the direction of every little sound that reached his ears, scanning everything. Abruptly he locked on to something to the right and for a few seconds Donna couldn’t even hear anything, then the far off whine of a trail bike reached her ears.
“What are we going to do?” Ninah sniffled.
“Billy's coming now, he’s going to take Gabe away.”
“No, Donna, please!” Ninah said, starting to cry again.
“Ninah, there’s no choice, now be quiet, okay?” Donna motioned them to climb over the fence and head toward Billy, crouching low in the wheat to avoid being seen by unfriendly eyes. Through all this Gabe followed passively, as he had since Donna had burst into the living room and practically abducted him.
Billy approached and Donna stood up and waved him over. He pulled the bike to a stop beside her. “Okay, Donna, I’m here, so what the hell’s going on?” It was then that he caught sight of the angel. “Jesus Christ, oh shit, is that real, is he for real?”
“Yes Billy, he’s real. He’s wounded and can’t fly and those men from town, the ones in the grey suits are after him, you’ve got to take him and hide him somewhere, okay?”
Billy didn’t answer; he couldn’t take his eyes of the angel.
“Billy!” Donna yelled, snapping him out of it.
“Yeah okay, whatever, tell him to get on.” He pushed forward on the bike's saddle to make room; eyes still locked on the impossible sight before him.
Donna led Gabe over and, pulling Ninah away, motioned him to get on the bike. He understood and hopped on, putting his feet on the pegs and placing his arms around Billy.
“I don’t believe this is happening, who is he, what is he, where did he come from?” Billy asked in rapid-fire.
“No time Billy, I’ll tell you later, now go!” Before Billy could let the clutch out she leant over and kissed the angel, closing her eyes and pressing her lips firmly against his. She drew back seeing his stunned look, and Billy’s also, then the bike took off. It wavered a bit as Billy fought for balance, causing his passenger’s wings to flap a couple of times, then they straightened up and with a whine like an angry wasp, shot out across the field.
19
“Sir, it’s not in the house,” one of the agents reported back to his bald boss.
“I told you you’d find nothing,” Ed sneered. The agent cut his eyes to Ed before turning them back to his superior.
“Any sign of it?” Baldy asked but the man’s answer was cut off by another voice.
“Sir, upstairs, I think you might want to see this.”
The bald agent looked at Ed, eyebrows raised in an ‘as you were saying?’ expression. “After you,” he said icily, indicating the stairs. He followed the Blairs up to the spare room; two agents were in there already, poking around. There was a pile of encyclopedias on the floor and Ninah’s toys and books were strewn about the bed.
The bald agent looked around the room and clucked his tongue a couple of times. “Someone in your family likes to read, don’t they Mr. Blair?” he said, indicating the encyclopedias. “Would that be Donna, or Ninah perhaps?” he went on, throwing a questioning look at Ed. Was he trying to catch him out in a lie or just scare him with the knowledge that he knew everything about them? He jerked his chin to indicate he expected an answer.
“Both,” Ed said and Baldy smiled, like an intelligent and dangerous shark. He wandered over to the bed and sifted idly through the books and toys there before squatting down and picking something up that had been lying under the bed, mostly covered by the valance. He stood and held it between thumb and forefinger, studying it in the light from the window. “Well, well, well, what do we have here?”
The feather was small, the colors paler than the full-grown flight feathers, this one being immature, but its origin was unmistakable to anyone who knew of the angel’s existence. The bald agent looked at the Blairs without a trace of humor in his expression now. “Mr. Blair, it seems you’ve acted against your county’s best interests in a matter of national security, did you know that treason is a crime punishable by death?”
20
As Billy Kennedy steered his bike through the field, his mind was racing as fast as the engine between his legs. Just what the hell was going on and more to the point, who or what was sitting behind him? Billy wasn’t a religious soul by nature but he did tend to believe in God, or at least his own interpretation of him. Was his passenger an angel? He didn’t know and had to stop himself looking in the bike’s mirrors at the guy’s, creature’s wings that were visible there, streamlined back with the rush of air.
His mind whirled; Donna had kissed him, Christ! He shot a quick glance at the sky, he really should stop blaspheming, lest he receive a bolt of lightning to finish his day.
Donna had actually kissed him! Billy could see why, in the short time he’d had to study the angel he’d seen a sight any girl would die for. It was pretty obvious why Donna had suddenly lost all interest in him, and fleetingly he wondered if she’d done more than just kiss him over the past few days. If she had, he was pretty much stuffed. Billy considered himself to be fairly attractive but this guy put him on the same level as the elephant man, though for the moment he didn’t have the time to be envious.
He had to get out of the field, his passage through the wheat was cutting a rut even a blind man could follow and he knew they’d be on him soon. He shot a look back over his shoulder at the receding line of houses, Donna’s among them. They were tiny specks at this distance. His heart jumped as he saw a helicopter appear over the rooftops and he turned to face forward, winding the throttle open as far as it would go.
Engine screaming, Billy veered his bike towards the tree line on the field’s other side. There were paths all through these woods. If he could get on to one, he might just throw them off. The tree line rushed up to meet him and Billy turned, riding parallel along its length until he found a gap big enough to get the bike through. As he disappeared into the scrub he glanced back out over the field. The first helicopter had been joined by a second and they were both headed his way.
Winding his way through the trees, he came across a trail and steered onto it, accelerating to a speed that was faster than sensible. Suddenly he knew where he was, he was right near the waterhole, he’d just never approached it from this direction before. If he could get there they’d be okay, nearby it there was a rock overhang screened off by dense scrub. He’d taken many a young girl there in his time; they’d be safe there, for a while at least.
Reaching the right spot, he steered off the trail and cut through the trees. Branches reached out to scrape them both and Billy was glad he didn’t have a pair of wings to worry about, the battering his legs and arms were getting was enough. Eventually it became too thick to ride through and Billy cut the engine, coasting to a stop. Now without the bike’s loud whine, he could hear the shouts and laughter of the other people at the waterhole nearby. He motioned for his passenger to get off and he did, looking around him with a curious air. Then he looked at the sky, head cocked like he could hear something. ‘The choppers’, Billy thought, and sure enough, the sound of them came whip-whipping through the trees a few seconds later, drawing closer.
Billy looked at the angel for a moment, just to reaffirm his existence, then shaking his head, started pushing his bike through the scrub, indicating to his strange companion to follow.
Five minutes later they reached the rock overhang; it was deep but not quite a cave. It would hide them from overhead observation well enough though. They crouched and walked underneath, Billy taking the bike with them. They went all the way to the back and sat down.
“Shh,” Billy said, even though the angel hadn’t made a sound the entire trip.
Billy couldn’t see the waterhole, it was about a hundred meters in front of them, but he could hear the sounds coming from over that way, quite a few people by the amount of noise. Over that he could hear the beating of the helicopters’ rotors as
they searched for them, sometimes close and loud, sometimes far away. They must be flying some kind of search pattern.
Both he and the angel looked up at the rock ceiling as a chopper passed directly overhead, then veered off toward the waterhole. It had found it. The sound of merriment and laughter from over there stopped abruptly, only to be replaced a second later by screaming. “Sorry, guys,” Billy muttered and despite his current situation, had to smile at the thought of a dozen skinny dipping teenagers scrambling for their clothes and running off into the scrub. He couldn’t have asked for a better diversion if he’d planned it.
When everything had quieted down somewhat, Billy turned to his companion, and trying unsuccessfully to sound cool and unconcerned said, “Well, don’t you beat all? You wouldn’t want to tell me what the fuck is going on would you?”
21
Ed and his wife were led back downstairs and toward the front door. In the hall they bumped into Donna and Ninah, being ushered along by a pair of their grey suited friends. Both girls were ashen faced but looked none the worse aside from that. Upon seeing her mother, Ninah ran into her arms, starting to cry.
Ed turned a malevolent stare on the bald agent, who ignored it. They were led into the front yard where more grey suits were waiting. A black
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