Chapter 5

Disappeared – not quite. Although Fang seemed to have some kind of invisibility skill going for him lately. Having had avian DNA grafted into us not only gave us wings, super-human strength, and a various assortment of odd abilities but we could usually outrun the average human on the ground. The blue brigade hadn't even touched the door at the top of the stairwell in the time that we rounded four flights and burst through the portal to the 38th floor. We sprinted down the hallway, rounded a corner and discovered a room two doors down that was in the process of being cleaned.

Barely making a sound, we scurried through the door and towards the French doors that opened up to a balcony. A voice trailed from the bathroom – it sounded like someone was singing. Or at least trying to.

"What is that?" snorted Total. "It sounds like two cats fighting!"

"Shhh!" I whispered.

The voice – belonging to someone I think was feminine – bellowed again. Some incomprehensible song was now going to be permanently wedged in my brain. Not pretty.

"Don't quit your day job." Total muttered again, a little too loudly.

The singing stopped. "Qui est là ?" came a caustic voice from the bathroom.

Fang and I exchanged gazes.

No more tiptoeing through these tulips.

"Go! Go! Go!" I ordered.

Fang led the flock through the double doors and did an up and away as soon as he hit the balcony. I brought up the rear and within minutes we were airborne, our wings fully extended. I glanced back and saw a most petite woman, jaw seemingly close to ground level. She peered around the French doors looking as though she had seen a ghost.

So much for not wanting to draw attention to ourselves.

We banked left and dove downward, accelerating to over 150 miles per hour.

"Hey, New Yawk, " I thought. "You're getting a free show today!"

Fang eyed an alley close to the hotel. It was fairly free of pedestrian traffic. Most people on the streets were actually beginning to form small pods as they outwardly wondered who we were and what we were doing.

"It's those bird kids we saw on the news the other day!" my raptor hearing picked up someone saying.

"Mom, mom – that's Fang's flock! The one whose blog I told you about!"

Fang's flock?! I would never hear the end of that one. Fang glanced over at me as we landed – a smug grin lighting up his face.

"Pull your head out of the clouds, oh cocky one," I snapped at Fang. Ooh – he was going to hear from me later. "Let's get back to the hotel before something bad happens."

We found a service entrance on the back side of the Waldorf-Astoria and darted in behind an unsuspecting waiter with music blaring from the MP3 Player connected to his ears. We found our way onto the first floor only to find a whole slew of policeman and men in black suits looking quite purpose driven and ready for action.

"Uh-oh." Nudge grimaced.

That is pretty much the shortest sentence I have ever heard her utter.

We doubled back and found a stairwell at the end of a hall on the 1st floor. It had been at least 30 minutes since Gazzy had gone MIA. I just hoped he hadn't gone back up to the Starlight Room to look for us. Somehow I doubt that he had. As I was contemplating the millions of things Gazzy could be up to right now – none of which were good – Angel sent me a thought. Yes – I did say "sent me a thought." Angel is our resident mind reader and lately she's been able to look at someone and well- control their thoughts also – a little creepy but we have found it quite useful from time to time. Like today, for instance. It's amazing how one can quickly score tickets to the hottest fashion show in town.

I'm sorry, Max. This is all my fault.

I was about to protest when Angel continued.

Gazzy was going on and on about how bored he was and how he didn't want to be here. And then he said he didn't care if it was Nudge's birthday…. Well, I got mad at the birthday part and told him that if he was bored, he should go play with the subway trains.

Well, that explains a lot.

I stopped abruptly and bent down to where Angel was standing. I could tell her eyes were fighting back tears. Angel was a pretty tough cookie, rarely ever shed a tear. Most of us were. But Gazzy was her real brother (not just flock-related) and I realized she was not only frightened by Gazzy's disappearance but also guilt-ridden about the whole situation.

"It's not your fault, sweetie. Gazzy just made some bad choices (and I would so wring his neck for them once we found him) but we will find him. Don't worry."

Now I just had to convince myself of that.

Quit wasting time, Max.

The Voice was back.

You need to find Gazzy now.

Um… no freaking duh, Voice. We have had just a few minor setbacks. My hands shot up to my temple hoping a quick massage would get rid of the Voice – perhaps for good. Don't get me wrong – sometimes it was good to have a Voice in my head – you know – directing us to the basement. How did it know that? But most of the time it was just a big fat ugly freaking waste of time annoyance – like now. I mean, really. Of course we needed to find Gazzy and now… duh!

"Yo," Fang broke into my thoughts. "You alright?"

"Yeah… just my friendly neighborhood voice," I muttered. I addressed the flock, "Alright, stay close. No telling how many of NYC's finest they have down stairs waiting for us. Just follow my lead."

And down the stairs we went.