Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports

103

"Okay, enough!" the Director snapped. Turning to the scientists, she said, "We can get you any other information you need. In the meantime, we're going to work on a serious attitude adjustment."

"Basically, I have two speeds," I told them. "Hostile or smart-aleck. Your choice."

Ignoring me, Mom ushered the whitecoats out the door.

"That wasn't clever," she said, turning back to me. "Your survival depends on your extreme cooperation."

"Dere iss no survival!" ter Borcht said angrily, standing up. "Dey are dead!"

She ignored him too.

"You were designed to be very smart, Max," she told me. "We electrically stimulated your synaptic nerve endings while your brain was developing."

"And yet I still can't program my TiVo," I said.

I thought I heard Total stifle a snort, but I didn't look down.

"It's time to start using your smarts," the Director went on tightly. "Dr. ter Borcht is not the only one who wants you dead. Working for the Chinese is your one opportunity to continue living."

I stared at her in amazement. "How do you even live with yourself?" I said, genuinely dumbfounded. "You're willing to sell children to a foreign government so they can use us as weapons, possibly against other Americans. I don't get it. Were you hiding behind a door on morals and ethics day? Then you have the gall to call yourself my mother? You couldn't mother someone if they shot five gallons of estrogen into your veins! What about their mothers?" I waved at the flock. "Please tell me their mothers aren't half as lame as you!"

"Their mothers were nobodies," Marian said. "Donor eggs. Lab workers, techs, anyone we found. That was the point-that we could create a superrace out of anything. Out of trash," she said meanly.

I heard blood rushing through the veins in my head. "Well, you're right there," I said. "Because we are a superrace. And I did come from trash."

The Director clapped her hands, and the Flyboys at the door snapped to attention. I felt Ari and the others straighten up, go on higher alert, waiting to see how badly this situation would devolve. Which it was guaranteed to do.

"You're a child, Max," she said, obviously trying to control her anger. "Which makes it unsurprising that you can't see the big picture. You're still putting yourself at the center of the universe. It's time you found out you're just a small speck in the big scheme of things."

"Which means what?" I demanded. "That I'm nothing? That I'm not a person? That you can do anything you want to me and it's okay? You're so full of it! But you're wrong. I know that I do matter. I am important. And you're a pathetic, cold, pointless wastoid who's going to grow old alone and die, then roast in hell forever."

I have to say, that sounded dang good, considering I don't even know if I believe in hell. I do believe in hateful rhymes-with-witches, though, and I had one standing right here who was glaring sparks at me.

"This is what I mean," she said. "Your childish insults don't affect me. Your useless anger doesn't affect me. You'll end up doing what I say or you will die. It's that simple."

"That's one of the many, many differences between you and me," I snarled. "I have enough smarts to know that it's never that simple. And I can make this more complicated than you could possibly imagine." I put real menace into my voice, leaning forward threateningly and clenching my fists. Her eyes flickered.

"See, you don't know squat about me, Mom," I went on icily. "You have no idea what I'm capable of. Just because you made me doesn't mean you know what I can do, what I've done. And here's a news flash: My chip is gone. So you can take your spyware and shove it."

Her glance quickly shot to my wrist.

I dropped my voice and stared into her eyes. I could tell she was trying hard not to look away. I was so furious I could have cheerfully ripped her head off. "But you're going to find out, Mom," I said very softly. "And it's going to give you nightmares for the rest of your wasted life."

Oh, my God, I was so badass. It was all I could do to not give a mwa ha ha ha!

The Director clenched her teeth and visibly controlled some shallow breaths. Finally she spoke. "You're wasting your time, Max," she said. "You can't hurt me."

I grinned evilly, and she flinched for a split second, then made her face expressionless.

"Yes, Mom," I whispered. "I really can."