A/N: I already feel better. I was starting to get an overload of story plot in my head and I had to sit down and get it all out. Phew! Alrighty, good news. Volleyball season is over. (We lost in super sectionals.) BUT: Now I have free time! Which means more updates! (I hope.)

"I don't believe you," said Iggy, glaring at me.

I sighed. We had left the inn this morning and had traveled to the nearest city, which just happened to be the capital of Toronto. It was currently noon here, sunny, hot, overflowing with people, and I was extremely stressed out.

"It's lunchtime," continued Iggy, "we walked right by a hot dog place, and you didn't even stop. Have you lost your mind?" Well, actually, about that…

He crossed his arms and continued to walk beside Nudge on the sidewalk. She also looked like she was starving. What else was new?

"Iggy, I swear, right after we find a library or something, we will eat. Everyone's hungry, I get it. But we've really got some stuff to find out now." I ran a hand through my hair and sidestepped a steaming doggy present. Tall, forbidding buildings stretched on either side of us, and though it was slightly more spread out than New York or Chicago, I still got the feeling of claustrophobia. One of the perks of growing up in a cage.

"You can't eat in libraries," he replied. "So basically, after we find whatever it is that we're looking for, which could take hours, then we'll eat."

I hesitated, scanning the building fronts as a tour bus trundled by. "Um, yeah, that's about right."

Iggy huffed. "I can't-"

"Believe me, I know, I know." He did kind of have a point, but I was jumpy. Every second we took, Itex was getting closer to their goal. How much time did we have before it ran out?

"The world won't end while we eat, you know," Fang murmured behind me, reading my thoughts again. I glanced wistfully at him. Fang was normally right, which meant we should stop to eat something. Groan.

"Okay, Iggy, turn around," I gave in. "You can get your stupid hot dog." I turned my flock around on the sidewalk and nearly mowed down a business woman wearing sneakers and a suit.

Iggy slapped Nudge five, who grinned. "Yes!" he cheered. "Food!"

I shook my head. What could I do but love them?

-Max, Max, Max.-

Oh, yay. The second voice strikes again. My shoulders sagged. I looked at Fang and bit my lip. He took one look at my agitated face and understood. "Which one?"

I held up two fingers. "It just said my name."

Angel's head suddenly snapped around to face me. "Max? What do you mean, you have two voices?"

"Nothing, nothing," I said hurriedly. "I meant Jeb and me." She couldn't know about the second one. No one but Fang could know. I didn't know if she bought my explanation or not –who does anymore?-, but I wasn't about to elaborate.

-Do you know who I am, Max?-

NO. No, I don't, and I don't plan to, I answered back without thinking. Today's sign of insanity is – not one, but two voices in your head that you're constantly talking to.

-Keep thinking. You'll get it…-

"Max? Come back to us." Fang was waving his hand in front of my face. "Are you okay? What's going on?" We were starting to attract weird looks, and half of the flock was a few steps ahead, heading for food.

"I'll tell you later," I said, exhaling.

I'll tell you, this life sure never gets boring. There's never a dull moment. I haven't decided yet whether that's okay, or just annoying and potentially life threatening. And extra dangerous. And did I mention it was annoying?

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Ten minutes later, each flock member had a hot dog in their hands, I had no voice talking to me in my head, and we were on the move again. Constantly, constantly, moving. Sometimes, I just wish I could be normal, you know? No one chasing us, no world to save…just a room to clean or something. You hear me? Quit complaining about cleaning that room!

Nudge wiped a smear of ketchup from off of her face. "Max?" she asked, an expression on her face that said that she was clearly thinking about something.

"Yeah, Nudge?" I replied.

"What exactly are we looking for?"

"More things about global warming," I said, without even pausing to think.

"Didn't we already find out stuff about that? Remember, I told you and we watched that T.V. program?"

"Well, yeah," I answered, "but that's not enough. We have absolutely no idea how to stop it. It's, like, a globaleffort thrust on six kids. So we need something on a smaller scale. Got it?" Actually, I didn't even get it. I don't seem to get a lot of things lately. I hate it. I hate it with a passion.

"Yeah, okay," she said. "How long is that gonna take?"

I have to admit, I was stumped on that one. "Um….a month?" I guessed. "Somewhere in that general direction…" I trailed off, frowning towards a random building. "I'm not exactly sure."

"A month?" asked Gazzy disbelievingly through a mouthful of hotdog. "It'll take that long?"

I glanced at Fang. He just looked back at me impassively, as if to say, It's your call.

"Maybe," I replied, backtracking. "That was a maybe it could take a month. I'm not sure." I didn't want to say that I had no clue. I wanted to tell them, "Oh, it'll only take a week. Maybe it'll even take just two days, and then we'll be on our merry way!" But there was no point in filling their head with stuff that would never come true. Like telling them that the world was really a wonderful place. I only do so much lying, you know.

I snatched up a road map from the hands of a vendor and ignored his protests that I pay. From the looks of him, he'd stolen quite a bit himself. I scanned the map quickly and immediately found something interesting (written in French, of course): Causer de carbone. Carbone? Could that mean something like, carbon?

I stopped stock still and moved off of the sidewalk before I was plowed over. "Hold up," I called. "I found something."

Fang was reading over my shoulder in an instant. "What is it?"

I pointed to the phrase. "It looks like it says something about carbon. Isn't that one of the causes of global warming?"

Fang nodded and provided his own translation. "Carbon causer?"

Total trotted over, being nosy. "What did you find? Is it written in French? I could help."

I rolled my eyes. "Oh, all knowing Total, please, enlighten us with your knowledge of languages."

He huffed. "I will, thanks. It means, causers of carbon."

"Carbon's in coal," I realized. "Isn't it?"

"Yeah," said Fang slowly. "So?"

"So," I pressed on, "what countries produce a lot of coal?" I was on the verge of figuring out something, I knew I was. I just couldn't figure out exactly what.

"I don't know," shrugged Fang. Then it dawned on him. "You're saying-"

"There's probably a huge Itex headquarters wherever the biggest producer of coal is!" I exclaimed excitedly.

Fang didn't look quite as thrilled. Surprise. "You mean Jeb hasn't said anything about this yet?"

"Think about it," I said, warming up to my idea. Nudge was listening interestedly, but I found I didn't care. "We all realize Itex isn't stupid. I mean, hello, we're here! They've probably figured out Jeb could double cross them at any time. He could double cross us, too. So, either, one – he doesn't know because Itex won't tell him, two – he doesn't want to tell us because he's betraying us again, or three – I haven't got a three yet, but it'll come!" I looked at him, grinning and shading my eyes from the bright sun. "Where's a bench or something? We need to back this up."

"With…?"

"Evidence, smart one. Get out the laptop."

We gathered the flock and herded them to a tree–shaded park. I sat on the nearest bench and watched my flock sit to finish eating. Angel swung her legs back and forth – even though she was tall for her age, her feet still didn't touch the ground.

Fang sat next to me and exhaled as he took out the laptop. We used that thing tons more lately. He opened up Google and searched for world carbon producers. "Bingo," he muttered, clicking on a website labeled, World Coal Institute. I leaned closer to read.

The largest coal producing countries are not confined to one region – the top five producers are China, the USA, India, Australia and South Africa. Much of global coal production is used in the country in which it was produced, only around 16 of hard coal production is destined for the international coal market.

Global coal production is expected to reach 7000 Mt in 2030 – with China accounting for around half the increase over this period. Steam coal production is projected to have reached around 5200 Mt; coking coal 620 Mt; and brown coal 1200 Mt.

"China? Isn't that the country that was going to sell us as weapons?" Fang asked me. For once today he sounded remotely interested.

"Yeah," I said, wide eyed. "This is no coincidence."

"Whoa."

"Yeah, whoa," I agreed.

A/N: That blurb that they just read? I didn't make that up. That's real, people. Just go to Google and type in their search. Or, go to my profile for the link. That website will pop up. There's a graph on there, too. I do put research into this, and eventually I'll go by the Flock's blog as well, so if you really want to find cool stuff in here from now on, pay attention in school. (Much as we ALL hate it. I do, too.)

Happy discovering! (And oh yeah, review please.)