Great. Another puzzle. Good thing I got my kicks out of not understanding my entire life.
“Whatever,” I said, knowing that made him crazy.
“Listen, Max,” Jeb said. “Dr. Martinez — your mom — and I want you to know that we trust you. Your instincts have served you well so far, and kept you and the flock alive. We feel that you’ll do the right thing, whether you know you are or not.”
Hmm. Compliments always made me suspicious.
“Oh, yeah?” I said.
“Yes,” he said firmly. “You’re the right person to lead the flock. It’s what you were created to do. You’re doing a terrific job at it, finding your own way. We trust you to do the right thing now.”
If I could have believed him, it would have warmed the cockles of my little heart. All I had to do was decide to believe him, take him at face value. After all, my mom was right there, hearing him, and I did trust her.
“Huh,” I said.
There was a pause, as if he’d been hoping for more.
“Anyway, take care, Max,” he said finally. “Call your mom or me when you get a chance. We’ll be working on things from this end.”
“Working on what?” I asked.
“Oops, we better go,” Jeb said. “Don’t want to stay on the phone too long, in case someone’s tracing it. Give my love to the flock.”
The phone clicked and went dead.
I looked up. Fang was watching me. We still hadn’t talked about the Incident of the previous night. Nudge was shifting from one foot to another, the way she did when she got hungry. Total was taking a potty break in the bushes. Everyone looked tired, and we still needed to rustle up food.
Jeb had said that he and my mom trusted me and thought I was doing a good job. He’d said to trust my instincts.
My instincts asked me if he was playing another angle.
18
AFTER A LAME DINNER of scavenged food, we settled onto various branches of the tallest trees we could find. Did we sleep in trees a lot? Yes. Had we ever fallen out of a tree while asleep? As amusing as that would have been, no.
I was exhausted, still pretty hungry, and clueless about what the next day would bring. But I double-checked my flock before I let myself relax. Angel and Total were snuggled in the deep vee of an enormous oak. Iggy and Gazzy were close together in the same tree. Nudge was stretched out along a thick branch, one arm hanging down. Fang was —
I looked. He’d been right there a second ago. Now, no Fang.
“Where’s Fang?” I tried to keep alarm out of my voice — don’t panic till you need to — but I’m so not into the whole missing-flock thing.
Angel and Gazzy looked around, and Fang said, “I’m right here,” sounding surprised. And there he was, straddling a branch with his back against the trunk.
I blinked. “I looked — you weren’t there.”
“Yes, I was,” he said, eyebrows raised.
“No,” said Nudge. “I looked for you too. Were you behind the tree?”
“I was right here!” Fang insisted, waving his arms.
“I didn’t see you either, man,” Iggy said with a straight face.
I rolled my eyes at him, then said, “I’m rolling my eyes, Iggy.”
“Well, I was here the whole time,” said Fang, shrugging.
Five minutes later, he disappeared again.