The chopper’s small door opened.
I braced myself.
My mother, Valencia Martinez, stepped out.
That did it. My knees gave out, and I crumpled in an ungraceful pile on the trampled grass.
71
“MAX!” MY MOM cried, and her voice washed over me like a warm breeze. She sprinted toward me, her arms open, her face twisted with concern.
“It is really you?” I asked, blearily looking up at her as she lifted me from the ground. She nodded and smiled her warm, familiar smile.
After a quick embrace she pulled back and gently placed both of her hands on my shoulders, her worried eyes appraising my blood-spattered clothes and dirty face.
“Let me look at you,” she said. “What happened to you?”
“Jeb,” I said bleakly. “Jeb happened. And Ari. And his Erasers. And Dylan… He attacked Fang—they were all trying to kill Fang, and…” I couldn’t stop the sobs that overtook me then.
“Oh, honey,” she said, hugging me tight. “I’m so sorry. I tried to get here sooner….”
“It’s not your fault,” I said, still crying. I hugged her back with all I had, breathing in her warm, homey scent.
“I’m not so sure about that, Max,” she said quietly, her voice wracked with pain.
I pulled away, wiping my nose on my dirty sleeve, and stared at her blankly. I couldn’t process what she might have meant; I was too wrapped up in the joy of having her back.
Mom looked at me solemnly, seemingly prepared for the worst. “Where is Fang?” she asked. “Is he alive?”
I nodded, pointing toward the house, and she dashed off.
The next hour was a blur of my mom checking on Fang and then helping the rest of us get patched up as best we could. Gazzy and Nudge both needed stitches, and I was so glad that my mom was a trained medical professional. For animals, but still.
“Fang will be fine, I think,” she said, and I breathed another sigh of relief. “He has a concussion, so he needs to take it easy for a while. But he should wake up soon. Everything else looks worse than it actually is.”
I nodded. With Fang sorted out, I finally asked the other burning question that had been on my mind: “Mom, what happened to you? Where have you been all this time?”
Her eyes flicked to Angel and filled with something it took me a moment to recognize. “It’s… a long story,” she replied hesitantly. It was shame she had in her eyes, I realized. Angel blinked, looking down, and said nothing.
My heart froze as I remembered what she’d told me: Max, your mom was there. I saw her. Dr. Martinez. She’s one of them. The expression on my mom’s face now told me Angel hadn’t been hallucinating.
“No,” I said, drawing in a sharp breath. “No, Mom, not you…” I felt like I was trying to swallow a whole ice cube.
“Please believe me when I tell you this, Max,” my mom said tentatively. “I was brainwashed. Jeb brainwashed me as effectively as the Doomsday Group did Ella and Iggy. You remember how quickly that cult spread, like a pandemic. I… I never thought I’d be a victim of that kind of thing, and it still seems impossible to me that it happened. I’m a doctor, a pragmatist, not some unhinged fanatic! It’s a mystery that I’m going to investigate for the rest of my life. But, honestly, Max, I don’t have time to deal with that just now. All I know is that I have to get you kids to safety right away—”
“Not so fast, Mom,” I interrupted, crossing my arms over my chest and shaking my head in disbelief. “If you were brainwashed, how do I know you’re not ‘under the influence’ anymore?”
She looked at me intently, her eyes pleading. “I know it’s hard to believe, Max. But after Jeb left, this… spell, or whatever it is… disappeared. Wore off. I don’t know. Jeb just knows me too well. He’s an incredibly smart and powerful man, and apparently he’s figured out how to use his power to control me. I somehow fell into believing again in a man I once thought could change the world, stupidly following him into the darkness.”
For the
first time, my mother seemed imperfect. And a hundred percent human.
“When Jeb left the lab,” she rushed on, “I suddenly saw the true horror in everything and everyone around me at the facility. I knew Jeb was insane at that point. But I also gained valuable information as… one of them. I knew 99% was beginning, so I left the lab and immediately notified Pierpont that we had to get to you and the flock. To implement the final steps we’d been working on together for so long.”
The rest of the flock was crowded around me, shocked into silence. My face was hard, giving nothing away as I listened. I didn’t like the sound of the words “final steps we’d been working on together for so long.” It seemed like this new development came with more secrets, more lies. The stuff my life was made of.
“I promise you this is the real me, Max.” Mom swallowed, looking at me levelly. “And I promise you, all of you, that I’m back now. I know what’s right, what’s true, and I’m on your side.”