The Talon Family The Spy of London Part 11

The van raced down the streets making a mad dash for the airport while Gabriel closed her eyes inside her helmet. The painkillers were starting to fade, and the agony sitting her inside started to breathe life again. The mission, she hoped was over for the most part, but it could all change in a flash, and she knew it. She kept eyes closed praying or better yet, talking with the Lord. She didn’t hear Him speak back, but she always felt better talking to God when things were quiet.

                It was an old habit she picked up from her mother. When she was a child, she would catch her mother with her eyes closed and mouth mumbling. At first, like all children, she watched her and didn’t understand what she was saying. As she grew older, she asked her mother what she was doing?

                “Talking to God,” Adeline said with a giant smile. “It’s never a bad time to pray.”

                Time went by with Gabriel picking up the habit. She sometimes found herself talking to the Lord in dull moments without thinking. The more she prayed the loneliness to seemed to climb back down the pit somewhere deep inside her. She asked her mother once if she always did it? Did she pray on missions?

                “Those were the times I prayed the most,” Adeline said, “even if I didn’t believe in Him.” It was hard to image her mother not being a deep believer, but Gabriel knew how easy it was to step from the path. She was lost in the Forest of the World only a few years ago before finding her faith again.

                It was after Luther left. He said he was a man of God. She had no reason not to believe him, she still doesn’t, but after he left she almost didn’t make it out of the pit. She almost ended it all, but the Lord showed up, tapping on her door, and she opened it.

                I got him killed, she told the Lord. I want to end it back then when I thought I got him killed and now, now I know I did. What do I do? Do I end it for my sin? Can I come home?

                “Gabriel switches your outer mic off,” Alexander said into the helmet.

                She pressed the button inside her glove and said, “Go ahead.”

                “How much are you trusting this Crystal?” He asked.

                Gabriel glanced over at the woman reading nothing on her face but the longing to sleep. “Not at all,” she said.

                “Me too.” He said, “I think she is playing Paladin. It might have something to do with Odin Khalid.” Odin was the leader of Goliath, but Paladin can captured him a year ago thanks to the Talons.

                “You think she a double agent?”

                “I don’t know,” he said. “I don’t have any proof on the matter, but something doesn’t feel right.”

                “Could it just be the fact she works for Goliath?” No one in Paladin trusted or liked Goliath, they all knew what the company was behind the worst acts in the world and how many bodies laid at their feet.

                “We have seen agents come to Paladin before �"“it was a rare thing to have happen, but it did happen from time to time �" “but I don’t know, it doesn’t seem right to me.” He said, “For her to be so willing to flip sides like this, it’s not sitting well with me.”

                “Me either,” she told him. “I could kick her out of the van. You don’t have to slow down, or anything and Virgil won’t mind.”

                Alexander chuckled telling her, “I’m not sure Paladin would be happy with us.”

                “What they don’t know, right?”

                “As much as I want too,” he said. “We can’t leave her to die.”

                “No, we can’t. It wouldn’t be the right thing to do,” Gabriel huffed. “I hope Paladin locks her away for a long time.”

                “Me too.” The line went still for a moment, and Gabriel wondered if he was done or something on the road was pulling him away from her. She was about to close her eyes going back to the pray when he asked, “Can we talk about something?”

                “Sure,” she said, over the years their relationships had become better because at the end of the day they had to rely on each other to care of the family. Gabriel could recalled being close to her father when she was young, but when she became a teenager, everything changed as they offend do. She lost a part of thier relationship with her dad, and it wasn’t until the death of her mother did they get it back. Now, it was far easier to talk to him about things, even if she didn’t like it. She never liked talking about her depression with anyone.

                “You yelled Luther’s name,” he said, “when we gave you the adrenaline shot.”

                She bite the bottom of her lip not sure what to tell him. She wanted to cry over the man’s death, and the tears lined up on the edge of her eyes, but she would give the order to jump. She couldn’t let the emotions out, not now, not on a mission.

                “I know you hacked into the files,” he softly said, as best as his robotic voice would allow him. He paused for a moment. “I’m sorry.”

                Gabriel closed her fists willing everything in her body not to let the emotions out. She had to stand strong. She could cry later. She could beat the walls later. She could make herself pay later.

                “He was a good man,” Alexander said. “Maybe one of the best.”

                One the tears leap down her cheek without orders, and she tightly closed her eyes. She wasn’t going to let the rest of them go. She almost went to clean the straggler away but quickly reminded herself she was wearing the armor.

                “It was not your fault, my angel,” Alexander said. “He didn’t die because of you. He wanted to go on that mission. He signed up for it. So, don’t blame yourself.”

                “Dad …” She wept, but the rolling van stopped her words in middle thought. Something had knocked the van off its wheels and blew most of the front ones away. The back crashed into a wall, and if it weren’t for Gabriel’s armor she would have been severely injured, but the suit did its job and saved her life. She climbs to her feet seeing Crystal was not so lucky. The assassin was coming too in pain from the very visible broken arm and maybe, broken leg.

                Gabriel turned to face Virgil, who was not moving at all but was in one piece.

Author's Note

I’ll try to make this short for the both of us, but I feel, I need to add a little context to my stories on here. All the stories I post on this website are what I call “break stories.” They are either stories I go to when I get stuck in long from novel or stories, I write to explore a world. So, what does this mean? It means I enjoy these stories, but I don’t put everything into them. So, why am I posting them? A fair question and the reason I’m posting my stories on this website is to have fun, to show you my growth but most of all to give you a little taste of the worlds I work in. What does this mean for you? It means you can judge the work as you wish and by all means help me with plot, characters, and building the world, but I ask you to ignore grammar problems as best as you can and the style in which these stories are written. My page on here is my sketchbook and you guys get to see all the rough, nasty parts of my writing.