Max sighed happily as she soared over the mountains. The flock was back on their way to Dr. Martinez's house, and they were nearly there.
The vacation had been an absolute blast. Being able to relax after so long was such a relief. Midnight flights under a sky sprinkled with thousands of stars, waking early to witness the gorgeous sunrise… the river flowing through the canyon, the view, the weather. Absolutely wonderful.
Of course, there had been a damper on the joy due to the significant lack of Iggy. Nothing could be quite so fun without everyone's favorite sarcastic pyro. But nonetheless, the vacation had been quite enjoyable, and the flock was better off for it.
"How far until we get there?" Gazzy asked, spinning upside-down and glancing at Max. Max rolled her eyes and grinned.
"See that line of mountains up ahead, Gasser?" she asked, gesturing with her pointer finger. Gazzy nodded. "Well, mom's house is just behind it. We'll be there in a few minutes."
It certainly was lucky, because Angel was just about ready to fall out of the sky due to her exhaustion. A nonstop flight from the Grand Canyon all the way back home really took it out of you.
Plus, everyone couldn't wait to see Ella and Dr. Martinez again. And, of course, Iggy and Total.
As soon as Max could vaguely see the house, tucked amidst the trees in-between the mountains, she swerved and swooped downward until her wings were just slightly skimming the forest canopy. And finally, oh, finally, they were home.
"Yay!" Nudge cheered as they touched down in the driveway. Max noticed that her mom's car was gone. "We're home! We're home! Iggy, come get your presents!"
Having felt bad about leaving Iggy behind while they went on vacation, each flock member had picked up a nifty object from the Grand Canyon to give to him upon arrival back home. And they all knew just how much their Iggy loved presents.
So that's why Max could sense something was wrong when he didn't immediately come barreling out the front door.
The flock stepped up the door and Max reached for the knob, turning it and opening it.
"Hello?" she called into the hallway. There was silence for a moment, and then Ella came rushing down the stairs.
"Max!" Ella cheered, running straight into her half-sister's arms. "Oh gosh, Max, hurry! Go down to the city, mom's there, she's at the police station, you can talk to her there…"
Max exchanged an anxious look with Fang.
"Ella, slow down! Talk to mom about what? Why is she at the police station? Can we talk to Iggy first?"
Ella squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head.
"Mom can tell you everything. Just take Fang down there and talk to mom."
Max frowned.
"Is Iggy down there with her?"
Ella shook her head.
"No, but it's… it's about him. Total's there, though."
"Okay," Max agreed after a strangled pause. "Nudge, go ahead and make Gaz and Ange an early dinner. Fang and I will go talk to mom. Ella, go ahead and fill those three in on what's going on. Okay?"
"Okay," Nudge answered cheerfully, skipping into the kitchen, all prepared to make scrambled eggs and sandwiches – that girl only knew how to make a couple of things.
Max turned right around with Fang at her side and stumbled out the front door, spread her wings, and took a running leap into the air.
As soon as the two of them had covered a half a mile, they started talking.
"What do you think is up?" Max asked Fang, staring ahead at the city that was coming into view. It took a lot less time to fly down than to drive.
"I don't know. Ella said it was about Iggy."
Max's mind drifted to Iggy's bomb-fancy.
"Wait… you don't think he was arrested, do you?" she asked, a touch of humor in her voice. Fang chuckled.
"I wouldn't put it past him."
When they were close to the city border, the two mutant bird-kids touched down and began to walk the rest of the way to the police station. After all, they couldn't just fly all the way and touch down in the middle of the town. It would probably freak people out. Give some old lady a heart attack.
Max and Fang weren't too worried about what was going on until they reached about halfway through town and came to the city library. That library had a large brick wall upon which was tacked all the local news.
And there was a large poster there, hanging every ten feet or so. A poster with a blown up picture of Iggy on it. A poster that read 'MISSING BOY'.
The instant Max caught a glimpse of this poster, she froze in her tracks, her eyes widening, reading the words.
When Fang noticed her stop, he drifted back to see what she was looking at. And when he saw the poster he, too, was frozen in place. That is, until their senses woke up, and each of them turned and began to sprint across the town to the police station.
Max and Fang dodged civilians and passersby with relative ease. They crossed streets in about two steps and swerved around cars and bikes until they reached the police station in record time. The two of them crashed through the front doors and rushed up to the front desk, breathing harshly.
"Good day, may I help you?" the woman at the desk asked, and Max had just opened her mouth to answer when her mom appeared from a room across the hall.
"Max, Fang, please come here."
Each of them turned immediately and ran up to Dr. Martinez, staring at her, as if somehow the information she was carrying would just melt into their minds and they would know exactly what was going on. But they didn't.
"Come in," said a voice from inside the office, and they turned their heads to see Sam Garner standing by his desk. Total was sitting on a chair in front of it.
"Mom, what's going on? What happened to Iggy? We saw the posters… when..?"
Valencia shushed her daughter's onrush of questions.
"Honey, this is very important. You must listen. Don't interrupt. You understand?"
Max and Fang both nodded silently, gazing at her with wide eyes. Dr. Martinez sighed and moved to sit down.
"The day after you guys left, I sent Iggy down to get some groceries because he claimed he was 'better'. But on the way back he was kidnapped by a man named Henry Terry. This man is dangerous, violent, cruel, and insane. We don't know where he is. But you need to find Iggy."
Max's eyes grew even wider as she listened, and Fang's heart beat faster and faster with each passing second.
"We know that Terry took Iggy out of the city, but we don't know where. You need to hurry to find him, because…" Valencia's voice broke, and it terrified Max even more, "Because Iggy is in terrible danger. Total can take you to the place where it happened." Dr. Martinez uttered the last part in a low whisper.
Total jumped out of his chair and darted towards Fang, leaping into his arms and licking his face. He didn't say anything, because Sam Garner was still there, watching the incident with a confused expression.
"Um, Valencia, do you think it a good idea to let these kids look for your son? They're a little young…"
"It's fine," Dr. Martinez answered shortly. Then she turned her gaze to Max and looked her directly in the eyes, holding up a picture of Henry Terry. "Max. This is Henry Terry, the man who kidnapped Iggy. When you find them, Iggy might be seriously injured. He probably will be. And he might be… different. The second you find them, you need to call an ambulance. You hear me? And incapacitate Henry Terry so that he can be arrested. This is important. Understand?"
Max nodded, and then without further ado, she and Fang turned right around and rushed out of the police station.
They ran without stopping until Total led them to the alley in which he had been knocked out.
"The man came out from over there and hit Iggy in the head with a baseball bat. There, see?"
Total gestured with his paw to a darkened nook in the wall, and Fang and Max walked over to see that it was a doorway. The door was shut, but upon closer inspection, not locked.
Inside the building, the door led to a quite large garage of some sort. Skids marked up the concrete flooring, and there was a distinct smell of both Iggy and blood in the cavernous room.
"They left through there," Fang said, pointing towards a garage door, now closed. Max and him silently darted to it and lifted it, just enough for each of them to walk through.
Beyond this garage door was a small street that swerved through the forest until reaching the highway.
"Let's hit the road," Max said, and the two of them hit the air, their wings flapping harshly, following the lingering, week-old scent of Iggy and the leaking car he had been carted away in.
O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O
The two oldest flock members had flown for hours, but they weren't about to stop. Total, too, was wide awake, staring down at the cities and mountains they were passing.
By the way they had figured it, the insane kidnapper probably wouldn't have gone more than fifty miles. So they were flying around the fifty-mile radius, trying to catch Iggy's scent, the scent of the car that he had been taken away in, or maybe even the light scent of that man; Henry Terry.
Luckily, it had gotten dark pretty fast, and the clouds were low that evening, so Max and Fang could hover low above the cities to search.
But it had been hours, and they still hadn't caught any sight of them.
"Fang," Max finally spoke up, her voice cracking from the lack of use in the passing time. "Let's touch down and look around the city. Maybe Henry Terry will be… I dunno. Walking around."
And that was the first idea either of them had come up with, so they decided to try it out.
And it was a quite amazing stroke of luck when, within thirty minutes of their landing in town, they spot a man who looked remarkably like Henry Terry. Same color hair, same tall frame, same heavy build… and abnormally small feet. And when his face was turned their way, it was his face.
Fang and Max immediately began to follow him. They trailed a block behind him as he loped all over the city, crossing streets and sidewalks, appearing to have no destination in mind. They didn't talk, just walked; they were both too tense with anticipation.
Max was wondering what the man had done to Iggy. She had heard of kidnappings before… torture, rape, abuse. Her mom had said that Iggy would be injured, might be… different. But she didn't give them any details. Iggy could have just been beat up, or something. Besides, they were mutant bird-kids; whatever that man had dished out, Iggy must have been able to handle.
But Max and Fang, no matter how mature they acted, were still just kids. And maybe they had grown up in the School, but they had no idea what real honest-to-goodness torture was. Not the lasting, scarring kind.
Henry Terry continued to stumble weakly, crossing different places several times, doubling-back, sometimes even walking in circles for a time. But finally, finally, he walked back into a darker part of town and into an alley.
Fang and Max walked in a few minutes after him. The alley was bare, except for a dumpster and a couple trashcans. And a metal door on the side of one of the abandoned buildings.
Max got out her cell-phone, and Fang opened the door as she dialed 9-1-1.
The two walked into the room beyond.
"911, what's your emergency?" a voice answered.
The room they entered was utterly empty; decaying beams stretching across the ceiling, dust piling on the floor. But on the opposite wall was a door; a door that was ajar. And light was filtering through the open crack.
"Me and my brother have found the, uh, hideout of kidnapper Henry Terry. He has a boy hostage. We need a police car and ambulance. Please, hurry!"
Max said this all in a hurried whisper, and Fang was making his way towards the door, creeping silently, almost like a shadow.
"I am sending a police car and ambulance right away. Please tell me what your location is."
"Fang," Max hissed through her teeth, and he turned his head. "Where are we?"
Fang shrugged, looking confused.
"457 West Union," Total whispered from his arms. Fang seemed to just realize he was still holding the dog and set him down softly to the floor.
"457 West Union," Max whispered into the phone.
"Please stay where you are and don't take any drastic measures. The police are coming, just wait an –"
Max hung up. She wasn't about to sit still.
"Fang," she whispered again. He was right at the door, his hand against the wood. "I'll take out Terry. Find Iggy. Okay?"
Fang nodded silently, and then pushed open the door. They both rushed through.