Freedom 22

"Joder!" Oscar swore and Alex rolled his eyes. No matter how old he was, his father still refused to swear in front of him in English. He always swore in Spanish. It's not like Alex hadn't been swearing since he was eleven. Alex was well versed in swearing by this point. Hell, even June and their mom swore. Leo had even sworn in front of him. Granted, it was only twice, but they were separate incidents and they still counted.

"I said it as a joke, Shaan." Henry suddenly huffed out. "At the time, it was just a joke. He had called me at 3am to talk turkeys. I was in bed with David, watching bake off. Thinking about switching off the tv and going to bed when this bozo called."

"Sorry you didn't get your beauty sleep, Your Majesty." Alex quipped and Henry rolled his eyes at Alex's sass-mouthed antics. "But you still love me."

"Who the bloody god-damn knows the hell why?" Henry cursed and Oscar smiled at them, wide and bright. "Here I was minding my own business and suddenly, this clown comes waltzing into my life and antagonizing me at every turn."

This was the most life he had seen in Alex since before the email leak and he finally felt like Alex was slowing coming back to them. "Ok Mijos, time to focus." Oscar took a deep breath. "Continue Alejandro."

"Right ... So, Henry, and now Shaan have both confirmed it." Alex continued, unsure of how his crazy, ADHD addled brainchild would be received. "If they were indeed the royal assassins, they wouldn't be so sloppy. If there was a threat made against my life, the Secret Service and possibly the FBI would know about it. Mom and Zahra would have ramped up my security. It's not coming from our side. So, who do the two men really work for? And why were they on the island? How did they find us on the island? The only people who knew exactly where we were was Shaan, Trent, Henry and I. Am I being paranoid?"

"I'd say you're being the right kind of ... noid." Oscar said softly. Alex had made solid points. Good points. Points that none of them had thought about before. Points he doubted that Zahra and Ellen had thought of. "What's our next move?"

"I think it's time Alex and I have a conversation with Bea, and then our mother." Henry grimaced, looking over to Shaan for confirmation. "Shaan and Oscar, I'd like you two to sit in on those conversations."

"I would advise that too." Shaan said solemnly. "You also need to ensure that Her Royal Highness is alone when the conversation is had. I have been assured that His Royal Highness, Prince Philip has changed tacks, but quite frankly, I am still finding it hard to trust him and his word. Even if Her Royal Highness, Princess Consort Martha does have an allegiance with your mother."

"Pip can't be trusted." Henry swore vehemently, subconsciously rubbing his forearm. Shaan noticed that Alex stepped forward and pressed his own palm onto Henry's to still his hand from the action. That told the royal Equerry, that the prince had confided in his lover exactly how Philip had been treating him. "Martha, I solemnly believe that she has good intentions. I am just not so sure about the man she married. Shaan, you and I both know how terrible he really is."

"Not to interrupt you, partaking in my personal favourite past time of verbally abusing Philip, Hen, but we need to stay focused." Alex reminded Henry. Admittedly, Henry getting riled up in anger over Philip was doing it for Alex a little more than he liked.

"You're right, darling." Henry winked at Alex. Alex wasn't as subtle as he thought he was. Henry could see right through him. "We know they aren't royal assassins. Who are they?"

"Has anyone floated this theory by the Secret Service yet?" Shaan suddenly asked. Shaan had been struck with the realisation that right now, they were under their protection and essentially, sitting ducks.

"One, I wasn't sure I was right." Alex argued softly. "Besides Cash and Amy, I'm not feeling very trustworthy of many people."

"That's understandable, Mijo." Oscar nodded. "You and Henry have more than been through the wringer. Cash and Amy have been with us a long time now. All the way back from when your mom became Speaker of the House."

"Two, I'm still not sure I'm not being paranoid." Alex whispered softly.

He wasn't sure if anyone else had heard his confession, but Oscar put a comforting arm around his son, while Henry held Alex's hand in his own. Alex curled his head in on himself, being tugged with such gravitational force that Alex felt his whole-body tumble. He found his head coming to rest on something solid. The smell of simultaneous cut grass and fresh linen had him smiling into the firmness that supported him. Henry. He'd recognise that scent anywhere.

Feeling a fifth hand hesitantly touch his back, softly and silently, Alex felt his reserve falter. Shaan. He hadn't known he'd had Shaan's support too. His lip trembled into Henry's linen button down shirt that was missing more buttons that it had functioning. It was threadbare thin, the sleeves rolled up and fabric wrinkled against the five o'clock shadow that graced his face. A size too big, yet a perfect fit; Alex secretly thought that it had belonged the Arthur, rather than Henry. Perhaps it had become a comfort item in his grief. A way for his boyfriend to be close to his father.

With Alex's thoughts turning to Arthur, he felt his mind get a handle on his emotions. Admittedly, it only worked momentarily. Just until he thought about Arthur's death and Henry's grief. His thoughts immediately moved on to his own father and his relationship with the man. He wished he was as close to Oscar as Henry had been to Arthur. But he wasn't and he never would be. June was, and it was something that Alex couldn't help but be envious of.

"Perhaps we ought to sleep on it and reconvene with Princess Beatrice in the morning." Shaan offered softly. He could feel Alex's inner strength from underneath the skin on the palm of his hand. It was teetering on the precipice. "Henry, get him into bed and keep him warm. He did so well."

Oscar looked like he wanted to object to Shaan's edict, but he figured the Equerry's motives were genuine. "Good night, Mijo's." He conceded his argument. Both of the boys looked emotionally done in and Oscar bid them a good night and left them to it. Outside Alex and Henry's room. Shaan gave him a tilt of the head towards the kitchen. "What was that?" he demanded. "We need to do something."

"Alex is still in a fragile state, mental and emotionally. I don't want to push him." Shaan told Oscar. "He might seem like he is doing better, but we don't want to overwhelm him. We can't afford for him to regress back to a non-verbal state. Baby steps, Oscar."

Before bed, Oscar and Shaan made an executive decision between them, to bring Amy and Cash in on Alex's theory. Amy was the first to agree with Alex's assessment. The whole meeting was held in secrecy. Shaan had managed to alert them when they made their hourly rounds and they'd looped back on their way to the security post. None of the other Secret Service agents were any the wiser.

Being shaken awake by Cash at three in the morning, was Alex's ideal way of waking up. Nor was looking over his shoulder to see Amy shaking Henry awake. Being told to stay quiet in a hissed whisper and not having time to dress properly. Sweatpants were thrown at them, orders hissed to just throw them on over their boxer shorts. Looking up to find Shaan and Oscar meeting them by the door, in similar states of dressed. Hearing Bea, Percy, June and Nora being given similar orders, had them all on edge. There was no time to grab their belongings or anything else. Naturally, being young adults, they slipped their phones into their pockets on autopilot.

Looks were exchanged between the kids, and while Pez's arm found itself around Nora and Bea, it was June who cuddled up, in between Alex and Henry. They were all assembled in the hallway and Percy let out a short audible gasp when he noticed that the agents were no longer saying anything to one another but were using hand signs.

All of a sudden, the threat felt too real to them all. Pez found himself moving Nora and Bea closer to Alex and Henry. While Shaan tried to keep the younger adults calm, he couldn't help but wonder what was going on in the older Diaz's mind. Oscar seemed like he wasn't really focused on the situation in front of them. Oscar was running the worst-case scenarios through his head. He couldn't help it. He knew this place better than anyone else, even the Secret Service Agents. He had owned this place since not too long after the divorce was finalized. Long before Ellen had become the President. Long before the Secret Service entered their lives.

The lake house was a fully sustainable property. It was powered through solar power with a battery backup. There was a generator, in case of an emergency and thanks to a fifteen-year-old, environmentally conscious Alex, was converted to biofuel. The generator was tested frequently, and he had excess biofuel stored in the basement. Mostly because he always forgot to get some when he needed it. So, he kept a stash on hand. The nearest property to him was 2.6 miles northwest of him. On his property there was a storage barn, to the west, at a thousand feet away. On the east side of the property was some dense forestry. But there were easily marked off paths through it. The early days of his divorce had him, Alex and CJ carving them out and playing together in there. There was a couple of security outposts, one at the main entrances to the property. No one who wasn't expected got past the main gates. The other one was a security hub. Thirty feet from the kitchen side of the house. Connected by an underground tunnel and hatch. That is where the Secret service agents had their command center. From there they could surveil the property, plan and strategize, as well as communicate with the President, if need be.

The property was originally built to be used in the prohibition days for moving bootleg liquor to the elite and the area's one percenters, with the lake as their primary mode of transport. The previous owners sealed off the underground tunnels when they inherited the property in the 1940's. When Oscar purchased the property, he, Alex, Leo, Alex's friend Liam and Raf done the bulk of the construction work themselves to make it safe and functional again.

Power was suddenly cut to the property, plunging them into darkness. As their eyes adjusted, Shaan had ushered the six of them closer to Oscar. Amy and Cash were nowhere to be seen, and Shaan muttered to Oscar that they said they'd be back and that was over five minutes ago. Oscar felt a small hand slip inside one of his and in the darkness, he wasn't sure whose hand it was. He was fairly certain he could rule out any of the men. Giving it a squeeze, he reassured the owner of the hand that it would be ok.

Hearing the distant sound of a helicopter approaching perked Shaan's ears up. Hearing the whirling blade pierce through the still of the night had Shaan's mind retreating back into itself. It was a sound he wasn't expecting and the arrival of Cash and Amy, urging everyone to move quickly, the volume of their voices be damned, set him on edge. As soon as the command to move had been given, Percy grabbed Nora and ran. June had taken her father by his hand, forcefully and followed Nora and Percy, who were being led by Cash. Bea had broken free of Percy and Nora, seeing Shaan freeze up. She took his hand and gently coaxed him to following them. Henry and Alex were clinging to one another, both worried that they hadn't worked it out, sooner. With Amy coming up the rear, she closed the door behind them, urging them along. "Move it, now! Double time, let's go!" She shouted, pushing Henry and Alex further into the tunnel.

Coming up inside their command center, Cash shoved the hatch aside and climbed up inside the post. One by one, he helped them into the room. The room was small. Exceedingly small for six young adults, a senator, an equerry, Cash, Amy and six other Secret Service Agents. "Report in." Cash gave the command and one of his minions immediately begun giving them a rundown of the situation. "Unknown assailants, immediate danger. Attack we suspect by air. The airspace over the lake house is a no-fly zone. Has been since we arrived and set up our base." The first agent reported.

"Checked in with the FAA and the surrounding airfields, including Austin-Bergstrom International" A second agent spoke up. "No scheduled flights, in or out of any airstrip should have permission to fly over the property. The flights which usually do, were rerouted when we arrived three days ago, as per the joint FAA-United States Secret Service protocol. All flight towers have confirmed including the Alaskan Air Cargo Terminal, no flights have been made over the property."

"The aircraft in question was unlike anything I have seen before." A third added. "As a plane enthusiast and flight nerd, I have no idea what model it was. I want to guess and say some kind of cross between a sea plane, cessnock and a drone, due to the low flying altitude. It very possibly could be a prototype."

"Devlin and I," the second agent indicated to the agent who was a self-proclaimed plane enthusiast. "We suspect it was most likely manned because of the navigational lights on the vessel."

A large banging sound at perfectly timed intervals of ten seconds, had the agents on high alert, while Shaan clung onto Bea's hand now, like it was his lifeline. "We need a plan now." Cash ordered in a bellowing voice, over the sound of something repeatedly hitting the tin roof of both the lake house and the detached security hub. "Anyone got any bright ideas?"