Chapter Two:
"Shadow," Jeb explained, standing next to me and looking at the same thing I was. Shadow, the girl from before…remember?...was sitting in a tree and watching three Erasers below her. "She's the last one of her flock…they all died about two years ago," yeah, two years ago…so when you came back, right? "Here, let the computer tell you," he pushed a button below my crossed arms and a computer voice started talking.
"Shadow…age 14," the voice was below my chin and I stopped myself from jumping. Calm down, Max! "Last of her recombinant team of six,"
"Poor girl," I muttered. Jeb didn't notice and I looked up to see that Shadow had folded her wings and was preparing herself to jump onto an Eraser's shoulders. "No wings? That's gutsy," the computer voice below me hadn't stopped so I decided to multitask and watch Shadow and listen to her past at the same time. Geez, and I thought live wasn't hard enough already. Watching her and listening was hard. That girl was quick! She jumped from one Eraser to another like a frog to a Lilly pad so fast I couldn't keep up.
"…trained in stealth fighting and observance…" spying…great. "…Shadow excelled in her studies in Astrophysics and Forensic Sciences…" wow, she's smart too? I just had happened to look down from Shadow's movements and I gasped. I wasn't the only one watching Shadow's performance. There were three other windows, and all of them held people, watching intently at the fight in the arena in front of me. In the nearest window, Fang and a whitecoat watched with interest at Shadow's fighting skills. Fang looked over at my window and made a signal to me. I repeated it back to him and looked at the other window. Iggy was standing in front of a glass screen and I saw that he was hooked up to some wiring that was connected to his temples. No doubt they were there to make him see Shadow.
The bullies! Iggy was obviously in pain from the connection, but he tried not to show it as his head moved back and forth watching Shadow jump from place to place. He liked her. Iggy liked her. There was no doubt, for he was watching her every movement…and I mean every movement. Iggy liked her! I can't get over that…sorry, it's going to take me a while. IGGY LIKES SOMEONE…okay, I'm done. I'm done…
In the other window I saw another lab coat controlling some sort of control panel. Every time and Eraser went down; he pushed some button to let in another wolf abomination. He was going to tire her out…or maybe that was their intent. Again, bullies.
Perspiration didn't appear on Shadow's face until maybe the twenty-fifth Eraser…who just happened to be Ari. He flashed me a tooth grin before striding towards Shadow who was busy with another Eraser. Come on, girl…bust his stupid wolf chops for me!
Ari kept on advancing at her until her present victim hit the dirt twitching. She spun around as soon as she heard Ari's footsteps…but it was too late. Ari sent her spinning with a backhand slap that would have dented a human's skull.