by K T Kaye
“Who are the dead?” Captain Jonathan Phillip asked. Jackson lent forward and pressed the computer touch screen that was situated in the middle of the table. After a few moments of fiddling he pulled up the personnel files of ten people. Four were from Tornado Squad, two from Wildfire, two from Volcano, one from Thunder and one from Avalanche.
“There’s also one in a coma in the hospital wing,” Jackson pulled up another photo of a woman from Tsunamis squad.
“It would have been better if you’d told your squad not to kill first and ask questions later,” Captain Axel Freeman snapped at Angel, “If you had, we’d be able to interrogate them rather than bury them.”
“I’ll remember that next time I’m being shot at,” she retorted.
“How did she get in a coma?” asked Jonathan.
“She couldn’t handle Sophie Day’s magic.”
“Why did he bite her?” Ambroise wondered aloud, “Vampires don’t tend to drink fey blood.”
“He has a point,” William agreed, “It is highly unusual for a vampire to drink fey blood. Angel maybe you could look into this. There may be something about Day’s blood that has attracted the attention of Mr Jet.”
“Is anyone else confused over what Jet’s plans are?” Hiroshi asked.
“I think that’s the point,” Angel muttered, “Nothing links. Rio, London, Tokyo, Germany. All the places he’s been spotted recently, the events that have happen there, they don’t link. I think he’s just playing with us.”
“Perhaps,” the Colonel continued, “Tell your squads that these traitors have been sent on a training mission in Romania. In a few weeks we’ll announced that there was an accident and they were killed. This way we won’t have to deal with a panic. Is there any chance of the coma patient waking up?”
“It seems unlikely,” Jackson explained, “Even if she does her brain could be so messed up…”
“Okay, ask Skyjack to prepare a mind take. We may get some answers that way. Make sure it finishes her off.”
“Yes sir.”
“Sir, what about the missions? All future missions are at risk and our current undercovers are in serious danger,” Hiroshi pointed out.
“How many undercovers do we have in operation?” asked the Colonel.
“Three. All mine,” Jackson said.
“Pull them out.”
“Even the unseelie court mission?”
“Hmmm, keep that agent in but pull the others out.”
“Yes sir.”
“What about the cases and missions?” asked Angel.
“Cases, for now, you will have to handle yourselves. As for missions, don’t reveal any mission details until you’ve arrived at the mission location. If there’s a leak, you hold any of the returning members under lock down,” the Colonel got to his feet, “I think we can call this meeting to a close. I’m going to meet with the Emperor to let him know of our situation. You are dismissed!”
With that the Colonel left.
“Well this is a fine mess you’ve got us into,” Axel spat at Angel.
“I hardly asked them to be terrorists,” she snapped.
“No but it would be on your patrol, wouldn’t it?”
“What’s that meant to mean?”
“It means that everything always goes wrong when you’re involved! The Colonel should have never promoted a girl to captain…”
“Are you trying to start something?” Angel’s hand went to her sword.
“That’s enough both of you,” Jackson snapped.
“Angel,” William paused before asking, “Do you think Mr Jet came to the base purposely to get Sophie’s blood?”
“I don’t know,” Angel muttered, “It’s a possibility. Jack, do you really think it’s safe to leave Mia in the fairy realm?”
“Safe? Definitely not, but we can’t lose that assignment.”
* * * * *
Angel and Jackson left the conference room and headed to the hospital wing. Alexander was sat on a chair, leant against the wall, his eyes closed, whilst Danny slept in a hospital bed. Sophie’s bed was still curtained off from the rest of the room.
“How did it go?” Alexander asked, eyes still closed, as Angel and Jackson entered the room.
“How do you think?” Angel muttered before taking a seat next to him.
The vampire opened his eyes, “That bad huh?”
“No, it wasn’t that bad,” Jackson explained, “The Colonel is having a meeting with the Emperor…”
“The Emperor?”
“This situation could put the empire in danger.”
“I thought I heard you come in,” Rowan smiled as she joined the trio.
“How's Sophie?” Angel asked.
“It’s strange. She is healing with incredible speed. Whatever blood she has certainly makes her stronger than the rest of us,” Rowan then turned to her husband, her smile faded slightly as she saw his face, “Jack what’s wrong?”
Jackson sighed, “How’s the coma patient?”
“Very little change, why?”
“I need you to do a mind take.”
“Are you serious?” Skyjack exclaimed as he trotted over to them.
“What’s a mind take?” Rowan asked.
“It’s exactly what it sounds like. Using magic you completely wipe a person’s mind. You remove all their memories, their feelings, everything that makes them a person.”
“But that could kill her! We can’t kill a patient!”
“I don’t think we’ll have to,” Skyjack looked at Jackson who nodded.
“I feel like I’ve missed something here.” There was an awkward silence.
“If she lives through it, Jackson has been ordered to finish her off,” Angel said bluntly, everyone stared at her, “What? Someone had to say it.”
“Neptune’s beard,” Rowan cursed under her breath.
“Look we have little choice here,” Jackson sighed, “We need to get the whole situation covered up as quickly as possible.”
“And you’re okay with this?”
“No I’m not okay with it but an order is an order. So can you please just get the equipment ready.”
Skyjack turned to Alexander and Angel, “You two leave. Alex, make sure Angel rests.”
Before Angel could respond, Alexander had shoved her out of the door.
Once the pair had left, Skyjack headed into a cupboard. Using magic, Skyjack lifted an odd-looking device into the air and gently placed it on the table next to the coma patient’s bed. The device looked like a crystal ball only it had two long wires attached. At the end of the wires were two sharp needles. By magic, the wires rose into the air and the needles stabbed into either side of the comatose girl’s head. Skyjack placed his horn on the girl’s forehead. It glowed and a ripple of pink floated along the girl’s body. At the same time, different coloured waves floated up into the crystal ball. Rowan watched the monitor as the girl’s heart rate began to drop. There was a long-held beep as her heart stopped all together.
“I think it’s done,” Skyjack nodded to the crystal ball. The wires removed themselves from the girl’s head. Rowan picked up the crystal ball and handed it to Jackson.
“I hope the Colonel gets what he wants,” she muttered, “What does he want done with the body?”
“Does she have any family?”
“You’re worried about that now!”
“Rowan,” Jackson said in a low tone.
“No she doesn’t.”
“Then…”
“I’ll have her cremated with the others tomorrow.”
14
‘Salty!’
“Today’s going to be a long day,” Angel sighed as she and Alexander walked back to the Lightning Squad house.
“It’s going to be difficult,” Alexander agreed, “To keep this from the rest of the squad.”
“As long as we keep Jason away from the telepaths, we should be fine. Do you think one of them is a terrorist?”
“I think, it�
�s highly likely that one of them might be. There’s one other thing, you better prepare for questions about the Pied Piper.”
“I’d forgotten about that!”
“Shall we go in the back way?” Alexander asked, “You’re less likely to bump into anyone.”
“Also it means we’ll enter through the kitchen and I’m starving!”
“What do you fancy eating?”
“Food.”
“I guessed that,” Alexander laughed, “What kind of food?”
“The edible kind,” Angel smiled as she unlocked the backdoor into the Lightning Squad house. The kitchen was a large clean silver room that was filled with ovens, vegetable-covered worktops, fiery frying-pans, and ghosts. The eleven ghosts, who had been hard at work preparing Lightning Squad’s next meal, looked up as Alexander and Angel entered.
“Angel, you’re back,” smiled a beautiful female ghost wearing a hijab.
“Sara! Have the squad been behaving while I’ve been away?” Angel asked sitting down at the table.
“For the most part yes. Sue and Clover made a complaint about one of the meals...”
“How dare they complain about my food!” exclaimed a rather large French ghost, “There’s nothing wrong with my food. I used to be a professional chef you know!”
“As you can see, Jacob wasn’t too impressed.”
“They said it tasted salty! Salty! How could it taste salty? Rude! Just because they’re alive they think they can complain about my cooking!” Jacob cried.
“He’s been like this for five days,” Sara whispered to Angel.
“Jacob,” Angel interrupted the ghost’s rant, “I’ll speak to Sue and Clover and get them to apologize.”
“Apologize, yes they should apologize! Those girls wouldn’t know good cooking if it slapped them in the face…”
“That’s enough Jacob!” Sara snapped at him then turned back to Angel, “What can I get you dear?”
“I can cook something for myself, you look like you’ve got enough work to do.” As Angel got up, Alexander pushed her back down.
“Sit down,” Alexander ordered, “I’ll cook.”
“You can cook!?” Angel and Sara asked in unison.
“Why is that such a surprise?”
“Because you’re a vampire. You don’t exactly need to eat,” Angel explained.
“Doesn’t mean I can’t cook,” and with that the vampire started cooking.
“If it tastes awful,” Sara whispered to Angel, “I’ll find you some leftovers.”
“I heard that!”
“I don’t know how you managed in lock up,” Sara began as she chopped vegetables “Given how much you and your brothers eat.”
“We don’t eat that much.” To that all the ghosts and Alexander laughed.
“Those werewolf boys eat ten meals a day!”
“That’s a bit exaggerated.”
“Hardly. These last twenty days they’ve eaten double that! Your brothers always eat more when they’re upset.”
“Jackson used to be the same,” Jacob reminisced, “When he was in this squad, he’d eat everything…I used to find him in the kitchen in the early hours of the morning stuffing his face.”
“You eat just as much as your brothers do.”
“I don’t, do I?” Angel asked sheepishly.
“You do and you don’t even have the excuse of being a werewolf.”
“I like food!” At that moment Angel’s phone started ringing.
“Oh it’s Pops. I’ve got to take this, come get me when the food is ready,” Angel got off her seat and headed to the hallway. When she was alone in the operations room, Angel answered her phone, “Pops.”
David Night answered, “Sorry I couldn’t answer your calls, I was at a werewolf council meeting with Tobias. What’s wrong?”
“Well, it’s a bit, I don’t even know where to start. Did Roger or Ethan tell you that I, err well, I…”
“That you killed the Pied Piper and were locked up. Yes, the boys told me about it. I had to talk them out of breaking you out of there.”
“Did you? Ah, they were more upset by it then they let on.”
“Of course they were, what happened?”
“What happened, well, that’s a bit complicated,” Angel collapsed onto a chair and told her father everything. Her thoughts came out at a rapid speed. Tears ran down Angel’s face as she recounted the memory once again. The emotions she had bottled-up spilt into every word. Her father didn’t speak. He remained silent as Angel explained every detail.
“Pops, is it true? The Piper’s memory, is it true?”
“Well,” David sighed, “Yes. I think it is. Obviously, what happened before me and Tobias arrived, I can’t vouch for, however the rest is accurate.”
“Right, so I really did stab myself.”
“Angel stay calm. Remember this is all in the past.”
“Pops that doesn’t really help! Sorry. What happened next? What happened after the Piper left?”
“Well, me and the pack fought against that witch woman. She was strong but she didn’t fight for very long. She could have done and given her powers she could have won. But she didn’t, she just disappeared. I don’t know why.”
“And the man?”
“He…he…disappeared as well.”
“You knew him, who was he?”
“I think Angel, it might be best for us to talk about this in person. Can you come home?”
“Err, not at the moment, there’s kind of, I’m not sure I can.”
“Angel is something going on?”
“No! I’m just, because of the Piper incident, I’m not allowed to leave the base.”
“Ah, I see. Perhaps it’d be better for me to come to you. I have a meeting in Transylvania in a few days’ time, I’ll come see you then. When we meet, I’ll…”
“Angel, food’s ready,” Alexander shouted from the hallway.
“Who was that?” David asked.
“My vice-captain, Alex, I’ll introduce him to you when you come visit.”
“I see. I’ll let you go. I don’t want to get in-between you and food.”
“Okay, I’ll see you soon. Love you. Bye,” and with that David hung up. Angel put her phone in her pocket and quickly wiped the tears from her face. She took a deep breath and went back into the kitchen, a smile painted on her lips. She sat down as Alexander placed a bowl of pasta before her.
“Trust the Italian to cook pasta,” Angel joked.
“I’m not Italian. I’m a Roman.”
“Rome is in Italy.”
“Rome came before Italy.”
“Whatever,” Angel took a mouthful of pasta, “Oh, this is good!”
“Why do you sound so surprised? I told you I could cook.”
“Hmmm, not bad,” Sara muttered examining the pasta. Alexander smiled and sat down opposite Angel. He grabbed a napkin and gently stroked it against her cheek. She looked up in surprise.
“Your eyes were watering,” Alexander explained, “Must have been the steam.”
Angel nodded, she sniffed back any remaining tears and focused her attention on her food. She didn’t mind crying in front of Alexander, it was the gossiping ghosts that bothered her. As Angel ate, she could feel the vampire’s eyes scanning her. She looked up as he mouthed ‘are you okay?’ Angel smiled and nodded before returning to her food.
“Pops is coming to the base soon,” Angel then whispered after a moment of silence, “After that, I’ll explain things.”
Alexander didn’t get chance to reply as at that moment Fern crashed into the kitchen and hugged Angel’s back. The witch grinned as she crushed her captain against her.
“Angel! You’re alive!” Fern exclaimed.
“Get off,” Angel pushed Fern off with a smile, “Anyone would think you’ve missed me?”
“I have. Well mainly I’ve missed how laid back you are compared to Alex when it comes to training.”
“And here was I thinking you m
issed my sparkling personality.”
“Sure, let’s go with that,” Fern joked.
“What’s wrong with my training?” asked Alexander.
“Everything, grandpa, everything!”
“Stop calling me grandpa!”
“He made us get up at 5am and go for a run…a run! You know how I feel about running!” Fern exclaimed, collapsing into a chair.
“You hate running,” Angel said.
“Exactly! Then we had to do hand-to-hand combat training, then train at the shooting range, then run back to the house to have breakfast. He made us do exercise before breakfast!”
“It’s good training,” Alexander muttered.
“No, it isn’t! It’s cruelty to Fern’s that’s what it is! You’re lucky I didn’t turn you into a frog!”
“You should have turned him into a frog. That would have been hilarious!” Angel laughed.
“Don’t encourage her,” Alexander hissed.
“Why? You’d make a cute frog.”
“Anyway, how are you Angel? You’re back properly, right?” Fern asked.
“I’m fine and yes, I’m back properly,” Angel answered.
“Good! Perhaps now I can get some sleep.”
“Sleep?”
“Roger’s room is above mine and while you’ve been in lock up, he’s been pacing back and forth instead of sleeping. And it’s not like he paces quietly! I tried using magic, but that werewolf is still so noisy!”
“I’ll tell him to stop.”
“Good. Oh! That reminds me…” Fern continued to talk as Angel ate. While Angel admittedly was only half listening to Fern’s rant, she was glad of the distraction. For Angel’s mind was racing. The memory the Piper had shown her, and Mr Jet’s attack echoed around her head. She didn’t know what to do. She didn’t know how to keep her squad safe. They had gotten lucky in Rio. Mr Jet could have easily left a bomb or, worse, a zombie instead of a message. It was her job, as captain, to keep her squad safe but how was she supposed to do that when the danger was amongst them. Angel had never felt the pressure of being captain as strongly as she did in that moment. Fern’s rant was interrupted by the sound of Angel’s phone ringing.
“Hello?” Angel answered, “Jin. What’s…I’ll be right there.”