The Final Warning

33

LET ME TELL YOU, it wascozy in the tiny galley, which was so small that Fang had to totally squeeze in next toBrigid on the bench. Just too freaking cozy for words.

BeneathGazzy and Nudge’s excited chatter, I could follow the low undercurrent of Fang andBrigid playing the get-to-know-you game.

“You’re young to be a doctor,” he said, helping himself to a fourth sandwich.

“I’m twenty-one,”Brigid admitted. “Sort of whizzed through MIT, then got my doctorate at the U of Arizona.” She paused, thinking. “In a way, I understand what it feels like to stick out, to be different from everyone else. I finished high school when I was twelve.” She gave a self-conscious laugh. “People called me a freak. Even my parents didn’t know what to do with me.”

“That must have been rough,” Fang said sympathetically, while my eyes widened.

“Max?” Melanie was holding out a carton. “Would you like some milk?”

“Gross,no,” I said without thinking. “I mean, no, thank you. ButGazzy probably would. He likes it.”

“How old areyou? ”Brigid asked Fang.

I almost gagged on my potato chip.

“Fourteen. I think,” Fang said. “None of us are real sure of our birth dates. But we think Max,Iggy, and I are around fourteen.”

“You seem older,”Brigid murmured, and I shot to my feet, unable to bear this a second longer.

“I need some air,” I managed to get out between swallows.

I felt everyone looking at me as I bolted out of the galley and up the stairs to the deck.

“Max? Are you okay?” Sue-A

Okay, Max, what’s going on?For once the voice in my head was my own. I didn’t answer it. Instead I just wheeled through the sky, catching the occasional updraft and coasting. I breathed in and out deeply, thinking about this mission, thinking about Fang andBrigid, and Fang and me, and me and the flock.

I almost forgot to keep checking all around me for Flyboys. Almost.

Maybe a month ago, my mom had taken a computer chip out of my arm. (She’s a vet. How appropriate.) I’d been all dopey on anesthesia, and I’d said some stupid stuff to Fang. He’d thrown it back in my face several times since then. And lately he’d kissed me a couple times, and I didn’t know where he was going with that. I was torn between (1) wanting to give in, to just let those emotions flood out and see what happened between us, and (2) sheer terror.

Now he seemed to be making cow eyes at a doctor who was seven years older than him.

And the one thing that stood out in my mind as I wearily made my way back down to the boat in ever-diminishing circles was:

Fang had never said that stupid stuff back to me.

34

WHEN I GOT BACK to the boat, all seven scientists were waiting on the deck. Three of them had night-vision binoculars trained on me. I made a short ru

“What’s up?” I asked with a sudden clutch in my heart.Had something happened? Had the boat been attacked? Was the flock okay? I thought I’d kept it in my line of sight, but I knew that I’d been so wrapped up in my own personal soap opera I could have missedShamu leaping over the boat with a red ball in his mouth.

“We were just… watching,” Paul Carey said softly.

“Is something wrong?” I pressed.

“No, no, nothing’s wrong,” said Melanie quickly. “We just- we’ve never seen anyone fly before.”

“Oh. No, I guess you haven’t.”

“Is it… wonderful?” Melanie asked.

Again we were treading close to personal ground, and I was feeling all self-protecty, but I answered. “Yes. The flying part is wonderful. Better than anything.” Growing up in dog crates, being subjected to horrible experiments, being chased and attacked every time we turned around: not so much.

“I wish-,” saidBrigid. She stopped and shook her head.

“What?”

She looked embarrassed. “I’m a wildlife specialist, like Paul. I’m here to learn about South Polar animals. The scientist in me is dying to ask you questions, to learn what it’s like to be such a different form of human. But I know how awful that must seem to you.”

I bit my lip so I wouldn’t say something snide, like, “Why don’t you ask Fang?”

“You’re human, with intelligence, courage, feelings, impressions,”Brigid went on. “I can’t ask a bird how it feels to fly. I can ask you. But your very ability to tell me means that asking you such a thing would be horribly intrusive and insensitive on my part. I’m sorry.” She gave a little smile. “I’ll try to keep a lid on the scientist in me.”

“Good luck with that,” said Paul, chuckling. “Being a scientist isn’t what youdo. It’s what youare. ”

Brigidnodded, looking troubled.

These people were unlike most other humans I’d ever dealt with. They were just as curious, but they were actually respecting our personal boundaries- for now. Most other scientists were content to trap us, slap us into cages, and start sticking needles into us. It was weird. I wondered how long it would last.

“I’m going to turn in,” I said abruptly, and headed toward the aft stairs. (Aftmeans “rear” on a boat. See how I’m throwing the lingo around?)

I had just started down the narrow, steeply pitched steps when I realized Fang was waiting for me at the bottom.

“What’s the matter with you?” he asked. “Why’d you take off like that?”

Oh, like I would tellhim.

“Wanted some air,” I said, trying to brush past him. But he took my arms to hold me in place, and because I didn’t feel like having this escalate into a knockdown fistfight, I let him.

“Tell me what’s going on,” he said again, his face very close to mine.

“Nothing.” I’m nothing if not stubborn.

“Max, if you would just talk to me-”

“Aboutwhat? You and me? Thereis no you and me. Especially when you keep throwing yourself at everything in a skirt!” Okay, now, that was so, so stupid. Fang’s eyes widened- I’d given far too much away. Plus,Brigid Dwyer wasn’t wearing a skirt.

I wrenched my arms away from him, feeling as if my cheeks were on fire. I was confused and miserable- two of my least favorite things.

“You’re wrong, Max,” he said in a low, dark tone that made butterflies in my stomach. “There’s a you and me, all right. There will always be a you and me.”

I pushed past him, hard, and tried not to run for the room Nudge, Angel, and I were sharing.