Freedom 23

"The intervals of the craft flyovers, on average have been consistent." Amy thought out loud to mostly Cash. The non-agents in the group were huddled together. While Shaan still held Bea's hand, her other hand was in Henry's. Alex might have had an arm around Henry, but June had tucked herself under Alex's opposite arm. Oscar had reached around Alex as well, his hand resting on Henry's shoulder, including him in Oscar's attempted protection. Nora was huddled so close into June from behind, holding Percy's hand on side of her and using her spare hand to guide Shaan closer to them, so Percy could put his spare arm around Bea. "Between three- and four-minute intervals during what we think are surveilled flyovers."

Looking over to what they could see of the house, the perimeter was now well lit up with multiple flares. The red kind you would use in a boat at night, when in distress. From their vantage point, it wasn't hard to deduce that the security hub was also lit up. The helicopter had flown over to drop the flares and leave.

In total, there were ten Secret Service Agents on the detail. Two that were missing from the hub, were in the security outpost by the front gate. "IDEAS?" Cash bellowed again. "And someone get hold of Macklin and Michaels on the fucking front gate."

"The lines are down Cash, I already tried." Amy said tersely.

"Try again!" Cash ordered, turning to one of the other agents. "I need their location status and a sitrep of the front gate. They've got a vehicle of ours up there. If we bug out, we're going to need that vehicle."

"Storm cellar?" Oscar spoke up, hesitantly. "We'd have to make a run for it. There is no access from inside the house or security hub. But it's a top of the line, locks from the inside. Designed to withstand up to category five tornado winds, built tough by some Australian bloke. It can withstand up to 2010 degrees Fahrenheit. It's going to be a tight squeeze. It's thirty feet off the alfresco area. Underground. Secure. Safe."

"Objections?" Devlin asked, looking over at Amy who was biting her lip.

"If this is an on-foot attack it'd be like shooting goldfish in a barrel." Amy admitted. "Storm cellars are accessed from the outside."

"I can rig up the biometric system, Amy." Oscar added. As if when Oscar was having the damn cellar installed, he didn't choose a top-of-the-line shelter. He had chosen the Australian system over an American made bunker because the Australian system was designed to withstand the drastic radiant heat of a bushfire. "June, Alex and I are already pre-programmed. As well as a few select others."

"Look, we've got about three minutes to decide before the next plane." Cash said hastily. "We're running out of time and options. Sanchez? Any word of the front gate."

"Negative, Cash." Sanchez, the self-proclaimed plane enthusiast. "It's like dead air done there and there's no dial tone."

"Let's go." Cash decided. "We can't stay here, and we can't leave by car, it's too risky now the house and security hub are marked. Oscar, June, myself, Devlin in the first group. Alex, Shaan, Henry and Amy in the second wave. Percy, Nora, Bea and Sanchez in the third wave. Desi, Nichols, Connelly and Peters, fourth wave. Bring as much wireless comms as possible. Call in our LOCSTAT and SITREP to the White House before you depart. First wave needs sixty seconds, each additional group goes at thirty second intervals. We need to be clear of this building in three and a half minutes. GO NOW! Fallout!"

Cash, Oscar, June and Devlin took off in a fast sprint. Cash had reached the lading of the shelter doors first. Oscar second and was already opening the door. By the time June and Devlin reached the shelter, Alex, Shaan and Henry, alongside Amy were making their move. And halfway across the yard, the third team were preparing to depart. By the time the last team departed and had as much comms gear as they could carry, they could hear the whirl of the helicopter on its descent back. As soon as the last age had cleared the door of the landing of the shelter. it was pulled shut and latched.

Quickly sealing the hatch behind them, Oscar ushered everyone into the bigger part of the underground bunker. It was essentially a large room underground made from sixteen inch, reinforced concrete walls. Two tunnels were leading off to main room. One lead up to the landing and the other to a small bathroom with three stalls which were fully plumbed out. It was dark, but with a flashlight, Oscar had the generator running in minimal time. He had used the bunker to store canned food and bottled water, but not a lot else. It was sparse down there. There were a few old board games from June and Alex's childhood, but not much else. Their old camping gear was off in one corner, which made Alex and June thankful that they would at least have a couple of sleeping bags. A small kitchenette was in the centre of the room and the one thing they definitely had, was coffee.

A loud, yet excessively muffled sound of something being dropped. Similar to the sound of the flares being dropped permeated the air and there was a jiffy of silence before the sound of something exploding filling the air. The ground shook and rumbled. Everyone kind of jumbled and wobbled for a millisecond before everything stopped shaking. It was a similar feeling to being in the middle of an earthquake.

"Is everyone ok?" Amy called out. Amy had fallen to the ground in the aftermath of the blast and shaking. As she pulled herself to her feet, she was holding the left side of her collarbone. Alex had winced, seeing Amy holding her hand over the injured part of her body. He had broken a collarbone before; he knew how painful any injury was to that part of the body.

Various sounds of OK's filled the air. Devlin had a cut on his head from unexpectedly falling onto the polished concrete floor. Percy joked he had broken his coccyx because he had landed on his butt, however he was quick to say he was ok. Shaan had fallen onto his back, when he had broken Bea's fall. He said he was ok but moving in slow, ginger movement. Henry had a sore left wrist and June a small bump on her shoulder. Other than that, everyone was doing ok.

Oscar handed Alex the first aid kit. He could see his son was moments away from spiraling and decided he needed Alex to keep his wits about himself. The best way to do that, in such a confined space was to keep him busy. First stop was Shaan. Cash's ordered Alex to start with him. He checked Shaan over, careful not to move him excessively as he looked him over, in case of a spinal injury. But Shaan was moving of his own free will and reassuring everyone nothing was broken. Finding no evidence of that; Alex moved onto Amy next, making a makeshift sling until they could get some real help. There was no ice for ice packs and there was only one break and shake pack in the kit, which Cash suggested to Alex would be best for Amy, as her collar bone was clearly fractured.

"Aren't you going to kiss my ass all better, Alexander babes?" Pez asked him a flirtatious manner, when Alex came to end of the first aid duties.

"If you kiss his ass better, Darling, you'll never kiss mine again." Henry whispered in earnest to Alex. Henry was beside Percy, so Alex was in their vicinity too. "And I know how much you do enjoy that."

"Eww!" June moaned out loud. She was two people away but had still managed to hear Henry's thinly veiled threat. Or she had at least assumed that henry had something obscenely filthy and jumped to the conclusion. "Henry, that's my brother. Do you really have to say that?"

"June, my sweet June." Nora cooed condescendingly at her in a mocking tone. "Are you really that naive as to think that Henry and Alex don't do all sorts of depraved and indecent things to one another behind closed doors? Really? I suspect of every single thing you think they've done; they've done twenty or thirty more. They're men. Big, brutish, horny men, honey, of course they're all up in each other. Horndogs, really."

"That's enough, all of you!" Oscar snapped, tossing five sleeping bags and self-inflating mats down on to the ground. "We sleep in shifts. Alex and Henry, you take my bag between you two. Bea, you take June's. Shaan you've got Leo's bag. June, you and Nora take your ma's bag. Sorry Percy, you're on second shift with me and Cash. We sleep-in two-hour shifts."

"Dad, Henry and I will take second shift too. Amy and Devlin should rest, first." Alex offered. Truthfully both Alex and Henry were too wired to sleep, and Amy had injured herself. They were better off getting the sleep. The flight or fight instinct was strong in both of them, and Oscar suspected that it hadn't really left them since they found the intruders on the island with them. They'd been in a constant state of flight. Naturally, because of that, he conceded the point.

"If Amy and Devlin are ok with sharing, then it's settled." Cash decided. The girls both nodded and Alex was glad Cash had backed him up.

"No need, here's my bag." Alex said tossing another rolled up bag onto the polished concrete floor. "Dad always forgets my bag. It's almost like I don't really exist."

"Alex," Oscar said softly. He knew Alex had big feelings about the state of the relationship between them in the wake of the divorce, but he never realised that Alex quite often felt invisible. Being in June's shadow when it came to Oscar's attention.

"Not now, Dad." Alex huffed and Henry took his hand in his. "Later, right now we need to focus."

The ringing of Catherine's cell went unanswered, repeatedly. Ellen was not too concerned. It was the middle of the night in DC, and still very early morning in London. The fifth time she called, she finally got an answer. "Ellen, tell me you have good news." She greeted the president, as if they were old friends. She hadn't heard from anyone about anything that was happening in the states, with the exception of a video call late last night and brief text message from Shaan telling her they had arrived at the lake house.

"I am afraid not." She sighed into the phone line. "Our lead secret service agent on the protection detail hit the SOS button at the lake house at 0:56am. We received a report SITREP report saying they managed to get everyone out of the house and into the security hub, before we lost communications with them. Calls to the kids' cells aren't connecting. We suspect the cell tower has been taken out. We have dispatched teams to the area, and we have intelligence teams on the ground investigating. I am sorry, Catherine."

"Shaan called me, late last night. He had requested a video conference with me." She closed her eyes briefly. "I had to beg off, I had a migraine coming on and I felt it was better to cut it off, than extend its hold on me. Now I wish I had of taken the call."

"We know why Shaan was calling. Well, I should say that we suspect we know why Shaan was calling." Zahra chimed in from her seat beside Ellen on the sofa in the Residence. "We think Alex and Henry remembered details about the assassins. Something important. Something relating to the royals, since he didn't call me."

"How is Alex doing? Any better?" Catherine asked Ellen. "Shaan was very sparse on the details, just that Henry was quite worried, and that Alex had gone mute. Something I must admit, I didn't think was possible."

"When I personally checked in last, Alex seemed to be speaking sporadically. I guess that's a start." Zahra sighed. "Whatever is going go there right now is not going to help matters."

"When all this is over, we just have to make sure that they know that they're all loved and supported." Catherine said in earnest. "We make sure we get them someone to talk to, as well. That is the best, as parents, we can do."

"Agreed." Ellen added. "How's things coming along at your end?"

"The PM has called a motion; it's set down for discussion after the live streams stop rolling at 6pm." Catherine said excitedly. "Sara ran the numbers and it checks out. We should get the motion passed and Mary will be forced to step down. I have begun setting some things in motion; for once I am on the throne. First off, a backdated to all anti-feminism rules include Beatrice and her place in line to throne. She will no longer come behind her younger brother."

"And your older son?" Zahra asked, diplomatically. Personally, Zahra couldn't have given a shit about Philip and how he was doing. But since Catherine was Henry's mum, and Shaan's friend, she felt obligated to ask. More importantly, no matter how much of an ass Philip is, he is still Henry and Bea's older sibling. "How is he doing?"

"His therapy is going well. It's not going to be instantaneous, the length will vary, based on the individual." Catherine explained. "By all three therapists reports, he is appearing to be genuine in his want and need to change. He recognizes the influence that my mother had on him, and he recognizes that his thoughts and feelings were not of his choosing. He can see how my mother had been using his as a tool. Philip has expressed an eager and rather keen sense of wanting to apologise to a lot of people. I imagine you all would be in his list. His promising."

"That is good news." Zahra replied, and Ellen nodded along. Quite frankly, she couldn't care less. She had bigger problems than the heir to British throne and his need to apologise for something his grandmother had set in motion.

As they said their goodbyes and made promises for more regular updates, Ellen wished Catherine the best of luck and expressed a wish to be notified of the outcome as soon as possible. Ellen was hopeful that Catherine would be able to enact real change under her reign, but first they had to get Mary off the throne.