Maximum Ride: The Final Warning by James Patterson

From the Publisher

FIRST SHE WAS WATCHED.

In this breathtaking new story from the astonishing imagination of James Patterson, a girl has to save herself from an army assembled just to capture her - and maybe save the planet while she's at it.

THEN SHE WAS THREATENED.

Maximum Ride is a perfectly normal teenager who just happens to be able to fly, the result of an out-of-control genetic experiment. Max and the other members of the flock - five kids who share her remarkable ability - have been asked to aid a group of environmental scientists studying the effects of global warming. The expedition seems like a perfect combination of adventure, activism - and escaping government forces who are watching the flock all the time.

THIS IS HER FINAL WARNING.

But even in Antarctica, enduring in the harshest weather on our planet, Maximum Ride is an irresistible target in constant danger. For whoever controls her powers could also control the world. . . .

Maximum Ride is James Patterson's greatest character, a heroine who manages to be human and fearless at once. The Final Warning is an unrelenting new adventure from the writer Time magazine has called "The Man Who Can't Miss."

Product Details

• ISBN: 0316002879
  
• ISBN-13: 9780316002875
• Format: Paperback, 304pp
• Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
• Pub. Date: September 2008
• Edition Description: Reprint
• Sales Rank: 1,122
• Series: Maximum Ride Series, #4

• Read a Sample Chapter

Read a Sample Chapter

Copyright © 2008 James Patterson
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-316-00286-8

1

Windsor State Forest, Massachusetts

Ssssss.

The soldiers' armor made an odd hissing noise. But besides the slight sound of metal plates sliding smoothly, flawlessly over one another, the troop was unnaturally quiet as it moved through the woods, getting closer to the prey.

The faintest of beeps caused the team leader to glance down at his wrist screen. Large red letters scrolled across it: ATTACK IN 12 SECONDS ... 11 ... 10 ...

The team leader tapped a button, and the screen's image changed: a tall, thin girl with dirt smears on her face and a tangle of brown hair, glaring out at him. TARGET 1 was superimposed on her face.

... 9 ... 8 ...

His wrist screen beeped again, and the image changed to that of a dark-haired, dark-eyed, scowling boy. TARGET 2.

And so on, the image changing every half second, ending finally with a portrait of a small, scruffy black dog looking at the camera in surprise.

The team leader didn't understand why Target 7 was an animal. He didn't need to understand. All he needed to know was that these targets were slated for capture.

... 3 ... 2 ... 1 ...

The leader emitted a whistle pitched so high that only his team members could hear it. Hemotioned toward the small run-down cabin they had surrounded in the woods.

Synchronized perfectly, as only machines can be, the eight team members shouldered eight portable rocket launchers and aimed them straight at the cabin. With a whoosh, eight large nets made of woven Kevlar strands shot out from the cannons and unfolded with geometric precision in midair, encasing the cabin almost entirely.

The team leader smiled in triumph.

2

"THE PREY HAVE BEEN CAPTURED, SIR," the team leader said in a monotone. Pride was not tolerated in this organization.

"Why do you say that?" the Uber-Director asked in a silky tone.

"The cabin has been secured."

"No. Not quite," said the Uber-Director, who was little more than a human head attached by means of an artificial spinal column to a series of Plexiglas boxes. The bioengine that controlled the airflow over his vocal cords allowed him to sigh, and he did. "The chimney. The skylight."

The team leader frowned. "The chimney would be impossible to climb," he said, accessing his internal encyclopedia. Photographs of the prey scrolled quickly across the team leader's screen. Suddenly an important detail caught his attention, and he froze.

In the corner of one of the photographs, a large feathered wing was visible. The team leader tracked it, zooming in on just that section of the image. The wing appeared to be attached to the prey.

The prey could fly.

He had left routes of escape open.

He had failed!

The Uber-Director closed his eyes, sending a thought signal to the nanoprocessors implanted in his brain. He opened his eyes in time to see the team leader and his troop vaporize with a crackling, sparking fizzle. All that was left of them was a nose-wrinkling odor of charred flesh and machine oil.

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from The Final Warning by James Patterson Copyright © 2008 by James Patterson. Excerpted by permission.
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