Max- Manhole Dive

  My heart pounded in my chest as I scanned the city streets below. Where are you?? I thought.

  Under the Place de la Concorde, Angel told me. Her thoughts were fuzzy, indistinct.

  Just then, my eyes focused on a small black dot, right outside the barricades around the plaza. It was an open manhole cover, maybe two feet in diameter.

  Angel was there. I was sure of it.

  I tucked my wings against my back, angled down, and shot toward the small opening at a hundred miles an hour.

  I’m on my way, I thought.
...

  TRYING TO FLY through a target that small was like trying to spit from the top of the Empire State Building to hit a nickel on the ground below. But I’d done it before, and I knew I could do it again. I just needed to focus. And for everyone to stay the heck out of my way.

  Max, maybe you shouldn’t come down here. I don’t know if we can fix this, Angel’s fuzzy, troubled thought said to me. There’s just too much. This might be… the end.

  I couldn’t even think as I plunged downward. I tucked my wings back tight, pointed my hands forward, and dove into the darkness.

  As soon as I was through, I tucked myself into a ball and flung my wings out wide. I hit a hard concrete floor and tumbled, scraping my face and hands, but my sneakers and my wings helped me stop. I skittered forward, slightly out of control, and halted just inches from the narrow canal that flowed through the sewer system.

- Angel: A Maximum Ride Novel, chapters 69 and 70