Knife Edge
Chapter 4

The Devils Backbone, Virginia

Max rolled onto her side and bumped right into another body in the confined space of the cage. She instinctively struck out but gentle hands held her softly but firmly.
"It's ok, it me." Fang's voice brought Max back to the real world. She could just make out his hard features in the weak light from the bare bulb that hung overhead. "You ok?"
"Yeah." Max tried to shift her weight but Fang's body was pressed so tight they could barley move. "They must really be on a budget, only one cage?" "Everyones still asleep." Fang's voice was so quiet in the cage Max could hardly hear him. "We're all here"
"Apart from"
"Yeah, he's not here." Fang sounded like he wanted to hit something. "Those cowards got him"
"Do you think he might have"
"Nothing can survive something like that." He shook his head. Max bit her lip and shut her eyes, the memory at Vauxhall Cross coming back with vengeance. His eyes, it was his eyes she remembered, the way they went totally dead in just one second.
"Max?" Angel's tiny voice came from outside the cage, all Max could see was Fang's dark face in the pale light, her anchor in this Hell hole. "I'm here Ang, you alright?"
"I'm ok, Gazzy and Total are in here too but their asleep." Max felt her guts twist, she could hear the tiny sobs coming from Angel's cage. "He's dead isn't he"
"Don't say that, I'm sure he's fine." Max's throat constricted. "They killed him right in front of us, he didn't even notice." Angel's voice broke. "He just died, and he didn't even know"
"Angel." Fang said softly, Max couldn't speak for fear of breaking into tears herself. "You can't remember him like that, you have to remember him when we were safe. Ok?"
"Ok." Angel said and fell silent, filling the space with depressed quiet. Max choked back a sob and Fang wrapped her up in a tight embrace as she bawledinto his shoulder. For some reason Aires's death had cut her deep. She had hardly known the boy but she felt like some fleeting part of her had vanished, leaving her only comfort in Fang and her remaining family. He had brought them together, without him she and Fang would still be dancing round each other rather then accepting the fact that they were to be together. He may have been part of the family for only a few days, but he had made his mark by bringing Max and Fang out of their hormonal adolescent shells and making them adults.
"Well, this is precious!" Max lept to the front of the cage and stared into the face of the person she least wanted to see.
"You heartless bastard!" She screamed at Derrick King. "You murderer! You shot your own son!"
"Not my son, just a loose end." He stood there impassively, his eyebrow raised in mock amusement. Standing beside him stood a very bruised Dr Roland ter Borcht. His nose looked like it had been turned on a ninety degree angle and his face was one big purple bruise. Through the open door came a scream and Max flinched. "As you might be aware your counterpart is in a substantial amount of pain. I would hope that she survives or you will be taking her place."
"What you doing to her? Playing her a few of your monologues?" King's lips went a little bit thinner but he didn't stop.
"Your clone, she is a strange creature. Very easy to manipulate." He looked up and down the line of cages. "Least I can say for you. I fail to see why Crowe or Jansen allowed you the air to breath"
"They didn't have much of a say, we don't listen to scum-balls like you." Fang growled from the back of the cage. King knelt down to the cage, his smile stretching across his face. Another scream, much louder came from outside and ter Borcht scurried off.
"Do you know why I killed Aires? Because he was an extra body bag to carry. Now you, your special. Tough, resourceful, intelligent. Those are the quality's I need."
"And we'll work for you why?" Max could smell King's expensive aftershave and wondered how this man could have been anyone's father.
"No, no, no my dear. Your children will, why do you think I put you and Mr Griffiths here together?" Fang exploded, hurling himself at the cage front. King stood up and smiled.
"Isn't it strange how men are so protective of their prizes? Its one of the few animal reactions we have left."
"I'll kill you! I swear I'll kill you!" Fang hollered at him, clawing at the bars of his cage.
"You aren't the first person to say that. But you'll all end up just like little Air." Max couldn't reach the man from inside the cage but she still had one weapon at her disposal, she spat in his face. King took a silk handkerchief from his pocket and wiped his face. "You shan't follow that up Maximum, you may be my guests but I can make your stay very unpleasant here." King turned on his heel and put his head round the door. "Bring her in." Two men in black camo suits and rifles swinging from their shoulders dragged the limp form of a woman into the room. "Have you met my wife?" Derrick rolled the woman over with his loafered shoe like he was handling something diseased.
"Go to Hell." The woman spat out a glob of blood onto the floor. King kicked her back down and she lay there moaning.
"Now you see where Aires got his stubbornness from. I think I'll leave you to get acquainted." King left the room and the door slammed shut. The locks on the cages popped open and Max clambered out.
"You alright?" She helped the woman into a sitting position against one of the tables. She was in a state, she had a nasty black eye and it looked like she hadn't eaten in a long time. But beyond that she still had the strength to crack a grin.
"I'll live, Derrick has always been quick to write someone off." She squinted at Max. "Your the real Max aren't you"
"Guess so." Max said and tried to support the woman before she slid onto the floor. "Are you Aires's mom"
"Yes. How is he?" Max felt her heart break. She didn't know. "I'm sorry...when we were taken...he got shot." Angela's eyebrows raised but a small smile spread over her face.
He's alive Max, and he's coming for you. Max blinked. Angela's voice echoed through her head but her lips didn't move. Her mouth dropped open as realisation dawned on her.
You!
Took you long enough to work that one out.

The Devil's Backbone, Virginia
11.2 Kiliometers east of Itex Station Zero Four

"What do you think?" M handed me a set of night-vis binoculars, not that I needed them in the light of the full moon. I focused on the edge of the station, the razor topped fence was being patrolled by men with dogs and in various towers were snipers with rifles mounted on all sides.
"Its a fortress, all they need is a tank and an artillery unit and it might be Camp Bastion we're looking at." I handed her back the binoculars and headed back down into the small ravine we were camped in. The hole in the rock wall that surrounded the valley had been standing for millions of years and luck for us many holes and crevasses had formed over the years. The chasm was twenty feet wide and opened to the size of a football field as you went deeper. If I reached high enough I could touch the rock of the cave roof and brush away layers of sandstone to reveal entombed mollusc's and shells from when the sea would have been flowing around us millions of years ago and these long dead animals would have called this place home.
"I have a detachment of Apaches standing by, they can be here in the hour but we can's stay here much longer." M hobbled up beside me, the attack on MI6 had injured a good many men and women, M had caught a bit of falling shrapnel in the calf, fracturing the bone but she had made it clear she was going to lead the offensive on Itex. "Every moment we wait we risk being detected. And the SAS team will be here in the next few minutes. We need an action plan and get out of here before we're missed and the US senate are offering us lodgings at Langley until we can sort this mess out, not that their happy about it"
"Why would that be? I thought you had a special relationship with the Americans"
"I do, Britain as a whole doesn't. Both of our governments have been disagreeing about everything from Global Warming to nuclear disarmament." M sat down next to me as I began loading up a magazine with bullets. "If there wasn't so much at stake I doubt they would have even let us into the country or forced us to use US Marines instead of our own."
"So either way the worlds screwed." I muttered, the silence broke only by the click as the bullets knocked against each other in the magazine.
"We're balanced on a knife edge. Too much is happening at once for the world to cope, Global Warming, Israel, war and terrorism. The world is fracturing." M rubbed her face. "And we need one hell of a miracle to set it right again"
"Frankly I don't care. All that matters to me is getting back my family." I cocked the rifle back and placed it on the floor. The electric lamp illuminated M's face as she studied me intently. "You've changed Aires."
"Yeah, I died and came back to life. I'd call it a big change." I muttered, looking at the sandy floor of the cave.
"Your not the fifteen year old boy I met in MI6. You did something very few adults would be able to do." I glanced up at M. "I won't ridicule you for your actions Aires, you did what I would have done myself in your position but now you need to look at yourself and think about what you are going to become if you carry on down this road." She lent in close to my ear and lowered her voice to a whisper. "None of the Flock need to know what you did to save them but the worst you can do now is to frighten them. I'm not saying become a pacifist but analyse the situation for any other alternative before taking a life"
"So you want me to become half monk, half hit-man?" I asked her. She lent back and smiled crookedly in her wiry way of hers that reminded my of Iggy.
"I want you to be a fifteen year old with a bit of an attitude problem"
"Well I've got the perfect role model. Max needs a stage act with her wit." I chuckled.

A nice long one for you all to enjoy while I put the finishing touches to the ending. Will probably be updating around next Monday now as I've got a drama portfolio to do. Oh the joys of education. Will see you in about a week along with Chapter 5: Execution

PS: May be a while before next post, real life is getting in the way. Estimated Update time is Feb by will hopefully be able to finish by then and I assure you, theres more to come. Alot more.