Chapter 6
Tea, Crumpets and Mutinous Dining Staff

London. One of the strangest cities in the world. People flock in millions to work here but few live and sleep within the city. The ancient values of the gentry mingle with chavs. Blokes in gold trimmed suits and top hats patrol the arcades. And within the Houses of Parliament the entire British government opens because an old man yells something in Latin and bangs on the front door with a gold stick. This was a city that either needs to catch up or simply wanted to keep a shiny buckled shoe in the past. So when I stepped off the train at Marylebone station I wasn't overly surprised to find an old man in robes tolling a bell next to the coffee shop.
My new clothes kept most of the biting cold off me but with each breath everyone sent out billows of steam into the air like the trains that had brought them here. The trek out of the woods hadn't been too hard and before six in the morning I arrived in a small town and replaced all my clothes, paying with the card Mum had given me. I forced the idea of my Mother out of my head, last thing I needed was to be worrying about someone else beside myself.
I knew the Savoy was on the Strand, not far from St James Park and Buckingham Palace. I was just a case of getting across the city. I made it very clear I was going nowhere near the tube system, last thing I needed was to been trapped in a tin can where anyone could leave a knife in my back and be done with it. I was travelling above ground today and a walk in the cool air will give me time to order my head out of this nightmare.
I walked the coffee shop and scanned the area around me for anyone who might turn out to have a gun they were likely to use. A small reflection caught my eye and I leaned in to look at myself in the reflection of the shop window. I was a mess, my hair was way too long and matted like a shaggy dog, face caked with grime and God knows what else. But I realised what Gemma had been so scared of in the cinema a life time ago when she tried to help me. My eyes had changed colour, not blue but yellow. No iris or white, just a veined yellow that covered my entire eye and a pitch black pupil at its centre.
"Just like a hawk." I murmured. I couldn't go out like this, if anyone was looking for me they would spot me in an instant. I looked around, a hat, anything to cover my eyes. A set of sunglasses was hanging off a bag on the next table over and the owner was looking the other way. I walked by, picking a tray up as I went and plucked them from the elastic in a quick movement. Unfortunately I hit him hard in the shoulder with the tray.
"Watch it!" I slid the glasses into my pocket.
"Sorry." I started to head away.
"At least say it to my face you stupid child I… oh." I did look him in the face, after a moment I turned and walked away. Leaving the man with the image of my eyes seared into his retinas.

The Savoy itself was one of the most luxurious hotels in the world. So when I walked into the lobby, I stuck out like a sore thumb. The marble floors reflected my filthy face perfectly and as I traipsed toward the front desk the model sitting at the computer visibly flinched before putting on her auditioned smile.
"Good morning sir, welcome to the Savoy. Do you have a reservation?" It was sickly enough to make your eyes water.
"No I'm meeting someone, Alan Atridge. I was told to meet him." I adjusted my glasses and lent of the desk. "Would he be here?" The receptionist leafed through some papers idly before picking out a post-it note attached to photo.
"Ah, Mr King, Mr Atridge is in our breakfast lounge. He says you are to have breakfast with him." Food? I second that motion.
"Where would the lounge be?"
"Along this corridor, you can't miss it. Enjoy your stay sir." I nodded my thanks and walked down along the corridor toward the lounge. As I looked back I saw the receptionist dusting off the desk with disinfectant where I had lent on it. Snobs.
The entrance to the lounge was manned by a toff in a bright green suit and as I approached he opened the door.
"Good morning sir."
"Morning." I caught a whiff of the breakfast that was being served in the lounge and literally levitated into the room.
Fresh crumpets, pancakes, croissants and a small mountain range of assorted jams, arranged to perfection over tables as long as limos. I was in heaven. In less than 20 seconds I had a plate filled with everything.
"Aires!" I picked up a knife and stood stock still. A podgy hand rested on my shoulder. "I think we can put that down my boy. Your mother has asked me to look after you." Alan Atridge whispered in my ear and I set the knife down. "Come, I have a table." He steered me toward a table at the back of the lounge and I set my plate down.
Alan Atridge was quite simply massive. His distended belly would rival most and the groan the chair made as it took his weight was like some kind of wounded animal. A small moustache adorned his top lip, the ends cut to points at the end. His cheeks were a flushed red and his balding head did nothing to stop him looking like a 007 villain. All he needed was a fluffy cat to be honest.
"So, Aires. You finally manifested. About time too but after all, your mother was never wrong when it came to her research." Ok, that enough. I reached across the table and grabbed the fat man by the lapels of his tweed jacket.
"Now listen to me very carefully. I have been chased through woods by a monster, had my house blown up, been shot at and woke up with a set of wings on my back. So drop the act and give me some answers before I make your day just as bad as mine." Atridge raised an eyebrow and cocked his head.
"You are so like your mother." I threw him back into his seat and took a bite out of one of my crumpets, the first thing I had eaten in 36 hours.
"She said I would be safe with you." Lord knows why
"Makes since, there aren't many of us who know about you outside the Company." He crossed his arms over his ample belly and regarded me with a frown. "What's with the glasses?" I stopped chewing on the piece of croissant I had unceremoniously stuffed into my mouth.
"You want to see?"
"Yes." I set down the pastry and quickly dipped my glasses. "Hmm, a side effect, not terribly major."
"Not terribly major? Want a look at my wings? I would class that as major." I replaced my glasses and bit down on another crumpet.
"Well, the other subjects never exhibited any side effects, I guess this is specific to the treatment."
"Others?"
"Oh yes, there were others." A smile crept up along his lips. "They never told you did they?"
"I'm not in the mood fatty." I growled.
"Oh my, you are in for a wake up call my boy." The man rubbed his hands together impishly "You were a science experiment. One your adoptive parents were key figures in." Each word hit me like a sledgehammer, but one was like being hit by a truck.
"Adopted? But they said I was a test tube baby, with their genes because Mum couldn't give give birth." The man's smile began to stretch off his face.
"Angela and Derrick were infertile, totally unable to provide genetic material suitable for a child. You were abandoned at some hospital, we picked you up when our man found you as computable with the programs aims. Your 'parents' were simply there to keep an eye on you, administer the serum and turn you over to the company once you had manifested." A chuckle left his mouth. "Turns out Angela wasn't so keen on turning you over while Derrick was. Derrick had always been the one to remain objective, whatever the situation. He's been lined up to snatch power for years, some foul play was involved of course but Derrick is one of the most unique people I had ever met. You might say it was something he passed on."
"Your lying, they couldn't have done this too me." I said this between gritted teeth but inside I felt the last memory of my mother coming up as I set out to flee the cabin in the woods.
"Me and your father did something terrible to you," Something terrible. Was this it? Turning me into a freak of nature and setting me out into the world with nothing but empty promises and no protection from those who want me dead or worse.
"Well, even if you did it doesn't mean much at this point." He reached deep into his tweed jacket. Oh God it was so 007 I nearly laughed.
"You are such a prick." I looked down the barrel of the pistol as he hid it beneath his napkin.
"Call me what you want Aires, but I believe that Angela gave you something of great importance to me. Empty your pockets." I threw the wallet and small note book I had been given. "Ah, back in my hands at last." He held the book up and grinned. "Angela stole this from my lab a few weeks before your primer was due to kick in, I was quite bewildered when it vanished. I bet you didn't even bother reading it." He leafed through the pages. "I worked quite closely with the other hybrids you know. Particularly their flying capability. You see, this is my life's work, right here. And my way to make a new breed of you. And dear old Angela has given you both to me in one neat little package." He snapped the book shut and I flinched. I was trapped under this man's podgy thumb, how the Hell was I so stupid. "And all we need now is a sample of DNA. Something I don't need you alive for." I screwed my eyes shut as he raised the pistol. This was it. What a waste.
"Hot towel sir?" Were among the word I didn't expect to hear at this point. I opened an eye and looked up at the waiter standing beside Alan with a shiny serving tray balanced on his fingertips. The over all effect on Alan was something different all together.
"Jeb? Jeb Batchelder?" I would have laughed if a gun hadn't been pointing at me.
"Hello Alan." The service tray hit the back of Alan Atridge's with a resounding clang which made me wince. The tray was bent round the back of the fat man's head and looked like a sombrero as he fell forward into his crumpets with mundane finality.
"I suggest you get moving, he won't be out of it long." Jeb said this in a matter of fact voice but the meaning was clear. I got up and went for the door. "Hey! You might want to read this." He threw the book over to me. "We'll be seeing each other soon enough." I caught a glimpse of white teeth and turned and ran, holding the book close to my chest as I ran from the madman.
But the look on his face....priceless.