Chapter 61

A few hours had passed, the sun had gone down below the horizon and the stifling heat of the day dropped to the freezing cold of a desert night. Skye and I had cleaned the room up so that the others wouldn't realise what had happened. It was between us and us alone. No-one was to find out.

Drake walked into the room, a grin on his face.

"I guess you were right," He said, speaking to me, "A truck of about four maybe five employees form The Installation just came driving up. They hired the room two doors down from us. It looks like they're going to have a party."

"What's this I hear?" said Falcons voice from the door, "A party? So when do we get to go?"

"It's not for us," I said, "The moron squad from The Installation are having a party. After they pass out form drinking too much alcohol, we can steal at least one of their badges. I seriously don't know why people like drinking that stuff. Apparently all it does is give you a major headache the next morning."

We all laughed at that, easing the tension that had built in the room at Drakes report. Terra and Falcon placed the food on the table and spread it out for us to stare at hungrily. When Terra and Flacon had finished there was a small banquet for us to eat. There was a sudden mad rush for the table as we grabbed all the items of food we wanted to eat before the others got to it first. We finished off the food in a matter of minutes, probably a new world record. But we had an excuse, how many people can say they can eat a small banquet and still stay thin? We could. Our flight had taken more energy than we had ever had to use and made us hungrier.

A small burp came from the corner of the room where Terra and Falcon had retreated to. Both of them burst out laughing because it was Terra, not Falcon who had burped. I saw then that they had become close friends through the events that had happened to us, perhaps more then friends. If they wanted to keep it a secret, they could. Drake sat alone in the opposite corner, not paying any attention to anyone and I realised how lonely he might feel.

I began to drift off and decided everyone was entitled to some sleep. Besides, the party sounded like it would go on into the early hours of the morning. Then while everyone was passed out, we would make our move. I slid back onto the bed and Skye followed me. We snuggled close to each other and I covered us with my wings.

"I love you," Skye whispered to me, before she fell asleep, her golden hair cascading down over her face.

"I love you too," I whispered to her. It was a while before I fell asleep. I had made some final adjustments to our plan. I was replacing Skye with Falcon. I didn't want Skye in the Installation with me. I couldn't bear to live if anything happened to her. At least she would be safe from harm. With that thought I finally drifted off to sleep.

Chapter 62

We all awoke at just after four in the morning. It wasn't that we had set an alarm or anything; it was the fact that the party had gone silent, that was what had woken us up.

"Alright," I said, "now's the time to get an ID card from them."

We snuck out of our room and down the building to the room the party was being held in. We walked up to the door and listened for any movement inside. When no sounds were heard, Falcon picked the lock on the door.

"Where did you learn to do that?" I asked him, as the door swung open.

"From years of trying to pick the lock on my cage," Falcon said, "it definitely comes in handy out here in the real world though."

I nodded and crept into the motel room. There were beer bottles lying on the floor and all over the tables. A couple of people had passed out on the couch and another had passed out on the bed. In the back corner of the room were their backpacks. I crept over to the bags and unzipped them slowly so as to make no noise. I looked in the bag and searched through the contents. No ID badge.

I should have guessed they wouldn't leave them in their bags, I thought, now where would they be?

I looked around at the three people passed out in the room. Two of them were guys and the other a girl, all three no older than we were. The girl and one of the guys were the ones passed out on the couch, the second guy had passed out on the bed. I scanned the room and saw nothing. Then as I crept out, I saw the ID badge poking out of the back pocket of the guy on the bed.

This lot are idiots, I thought, I though they would be smarter than Erasers, but event Erasers are smarter than them. If that's even possible.

I crept up and slowly eased the badge out of the guy's pocket. He didn't even stir, not even as I crept back out the door and Flacon closed and locked it.

"Did anyone order an ID badge?" I asked, showing them my new find. I think I'm going to be 'finding' a few items in the future.

We crept back to our room and I pulled out our Wrist pilots. We took turns in scanning the ID badge onto our WP's and then we began to alter it. We placed out photos on the badge and replaced the name Neil Reynolds, with each of our own personal Aliases. After a few moments we had the ID's competed and had found a new function to the WP's. They could print the ID's and laminate them for us, just like the originals.

We returned the ID badge and then collected our stuff from our room and left. No sense in hanging around when we had stuff to do. We followed the map I had made with the information I had found and I filled them in on the changes to the plan as we flew south-south-east towards our target. The Installation.

Chapter 63

"What do you mean I'm not going in with you?" Skye whispered fiercely at me.

I pulled Skye away from the others and talked to her quietly.

"I don't want you in the direct line of fire, Skye," I said, "It won't be safe on the inside. I don't want to risk losing you," I lowered my voice even further, "Skye; I don't want to lose you. Life would be meaningless without you."

"And without you, but what if we are separated," Skye argued softly, "wouldn't you be distracted not knowing what was happening to me back on the surface. And anyway, my healing abilities will come in handy."

As much as I hated to admit it, Skye was right. I probably would be distracted by not knowing what was happening. But ever since yesterday, I felt closer to Skye and if she died, I felt I would as well. During my education, I had discovered that when birds chose a mate, they chose them for life. Since we were part bird, I wondered if that was the same with us, that once we chose someone to love, it was for the rest of our lives. Although, I always felt Skye was the only person I needed in my life.

"Alright, you're on my team," I agreed, "but stay close and don't go off alone, anywhere."

I stressed that last part to make sure she understood.

"Alright," Skye said, "your over-protective, you know that?"

"Well, our lives are filled with more danger than normal people. I should be allowed to be."

Skye smiled and kissed me before returning to our little hidey-hole just north of The Installation. We were making final adjustment to the plan before our jail-break went into action. I got the Dragon Virus ready o be uploaded into their database as soon as we had rescued Flame.

I stayed outside a bit longer, surveying the bases grounds. To be on the safe side, we had gone back and hijacked the employee's car so that we could drive in like humans would. It would lessen suspicion from the guards on duty, and make it easier for us to drive in. Once we got inside the base grounds I would drive the car to the garage and we would split into our teams and carry out operation Jail Break.

Chapter 64

The guard looked down at me, sitting in the driver's seat of the car, as I waited for him to grant us access into The Installations grounds.

"I can't say I've ever heard of The Academy," the guard said, "are you sure that was where you were transferred from."

"Yes, I'm sure," I said. "Look, can't you just let us through? We have been transferred here and would like it if we could settle in as soon as possible."

"What did you do to get transferred here?" The guards asked, "Normally we get the problematic ones out here to train into shape."

"I was over enthusiastic at killing my targets," I said. The guard gulped at that, "Danielle had the habit of always causing fights with the Eraser's whenever they jeered at her. Falcon here was always sneaking into restricted areas and Drake, well lets just say has habits of destroying installation property. Any problems?"

"Ah… no," the guard said nervously, "you can go through."

We drove through the gates, the sun slowly setting beyond the horizon as we arrived at the garage. Just on time. The cargo trucks would be arriving at nightfall, like scheduled and the first team would disable the trucks and cause a bit of a commotion. While in the desert, we had caught a few critters to use. We had scorpions, snakes and a few other creepy crawlies.

I stepped out of the car and collected my bag from the trunk of the car.

"Alright, this is where we split up," I said, "Terra and Falcon, go cause some havoc, Drake Skye, let's go."

I walked towards the door and swiped my card to allow access to the installation. A buzzing noise came from the door as the electronic lock turned off and the door swung open. We were in, now it was time to cause the chaos. We walked down a corridor and arrived at a reception desk, surprisingly unmanned by anyone. Ok, things were getting strange already. We walked cautiously down the next corridor and came to another split into four corridors.

Go right, Flames vice entered my head. I turned right and followed the corridor to an elevator.

They know you're hear Blaze, Flame said, they're expecting you.

I guessed that might happen, I thought to Flame, so I came prepared.

What are you planning this time? Flame thought.

Oh, nothing but a little chaos and havoc. I thought, still following the corridor, Can you disconnect from the cyber world or not?

I can't fully disconnect, Flame thought, but I should be able to if the security system of the computers detects a hacker or harmful program.

Would a virus do? I thought back.

Yeah, that should do, Flame thought, find a terminal and I can log you in.

I saw a terminal up ahead at another desk and walked around the desk to it and saw Flame had already logged in. I pulled out the WP and uploaded the virus into the computer and gave it ten minutes until activation.

Plenty of time.

Chapter 65

I continued down the corridors, following directions from Flame and eventually lead to the catwalk I had seen in my vision. I slowly crept down the corridor, realising I was getting closer to my objective, but what Flame had said, got me suspicious. It was too easy. I came across the door to the cryonic room and found it open, the room returned to normal temperature because of the computer alert.

"Stay back and watch my back," I told Skye and Drake, "something isn't right, it's too easy."

Drake nodded to show he agreed with me. Skye stayed back as we walked through the doors and into the now defrosted Cryonic room. The three figures I had seen in my vision were now clearly visible. All of them wore what looked like wetsuits with holes in them for their wings. Without me telling him to, Drake raced up and began to release the captives from their tanks. When I say releasing, I mean smashing the Plexiglas tanks with his fist, draining the tanks of fluid, and pulling the captives out. All of them were unconscious, but alive.

The giant door to the room clanged shut and we heard the hushed movements of people hurrying to get into position around us. I looked up to see a balcony surrounded the entire room and a mixture of Erasers and other experiments surrounded us. Those that weren't capable of transforming held guns… trained on us. I noticed some of the kids were bird-human experiments as well and felt only pity for them. They had been fed, and believed, the same lies I had been told. I heard clapping coming from above and focused my attention on the figure stepping out of the shadows.

"Well done, Alpha," the figure said from the shadows, "when we discovered you would come here, we set a little welcoming committee for you. I hope you like our warm welcome. Although whatever you said to the front guard had him shaken up."

I didn't recognize the face but the voice sounded familiar.

"Why let us come here," I asked, "all this way, only to capture us again?"

"Don't you get it?" The figure said, "All of this, from the time you escaped, was just another test. Although Reilly's interference was unexpected, we still managed to find a way to complete the exercise."

"Exercise?" I asked, "What exercise? We have been running for our lives from your mutts and avoiding charges of murder, and to you all it was, was another exercise, a game to you."

"The exercise in question was to see if you could survive in the outside world and blend in with the human world." The shadowed figure explained, "Although there were a few setbacks, like the fact you tended to live in that cave, rather than any hotels, until your journey here, you still did far better than your mother at keeping your flock alive. Did you know, we had assassins after you as well, but they couldn't seem to track you? It's such a shame that Max wasn't aware of the one following her flock. But I'm proud of you, Nathan, very proud of you."

"Why?" I asked, already suspecting the truth.

The figure walked into the light and his face was suddenly lit by the lights overhead, and I stood face to face with Jeb… My Grandfather.