Labyrinth of White - The Moon Trilogy - Book #1

Chapter fourteen:

"I've tried contacting 77432 and her team through all of the customary ways. There have been no signals. Whatever got them was very thorough."

"Do you ever have good news?"

"Not recently, no. Sir? Are you still wanting to wait this out?"

"There's nothing else to do. If we try anything, it will just end up like all of our other missions lately, a failure."

"Yes sir. I understand."

"Please leave me now, doctor. I have a headache."

"Yes sir."

Alex padded gently across the roof, conscious of every single noise he made. He didn't want his family to think he was a thief or something. He had been pondering ways to tell his sister and mother. There was just no way he could think of. He couldn't just walk up and say "Hey mom, I have wings. Pretty cool huh? Too bad I can't go to school anymore, or have anyone over." What if she called the hospital or something? No one else could find out.

He heard a car in the driveway. He peered over the lip of the roof to get a look at what was going on. There was an unfamiliar black car in the driveway. He ducked back. Who could that be? No one ever visited unannounced like that, because of how far away from literally anything that their house was.

He saw the car doors open. Someone—or rather two someones— got out and walked up the driveway. Once they got to the porch, the roof of the house, and that of the porch, effectively blocked his view. He would have to continue his snooping on hearing alone.

There was knock on the door. He heard footfalls through the house and the door opened with a slight click as the knob was turned. It was either his imagination, or he could hear better than he'd been able to this morning. It was his mother at the door, and he could tell because she spoke just a moment later. "Hello. What can I do for you?"

"Hello ma'am. We're here on behalf of the MCD. We'd like your permission to examine your children."

"But what would the Mutant Containment Division want with my kids?" she let out a laugh, trying to hide what Alex knew was fear. She tried to pass it off as a joke, but she was concerned about it. Very concerned.

Alex's chest tightened with dread. The MCD? How did they know that he was a mutant? He only just found out himself.

"There's no need to worry ma'am. The MCD have been doing routine checks of all DNA samples on our records. We have found that your blood contained the potential for a mutated strand of DNA, especially when combined with—well, I'm sure the science of it doesn't matter. It won't take long to test your two children. I'm sure that they aren't mutants, and it's only a routine check. So far, out of all of the DNA samples there have only been a handful mutants. Insignificant amount. But we need to be prepared. If there was even one unregistered mutant, the results could be devastating. That's the reason the MCD was created. Mutants could be very harmful to earth, and it's inhabitants." As the agent's speech rambled on, Alex's breath sped up faster and faster. This was not good.

"Yes officer, I understand. Please come in. I'll go and get them."

Alex's heart was beating so hard it felt as if he could actually hear it beating—or maybe he could. There was no way out of this. He would have to run away. If he stayed and hid, they would find him eventually. If he went down and allowed them to see his wings, he would be taken away. He remembered the words of the MCD officer. "Mutants could be very harmful." If they caught him, surely they would kill him.