Max (Maximum Ride 5)

"Amazingly, she feels the same way about a mutt like me," Total said. "Well, now we're thinking about… marriage." He sort of mumbled the last word.

I sat up, eyes wide, swallowing my shocked laughter. This wasn't funny. It was cute but not funny. Total's feelings were real, even though he was a—Canine American.

"Marriage?" I said.

"Yeah." Total flopped down and draped his head over my ankles. "I know we're just two crazy kids—how can we possibly make it work? She's a dedicated career dog. How could I ever expect her to settle down, raise a few litters? And me? I'm a flying, talking dog. I'll only make her life more difficult, no matter where we go or what we do."

I knew how he felt. Only too well. Reaching out, I scratched his head between his ears, the way he likes.

"Also, how could I ever leave you guys?" he said, his black eyes sad. "I know how much you depend on me. How could I leave you to fend for yourselves?"

"Um," I said, but he interrupted me.

"But Akila can't fly! How can she come with us? She's eighty pounds of gorgeous, long-legged purebred, but she can't fly." His voice broke. "I tell you, Max—this has been keeping me up at night. I haven't been able to eat for days."

I'd heard him snoring just yesterday, when we'd been waiting for the sub, and I've never known him to miss a meal. But I knew what he meant.

For once, I didn't have any answers. I was having a hard enough time with my own ridiculous romantic life, much less being able to worry about anyone else's. "Total—if you decide you need to stay with Akila—well, you saw how Nudge made that hard decision. I saw something written on a T-shirt once—it went: 'If you love something, let it go. If it comes back, it's yours.' If we, the flock, have to let you go, we'll somehow make that sacrifice."

"No, no, Max, I couldn't ask that of you," he said. "I wouldn't leave you in the lurch like that. I just wish—well, I wish life was perfect and love was easy." He sighed.

"Me too, Total. Me too." I was already old enough to know that neither option was possible. Not for Total and not for me.

51

IT TOOK TWELVE hours to go a distance that we could have flown in about six minutes. Let's stop for a second and give thanks that the mad scientists decided to graft us with bird DNA instead of, say, the DNA of a clam or a squid.

Our sub went between the islands of Maui and Hawaii and then surfaced, right offshore from the Haleakala National Park. Of course, as soon as I heard the sub-wide command of "Surfacing!" I dashed up to the ladder that led to the upper hatch. I was the second one out, gulping in lungfuls of fresh, balmy salt air.

I turned to Captain Perry, who had joined me up on deck, along with John Abate and Brigid Dwyer. "So how come we're here?" I asked him.

"We're picking up a marine biologist," Captain Perry explained.

"A colleague of ours," said John. "She specializes in bony fish, which are mostly what the dead gr

oups have consisted of. Ah, here she comes now."

A short, tan woman with gray hair in a long braid came hurrying down the dock. In the distance, I could see a bunch of kids, who'd just disembarked from a school bus with FREMONT MIDDLE SCHOOL on the side, gaping at the nuclear sub that had suddenly surfaced so near the entrance to a national park.

"Hello!" the woman called cheerfully. "Aloha!"

"Aloha," said Captain Perry respectfully.

"Noelani! It's good to see you again," said John, giving her a hug. He turned to me. "Max, this is Doctor Noelani Akana. She knows these waters like you know junk food, and she can help us."

"Hi," I said, deciding whether to be offended by the junk-food comment.

"Ah, Max," she said, in a pretty, singsong voice. I guessed she was a native Hawaiian. Her bright, black eyes looked me over shrewdly but not in an unfriendly way. "Max, the miracle bird girl."

"Uh, that's one name for me," I said awkwardly.

Dr. Akana broke into a sunny smile. "I can't wait to see the others! All right, Captain, let's get this ship under water!" With quick, efficient movements, she tossed her duffel bag down the hatch, then slid down the ladder rails. John, grinning, followed her. Captain Perry looked at me and motioned at the hatch.

"How about I just fly overhead and meet you there?" I said.

"Okay," the captain said easily, surprising me. "How long can you hover without landing on anything?"

"Uh, I guess about eight hours," I said, knowing it would be a stretch and that I'd be totally starving and exhausted by the end of it.