Angel: A Maximum Ride Novel

The novel opens with Max, the fifteen-year-old leader of a flock of genetically engineered children who possess avian DNA and wings, waking from a nightmare in which Fang, her best friend and love, watches her suffer but refuses to help. The nightmare mirrors reality: Fang has left the flock, leaving only a note. Max has retreated to the Arizona home of her biological mother, Dr. Valencia Martinez, a veterinarian, along with her half sister Ella and the rest of the flock: Iggy (fifteen, blinded by a lab procedure), Nudge (twelve), Gazzy (nine), and seven-year-old Angel, who has telepathy and mind-control abilities.

Dylan, another genetically engineered child with avian DNA who was cloned to be Max's "perfect other half," provokes her into a midair fight by calling her pathetic. He reveals he is programmed to imprint on Max but suggests his feelings may be genuine. Their conflict is interrupted by the arrival of Jeb Batchelder, Max's complicated father figure, and Dr. Hans Gunther-Hagen, a scientist who previously almost killed Fang. They explain that a new generation of genetically enhanced children called Gen 77, the 77th generation of modified humans, is emerging worldwide, and they insist Max must lead these children through an impending apocalypse. Dr. Hans proposes that Max and Dylan eventually have children to found a post-apocalyptic ruling dynasty. Dr. Martinez shuts this plan down but convinces the group to visit a nearby Gen 77 school. Max reluctantly agrees.

Meanwhile, Fang builds a new team: Ratchet, a street kid with superhuman hearing; Star, a schoolgirl with hummingbird-like superspeed; Kate, who has superhuman strength from DNA splicing; Holden Squibb, who can regenerate limbs; and Maya, a clone of Max who has renamed herself and insists on her own identity. After seeing a news report about the Doomsday Group (DG), a mysterious environmental organization whose spokeswoman Beth promotes an "earth cleanse" and urges followers to obey the "One Light," the group's unseen leader, Fang decides investigating the DG will be his mission.

The flock boards Jeb's jet to visit the Gen 77 school, but the plane flies into a field of nearly invisible explosive balloons tethered by razor-sharp diamond-dust wires. The wires shear off the jet's wings, and it nosedives. The flock escapes, with Dylan helping the others out of the spiraling plane. Jeb tells Gazzy that the human race must die to save the planet and deliberately lets go of the boy's grip, falling toward the ground. Dylan catches Jeb before impact. Everyone survives with serious injuries, but Dr. Hans and the fuselage vanish. Max surprises herself by choosing to stay with Dylan to search for wreckage.

Max and Dylan approach the Gen 77 school, where eyeless child guards open fire. After Angel joins them, they fight the guards and discover they possess 360-degree vision via a ring of tiny eyes encircling their heads. A captured guard dismisses Max as obsolete, insisting Gen 77 will replace humanity after the apocalypse. That night, camping in a desert cave, Dylan opens up about his feelings, and Max finds herself unexpectedly comforted by his warmth. On the flight home, they encounter a boy wandering the desert and repeating DG rhetoric about killing all humans, reinforcing a disturbing link between the Gen 77 program and the Doomsday Group.

Returning home, Max finds Ella and Iggy brainwashed by the DG after a recruiter visited Ella's school. She also discovers a video on Fang's blog showing him with Maya, confirming he has replaced her. Max, Dylan, and Angel investigate a DG rally at Ella's school, where Angel warns the cult seeks total human extermination. The flock rescues Iggy and flees, painfully leaving Ella behind. They deprogram Iggy using a cold shower combined with Angel's telepathic work. Max then discovers her mom and Jeb have vanished without explanation. The flock debates whether Dr. Martinez may be complicit with the DG, and Max leads them in a pact to never again trust an adult. They rescue Ella from a desert DG gathering and deprogram her, but the next morning Ella disappears again, leaving a message scratched in dirt: "I was meant to have wings."

Fang calls Max, admitting the DG threat is too large for either of them alone. The two groups meet awkwardly in San Diego. Dylan defuses rising tensions by singing; his genetically engineered voice has a calming effect on everyone except Fang. Afterward, Dylan kisses Max. Both groups fly to Paris after Fang determines the DG's headquarters are there. On the flight, Gazzy accidentally reveals Dr. Hans's breeding plan, igniting a bitter argument. Angel intervenes, telling Fang he forfeited his say in Max's life when he left and urging Max to stop letting others' feelings dictate her own. In a private confrontation, Max admits Dylan is "the only one who hasn't left me." She and Fang agree to fight the DG together but as separate units.

In Paris, Fang's gang performs publicly to attract DG scouts and receives an invitation to a rally at the Place de la Concorde. Angel proposes infiltrating the DG undercover and is recruited alongside Gazzy into a fortified underground headquarters, where she encounters Mark, the menacing leader of the Paris operation. Separately, an explosion rocks the flock's hotel. During the rescue effort, Max sees Fang tenderly brush Maya's hair from her face and flies to the Arc de Triomphe in anguish. Dylan follows, and they share a long kiss overlooking Paris.

On the day of the rally, Max's flock performs aerial stunts above thousands of DG supporters while Fang's gang works the ground. Angel contacts Max telepathically from the sewers beneath the plaza, warning of enormous danger. Max dives underground to find the tunnels packed with C-4 explosives and tanks of VX nerve agent, a lethal chemical weapon, with a timer counting down. Max allows Gazzy, Angel, and Fang to stay and disarm the bombs while she and Dylan race to evacuate the crowd.

Onstage, the brainwashed followers welcome death and refuse to leave. Fang's gang arrives, and Star's supersonic movement accidentally breaks the brainwashing, sending followers fleeing. Mark shoots Dylan in the arm, but Holden charges him, absorbing bullets that heal instantly. When Mark strangles Max from behind, Maya saves her life by beating him with a metal pole. Max and Maya knock Mark off the stage to his death.

Mark's body triggers a secondary detonation. Gazzy had defused most of the network but missed a remote trigger. He and Fang escape the blast, but Angel does not emerge. Hours of searching yield only one of Angel's torn, bloodstained sneakers. Gazzy breaks down sobbing, blaming himself for failing to disarm every bomb.

In the aftermath, Fang announces his gang will pursue the DG's remaining leadership, since Mark served the unseen One Light. He and Max share a brief embrace, and Fang glances at Dylan as if entrusting Max's care to him. Max thanks Maya for saving her life. She tells her remaining flock they must find Ella, her mom, and Jeb. Dylan takes her hand, and they prepare to fly.

An epilogue reveals Angel is alive but captive in a laboratory, hooked to electrodes, unable to move or project thoughts. An unidentifiable voice tells her she is "very superior" and must leave her humanity behind. Angel silently apologizes to Max, and a single tear rolls down her cheek.