazingly,” Iggy said, after feeling Fang’s feet. “Just really banged up, dehydrated, starving, et cetera. The usual.”

“It’s not usual to find Fang,” Gazzy said hoarsely. “And Max! Guys, we have to get our shit together and go get Max!”

“Not so fast,” I said, and clicked a bullet into the chamber of my gun. Three heads turned in shock.

“Hawk, what’s going on?” Nudge asked.

“Your next step will be going with me to save my friends, down in the labs at the McCallum complex,” I said slowly and deliberately. “You promised. And I will hold you to that promise, or this night will get very ugly, very fast.”

I was smart. I didn’t point the gun at any of them. I pointed it at the person they all cared about the most, the person we’d just risked everything to rescue. I pointed it at Fang.

“Where did you get the gun?” Gazzy asked.

“From a prison guard, earlier,” I said, and he nodded.

Nudge was looking at me, smiling through her tears. “God, you’re just so adorable!”

Gazzy and Iggy smiled, too.

“You’re a lot like your mom was, when she was your age,” Iggy said.

“People keep telling me that,” I said snidely. “But you’re not going to get to know me better if you don’t come through on your promise.” I spread my feet apart for better balance and kept the pistol trained on Fang.

Gazzy shook his head in admiration. “I really like this girl.”

Were they trying to fake me out? Lull me into a false sense of security and then turn on me?

“Food?” Fang croaked, propping himself on one elbow.

Nudge rummaged in her leather backpack, pulling out small, high-calorie stuff you could eat on the run. She held out an energy bar to me, and I shook my head, eyes flicking from it, back to Fang, still on the business end of my gun.

“We’ve been looking for Max for almost ten years,” Fang said, meeting my eyes.

“You’re going to help save my friends,” I said.

“Drink some water,” Nudge said briskly, rolling a bottle to me. I ignored it, let it bounce off my foot.

“You know she won’t give up,” Fang said, speaking to the others.

“Yeah,” Nudge agreed.

“Yup, got that,” Gazzy said.

“So… we go save her friends, yada-yada-yada, then find Max,” Iggy said conversationally, then took a swig of juice.

“Okay,” Nudge said. “You’re right. We promised. We’ll save your friends first. Then go find Max, and hope we get there in time. Put this in your pockets so you can eat on the way.”

She threw a granola bar at me. I caught it in midair with one hand and stuffed it in my pocket, keeping the gun leveled on them.

Fang sighed heavily, then got creakily to his feet. “Max,” he said wistfully to the others.

“Yes, Max,” Nudge said, getting ready to jump off the side of a hundred-story building. “We’ll get there in time. We will, Fang.”

Fang said nothing more, just jumped out into the night, his wings so dark they were almost invisible.

I waited till they were all out, then I jumped, too, keeping my gun trained on Fang.

Moke,