When the Wind Blows - James Patterson [19]
He had to strain to hear Stricker’s response.
“No problem. Try to relax, though. Promise me, Tom. This isn’t something you have to worry about anymore. No loose cannon shit. That was our deal. I’ll get the info you need on Dr. McDonough. I’m doing it because of our friendship.”
Kit hung up the pay phone, and he let out a deep breath. Man, he hated to lie to Peter—and now it was what he did for a living. His whole life had suddenly become a lie.
Chapter 18
SSTOP IT MATTHEW! Don’t play with my head right now. I’m not in the mood for it.
Max had just thought of another of Matthew’s dumb lines: Why do kamikaze pilots wear helmets? She could actually hear the sound of Matthew’s dumb laugh at his own dumb jokes. Hardee-har-har! He always did that. Annoying little twit that he was.
She still hadn’t found her little brother and she didn’t know where else to look. Maybe at this slick, modern-looking house up ahead in the woods? Or maybe she could at least get a little food there. Some water?
F-o-o-d was on her mind. No, f-o-o-d was her mind.
Uh-oh, Spaghettios! She remembered a favorite line from TV. She knew just about everything that had ever been on the tube. Every show, every dumb and dumber commercial, every character in every show. The TV had been her baby-sitter, her mom and her dad, her hundred closest friends at the School.
Max stopped walking, stopped thinking idle thoughts. She cautiously eyed the house standing up ahead. Careful now. Be ever so careful.
The house looked dark and quiet and it made her wary and afraid in some deep place inside. A brier thicket grew around it. Oh, please don’t throw me in the brier patch.
She picked her way along the edge of the thicket and up a steep slope toward the modern construction of thick plate glass and rough timber.
Nobody home, nobody home! Please let there be nobody home. Please, please.
Let there be F-O-O-D here.
Her heart thudding, she tiptoed up a wooden flight of stairs and onto the back porch. She peered through sliding glass doors that needed a washing with Spic & Span real bad. She noticed things like that. The genius was in the details, right?
Forbidden, forbidden, forbidden, she was thinking. Nobody was supposed to see her. Ever. If they did, then they would die, too.
Max put her fingers to the sealed lips of the glass sliders and pulled. Her dula/thumb had been modified into a hand. Her fingers worked fine. She had been made that way.
The doors gave, opened. She was in!
Trap! she thought, but it was already too late.
Chapter 19
IT WASN’T A TRAP, after all. There was nobody waiting inside the house. The owners were obviously stupid, or really sloppy people, because they left their back door unlocked and unprotected. But no one was there to capture, or maybe even kill her.
The house was sloppy and disorganized inside. A family definitely lived here, though. She could tell by the mess of kids’ stuff. Bikes, in-line skates, video games.
“Matthew,” she whispered. She was hoping against hope that he might have found the same house. Maybe he was hiding in here somewhere. “Where are you, bro? It’s me. Max!”
She tiptoed into the kitchen. A refrigerator hummed noisily. A fridge—oh, God, yes. She pulled open the refrigerator door. She basked in the cool air and the frosty light of the bulb. Her eyes hungrily searched the shelves.
She grabbed a can of soda pop. Sprite. Obey your thirst!
Okay, I think I will.
She had a brief guilt trip that stealing food and soda pop was wrong. And that it just wasn’t a nice thing to do.
Oh, screw that. I’ve been shot. I’m being hunted. I need to eat and get some fluids in my body. End of story.
Max drank, then she began to gorge herself. Flying really made you hungry. It took incredible energy.
She peeled clingy plastic wrap off a glass bowl. Uh-oh, Spaghettios! She pushed cold spaghetti into her mouth. She didn’t care if the spaghetti was cold, just so long as it was food. Not good food,