A/N: Huge mistake by me! Please replace the name "Eve" with "Eden" in each instance below, including the previous chapter. Oops.

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Dragon Spy

A dragonfly hovered above the front door of the house. When Ella opened the door and ushered in Cameroon, Eve and the members of the flock, no one noticed that that the dragonfly entered as well.

Advances in nano-biotechnology made non-detectable observation very convenient. This particular dragonfly was indeed a species of dragonfly; however, it was one of the so-called "undiscovered" species. It was a living organism. But it was so much more than that.

This species had a symbiotic relationship with a virus-like organic substance which enabled instantaneous video and sound data transmission. It was a work of art and the beauty of nature all packaged up in one terrific insect. While the insects themselves had short lives, their enhanced cellular memories and extremely short larva stages enabled near continuous monitoring of the Maximum project. There was never a shortage of dragon-spies, as they were affectionately called, given the proper weather conditions and environment.

The only shortcoming of the entire dragonfly venture was the food chain conflict with the nighttime tracking organisms, which were genetically modified bats. The loss of a mate was extremely distressing to these creations. Although significant measures had been taken to ensure that the bats did not acquire a taste for this species of dragonfly, and care was taken to limit their interaction, the loss of the primary female during the laboratory testing was still a painful memory to all.

Even sitting in a secure underground observation room, the man, if that is what he could be called, cringed at the memory. He urgently guided the dragon-spy to locate Maximum. Until his eyes detected Maximum's life-signal on the hundreds of monitors, he was uneasy. She was his priority. He would not lose this female. Despite the redundancies built into Maximum, he always had a nagging fear, and an incessant regret, that the female might be consumed by another experiment. He would not be able to live with himself if that were to happen. So it will not happen, he resolved.

The man approved of Fang's doting on Max. But he knew that Fang wouldn't be able to sustain this intensity for long. Fang was hand-selected for the role, but not engineered per se. Fang had his limitations. The man behind the computer knew of limitations. He understood the passion of love that is balanced by solitude.

Satisfied that Maximum was not under any threat, the man guided the dragonfly to position itself upon a high ledge that provided an advantageous observation of the goings-on. And there were many goings-on to catalogue. The man's interest was not only in the occupants of the house. A stream of internet transactions and intelligence chatter were being analyzed by the brains on sticks. The stick-brains were disgusting to work with, but their processing speed was much faster than any man-made intelligence. So they were tolerated.

#####

"Mom!" Ella called, walking through the door. She motioned toward the couches in the sitting room. "Have a seat, guys. I'm going to find Mom."

Ella brushed Iggy's hand off her shoulder. She had had enough of his possessive posturing for one day. But the gasp she made when she entered the dining room brought Iggy to her side without a moment of delay.

The sight of Jeb buttoning his shirt was a surprise, and completely unexpected. Added to that oddity was seeing her Mom was straightening Jeb's collar. But even that strange sight didn't merit a gasp. It was the overturned table, splinters of wood gouged out of the table top, and smashed components of a laptop.

Nudge squeezed past Iggy and Ella, who were both stuck at the dining room entrance. Nudge fingered the bits of laptop quietly.

Fang strode in. "Don't bother trying to put it back together."

Nudge didn't give Fang any indication that she'd heard him. She began running her hands over the laptop case and the cracked battery unit.

"Sam," Nudge finally said.

Max walked in from the kitchen. By now all the flock and their guests as well, were crowding into the disaster dining room.

"Who did you say?" Max asked.

"Sam," Nudge said once again. "He did something to the computer."

Iggy asked, "Max's date? That Sam?"

Nudge nodded. "Anne set up quite a few files on here. And there's someone like 'son of uber director' who provided most of the data. But Sam added something to the hardware. I can just feel it."

"Compromised," Max stated. "So you knew the laptop was compromised, Jeb?"

"I was fairly certain. After I received the news about Anne, I knew that she was not their primary target." Jeb finished buttoning his cuffs.

"What about Anne?" Fang asked.

"It's been all over CNN and FOX," Jeb sighed. "It wouldn't hurt you kids to watch the news." Jeb pulled his Blackberry out. He pulled a tiny device off of his shirt's pocket protector and attached it to the Blackberry. Aiming it at the far wall, a projection of a streaming video appeared.

Anne was being led away in handcuffs by secret service personnel – very handsome secret service men and women – very Eraser-like. The jaded voice of a female reporter spoke: "FBI controversy continues over the sudden detaining of an agent whose identity is being withheld at the moment. Sources confirm that this agent was a witness protection expert. Yesterday's FDA raid on a safe house that she managed was found to be an elaborate drug processing lab."

The video cut away to a vicious guard dog snarling and straining at a leash. "Footage provided by FDA sources show acres of marijuana plants. Here is a still of plants next to a barn on the property."

"What?" Max said.

"Watch," Fang whispered.

"But there were just flowers there when we …"

"Just watch, Max," Fang urged.

Another still image showed the kitchen area of Anne's house as an elaborate crack lab that had been destroyed hastily.

The video cut away to the school where the flock had attended during their brief stay with Anne. "Local students say that the heroes who tipped off the FDA were some out-of-town kids who happen to be very special young people. Now to Lissa."

"Thank you, Marie. For several months an undercover sting has been centered at this private school. A fascinating series of events unfolded. But the most amazing events transpired when these six children enrolled at the school."

A photo of the Flock appeared briefly.

"Initial suspicions were aroused when a six-year-old from this group shared advanced knowledge about drug trafficking in the Yucatan and appeared to be tripping on acid after listening to Swan Lake. Follow-up led agents to discover that their temporary guardian was involved in drug activity. It wasn't until the children were enlisted in the sting that a drug bust was secured.

"The most important contributions came from this young man."

The camera zoomed out and showed Fang standing next to Lissa.

"That's not possible!" Nudge said. "This footage is from yesterday!"

"Shhh!"

Lissa put her arm around Fang's back. "You are a hero today. Do you have anything to say?"

In the video, Fang looked up through his spiky bangs and gave a goofy grin to the camera. "I like to fly."

In the room Fang burst out laughing. "I'm stoned! Look at my red eyes!"

On the video Lissa smiled. "Why don't you show us why you like to fly?"

The Fang in the video tentatively stretched out his wings, pushing Lissa to the side as the wings expanded. She fumbled with the handheld microphone and then ducked under his wing to stand in front.

"These amazing children have been kept secret from the American public far too long. But thanks to their brave efforts, we were able to take down one of the most elusive crime operations of the century."

The video ended, frozen on Lissa standing very close to the on-screen Fang.

Gazzy said, "That's not Fang."

Cameroon muttered, "This is wack, ya'll."

Valencia said, "I don't wish to sound rude. But who are you?"

Eve shoved her hands in her pocket. "More like, who're you? First the girl shows up with wings on Youtube. Then Whitey here flashes his wings. And now the Asian dude has purple wings. Come on."

"Purple?" Fang asked, offended.

"Black- purple. Not the point. Who the hell are you people?"

Gazzy quipped, "If we told you we'd have to kill you."

Angel glared at him. "He was joking, Cameroon. We don't do killing. Except for Max."

Now it was Max's turn to glare. Thanks a lot, kiddo. "I don't kill on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. You should be fine."

Ella said, "Knock it off, guys. It's not even funny."

The flock looked at each other and tried to suppress their grins. Even Iggy had a tiny smirk on his face.