MAX

I just want to make something clear: I am pretty hard to impress. I have flown over almost every state in the USA (I'm avoiding Alaska), seeing every landmark Nudge and Angel could drag me to on the way. I have seen hybrids of almost every animal/human you could imagine, fought many of them, including the scientific version of were-wolves. I have fought the robot replacements of those were-wolves and a super-human teenager. I have been to freaking Antarctica and flown in the eye of a hurricane! So as I said, I'm difficult to impress.

But I have to say, as far as what normal humans can do, the CN tower is pretty cool. I mean, this thing has a revolving restaurant on one of its upper floors! There are these glass floors on another level that make it seem like you are standing on nothing but air, and it is actually really unnerving seeing that with out feeling my wings out and pushing the air down…

God, I'm starting to sound like Nudge.

Anyway, we weren't the only ones freaked out by the apparent lack of a floor. There were several crowds of people standing just at the edge, unable to work up the courage to step on the glass. They just couldn't do it, even after watching five fat guys all jump at the same time (a sight to see), or reading the sign saying that the glass could take the weight of a rhino.

The upper floors were fun, with lots of displays and information on how the tower was built. However, getting up there was not as enjoyable. I had caught a glimpse of the elevators while we were in line to go up; they looked like black, circular canisters that you stuck eight people in and then sealed shut. I had been ready to take the stairs, but Fang and Iggy grabbed a hold of me and pulled me in. I was in the middle of a panic attack when the door slid shut and we started moving up. After less then a second, sunlight was shining in my face from where the door had just been!

No, angry robots had not ripped off the door, it was just transparent. We could see out across the city as we shot up the side of the tower. I breathed a sigh of relief as my claustrophobia settled down, choosing to ignore the small giggles coming from the rest of the Flock.

Now it was almost time for us to meet up with Merlin, and we were in the gift shop located at the base of the building. I gave everyone twenty bucks and let them get something. I grabbed a small glass model of a Canadian Loon (a type of bird, not a crazed hockey fan) for my mom and Ella. Angel and Nudge got bracelets, while Iggy and Gazzy put their money together to buy a model of the Tower that included a lighted and revolving stand. I don't know what Fang bought, he went off when I wasn't looking and refused to tell me what he had hidden in his bag.

We left soon after, and made our way back to where we had left Merlin. He had made it back before us, and was walking slowly along the street, looking in store windows or checking out the menus of restaurants. He seemed to be acting casual, but I could see him look around every so often, making sure that he knew what was going on all around him. Obviously Fang's constant caution had made it clear to him that he had better not be followed.

We waited a few minutes before coming up to him. Merlin grinned as he saw us, and beckoned us over to where he was standing.

"So, what did you think of the tower?" he asked. Instantly he was bombarded by responses, mostly from Nudge and Gazzy, on how awesome the tower was. I waited until they took a breath to speak.

"It was cool. What did you do during your research time?"

He smiled even wider. "I spent about four hours of mind-time looking up stuff about me and other experiments Itex has made. The rest I spent hacking into Itex bank accounts and transferring money into my own account."

"Wait back up. Where did you get an account, did you manage to remember yours from your old memories?" Iggy asked.

"Nope, that's still a blank. The DSB's were designed to be able to hunt runaways anywhere they hide," Like us, I thought, "So ter Borcht made sure that they could pay for any supplies, shelter or bribes that they needed to. I transferred the funds by Internet banking, and I can withdraw the money using the bank card I found in the pocket of my battle suit."

Nudge's eyes grew wide. "So how much money did you take from them anyway? I bet it wasn't much, they have a lot of security on those accounts, the systems are always changing the passwords so that even I can't access them unless I found out what the new password is right after it changed."

"Oh, it wasn't much at all, just about five million."

Merlin

Now that look was priceless! I immediately fixed the picture of the others just standing there with their mouths slack-jawed. If this had been a manga, they would all have their mouths hitting the pavement. Even Fang was openly shocked.

Nudge of course, was the first to recover. I immediately tuned out her flood of questions and promised her that I would tell her how I did the hacking later. Max and Fang were looking mildly amused, while Iggy and Gazzy split their sides laughing at the audacity of my theft.

Max looked over at me and smirked. "How are you sure that you won't get arrested for this? If Itex had these accounts under different names, they could arrest you using the police."

Now I laughed. "Lets see, a top secret, illegal company is going to report the theft of five million bucks (when they would also have to explain exactly where they got that money), with the thief being a mutant who does not officially exist, because they illegally created him in a top secret project. I can see that go over real well with the police. Not to mention that the courts would probably let me sue them for more then that five million if the story ever went public. Ter Borcht is going to try to take me down using illegal methods, because that is his only option."

"I can see that you've thought all this out."

"Nah, it just happened to make occur to me while I was doing the hacking. So now that we've got that settled, how about we go out for dinner tonight? My treat."