Chapter 9
Dad Shock

We couldn't take back Nudge's body.
When the Seaking landed in a glade just off from the road, medics rushing out to the van with stretchers and the kits, they took one look at her body and moved on to the next man.
The Flock sat on the edge of the glade as the three survivors were loaded into the helicopter, not making a sound, just holding one another. I didn't join them, I stood with my mother, watching as bodies wrapped in blankets were lined up on the ground. The smallest of the bodies was the last to be laid on the ground.
"I wasn't fast enough." I said, not taking my eyes off the tiny body laying wrapped in its death shroud.
"Don't say that." My mother said, the baby in her arms slept, oblivious to the grief around him. "You saved the lives of more people than you think tonight." I turned to look at her.
"At the expense of others lives, I don't find any comfort in that." I muttered. She took hold of my arm.
"Aires, you have to learn this very early on, you can never save everyone." She looked at me, there were tears in her eyes. I took a look around briefly then dragged her over to the edge of the glade, away from the bodies, away from anyone who would hear. The baby boy opened his eyes but didn't make any noise.
"I want to know exactly whats going on. How did you know I was coming? How did you know about everything that has happened while you've been locked up here?" I didn't miss the brief hesitation before she replied.
"I've heard things from..."
"BULL! Every action thats happened, every single thing down to where we were camped you knew so don't feed my your crap!" Out in the glade the Flock looked up and Max stood away from their huddle, starting to head toward us. My mother looked at me, her eyes suddenly hard.
"Your not the only ones who have been changed." She hissed at me. I raised an eyebrow.
"Your Max's Voice, I get that much." I retorted. "That still doesn't explain your information."
"There are different abilities that have been developed Aires. Nudge's magnetism, Fang's camouflage. Think about it Aires." She brushed past me, heading toward the helicopter, leaving me stood just within the tree line. Max came to a stop next to me.
"You OK?" I nodded, looking after my mother as she spoke with one of the Seaking crew.
"Have you ever come across anyone with a precognitive ability at Itex?" Max shook her head.
"No, I've not seen anyone like that." A sad laugh passed her lips then she looked at me staring at the rows of bodies on the ground. "You did your best Aires. Your the strongest here. " She held out her arms and wrapped me in an awkward embrace. "We won't abandon you. You didn't abandon us." I stood for a moment, stiff and immobile against her warm body, then after months of holding my heart locked inside I broke. I began crying into her shoulder, heaving sobs as I felt the weight of the past few weeks fall from my shoulders. All that pain and death and grief being washed off in a moment of kindness. After a while I became aware of the Flock around us, hands resting on my shoulder from Iggy and Fang, comforting words coming from Angel and Gazzy, even Total nuzzled at my hip wining softly. After a while one of the crew came over. "We're ready." I let go of Max and rubbed my face clear of tears.
"Come on." Max nodded and we headed into the middle of the glade. Thirteen bodies were laid close together on the grass, twelve of them SAS operatives, one of them too young to be laying there but there none the less by some cruel trickery. There were small black boxes attached to each of the bodies, three viscous liquids held separate within the box. The Seaking crew were kneeling next to the shrouded bodies, a draw pin leading into the boxes on each body. We stopped by Nudge's body and one of the crew came over to us.
"What do I do?" The woman in her medic uniform took a brief look then pointed to the pin in the side of the box, no explanation needed to be said. Max offered for anyone to say some words, Iggy tried but his words descended into sobs before he could finish. There was little to say, tears did it for us. Max knelt down and kissed Nudge's forehead, tightening the shroud once more and tugging the pin from the box. Compressed liquid magnesium combined with Thermite and sodium within the confines of the box, white fire spreading outside the box and lighting the shroud and the body within. Nudge's body was cremated at 9000 degrees centigrade within thirty seconds.
We were left crying over a blackened patch of grass in the middle of the glade as the rest of the crew paid their last respects to the twelve SAS men and women who had given their lives for the five remaining Flock members. Fang was the first to turn toward the Seaking, leading Angel away with Total at her heels, Iggy and Gazzy went next with Max left with me.
"Go on, I need a minute." Max nodded, squeezed my shoulder and caught up with Fang as the crew boarded the Seaking and the rotors began to spin up. I looked from the rows of blackened grass to the sky. Far off in the distance a bird called, a piercing cry that cut over the roar of the rotors.
I picked the pistol from my belt and looked at the black piece of metal in my hands. A month ago when I had been back in England, enacting my crusade on Itex without mercy or remorse I had picked up this weapon and felt nothing. All I felt now was disgust. I held the weapon in my hand, weighed it once, then hurled it into the trees, a final glint of black iron vanishing into the grass.
I climbed into the helicopter with The Flock. Max had been talking to my Mother, the conversation abruptly stopping as I stepped inside. Max looked up at me, nodded once then we lifted off the ground, hovering briefly over the glade and away over the trees, scattering Nudge's ashes out into the night sky and away like stardust.

Hours later we were sitting in a warm room at CIA head quarters. The smaller kids were curled up against the far wall on a sofa while the rest of us were sitting around the table. It was just the Flock in the room and the baby that Mum had brought from the station. Angela was outside and we could hear the soft murmur of conversation outside. Max sat rigidly and I could tell there were more things she was hearing than we could.

I've told you already, that child needs to be taken care of.
Max shuddered as Jeb's voice rattled around her mind, echoing the words being said outside the door.
I cannot justify the murder of a child Jacob. None the less my grandchild.
He's not your grandchild, and he's not mine, he's the product of a miscarriage of science and cloning. Jeb said.
Are you willing to kill your daughters child Jeb for the sake of your act of heroism?
Like I said, not my problem. Simply a mistake. There was a silence between the two minds and Max glanced at the baby laying in Aires's arms. Did he guess he was holding his child? Would he guess?
You've changed Jeb. I've grown up Angela, nothing more. And maybe its time you did the same, you've Seen what happens, you know this can only have one outcome. Or are you just too weak to realize that?
Max didn't need her Voice to hear the slap of palm on Jeb's face, everyone looked up at the door. The baby gurgled in Aires's arms.
The door opened and Angela stepped inside the room, slamming the door behind her but not before Max saw the sneer of Jeb's face outside in the corridor. Angela clenched her fists for a moment then her face softened and she walked over to her son as he sat, shadowed eyes and bent back, a picture of mourning.
Angela stood beside him and motioned toward the balcony that led off the room. They left the room and shut the door behind them, shutting out the Flock and turning to one another. Max shut out the words that echoed through her head as Angela spoke to her son. Aires's eyes went from Max to the baby in his arms then to his mother. He slid down the far wall and sat stunned on the ground, then Angela sat beside him and put and arm around his fallen shoulders.
Max looked away and she realized the rest of the Flock was looking at her. Her heart froze as Fang looked at her, fearing what Fang would think of her after learning what Angela had said in the Seaking. But he only held her hand over the table and nodded toward the balcony, no words, but his support and love encased within those simple gestures.
She stood up, kissed his cheek and went out onto the balcony and sat next to Aires.
"Dad shock." Aires suddenly looked up as Max sat beside him.
"What?"
"Teenage dads pushing buggies and changing diapers. Dad shock." A small laugh left Aires, his rough hands taking hold of his son's. "Have you thought of a name?"
"Yeah." Tears welled up in his eyes and the baby frowned as if asking what was wrong. "Phoenix, for Nudge. You know. From the ashes" "Phoenix. Little Phoenix." Max took hold of Aires's shoulder and nodded. "Good name. Good name." They sat there for a long time, then the moment shattered.
A uniformed agent walked in and looked round for Angela before stepping onto the balcony, his face grim and shadowed in the early morning sun over Virginia.
"Los Angeles has just been hit. We were too late to get King. He's gone"

Sorry for the wait, have recently got a job at the local book shop (oh the irony) and I haven't had much time for writing. More to come soon.