A/N: No offense to China meant, just so you all know. All the stuff I'm finding is SO freaky, though. Thanks so much for your reviews, guys! 191 and counting – nine more and we reach my goal of 200. Then I'll have to set my goal at 400…. -grins- I think we can, if all the 65 people so far who have put me on Story Alert (wow!) and the 36 that have added me to Favorite Stories all review, plus cough. On with the chapter!

But we were getting ahead of ourselves here, weren't we? We still had to find this Carbon Causers Institute. But curiosity got the better of me, and I decided to keep digging on this whole China thing.

"Hey, Nudge," I called. She had been attempting to coax a squirrel into eating a piece of her hot dog bun unsuccessfully. She looked up from where she was squatted on the grass.

"Yeah?"

"Come here and see if you can dig up anything on China," I suggested, motioning with my head to tell her to sit next to me. "Then we're going to go check out this carbon institute company."

She grinned, and I could read in her face that she was eager for a challenge. "How long will you give me?"

I shrugged. "Fifteen minutes? Half an hour? Knock yourself dead."

She got nimbly up off of the ground and came over to the bench where Fang and I were sitting. Fang handed her the laptop and Nudge settled it on her lap, grinning like the Cheshire Cat. Her brown fingers flew over the keys. I settled back in my seat and closed my eyes, imagining that the breeze that blew my face was really a slipstream ruffling my feathers as I flew through the sky, without worries or voices or –

"Got something," said Nudge's triumphant voice. "In forty five seconds. New record!" She smiled smugly and angled the laptop my way to read. It was some scientific article about China needing a whole ton of raw materials (for reasons unstated), but they didn't want to accept one hundred and forty two billion dollars to get them because it would mean merging two larger companies. Or something like that. I raised my eyebrows.

"Save that page," I told her. "Anything else?"

"There will be. Gimme a sec." She focused on the screen, eyes narrowed slightly. I surveyed the rest of the flock, making sure that everyone was still here and not being carried off by any whitecoats. Gazzy and Iggy were talking about something in hushed tones beneath a tree – never a good sign – and Angel was stroking Total on the bench next to ours. She giggled at something he'd said and scratched behind his ears. Total closed his eyes and opened his mouth in a doggy grin.

"There's something about the U.S. trying to make an investigation into how China makes paper, but I'm sure it's nothing," she murmured, clicking to the next page. "And there's a ton of stuff about how China's trade is goin' up. I mean, practically every site has something about it – 'China to import 10 million tons of LNG annually by 2010', 'China-Russia trade reaches thirty nine billion in first nine months', 'Total trade volume may exceed 2.1 trillion this year'- they're busy, aren't they?" She looked up from the screen at me.

"Mega busy," I agreed, not knowing what exactly to make of that. Maybe Itex controlled China's government or something.

Okay. Scary thought.

Fang's brooding eyes peered at the website. "Click that link," he ordered Nudge suddenly. He pointed at the screen to a link that said: Expert: China to become world's second largest trader. She did as he said and her mouth dropped open. Even Fang's face registered a look of utter surprise.

"Does no one speak anymore?" I asked them, scanning the article. Okay, I had to admit it was pretty dang coincidental. But coincidences don't even exist in my world. Everything happens on purpose, and whenever there's a coincidence, it's nothing good.

I'm sure you all are just screaming at me to spit it out already, ain't ya? Well, I'm getting there!

The article, summarized, pretty much talked about how there was so much trade going on in China, it was about to pass up the U.S, the world's largest trader. (Big surprise there.) Then it talked about a whole ton of financial things, but then it said that the third largest trader was Germany. Germany, where Itex's supposed biggest headquarters was. Germany, where we were held captive and found out crucial things about our entire lives. Remember what I said about coincidences? Apply that here.

Guess Germany is no longer the Itex head honcho.

"Please tell me that we aren't going to break into another high security building probably loaded with people that are out for our blood," Fang said, looking pointedly at me. We were walking through the city again, heading for the address on the Carbon Causers specified on that directory we'd – acquired – from that vendor.

"We aren't going to break into another high security building probably loaded with people that are out for our blood. We're going in the front door. It's not breaking in. Why? Scared?" I taunted, but I grinned to let him know I was joking.

"Nah, I'm just the careful one."

"You know, that's funny. I was so sure it was me who saved all of your lives too many times to count."

"Will the two of you lovers shut up?" grumbled Iggy. "I'm trying to hear."

Nudge raised an eyebrow at me, a slow smile curving her lips. "Ooh, Max…did you hear what he just called you and Fang?"

"Yeah, I heard," I replied, with a wry glance at Fang himself. He shrugged a shoulder and flashed me a rare smile, brightening the shadows more than the sun did. "I'm deciding to just give him a death glare and move on."

"Glare all you want, diva," Iggy said in an offhand tone. "I'm not gonna see it."

"Excuse me, macho man? Diva?"

"Break it up, kids," said Fang, holding a hand out to each of us. "Play nicely." I scowled at him, and Gazzy laughed.

I stopped. "There it is." It looked the same as any other building on this block – a tall, black skyscraper, with one big difference –

The Carbon Causers building had no windows.

Hello. Big tip off there, people. I mean, it totally screams, "DON'T COME IN HERE! TOP SECRET EVIL GENIUS WORK!" or something.

A door opened and your typical working guy came out. He was maybe five nine, balding, white, and carrying a briefcase. He wasn't wearing a white coat and he didn't have a secretive air, he was just….normal.

Fang glanced my way. "So?"

"So, we're doing a research project," I said, coming up with a story. "We need facts on global warming and we thought they could help. Got it?"

Gazzy snapped a salute. "Yes, ma'am!"

"Okay," I said briskly, "let's go." I stepped across the street to the forbidding building. That ever-present sense of foreboding was back. I suddenly wasn't sure if we should go in, but I knew we had to figure this out.

So I ignored that sense. Which is never good.

As I pulled open the door, a whoosh of cold air blew my hair back. The floor was made up of black tiles, and the ceiling was really high. A bank of elevators was on the right, and a desk was directly by the door. A woman was seated behind it, chewing gum and seemingly oblivious to the world.

I strode up to the desk and cleared my throat. "Uh, hi." How's that for eloquent? "We're here for research on a school project. Could you give us anything?"

The brunette looked up and popped her bubble. She couldn't have been more than twenty, judging from her face. She scanned the six of us, and her eyes landed on Angel. An eyebrow raised. I'm sure she was wondering why someone who looked to be only nine was doing a global warming project with us. "Like a brochure?"

"Yeah." I said, leaning my elbow on the desk. "Got one?"

She regarded me closely for a moment through slightly narrowed eyes, and then finally agreed. "Alright. Here," She handed me a pamphlet emblazoned with the company's logo. "This is basically everything you need to know about this company. What our purpose is, our objectives, the directors, everything's there. If you want to learn some more about global warming, you go to the website on the back, okay?" She went back to typing on her computer. She was probably IMing her boyfriend or something.

An elevator dinged, and I whirled around, the pamphlet clutched tightly in my hands. A man stepped out, wearing –

A white coat.

My heart nearly stopped.

I managed to regain my composure. "Let's go, guys," I muttered under my breath. "Time to get out of here." Angel took hold of my hand, and I squeezed it tightly. I forced a reassuring smile and all but dragged her with me to the door.

"Are those reports almost done, Brandy?" he asked the receptionist. "I want to finish my experiment and then-" He caught sight of our little group. "What are you kids doing here?"

"Leaving," said Iggy. "Bye!" He pushed the door halfway open, but the man spoke again.

"Do I know you kids?"

"No, I'm sure you don't," said Nudge, pushing Iggy out of the door. "We don't get out much. We'll be seeing you!" We ran out of there without looking back.

I knew I should have listened to that gut feeling I'd had.

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I ran my flock for five blocks until I was sure that there was no one from that building following us. I released a long breath. That had been way close. For all we knew, that whitecoat could be phoning the Itex company in America right now, doing that thing on the news where they're like, "It's eleven o'clock. Do you know where your children are?" Only in this case it would be, "Do you know where your mutant freaks are?"

Fang leaned up against a building and closed his eyes as soon as we stopped. His face looked a little pale, and I went on red alert.

"Fang? Are you okay?"

He opened his eyes and nodded. "Yeah. It's no biggie. I'm fine, just a little off."

"Are you sure?" I pressed. He would never tell me if he was hurt, I thought, remembering an incident on the beach with blood gushing from Fang's side.

"Positive, Mom," he said, smiling wanly. I shot him a look and turned away. Sure he was positive. I'll find out what's really up with him. Somehow.

A/N: Bleh. I hate this chapter. Really. I hope you all liked it. You know the drill, review, and then check my profile for links to articles.