He had said that, hadn’t he? I realized that I usually tuned him out when he spoke.
“Go get Clete,” Angel said to Fang, and Fang nodded and left. “Any more ideas, Hawk?” She smiled and said, “It’s weird for me to call you Hawk—I knew you as little Phoenix. And now here you are, tall and badass. I’m so happy Fang found you.”
So, Angel was a person who spoke her mind and didn’t screw around—just like me. Now I saw why sometimes people were uncomfortable around me; I didn’t know what to say.
“Ideas?” she prompted me.
I thought for a moment. “Getting the Six to agree on something—anything—is going to be hard. They hate each other.”
“And yet I think I can get them to agree to be in a room together,” Angel said, grinning. “Somehow.”
“Is that… I mean, is that a good idea?” I asked doubtfully. “Like, wear a bulletproof vest.”
“We’ll be okay,” Angel said firmly. “And you’re coming, too.”
CHAPTER 80
After seeing the ocean and Tetra and the grassy plains and a forest, to go back to the City of the Dead felt like a huuuuge step backward, let me tell ya. As soon as we got near, the pollution hovering over everything and the permanent smog that blocked out the clear sun made my chest hurt on the inside. I hated leaving the white, fluffy clouds that until last week I hadn’t known existed.
Angel flew point and I was proud of myself for automatically taking my place in the vee, staying in her slipstream as best I could. It was getting easier. Angel’s wings, of course, were pure white, top and bottom. Last night, she had explained more of what needed to happen in the city, but most of it had to be done by the citizens themselves, once they were free of dope and McCallum and any controls the Six had over them.
I’d thought Angel was dreaming, like way too optimistic about being able to help the city, but I didn’t say anything. Mostly I just nodded at Io, who whispered explanations—some I needed, and some I didn’t.
When Fang had come back with Clete, Angel took Clete into a far corner to talk privately. Clete got really excited, rocking back and forth and flapping his hands. They talked for almost half an hour, and when they finished I realized that Io had completely climbed onto my lap and fallen asleep and I was forced to hold her like she was a basket of eggs—a hot, fuzzy basket of eggs—until she woke up.
Now here we were, flying back to the place I’d never wanted to see again, the place I thought of as filthy, rotten, evil, unsavable. How could Angel see anything different? Why were they bothering? I remembered Max saying, “It’s what we do.”
My gut clenched as we flew over buildings I knew as well as Calypso’s freckles. They had seemed normal, before—but after the clean, natural, beautiful caves and caverns and rooms of Tetra, I saw these buildings as they were: filthy, gross. The unfinished skyscrapers looked like the skeletons of huge animals that had died in place and hardened.
“There,” I said, pointing. “That’s the factory that makes the dope. You see the people lining up?”
Angel nodded. “McCallum—the government—supplies dope to anyone. If you’re on dope, you can’t think. If you can’t think, you can’t get angry about what the government’s doing.”
I’d never looked at it that way. I’d never looked at it in any way. It was just how things were. I’d never thought of McCallum as the government. He was just McCallum. I’d been blind my whole life. Blind or stupid. I hadn’t thought about anything except getting food for the kids, how to keep the cops off my trail. I should have known something was wrong here. I should have been smarter.
My face heated and I was so mad at myself. Why did the Flock even want me around? What had Gazzy said? We don’t have to know you… We don’t even have to like you. So… maybe they didn’t like me. Maybe they thought I was stupid, just a street punk.
Angel turned to look at me again. “Staaaaahhhhp! Oh, my god, you’re giving me a headache!”
Startled, I stared at her, then glanced at the others to see if they’d heard.
“They didn’t hear. I’m only talking to you.”
Oh… sun, her mouth wasn’t moving.
“Listen,” Angel’s voice said inside my head. “We think you’re amazing. You survived in one of the worst cities on this continent, all