Hi guys! So… there's a few things I want to share with you.
First, my summer break is coming up soon! My last day is June 3rd, (God it seems so far away.) I don't have to go tomorrow (Memorial Day) so technically I have three days left. In my personal opinion that's three days too many, but whatever. The reason why this should matter to you is because then my whole summer break is stretched out before me with nothing to do but write. So I'll be updating TONS.
Second: There is going to be a third installment of Mack's Saga. (Mack's Saga is what I've come to call it these stories.) I have no idea what the title will be as of now, so suggestions are welcome. Ask UNDERLANDERfromtheOVERLAND, my unofficial beta; it'll be pretty epic. However, I'm not releasing the details of the very, very sketchy plot. I just thought I'd give you all something to look forward to.
Third: I found info on the seventh book of Maximum Ride.
Its called Angel: A Maximum Ride Novel. It comes out February 14, 2011. Here's what its about:In the seventh book in the bestselling series, evil scientists are still trying to convince Max that she needs to save the world, this time by providing the genetic link in speeding up the pace of evolution. Worse, they're trying to convince her that her perfect mate is Dylan, the newest addition to the flock. The problem is that, despite herself, Max is starting to believe it. Fang travels the country collecting his own gang of evolved humans, but the two separate flocks must unite to defeat a frightening doomsday cult whose motto is Save the Planet: Kill the Humans. And this time, the true heroine, for once, might just be little -ha, I didn't write that big long summary. I copied it offline. The link to the website I copied it from is on my profile if you want to check it out yourself! But look! Now we know Fang comes back eventually! And there's more new characters that might not make me want to puke up blood like Dylan does! YAY!
Fourth: I figured I'd give you the good news first. I also found something out about the Max Ride movie. (Yes, for those of you living under a rock, there will be a movie. No, the cast hasn't been picked yet. The script isn't even done.) Catherine Hardwicke will be directing the movie. (Sorry, St. Fang, I know you were the biggest anti-Hardwicke activist.) Trust me, I screamed and yelled and almost smashed my computer screen too.
Fifth: I just figured I throw a few things in here about my DC trip. It was epically fantastic, but I thought I was walking on bone after about forty miles of walking in four days. It's a beautiful city, and I could happily spend the next several years in the Smithsonian. (Dorothy's ruby slippers were beast.) I didn't go through the Holocaust Museum, my kind chaperones knew how badly I was dreading it. Mt. Vernon was awesome, I really loved it. Just thought you guys would want to know. And now, after this extremely long AN, we can get on to the actual chapter! They've fled from Itex and are back in the hotel room.
Mack's POV
"Please don't let all of this be in Japanese." Max muttered desperately before flipping one of the many manila envelopes open.
We were all sitting on mine and Max's bed. It was still pouring buckets outside, so we were all damp and shivering. Nudge had grabbed an extra blanket, and now she, Angel, and Gasman were huddled under it.
Inside the folder was about twenty pieces of paper. Tiny words and numbers were strewn across them.
"Uhhh…" Max said.
"Very interesting. I've never seen anything like it!" Iggy remarked, giving my hand a squeeze.
He was sitting against the headboard, and I was curled up on his lap, an end of the blanket the kids were sharing over our legs.
"Bank accounts." Fang suddenly said.
"Hmm?" Max asked absently, rifling through them.
"They're bank account records." Fang elaborated, his impatient vibes hitting me.
"Why does Itex need a bank account?" Nudge asked, then answered her own question. "Oh, duh. They have to pay for the land, and the actual buildings and trucks and equipment, and food, and all those white coats. Why white? Why not something pretty like light blue or pink or purple or orange?"
"Max," I said, catching sight of something odd on the records, "let me see those."
She handed them to me.
"Whoa, Mack. That is weird." Angel chirped, reading my mind.
"What?" Iggy asked, feeling frustrated again.
I raised his hand up, kissing his knuckles absently, trying to soothe him as I read.
"This branch bought a half a million dollars worth of gold string about three years ago." I muttered, frowning.
"String." Gasman repeated.
I nodded. "Yeah. It looks like they embedded it in a new room, seeing as they also bought/rented building materials."
"That's really…weird." Iggy said, stating the obvious.
Max took the papers back from me, putting them in their folder. She then leaned down over the edge of the bed, grabbed a pen out of my bag, and wrote Finances in big letters.
She handed the folder to Fang.
"Try to hack into this account later." She said, and he nodded.
She reached for the next folder.
She flipped it open, grimaced, then flipped it shut again.
"What was it?" Gasman asked as Angel cringed.
"Mack, write Failed Experiments on top of that one please," she said quietly. Everyone sat in silence. Sick to my stomach suddenly, I took the pen and did so. I handed it over to Fang.
"There is nothing interesting in here at all." Nudge complained.
I grabbed the next folder before Max could.
And gasped at what I saw.
"Oh my God, Max!" I shrieked, and gestured to her wildly to come look. She blinked rapidly, crawling over top Fang to sit by Iggy, peering at the front piece of paper.
Psychic Division- Japanese Branch was the huge title.
The kids leaned forward eagerly. "What is it?" Gasman demanded.
"Does this mean there's others like you, Mack?" Angel questioned excitedly.
"What, what, what, what?" Nudge squealed, bouncing a little.
"A whole division, devoted to psychics? I never knew Itex was into this." Max murmured.
Fang shrugged.
"Well, this is a lovely little twist." Iggy commented.
I quickly turned the page over, eager to see what was on the next one.
Pictures.
Almost like photographs in a yearbook, there were rows upon rows of them, each with a corresponding number in the place of a name. Ages ranged from two to about seventeen. In all, there were thirty-seven of them.
My mouth fell open.
"Thirty-seven psychics, all locked up in that place," I groaned in sympathy.
"Thirty-seven?" Iggy gasped.
I nodded mutely.
Nudge crawled over to look. "That girl is so pretty!" She said, pointing to one with auburn hair and emerald green eyes that glared at the camera. She seemed about my age, or a few months younger.
There were boys as well as girls, and I wondered vaguely if they were kept in the same room or separate.
Gently, I turned the page and went on to the next one. It was a list of abilities the kids had as a group.
I paid no attention to this. I wanted to know what the evil scientists were doing to them, not what they themselves could do.
I read page after page of reports, concentrating hard. There were words in here I'd never heard of before, and I read on a post-college level.
It took me about ten minutes to decipher everything.
I almost wished I hadn't.
"Well," I said in a shaky voice, "that explains the gold string."
Six pairs of eyes stared at me, eager for more.
"They're… well, this is sorta hard to explain." I sighed, suddenly very tired. I rubbed my face with my hands.
"It's very complicated. I don't understand." Angel frowned.
"You can do it. I know you're good at describing things." Iggy encouraged in a whisper, rubbing my shoulder blades and the tiny feathers that lined the edge of my wings.
God, how had I ever gotten on without him?
"Apparently, about five years ago, this particular branch of Itex got real into explaining the supernatural with science. Thus, the Psychic Division." I started.
Max nodded. "Right. Jeb mentioned something like that when we found you about you and Fang being siblings."
"Uh huh," I agreed, but this place took things quite a few steps farther. See, they figured the psychic abilities were filtered from the soul- and they were right. But they had to find the soul first. Eventually they did, calling it an 'immortal being closely linked to humanity while operating on a separate, higher plane.' So they began studying ghosts, and what keeps them here, what allows them to speak through EVPs or move objects, etc. They didn't find much out, until they studied some down by the branch you guys came from in California. They went to an old gold mine, and found that certain metals- especially gold- strongly supports and provides a current for psychic energy."
The flock digested this.
"So…they have souls… trapped?" Gasman asked, screwing up his face in concentration.
I nodded. "There's a lot of technicalities to sort through, and it's a lot more complicated than that, but yes. That's basically what it boils down to."
"Oh my God. That's sick." Max groaned.
"It doesn't even sound possible. What would they want with souls, anyway?" Nudge asked, brown eyes wide and horrified.
"This is where things get freaky. As if they weren't already." I warned them. "They're literally building human- er, DNA-spliced humans like us, anyway- and then trapping the souls that belong to them, or would have belonged to them in that room. They're also building them without souls completely, keeping them in an energy-isolated room. Not sure how that one works either. They're trying to study how that affects the behavior and morals of the experiment. And then they're also putting the souls they know are mated- like mine and Iggy's or Fang and Max's- into male and female experiments after they've lived a couple years without that soul, or any soul, to see if the relationship between the two changes, strengthens, weakens, or makes them any more willing to be part of a Breeding Program."
I hesitated, then added, "I'm not entirely sure these are really souls. They sort of sound like pale impressions, if that makes sense."
"How do they just put a soul…?" Fang trailed off.
"Like I said, it's very complex. I barely understand the concept myself. The fact is, they're doing it." I shuddered, and Iggy wrapped his arms tightly around me.
Max frowned, appearing lost in thought. Then her mouth fell open.
"Jeb knew." She breathed.
"Oh my gosh, Max! I never thought about that." Angel exclaimed.
"Huh?" Gazzy asked.
"Jeb said: Max, you're the only experiment that still has a soul. Remember, Gasman? You were there. You thought he was talking about dancing." Max elaborated.
Gasman blinked. "Oh, yeah. I thought Jeb was just going all Buddha again."
"I've always felt like you guys were a part of me. My soul, I mean. I wasn't sure what one was, or if I even had one, before, but I decided I did when we got to the E house. OMG this reminds me a little bit of the movie the Golden Compass, when they're getting rid of the kids' animal soul thingies." Nudge rambled.
I glanced at Fang, who had disturbed vibes rolling off him in waves. Everyone did, of course, but especially him.
And I understood. Our bodies had been jacked up irrevocably, but our souls had been untouchable. Until now.
We had to take Dr. Lee down as soon as possible.
Okay. I want to explain now my reasoning for doing this.
When you die, it is a generally accepted fact that your soul leaves your body. And then, Jimmy P has always made souls a sort of weird under-current throughout the books. That one comment of Jeb's has always seemed far too important to just be random, and then in Fang, there's a line something like: You can't program the soul. So I began to think this up.
The white-coats had always kept them in cages, but it was just their bodies. Now think of how big the threat is if they can also keep their souls. It'll make more sense as I go I promise.
Okay! So there was that! The person that submits the longest review (that doesn't just ramble, and actually has a point) gets a hint as to the plot of the third installment of Mack's Saga!
I love you guys, thanks as always!