“No,” Max said emphatically, tugging on Adrian’s sleeve. “The maternity ward? Are you nuts? I don’t care what you say, there could definitely be a prodigy mom here—or what if there’s a baby! I can’t—”
“Would you relax?” Adrian whispered back at him, earning an odd look from the nurse sitting behind a reception desk. He smiled and surreptitiously took hold of Max’s hospital gown, dragging him forward. “Hi there,” he said, leaning his free elbow on the counter beside a visitor check-in sheet. “Is there a way to get up to the roof from this floor?”
Her already-suspicious countenance darkened more. “The roof isn’t open to the public,” she said, as if this should have gone without saying.
“Oh, I know,” he said with a mild chuckle. “I’m Adrian Everhart. My dads are Hugh Everhart and Simon Westwood?”
He was met with instant recognition. Her mouth formed a surprised O.
“Right,” he continued. “And, as I’m sure you know, my brother, Max, is a patient here and, well, the other Council members are going to be stopping by periodically to check on how things are going. We’re all pretty much one big happy superhero family down there at headquarters, and everyone’s really worried about the kid.”
A snort came in the direction Max was standing.
“So,” Adrian persisted, “Tamaya—er, Thunderbird—is going to be stopping by anytime now so I can give her a full report on Max’s condition, and you know Thunderbird, always flying around the rooftops. Never uses the main entrance. It’s kind of a superhero thing. I mean, if I had wings—”
Max jabbed Adrian hard in the side and Adrian stifled a grunt. “Which is to say … how do we get to the roof from here?”
The nurse led them to a plain door and punched a code into a keypad while Adrian assured her that a Captain Chromium autograph would be no problem. He made a mental note to actually follow through on that promise as he and Max bolted up the steps and pushed their way out onto the hospital roof.
Wind buffeted them from the east. From way up here, Adrian could see the Sentry Bridge, Merchant Tower … even the parking garage where he and Nova had staked out surveillance on the hospital when they’d been trying to stop Hawthorn and her gang.
He passed over the helicopter landing pad on the center of the roof, heading for the north wall.
Max, visible now, came to stand beside him, scanning the city rooftops—the water towers, the fire escapes, the windows glinting in the late-afternoon sun. “Did you order a helicopter for us?”
Adrian chuckled wryly. “Nothing that glamorous.”
“Then what are we doing on the roof?”
“You wanted to avoid being near prodigies as much as possible, right? Well, like you said, on the streets, you never know who you might pass. But up here, the sky is ours.”
Max took a step back, hands held up. “Oooh, no. I realize that you had to carry me like a sack of potatoes when you brought me here, and that’s embarrassing enough. You are not becoming my general mode of transportation. Thanks, but no thanks.”
“You were half dead. There’s nothing embarrassing about that.”
“Yeah, well, we’ll see how you feel the next time you almost die and I have to carry you halfway across town.”
“Sounds relaxing. Look, I’m not carrying you anywhere. You don’t need me to. Here, let me hold Turbo so you can focus.”
“Focus on what?” said Max, even as he handed over the little cage.
“Just watch.” Inspecting the closest structure, a squat office building just across the street, Adrian cradled the cage in his arm and crouched. He felt the spring tattoos activate on the soles of his feet. He leaped.
Air whooshed past his ears, and for the briefest of moments, he felt like he was flying.
He struck the next roof, crouching with one hand on the gritty concrete.
Awake again, the velociraptor scratched unhappily at the bars of his confinement, trying to escape. Adrian ignored him. Brushing his fingers off on his pants, he turned back to Max.
The kid looked mystified. Spreading his arms, he yelled across the chasm, “I didn’t get that much of your power! I can’t do what you do!”
“I know,” said Adrian. “But you can do what Ace Anarchy can do.”
Max’s arms fell. He drew back, confused.
“You have telekinesis,” Adrian reminded him. “I know you can levitate. Which means you can fly.”
Max’s jaw worked mutely for a moment, then he shook his head. “I’ve never done anything more than float a few