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Dr. Martinez met her captor's eyes. "What?"
"We have Maximum Ride in custody," said the second-in-command triumphantly. "Sign this, and we will let her go."
Laughter croaked out of Dr. Martinez's dry mouth, distracting her from her pain and weakness. "If you've got Max in custody," she said, "then you have my sympathy."
She started to laugh again, but the M-Geek shocked her much more strongly now, and everything went fuzzy for a minute, before she passed out.
63
OKAY, I'm no marine biologist, so the whole octopus/squid distinction is lost on me. All I can tell you is that it was way bigger than me, gushy, slippery, impossible to get hold of, and seemed to have a million tentacley arms that it wrapped so tightly around me I couldn't move.
I remembered how octopi and squid eat their prey—they pry open clams and use their sucky arms to shove the soft clam meat into their parrotlike beaks. It was trying to pry me open! Then it would stuff soft bird-kid meat into its beak!
I drew in panicked breaths from the regulator, thrashing around, trying to kick backward, everything I could think of to break free.
Reminder: One cannot build up a lot of power in water. One cannot jump up and kick something. One cannot use one's weight effectively. One can only thrash around, pushing helplessly against gushy, squishy, stretchy tentacles, trying to pry them off of everything.
One can also try to reach the eight-inch knife one has strapped to one's thigh. Of course, I couldn't get mine, because that was how this whole day had gone.
And then it pulled my mask right off my face.
Cold salty water splashed into my eyes, went up my nose. Meanwhile, the slimy beast pulled the regulator out of my mouth, almost yanking my teeth along with it as I tried to hold on. Now I had no air source.
I pressed my lips together so I wouldn't swallow the salt water. We mutant freaks have very efficient lungs and air sacs, but we do have to breathe. If I couldn't breathe, I would drown, here in a dark cave, lost and alone.
Without ever kissing Fang again.
Tears are kind of redundant in the ocean, but I felt them well up hotly in my eyes.
64
EYES SQUEEZED shut, mouth closed tightly, I struggled with all my might, wishing with every fiber of my being that this was a plain-old regular Eraser or Flyboy or M-Geek or clone or any other ridiculous, stupid thing that someone had thought up—
The arms loosened their hold on me.
I fought and struggled again, and the arms loosened some more. Then suddenly the arms were gone. I lunged for my regulator hose and saw that the cave was full of light.
And there were John, Dr. Akana, and Fang. I had opened my eyes just in time to see Fang punching the octopus/squid/cephalopod right in its big googly eyes.
I reached around and grabbed my regulator—only to find half of a ripped hose, which had blown my entire air supply out in a huge, festive burst of bubbles.
A couple more punches and the thing turned and fled into the darkness. Fang swam over to me quickly, seeing my air hose, my breath-holding face probably turning purple. John and Dr. Akana came over too, indicating which way led out of the cave.
Then Fang's eyes crinkled behind his mask: he was smiling.
Smiling? I had, like, five seconds to g
o before my lungs exploded. Were my last thoughts as a living bird kid going to be, I thought you loved me, Fang, you freaking traitor?!
Then he took my hand in his and gently ran his fingers along the sides of my neck.
My eyes widened. I could just barely feel a steady stream of tiny bubbles brushing past my fingers. I did a systems check: Did I feel like I was about to pass out from lack of oxygen? Did my lungs feel like they were about to burst?
Nah, not really.
I grinned back at Fang.
I had developed gills.
