Hawk - James Patterson Page 0,69

fighting for freedom! Weren’t they? Did McCallum know something? Or was he just saying it to upset me?

All these years, the only thing that had kept me going was the sure knowledge that Fang had gone back to get Phoenix, and that they and the Flock were living somewhere, probably looking for me and plotting to liberate the planet, one stupid regime at a time.

I wriggled to get more comfortable, making the net sway. As soon as they got tired of this, I was going to chew my way out and go back up to the welded bars of the prison’s all-encompassing cage. I’d already managed to quietly fray some of the rope. McCallum couldn’t be right. I knew my family was still out there, maybe still looking for me.

“You’d hate to die, knowing that you could have created more of your kind but chose not to? Are you ready to let humanity down like that?” McCallum sounded totally reasonable.

“Humanity,” I said, “of which you are a part, can kiss my ass!”

“Maximum,” McCallum said, “don’t make this decision in such a heated moment. We’ll let you hang there for a while, give you time to think. When you get tired of hanging upside down in a net, just yell. We’ll be ready to talk.”

The screen went blank, then a cartoon came on about some kids exploring in the woods. They find something important and didn’t tell the nearest adult. No! They schlepped all the way to a government office and told that person. I don’t even know what they found because my net had been swinging the wrong way round at the time.

McCallum was wrong—I did want to create more of my kind… but not by giving them my wings. I had, in fact, already created one. Where was Phoenix now? My heart ached from the lack of holding her. She’d been so amazing, even at five. Determined, headstrong. I hoped she hadn’t given Rose Simmons any problems. You just had to know how to deal with her. She could be stubborn, grumpy. But not for long. I remembered cuddling her after a bath when she was all clean and sweet-smelling. I missed her so much I thought I would go crazy sometimes. And where was Fang, my love? Oh, god, did any of this have any point at all? Was I just delaying the inevitable?

My net swung around again.

Maybe I was. Maybe I was being stubborn and stupid and making the wrong decisions. It wouldn’t be the first time, and god knows it surely wouldn’t be the last.

Because I was going to bust out of this joint if it was the last thing I did.

One simply had to figure out how.

CHAPTER 67

Hawk

Turns out, riding over an ocean with someone else doing all the work wasn’t so bad. Except for the part where they played “Drop the Phoenix.” Other than that, it was great.

“Uh-oh…“ Iggy said.

I clung tighter to his neck. “No! Nooooo! No more Drop the Phoenix!”

“I think I might have to…” Iggy said.

“Noooo!” I shouted. “Goddamnit! This isn’t fun!”

“Might have to… drop the Phoenix!” Iggy yelled, and did a fast spin so he was flying upside down and I was trying not to plunge to my death.

Nudge and Gazzy laughed gaily because apparently it didn’t bug them to see a teenager hanging on to save a life she’d already almost lost.

“Goddamnit!” I shouted again, trying to kick Iggy. “My name is Hawk!” I managed to land a good one right on his butt.

“Yow!” he said, and quickly pried my fingers loose.

My howls of outrage were lost to the wind as I fell. I didn’t even try anymore. Just kept my wings tucked in, my arms crossed angrily over my chest, and a sour expression on my face. Then I waited.

Sooner or later, maybe in about three kilometers, someone would come fetch me.

This time it was Fang. He came down like an arrow, swooped me up, then almost flung me onto his back. I quickly grabbed on.

“Do not,” I said icily, “play that game again, you sick bastard.”

I felt Fang chuckle beneath me, though I couldn’t hear it.

“It’s weird,” he said with fake innocence as we soared upward. “How you manage to fall every time, and your name isn’t even Phoenix! That’s bizarre, don’t you think?”

He asked me that every time. My first three responses, none of them polite, had earned me a quick return to “Drop the Phoenix.”

I tried for something neutral. “Maybe… maybe you guys have me