James Patterson - Fang

Copyright 2010 by James Patterson

All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Little, Brown and Company

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Second eBook Edition: January 2011

The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

ISBN: 978-0-316-07228-1

Raves for the blockbuster MAXIMUM RIDE series include:

#1 New York Times Bestseller

Publishers Weekly Bestseller

An ALA Quick Pick for Young Adults

An ALA/VOYA Teens Top Ten Pick

A VOYA Review Editors Choice

A New York Public Library Books for the Teen Age Selection

A Book Sense Summer 2007 Childrens Pick

A KLIATT Editors Choice

A Childrens Choice Award Author of the Year

The chapters are short, taut, and filled with action.

VOYA (starred review)

Furiously fast-paced, very sassy, and enormous fun. A ripping yarn that every Maximum Ride addict will want to read.

Sunday Tasmanian

The short, action-packed chapters end breathlessly, with twists at every turn. Adrenaline galore.

Kirkus Reviews

Buckle your seat belts: the [next] book in this breathless adventure series has arrived. Swift and entertaining fans will gobble it up.

KLIATT

Dauntless, driven characters and midair adventure that builds.

Booklist

This trilogy is destined to be a classic. Alternately chilling and lighthearted an excellent and well-plotted book.

Charleston Gazette-Mail

Fast-paced and enjoyable (even to adults).

Charlotte Observer

Guaranteed to be another bestseller!

The Easton Express Times

For parents looking for something more for their young-adult readers, this book series might just be it. With messages about friendship, loyalty, and even the environment, the Maximum Ride series is top-flight.

Free Lance-Star

If you havent jumped onboard the Maximum Ride express train, nows the time. Its a wild ride any way you look at it.

Gainesville Daily Register

A page-turner from the prologue to the epilogue.

Amelia, 17

Theres never a boring moment in Maximum Ride III. It is so insanely hard to put down, so extremely fast-paced, and so beautifully executed. Im sure Im not the only fan unwilling to get off this Ride!

Angie, 19

Maximum Ride: Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports was so gripping that I couldnt put it down until I finished it. This is definitely a book that everyone should read.

Ariane, 15

Picking up this book comes with some dangeryou will laugh, cry, scream, and sigh. You have been warned.

Emily, 16

It was AWESOME! I couldnt put it down!

Michelle, 15

Maximum Ride: Saving the World and Other Extreme Sportswill have new fans running to the nearest bookstore or library to see what theyve been missing.

Kazia, 16

I loved this book. The plot twists had me gasping, and I never could have imagined the ending.

Linda, 16

A great read for all impossible to put down!

Katie, 13

A MAXIMUM RIDE NOVEL

JAMES PATTERSON

LITTLE, BROWN AND COMPANY

New York Boston

Many thanks to Gabrielle Charbonnet,
my conspirator, who flies high and cracks wise.

And to Mary Jordan, for brave assistance
and research at every twist and turn.

THE IDEA FOR the Maximum Ride series comes from earlier books of mine called When the Wind Blows and The Lake House, which also feature a character named Max who escapes from a quite despicable School. Most of the similarities end there. Max and the other kids in the Maximum Ride books are not the same Max and kids featured in those two books. Nor do Frannie and Kit play any part in the series. I hope you enjoy the ride anyway.

Thank God men cannot fly, and lay waste the sky as well as the earth.

Henry David Thoreau

IM A GIRL OF EXTREMES. When I love something, Im like a puppy dog (without all the licking). When Im cranky, Im a wasp (like, a whole hive of em). And when Im angry, Im a mother bear with a predator after her cubs: dangerous.

I say this because lately my life seemed to be all about extremes. Like right now, for instance. I was soaring twenty thousand feet in the air with the five people I loved most in the worldand no, we werent on a plane, hang-gliding, or hot air ballooning. We preferred to use good old-fashioned wings. The technologys been around for eons.

If youve ever dreamed you could fly, I can confirm that its all that and better. Even if youre desperately flying through a subway tunnel to save your life, its still off the charts. But today, flying over Africa it was as good as it ever gets. Maybe the best part was that for the first time in a dogs age, we werent on the run from madmen. We were on a missionto do good.

Max! Iggy called over to me. Why did they name themselves Chad? I mean, Chad. Its like naming a whole country Biff or Trey. I dont get it.

Ig, dont be ignorant, I scoffed. Its not like all the people there named themselves.

Why not? We named ourselves, Nudge noted, as if I needed to be reminded that we were raised in a lab under the supervision of science geeks.

Only cause were special. I gestured to her twelve-foot wingspan. Hey, check that out! I pointed to a Martian-like rock formation in the distance.

Fang turned his head and gave me one of his classic half smilesyou know, like the kind of smile Mona Lisa would have had if she were a guy. A teenage guy with longish scruffy hair, dark eyes, and a leather jacket. Mmmmm.

The whole trip had been as exhilarating as one of Fangs killer smiles. Even the hundreds of miles of shifting, mysterious desert dunes had been amazing. Were world travelers and allweve lived in wilds as extreme as Death Valley and Antarcticabut there was something downright otherworldly about what Id seen below as we crossed overoh, crap, Id forgotten the names of all of the different countries.

Mauritania, Algeria, Mali, Niger, and Chad together are about sixty-eight percent desert, Angel recited, reading my mind. Literally. Shes powerful like that.

Whatever. Its too much freaking desert, Angels brother, Gazzy, complained. I wouldnt mind seeing a few cows chomping away on some grass right about now.