Hey, just to let you know, if I make any mistakes, I'm really, really tired today. Long night. So anyway, all I really have to say right now is review. So then, REVIEW!

Chapter 9

Max pov.

We were staring at the blueprint of the weapon for like, five minutes before someone said something. Scar clears his throat. "So . . . what exactly is that?"

I get a closer look. "It looks like some kind of weapon to me. It kind of looks like some big army tank with a ton of guns and missile shooters or something."

"Yeah," Fang said quietly, "but look at those tanks on the side. They look sort of like some kind of gas tank, but it has a skull-and-crossbones sign on it."

"Could someone fill me in here?" Iggy demands and Isabelle goes on to describe the blueprint to him.

Fang definitely was right. It wasn't as simple as just a tank. Even just the blueprint of the thing screamed the words pure evil, stay away.

Shane goes up closer. "Whoa. Look at that." He points toward as set of numbers at the bottom of the page. It was the supposed size of the machine. I won't bore you with the exact numbers, but let me tell you, this thing would be about the size of a house.

"Someone tell me that's inches, not feet." Heather says.

"It's feet." I mutter.

"Let's go see if there are any other secret rooms we don't know about." Shane orders. Everyone starts walking around a little more but Fang stays and keeps examining the blueprint. After a while he motions me to him.

I go up to the table and he whispers, "The gas tanks are filled with hydrogen cyanide. Max, they're going to poison the air. If they have big enough amounts they could kill entire cities at a time. hydrogen cyanide is what people used to use in torcher chambers. They would poison people to death with it. If they could get this stuff into air conditioners, into homes, into pipes, heaters . . . Max, if they could do that do you know how much destruction this could cause?"

I stare at him. "If they released enough poison couldn't it get to them?"

He shakes his head and points to the blueprint, showing me a square-like thing on the side of the machine. "That's an air filtration tank. None of the poison would even reach them inside the tank. I think they plan on releasing it in some big city where it'll have a lot of effect. That or they plan on making a lot of these and taking down whole countries at a time. And see this other tank-like box right here? That's a gasoline tank. And right here, Max, this is sort of like a lighter, except it shoots flame almost. My best guess is that they're going to release the hydrogen cyanide, and then pour gasoline on the streets and buildings. Then they'll shoot the flames out and pretty much cause everything that's untouched by the cyanide to burn or blow up."

We don't talk for a minute, just stare at the piece of paper lying on that table, completely unaware that what was on this piece of paper was going to tear down the world piece by piece, and take along everyone with it, including us. "Max," Fang says quietly after a while and looks up at me, "they wouldn't have forgotten this here if they needed it. That means they have copies of it or already know how to create it. If they didn't then they definitely wouldn't have just left it here when they moved. Max, they don't care that they forgot it. They wanted us to know about it. They know it's so powerful that they can actually afford to give us a chance. Because they know we don't have one."

I stare at him; I can't help it. Fang was basically declaring that we were defeated. "What?" I demand. "Fang, we are not going to give in to defeat. We've been through more than anyone and survived. Fang, we can do it again. We can beat this. We just need time."

"We don't have time!" He says, frustrated, so loudly that everyone else in the room turns to look in our direction. He lowers his voice again. "They probably already have about twenty of these things made."

"Then we'll destroy them. We can beat them. Just don't EVER say it's too late or that we won't win. We will, I promise." I promise? What the heck! I don't know that! For all we know right now, Fang's probably right.

He takes a deep breath and looks at me. "Don't make promises you can't keep."

I stare back. We just lock eyes for a minute. "We should probably get going." Heather says from the other side of the room. "Fang, Max? Can one of you grab the blueprint?"

I break the eye contact and snatch up the paper, roll it up, and shove it toward Fang. "Put it in your backpack." I tell him and walk over to everyone else.

We arrive back at the Tunnel about an hour later. Everyone comes running up to us and questions about what we found. Fang throws the blueprint on the old wooden table and walks over to sit on a moldy-looking, half eaten couch Shane had brought down earlier.

Shane explains what all we found about and I inform them about Fang's discovery since he obviously wasn't going to.

But then I wonder. Did he not want them to know?

Fang pov.

She had pretty much run away in an argument again. Again! I leaned my elbow on the side of the couch. They were all talking about the blueprint but I didn't want to be any part of that right now. Right now I just wanted things to go back to what things were like when we still lived in Jeb's house before Angel was taken.

But of course, nothing ever turns out the way we want it, so it seems pretty pointless to even hope nowadays. Iggy walks over from the group. "Hey." He says.

"Hey," I reply back.

"So, what're you doing?" He asks.

"Sitting. Thinking." I answer.

"Thinking about what?" He looks at me even though I know he can't see me.

"I dunno, stuff. How I never realized how good we had it back at Jeb's before Angel was taken." I shrug.

"Yeah." He nods. "It makes you think, doesn't it?"

Neither of us says anything. "Blaze was flirting with Max again." He says finally.

I try to show no emotion. "So?"

"So, you're not going to do anything about it?" He raises an eyebrow.

"Nope." I reply.

"Jeez, Max is right, you really aren't yourself lately." He gets up and I throw a pillow at him but he dodges it and it lands on the floor.

Okay, please review! Please? -Kristen