“Oh hell, I don’t know about that. You’re a good talker yourself. Seem like a nice guy.”
“Oh yeah. That helps now and then. Dr. Peyser came to the Academy and recruited me.”
“Because of the background in biology?”
“Oh, hell no. His people are way out of my league as scientists. However, my science background did help me to understand
his vision. That’s how he works, you know. Looks for people with the capacity to understand, and to
believe,
then he offers them the opportunity of a lifetime.”
“Financially?”
“You bet, financially. But also in terms of satisfaction, knowing you’re doing something important. So anyway, from what I
understand you had the talent and other qualities to be an outstanding FBI agent yourself.”
“But I didn’t believe in the vision, at least not the version of the vision that I heard.”
Thomas nodded. “That’s what I hear. So tell me, Kit, who have you told so far about the School. Simple question, requires
a simple answer. Then we can both get out of here.”
“Nobody,” Kit said. “I told nobody.”
Which was when Uncle Thomas went nuclear, and when Kit finally understood how fear really worked at the School. And he also
understood why the kids hated Thomas, because
he
sure did. He hated Thomas more with every vicious punch he took.
But Kit didn’t talk, didn’t confess, didn’t tell.
Not a word.
M
AX INSTANTLY recognized some of the hideous creeps from the School. They had been the keepers, the guards, the bullies. They
were tramping all over the woods now, looking for her, trying to kill her if they could. Well, screw them.
She was hiding at the tippy-top of one of the thickest pine trees, but there was still danger up there. If she needed to fly
in a hurry, it would be hard to take off from a wobbly branch in a tree. She knew she needed to get up some decent speed first.
It was better if she could run first. She might have trapped herself here in the tree.
She desperately wanted to fly now, but a couple of helicopters were thundering above, crisscrossing over the dense patch of
woods. She could hear their thudding roar, and occasionally saw one hovering above in the purplish-black night sky.
The helicopter door was wide open and she saw two men with rifles inside. Everybody was looking for her. The awful creeps.
Kit had called the news helicopter they’d seen near Denver the “good guys,” but Max was sure he didn’t mean the ones fluttering
through the woods now. The men up there wanted her dead. She could see their guns. They were hunters, and she already knew
how horrible it was to be shot.
No, they sure weren’t the “good guys.” They were the worst scum of the earth. Such cowards. Such rotten, stinking bums.
She hadn’t been this afraid since the beginning, since she was running away from the School with Matthew, before she had flown
for the first time. She didn’t like being out here all alone again.
She missed her brother, Matthew, and Oz, Ic, the twins. She missed Kit and Frannie, too. She had trusted them—with her life.
When she thought about the two of them, she felt something she had never experienced before. The feeling made her heart beat
faster. It made her choke up, as if she were going to cry. She absolutely, positively, refused to cry now.
Max’s heart skipped a beat. A soldier was coming. Some kind of mean, nasty slug. He was down below her hideout.
He was wearing funny-looking goggles, and she thought she knew what they were.
Night glasses,
so he could see in the dark.
Like a vampire.
She was so angry now. She wasn’t going to die like this! No way was she going to cooperate with that lousy plan of theirs!
Max flapped her wings fast and real hard at the last possible second. The soldier or guard raised his head to look.
“Geronimo, asshole!” she yelled.
Max dropped from the tree. It was almost a free fall.
Fwap!
Fwap! Fwap! Fwap!
Fwapfwapfwapfwapfwap!
Max hit the man like a large, falling rock. His goggles flew off his face. The big, bad rifle spun away, too. He lay on the
ground out cold.
Now that was dumb! What’s that supposed to prove?
she was thinking.
That you’re just like him?
But she knew the answer from somewhere deep inside.
She could fight back!
She raised her arms into the air—raised her wings high, and she whispered real loud—”Yesssss! I can fight
Them!
”
But then she heard the roaring thunder of approaching helicopters. She looked up. There was more than one. Now she wasn’t
so sure.
K
IT HAD CUTS and lacerations and purplish bruises all over his face. His upper lip was split and leaking blood. His nose was
bleeding, and probably broken at the bridge bone. He had been beaten up, really knocked around. He had been somebody’s punching
bag and they’d had quite a workout.
“What happened to you? What
happened,
Kit?”
“I didn’t talk,” he was able to say. He tried to smile with his fat lip, and partly succeeded.
I sat down beside him on the bed. I wished I had a first-aid kit. I gently touched one of the bruises and he winced.
“I’m all right. I’m fine,” he said. “I’ve taken a few punches before.”
He was pissed off about the beating. He was like an animal that had been caged and mistreated. He was going to get even, somehow,
and I loved his spirit. He never seemed to give up. He told me about his visit with Uncle Thomas. Then I told him what I had
learned upstairs with Gillian.
Kit slid his arm around me. He moaned as he did. I leaned my head against his shoulder and we were quiet for a couple of minutes.
“I’ll never forget the first time I saw you,” Kit said against my cheek. I thought that he was smiling. I could hear it in
his voice.
“When I was screaming at you to get off my property? To pack up and clear out? You said, ‘a deal is a deal.’”
Kit nodded. “I believe that. And also that a handshake’s a handshake. You struck me as brave, wise, adventurous, obstreperous
as hell. Not to mention extremely beautiful.”
“Right I remember how glamorous I looked. I had blood and guts from a deer smeared all over my smock.”
“Yep. Blood on your blouse, fire in your eyes. God, you were a pretty sight. You
are
so pretty. I hope to hell we’re going to get through this, Frannie. I don’t exactly see how they can let us go, though. We’re
eyewitnesses to everything.”
“Our last day on earth,” I sighed, letting the words sink in a little, thinking about their meaning. “How incredibly weird.
What do you regret never having done? What would you do now if you could?”
“I’d like to fly with Max,” Kit said without hesitation. He sighed. “I’d like to have said good-bye to Kim and my to little
boys. It kills me that I didn’t get the chance…. I’d like to go on a camera safari to the Serengeti and Masai Mara. Maybe
live for a couple of months in Tibet, in spite of the Brad Pitt movie. Go to Florence for a month or two.”
“Yeah, beam us to Florence, Scotty,” I said. I don’t know why we were talking that way at such a bad time, oddly at peace,
a little giddy. We were, though. Probably the thing I regretted most was that we wouldn’t be with each other anymore. Kit
and I were just beginning—and now we would suddenly end. It seemed unfair and wrong.
“I really couldn’t bear to die unless I did this,” Kit whispered. Even though his lip must have hurt, he kissed me, very softly,
on the lips. It was the sweetest thing. He kept surprising me like that.
I whispered, “I wanted to do that, too,
really
wanted to. Right from the first time I saw you.”
“You sure had me fooled,” Kit whispered back. “What else did you want to do?”
“Let me show you. Come here.”
We kissed again, tenderly but urgently. We pushed against each other’s bodies. What else did I want to do? I wanted to undress
him very slowly and luxuriously, and have him do the same to me. There wasn’t enough time for us, and we knew it. It changed
everything, changed every priority we might have had. Maybe it ordered our priorities correctly for the first time.
I gently touched his face. Kissed the cuts. I tasted the blood off his lip. I was learning all about him, memorizing, hoping
never to forget anything about him. This was about the only thing we could do now, the only good thing that made sense. It
was better than worrying, blaming ourselves for mistakes, banging on doors and screaming.
I reached and tugged at his wide leather belt. I was still a little shy with him. Then, when I realized how foolish that was,
I yanked hard on his belt. Everything between us had happened so fast, but at least it had happened. He was the sexiest, the
best man I had ever known. I was so sure of it. Oh, I was sure.
The seconds passed slowly. I let them, wanted them to move slowly. There was nowhere for us to go, no better place to be.
I felt a little dizzy, suddenly returning to intimacy like this. There was no guilt for me, though, not anymore.
Kit’s face tilted toward mine. He held my chin tenderly with his fingers. He kissed my lips, then my cheeks, my nose, my eyes.
His blue eyes never left mine.
I couldn’t remember anyone ever kissing my eyes before. He kissed the hollow place in my throat. I loved that, loved the way
he touched me. Maybe this shouldn’t be happening now, but I couldn’t stop, didn’t want to.
It seemed so incredible that the two of us were together. My breathing was shallow, my breasts rapidly rising and falling.
I wanted Kit so much. I ran my hands across his hard back, his shoulders, the insides of his muscular legs. He was aroused
now, very hard, and I loved that he wanted me. I wanted him, too.
A fire had been rekindled inside me. It was spreading quickly. Kit entered and we began to rock slowly, then more quickly,
much more quickly. I felt our bodies find a rhythm and it was so right, so good. I had the thought—that we were flying, and
this was how it was supposed to be.
M
AX HAD ONLY DOZED. It was all she dared to do. She had moved again, changed locations. She was hiding at the top of a small
mountain thick with boulders and aspens. She had buried herself under damp leaves and brittle, old branches in a deep, narrow
crevice.
After an hour or so, she raided a nearby summer house for food and water. Just for old times’ sake. And because she was ravenously
hungry and thirsty. Flying burned up tremendous amounts of energy.
She had gorged herself, eaten too fast. Now she was sick to her stomach. Her tummy was cramped and she felt nauseated, just
plain awful. But it was time to go, anyway, time to rock and roll, time to live life to the fullest, and probably time to
die.
That wasn’t so great, but it was okay with her, Max was thinking. At least she’d been free for a while. She’d been able to
fly and see a little corner of the world. Most people never got to do that. Not as she had.
The morning sun was coming up fast and she was so happy to view it one more time. She wanted to fly right into the glorious
sunrise, to be one with the great orange and yellow ball of sun. She felt incredibly connected to the rest of the universe.
Did that make sense—was she more connected than most people? She thought that she was. Maybe because she could fly.
God she felt stiff and achy all over. She needed to take a hot shower. Needed to have Frannie comb out her hair, preen her
feathers. She wanted to be with her friends, and for once, have everyone else leave them alone.
Damn them all! She hated Uncle Thomas, the other guards, the strange men in the business suits, whoever they were. Hated them
with all of her heart.
Max crept up onto a bluff that overlooked the upper part of the valley. She figured she was about two miles from the house.
Kittytoes,
she thought to herself.
Don’t make any noise now. Don’t blow it and get caught. You can’t get caught now.
Max lifted her head, peered out over the valley, and her heart nearly stopped.
Oh no!
She could see an army of men and women looking for her. She quickly ducked back down behind the rockface.
She raised her head again. Just a peek. She saw one of the helicopters, and it gave her an idea. She didn’t know whether her
idea was stupid or pretty cool or totally insane. She concentrated on the distant whirlybird, cleared her brain of everything
else.
Yes, it was a pretty cool idea! Maybe because she didn’t have too many other choices. At least it was a plan. Something to
get her through the next few minutes.
She stretched out her limbs and wicked pain punched through her body. She ignored it. She got herself as limber and loose
as possible. She prepared herself mentally. God she still felt nauseated. The food she’d found must have been partly spoiled.
She warned herself:
Get up in the air fast. No fear. No hesitation. Stay inside the trees.
Fly very, very fast.
No fear!
Stay low!
God save anybody who gets in my way!
Max stood up quickly, and started to run to beat the brass band. Her heart was beating fast and very hard. Too hard, in fact.
It was threatening to break right out of her chest. She felt as if she might blow apart.
She saw no one as she lifted off the ground. Where were the searchers? She expected to be shot at. She winced at the thought,
wanted to shut her eyes, but didn’t.
Stay low, fly very fast.
Please don’t let them shoot me down again. Just let me be okay for a few minutes. Let me fly for a minute more. Let me fly
for ten more seconds.
Oh no! It was too late to slip in behind the trees. The guard was right there, so freaking close he could almost grab her.
He must have been sneaking up on her, silent and deadly as an Icarus fart. As he raised his rifle from hip level, Max dived
like a bomber. She had no choice.