Disclaimer: James Patterson owns Maximum Ride. No copyright infringement intended.
Chapter 29
"It's a computer lab." Fang whispered as he loosened the vent over a vacant room.
"A computer lab? Really? What is it with us and finding the computer labs of these mad scientist facilities? Why can't we just get lucky and pop into a room that actually has what we need for once?" I complained as I took the vent cover that he passed back to me and set it carefully aside in the spacious vent. These mad scientists picked out the perfect vent systems for people to crawl around in.
"Well so far we've been 'popping' into empty rooms. Do you want to get caught? Because I'd take computers over that any day." He replied as he slipped feet first through the opening and dropped out of sight. I heard the slight 'thud' that assured me of his landing. I inched forward and looked over the edge of the opening. Fang stood as a dark pillar in a room of white. White floors, white walls, white appliances, and white lab coats hanging in neat rows by the far wall.
"You know," I said as I slid my legs so they dangled downwards. "Someone should consider introducing more colors to their color pallet around here. I mean, all of this white is practically blinding, and it gets dirty so fast. They'd be better with a darker color to hid dirt, and blood, and to match the sinister feeling that this place gives off."
"Are you coming or what?" Fang demanded from the room below.
In answer to his question I released my hold on the vent around me and went plummeting to the ground.
I nearly tumbled over as I landed awkwardly but Fang caught me and managed to keep me upright.
I flinched away from his grasp and the jolts of electricity that came with it. "Thanks," I mumbled before walking away. I paced along the walls of the room looking over all of the computers. "There's really no point in staying in this room." I admitted. "We've gotten everything we needed off of the computers at Itex. Now we just need to find my parents."
"And how are we going to do that without getting caught?" He asked, still in the same spot I'd left him in.
I shrugged. "I figured we'd wing it."
"Well that's comforting," he groaned. "Good to know that we have a plan."
"What kind of plan do you suggest we make?" I asked, miffed. "We had no idea what we were dealing with until we got here and really this whole trip has been about taking things one step at a time. A plan wouldn't have done us any good."
"We can't just go out there blind either." He pointed out.
"That's what we did at the School."
"And we both know how that ended."
"Well do you really see an alternative?" I demanded, propping my hands on my hips. All we were doing right now was wasting time and risking being overheard. I wanted to get moving because if I was going to get caught I might as well do some exploring first.
He didn't answer, which was answer enough for me.
"In that case, follow me." I said as I strode with false confidence towards the heavy medical looking double doors. I approached them from the side and when I was close enough I used the small windows—which were embedded with chicken wire to prevent a break in, or in their case, most likely an escape—as a peep hole to view the outside hallway…
…and ducked back behind the door just as quickly as two men in white coats passed right by the windows talking and gesturing at their clipboards as they went.
Fang gave me a questioning look but I just shook my head in negation and carefully peeked outside once more. White coats proceeded down the hallway at all levels of speed: casual, pressed for time, and late. Not one of them was paying any attention to another.
And the metaphorical light bulb in my head went off.
I was across the room in a flash as I ran my hands over the many lab coats the hung from the wall. I selected two that would do best to hide our shapes in hopes of not drawing any eyes to our young miens.
"Here," I tossed the bigger coat to Fang who caught it with deft precision. "Put this on. It's nearly lunchtime. I'm sure nobody will pay attention to us when their stomachs are growling. We'll slip right by." I pulled on my own coat as I spoke. It was heavier than I expected and felt awkward on my shoulders.
"Well?" I asked, spinning so Fang got a three-sixty view of me. "How do I look?"
"Ridiculous. You should never be a scientist." He said in a deadpan tone, but his eyes twinkled with suppressed humor.
"Shut up." I scowled playfully as I threw a pen I found in my pocket at him. He dodged it and the pen clattered to the floor. "After everything we've seen I wouldn't even consider it."
Unlike his interpretation of how I looked Fang could pull off the lab coat look. I'm pretty sure he could pull off most things. While I'd agree that black is definitely his color, against the white of the coat his olive toned skin looked flawless and his dark hair gave him an almost dangerous air.
Without another word we headed towards the door.
Opening that door was one of the most nerve wracking experiences of my life and it took me about two minutes to muck up the courage in the first place. Finally—after a particularly sharp elbow to the side from Fang—I pushed the door open just enough for us to slip into the throng of moving bodies.
I saw a few people carrying shopping bags and Tupperware containers down the hall to my left. That must be where the cafeteria is, I realized. Which means that is public area, which means my parents won't be doing top secret experiments there. Fang must have realized the same thing because with an unspoken agreement we headed down the hall to the right.
We weren't the only ones heading in that direction but with the majority of the people heading the other way fighting the crowd was a bit difficult. I had to fight to stay by Fangs side. The last thing we needed was to be separated in this place and the constant brush of his arm against mine was a comfort I did not want to lose. We got to the end of the hallway and had three choices, go straight towards the elevators, or go either left or right. Most people who had come in this direction veered off and headed right or left so we opted for the elevator. I doubted that there would be any special experimenting—or anything worth my parents attention—on this level.
"You know, I was expecting the labs to be underground. Stereotypical labs you know? Like all of the others we've come across so far? So it's pretty interesting to be going upstairs." I noted once we were alone in the elevator and headed upwards. With both the Institute and the School we'd had to descend a poorly lit stairwell to reach the lab. Now we were listening to elevator music.
"Well Florida is pretty much all at water level. If they dig a basement they'll really be digging a pool." Fang explained pulling on his wealth of knowledge about Florida to educate me some more.
"So," I said as I looked at the six buttons each denoting a different floor number. "Which floor do you think has the creepy lab?"
He shrugged. "Haven't we had enough of creepy?" He asked. "The better question is: where will we find your parents?"
"I personally don't think we'll find one without the other."
Fang adopted a look that said fair enough but didn't explicitly say it. Instead the elevator jolted to a halt and released us onto the second floor.
The second floor was of no use to us. While it screamed scientists work here it didn't give off the evil vibes we were explicitly looking for. Instead it contained very mundane versions of labs that looked like they could only support minor experiments, and rooms full of books and other research documents.
After twenty minutes of snooping Fang and I headed back to the elevator to search the third floor.
That floor proved to be exactly what we were looking for.
"This is creepy." I whispered as I peeked through the small box sized windows in the doors that were identical to the ones from the computer lab. Inside the room was a lab just like the ones from the School. Scientists traveled back and forth across the room retrieving and dropping off bottles, papers, beakers, and—I saw to my utmost disgust—a small figure that was maybe human at one point but could hardly be called that now. I had flashbacks to the dog creature at the School and the wall of caged experiments. Fang made a small noise of agreement. My stomach rolled and I had to force myself away from the window.
Every room thereafter was the same and with each new sight I grew more and more nauseous. It got to the point where I squeezed Fangs hand for support and refused to let go—not that he tried to make me.
At the end of the hallway was a locked pair of double doors that had no window complete with a key guard. Call it intuition, common sense, a familial link, I don't give a damn what you call it all I know is that somehow I knew this was where my parents would be spending most of their time.
I needed to get in there.
The closer I got the more unusual the key guard seemed until I stood right before it. That's when I realized that it wasn't just a key lock. Yes a key card had to be swiped but there was also a small glass square that was marked with finger prints.
A finger print scanner.
It was a bit overkill in my opinion.
"How do we get in?" I asked Fang, my fingers hovering uselessly over the lock.
"I don't suppose you have a makeup kit on you that we could somehow use those fingerprints to get in, like on Scooby Doo." He said.
I turned to him slowly, eyebrows raised. "Scooby Doo?" I asked in disbelief, trying, and failing, to connect the images of Fang, at any age, watching a movie with a talking dog and a guy wearing an ascot.
He cocked an eyebrow, unabashed as he said, "I live with Angel and Gazzy. Remember?"
I nodded in understanding before turning back to the lock once more. Once adding a mischievous Gazzy and sweet little Angel to the picture I could definately come up with a—somewhat comical—image of him watching Scooby Doo. "That you'd even suggest I have makeup is pretty ridiculous."
"Well, what other option do we have?"
"Well we—"
A voice cut me off and froze me down to my core.
"Anne?"
Dun Dun DUN! Who do you think will be there when Max turns around? If I don't update again this week I'm sorry but my life is hectic. I just got a job and I am scheduled to work EVERY DAY this week, including prom :( and I have AP tests, prom itself, and end of the year stuff so just know that I'm not neglecting you guys! Please read and review!
Peace!
