helicopter hovered low over the street, whipping up every loose leaf and scrap of paper with its rotor.
Another agent ran up to Baldy and started shouting in his ear over the turbine noise, gesturing to the rear of the house. Baldy immediately started shouting into a small radio, looking up at the chopper and waving his free hand to the house’s rear. Abruptly the machine rose and peeled off in that direction.
Donna looked at her father. “I’m sorry Dad, I tried.” Tears started to run down her cheeks.
Ed went to her, folding her into his arms, stroking her hair. “Shh, I know, I know.”
With the noisy machine gone, Baldy walked over to them. “Mr. Blair, you’ve just caused yourself a hell of a lot of trouble.” He turned to one of his men and ordered, “Bring them.” The Blair family was led out to two of the black cars; Ninah and her mother were placed in one, Ed and Donna in the other. Ed looked out around the street at the shocked looks on the faces of his neighbors, who’d come out to see what all the fuss was about. ‘Now just when the hell did I wake up in Nazi Germany?’ Ed thought to himself.
The Blair family was driven fifty miles out of town to a small airfield with one dirt and one concrete runway. The cars crossed these and drove into a large, new-looking hangar, the door closing behind them. The hanger contained three black choppers just like the one over the house, and several other black cars, exactly like the one they were in.
They were taken from the cars and led across the hangar, down a short cinderblock corridor and into a medium sized room that was bare save for a white formica table and six chairs. There were no windows and on one wall was a whiteboard, blank, with no marker pens.
They were left alone in the room with one agent who stood blank faced beside the door. Even inside he didn’t remove his sunglasses.
“What’s going to happen to us, Mommy?” Ninah asked softly.
“Nothing honey, we’re all going to be just fine,” Felicity said.
“What about Gabe?”
“I’m sure he’s fine honey, shh now,” her mother said.
They waited a long, tense hour before the door finally opened and a not unattractive middle aged man strode in wearing the inevitable grey suit. Aside from that however his resemblance to the other agents ended. His face was warm and friendly beneath salt and pepper hair and he strode in a manner of casual confidence that conveyed the ability to get what he wanted without intimidation or pressure tactics.
He approached the table, smiling. “Mr. and Mrs. Blair, I take it? My name is Jonathan Carlisle. I’m sorry to keep you waiting so long but I had some rather urgent business to attend to elsewhere.” He extended his hand and, caught off guard by the man’s friendly forward nature, Ed shook it.
“Edward Blair, my wife Felicity and daughters Donna and Ninah,” Ed said, feeling strange.
“Pleased to meet you all,” Carlisle said perfunctorily, taking a seat opposite them and folding his hands on the table. “First thing - let me apologize for what may have seemed like an overreaction on our part, but let me assure you we do have a delicate situation here.”
Initially Ed found Carlisle’s manner easy and comforting but now he started to realize that he was just superlatively smooth. He wasn’t sorry one iota; he just wanted their cooperation and was smart enough to know you could catch more flies with honey than you could with vinegar. Ed could feel his temper starting to rise.
“Mr. Carlisle, let me start by saying that a simple apology just doesn’t cut it. Your goons came barging into my house, without a warrant, in direct violation of my civil rights…”
“Mr. Blair, in situations such as this, civil rights are suspended,” Carlisle interjected.
“And scared the hell out of my family,” Ed went on, ignoring him. “And for what? So you can catch and no doubt do your little experiments on a poor, wounded, frightened creature that could well be a messenger of the good Lord himself!” Ed ended with his voice raised.
Carlisle sighed. “This creature, as you so aptly called it, is not an angel.”
“He is too an angel!” Ninah put in scornfully.
“Hush, honey,” her mother said. Carlisle smiled at Ninah, but it fell just short of friendly.
“Well then, Mr. Carlisle, if he’s not an angel then what is he?” Ed asked reasonably enough.
Carlisle bit his lip. “We don’t know that yet, it’s one of the things we hope to determine when we catch him. For now we are tentatively referring to it as Aerosapian No.1.”
“Let me get this straight, you don’t know what he, not it, he, is but you’re sure he’s not an angel?” Ed said angrily.
Carlisle looked at them all in irritated contemplation for a few seconds before walking over to the agent by the door and speaking to him in quiet tones. The agent left the room and Carlisle returned to the table. “In a minute when my companion returns, I’ll show you something that should clear up this ridiculous angel business for once and for all. In the meantime I’ll ask the million-dollar question. Where is he?” He looked at them all, finally letting his eyes fall squarely on Donna’s. He raised his eyebrows inviting an answer.
“How should I know where he went?” Donna asked.
“Oh, I don’t know,” Carlisle said airily. “Perhaps because you had one of your little boyfriends whisk him away on the back of a motorcycle? We’re assuming it’s William Kennedy JR since he’s nowhere to be found either.” Carlisle smiled at Donna who swallowed and dropped her eyes but said nothing.
“You’ve gotten your young man into a lot of trouble Donna. You could save him quite a bit of discomfort when we find him if you tell us where he took the A1.”
Donna looked up in alarm at the mention of possible repercussions for Billy. Her eyes slitted in anger and to buy time to think she snarled, “A1, A1? Are you people so unimaginative and so impersonal you couldn’t even think of a proper name for him?”
Carlisle ignored her, merely raised his eyebrows again to indicate he hadn’t forgotten his question and wanted an answer.
Donna looked at him in unrefined disgust for a few seconds before dropping her gaze. “I don’t know where they went.”
“Oh come now Donna, I’m sure you must have some idea, perhaps a secret place the pair of you spend time together, do whatever?”
“I said I don’t know where they went and Billy’s not my boyfriend!” she shouted.
“Mr. Carlisle, I’d like you to leave my daughter alone,” Felicity said, putting her arms around Donna. Carlisle stared at her for a second in obvious irritation.
“Mr. Carlisle, do you mind if I ask you a question?” Ed said calmly in an attempt to defuse the situation.
Carlisle looked at him. “Go ahead”.
“How did you and your men find out he was hiding in our house?”
Carlisle stared at Ed as if deciding on whether to answer, but finally he said, ”We intercepted a phone call between your family doctor, Parker, and a veterinarian Named David Morris. Amongst other things they discussed the condition of your new ‘parrot’.”
“You’ve been bugging our phones, the whole town’s phones?” Ed asked, incredulous.
Carlisle felt justified in showing off a little. “We set up a computer scan, it was programmed to monitor the phone lines and alert us if any key words we programmed in were used. Words such as angel, wings, miracle and an assortment of bird names, parrot among them. When that happens we check it out and as in your case, hit pay dirt.” He sat back in his chair and regarded them unemotionally.
Ed wasn’t sure what sort of rage he may have vented then but at that point the door opened and the other agent returned carrying a small lap top computer. “Set it up over here,” Carlisle said, indicating the table in front of the Blairs. The agent set the computer down and switched it on. Carlisle typed in some commands and then, satisfied he’d gotten the result he wanted, turned it to face the Blair family sitting opposite.
“Watch, we’ll see how you fee
l about protecting your precious angel after this.” They all watched the screen as it lit with the scene of a rocky hillside on a sunny day. There was no sound accompanying the picture. In the middle distance, a small herd of goats was grazing at the small tufts of grass that had sprung up between the rocks. The camera jerked and moved occasionally, showing that this was an unprofessional home video job rather than a documentary or something of the like.
Suddenly something shot down out of the sky and in a blurry flapping of wings, snatched one of the smallest goats, a newborn by its size, and lifted it off up into the sky. The rest of the herd bolted and the camera jerked and followed the predator and its prey as they rose up higher and higher. It all happened so fast, like a lightening strike, causing the Blair family to jerk back in their seats in surprise. The camera zoomed in as fast as it could, showing something vaguely man shaped riding between two startlingly white wings, silhouetted against the sky, the goat twisting and struggling in his hands. The camera’s zoom couldn’t keep up and soon they were just a speck in the sky. Abruptly they separated and the goat fell quickly to Earth, slamming against the rocky slope below.
The winged figure dived down also, coming in to land over the shattered corpse in a powerful flutter of white feathers, tipped with gold and blue. He stood over the dead animal as the camera jerkily tracked in. It was their angel all right, Gabe, looking powerful and totally
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