The Talon Family The Spy of London Part 14

Gabriel sat on her bed in the unbelievable messing room, something her mother would be yelling at her to clean. She kept telling herself she going to clean it up but every time she started to another mission comes through the door, or something else gets in the way. She sighed a little staring at the picture of her whole family on the dresser. The moment frozen in time was taken the summer before they lost their mother, and even longer before they all got their powers. Funny, how far away that all seems now. She was a hero jumping around the world, saving it and wishing her mother was still around for her to talk, even for her to yell at her.

                She closed her eyes trying to place the pain in her side somewhere else in her mind. It was healing, but it wasn’t fun to deal with at all. She opened her eyes again turning back to face the bed. All she wanted to do was fall back in it and never get up again. She moved but not to fall into bed instead of heading for the door to get out of the room and out of her thoughts.

                She couldn’t fall into the pit again. She couldn’t stay in bed all day, and she knew; she couldn’t stay in the room either. She had to get up and move. She had to go see one of her brothers or sister or go for a walk or work out, anything but give into the black waters at the bottom of that pit.

                Her room was right down the hall from Michael which made it easier to see him. She stopped at his door hearing him, and Sesily laughed at the movie playing in the background. She let her fist fall to her side with a heavy sigh, no point in bring down the mood of their happy movie night. Maybe, Helbis was still up. Maybe, they could have some girl time.

                And yet, she didn’t end up at Helbis door. She somehow without thinking about it ended up at her father’s lab door. She went to the door as if he was working there. He normally was in the lab during her childhood, but she was no longer a child and things have changed so much he wouldn’t be in there anymore. His body was in a room hooked up to machine keeping him alive while his mind was floating somewhere in the house.

                She turned on her heels shaking her head and telling herself maybe it was time to get some sleep. She headed back to her room but ended up in her study, no, not her study but her father’s study. If you couldn’t find Alexander in his lab, then you would find him reading a book by the fire in his study. He didn’t have good taste in books at all. Normally, he was reading some comic book novel with bad writing or some easy book to read to pass the time. She once asked him why he didn’t read anything more like Dostoevsky or Orwell or Hemingway? He smiled at her and said, “I spent all day in the lab, I just want to relax and enjoy something easy to read.” He never did like T.V, and maybe, that’s where she picked up her disdain for it.

                She sat down in the big red chair telling the room to start the fire. The flames came to life eating the wood and pouring the heat out over the room. She smiled and sat back scanning which books she would like to read. None of them made her want to break open the cover. She turned back to the flames when her father’s voice asked, “Are you lost in thought?”

                “I don’t know,” she said knowing he wasn’t in the room outside of his mind. It wasn’t odd anymore to be talking to the walls.

                “What are you thinking about?” he asked.

                “Mom.”

                “What about her?” he asked lowing his voice.

                “Virgil told me she was once a Goliath agent,” Gabriel said. “Is that true?”

                “Your mother was a spy who worked for a lot of people.”

                “But was it mostly Goliath?”

                “It was,” he said. “It was the reason she got out of the life.”

                “Why didn’t she tell us?” Gabriel asked.

                “Your mother was a good person,” he said, “but before she married me, and you guys were born she did a lot thing she was not proud of, things she didn’t want her children to know about because it was so painful for her.”

                “I would still have like to know it.”

                “And maybe, one day she would have told you,” Alexander said. “But it was her past, and one day you will have to decide what you wish to tell your children. There might be something you wish them not to know about.”

                “Yeah, I guess so,” she said. “I’m not sure I would want them to know about Luther.”

                “And your mother had her Luther too,” he said. “But those things never took away from her love for you guys.”

                “I didn’t think it did, dad,” she said. “I'm worried that her past might come back to bite us. It might have already got her.”

                He didn’t say a word.

                “Can you tell me there are no secrets she had even from you?”

                “I trusted your mother,” he said. “And in this life, there are some things we can’t talk about.”

                “Right and those things might come after us,” Gabriel said.

                “You might be right,” he said, “but you might be wrong as well. Your mother and Paladin did a great job of hiding her past. None of her enemies ever found out about us.”

                “But Virgil knew it,” she said. “How did he find out?”

                There was a long pause.

                “Dad?”

                “He was sent to kill her,” Alexander told her, “but instead she got out and help Paladin give Goliath a massive blow.”

                “It’s one of the reasons they haven’t be active so much?”

                “Yes, and with Odin behind bars,” he said. “Your mother did her job well and give up a lot of things on Goliath. We almost destroyed them all.”

                “Well, I hope Crystal does the same,” Gabriel said. “And I don’t think I’m ready to find out more about mom right now.” Gabriel sat her head back on the chair and closed her eyes to find some rest.