Free Warrior Angel by Robert Lipsyte Page B

like a Redskin until I got to be champ. That’s why the title’s crap, too. Doesn’t mean anything except money. And Hubbard steals most of it.”
    â€œSo why are you fighting?”
    â€œYou got a better job for a mixed-blood high school dropout?” He glared at Starkey. “Maybe president of a dot-com?”
    Starkey decided to take a chance, see if Sonny had a sense of humor. “Sure. We’ll call it Dot Combinations. It’s just what you need.”
    It took Sonny a beat to realize Starkey was making a joke, and another beat to get the joke, but he laughed and reached out to cuff him lightly on the shoulder. “That’s a good one. Got to tell Marty.” He scowled. “Someday.”
    Starkey couldn’t control the little jolts, first of delight, then jealousy. Martin Malcolm Witherspoon, author of The Tomahawk Kid , was another friend who could be used for the Mission. Mr. Johnson, Alfred, Martin, one by one, bring them back to help save Sonny.
    And squeeze you out, whispered a Voice.
    Stay cool. Focus.
    He thought of the dog-eared copy of The Book in his backpack. “I know some of that book by heart. ‘The best of them could smell the breath of their prey….’”
    Sonny growled, deep in his throat.
    He couldn’t help himself—he plunged on.“Your great-grandfather was the last of the Running Braves; he was murdered by—”
    WHAP! Sonny’s big hand smacked the spindly table so hard that rice and beans jumped out of the Styrofoam boxes. “No Redskin crap.”
    â€œNot crap, it’s—”
    â€œThat’s where you got the idea for Warrior Angels? From the book?”
    Starkey felt as though he’d been punched in the stomach, the breath wheezing out of him. “You…you think I made it up?”
    â€œSomebody made up the Running Braves, right?”
    â€œBut they existed,” said Starkey. “Everything was made up by somebody. And the Creator made up everybody.”
    Sonny shook his head. “You sound like Jake. So, where you from?”
    â€œNorth of here.” Starkey jerked a thumb toward Upstairs. It was the first personal question Sonny had asked, and he didn’t want to scare him.
    â€œYou a runaway?” Sonny didn’t look concerned when Starkey nodded. “What you running from?”
    â€œI was in a…group home. For kids having problems.”
    â€œWhat’s your problem?”
    Take a chance, tell him the truth. Well, one true story of many. “I was in boarding school and I pulled down the water tower behind the dorm.” Don’t mention that the Voices had told him that the water was poisoned. When he tried to warn the headmaster, he wouldn’t listen and the other kids made fun of him, beat him up.
    â€œHow’d you do it?”
    â€œMiddle of the night, I looped cables around the wooden stilts that held up the tower and I attached them to the tow hook of the maintenance truck.” Starkey was thrilled with Sonny’s rapt attention. “I was in first gear when the stilts cracked, then I shifted to third and gunned the motor. Pulled it right down behind me.”
    â€œLucky you didn’t drown.”
    Don’t tell him you were prepared to drown to save the school from the poisoned water. That’s what Warrior Angels do. We sacrifice ourselves when there’s no other way to complete our Mission. “Turned out there was no water in the tank.”
    â€œDid you know that?”
    â€œYou think I’m that crazy?” He made himself laugh. Don’t tell him how surprised you were to find out the tank was dry. It had been a test from the Creator.
    â€œWhat kind of test?”
    â€œA test for my stepdad’s lawyers. Cost him plenty to keep me out of jail. I was expelled and they sent me to the Family Place.” Was it the Family Place or some other place? He suddenly couldn’t remember. There had been