Air Born | Generation Icarus #1

Hawk - Confessions

Once we'd transferred the remaining loot into the vehicles, I swapped places with Miguel. He climbed into the dark red pickup with Tui and Falcon, while I drove the sedan. Kestrel rode shotgun, and Marcus and Raven tried to get some sleep in the back. Kestrel and I didn't talk much, not wanting to disturb the others, but it was a comfortable silence.

After a while, though, I couldn't help myself. "So, Kestrel. How did you know all that stuff?"

"What stuff?" Kestrel said softly.

I kept my eyes on the gently winding road. "The satphone, the credit card, then at the store ... How come you know so much about security?"

"And getting past it, you mean?" Kestrel said, sounding embarrassed but amused.

"You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to."

"No, it's okay." She heaved a sigh. "It's on my police record, so I guess I can't keep it a secret forever."

"Now I have to know," I said, laughing. "I won't tell."

Kestrel smiled cheekily. "Cross your heart?"

"It's that serious?"

"Normally you'd have to put your hand up and take an oath, but you are driving so—"

I put my right hand up. "It's not like I've changed gears in the last quarter hour."

"Okay, repeat after me. I, Hawk, solemnly swear to never reveal that Kestrel was arrested and charged with multiple counts of breaking and entering, cross my heart and hope to die."

"You what?" I dropped my hand in surprise.

Kestrel screwed up her nose. "Cross your heart first, then I'll explain."

Obediently I held up my hand and began repeating the oath, trying not to laugh. As I came to 'cross my heart', Kestrel leaned past my hand and gently traced an X on the left of my chest. Her head was right next to mine and I could feel her breath on my cheek. I nearly faltered as my pulse accelerated, but managed to finish without hesitating.

"There," she said, looking up into my eyes from an incredibly short distance for the second time that evening. I smiled uncertainly, my gaze flicking from hers to the road and back again.

After a long moment, she ducked back out from under my oath-taking arm, settling into her own seat. A glance into the rear-view mirror showed Marcus and Raven fast asleep. Either that, or they were extremely good actors.

"Okay, now it's time to spill," I said.

"Remember how I mentioned the evil step-family thing going on at home?"

I nodded.

"My step-sister, Stephanie, is Miss Perfect Popularity and a complete nightmare. She didn't like me from day one, because I was an English nobody and she's the sort of rich princess who's only interested in people with money to burn. She constantly mocked everything about me — my accent, my clothes, my interests, even my name. She accepted my mum because she's a world class suck-up and even Stephanie knows that Gavin gets whatever he wants. Gavin is her dad. A total jerk. He made a fortune through his security firm, and was always boasting about how his systems had never been beaten, and—"

"I think I can see where this is going," I said, glancing over at her with an understanding smile.

She blushed. "One thing led to another, and I decided to take down Gavin's 'unbeatable' security system." Her fingers made the air quotes around the word.

"And did you?"

"I did," she said, proudly, no trace of embarrassment left. "Living in a snobby, gated community only made it more enjoyable."

"But how did they catch you if you beat the system?"

"Simple logic, in the end." Kestrel sighed. "I didn't have any desire to steal anything. I simply wanted to prove that the system could be hacked. So once I was inside the target house, I'd move things around. Mess with their minds. I never broke anything, or did something that couldn't be reversed. I even earned a nickname."

She paused and smiled. "The Gremlin."

"Eventually they realised it had to be an inside job and started combing through the whole enclave. I had access to Gavin's systems, motive and opportunity. All it took was a few people who remembered seeing me near the burgled houses around the right time and I was in the frame."

"And they arrested you?"

"Mum was so embarrassed," Kestrel said. "Gavin, of course, was absolutely furious. No one believed I could have done it by myself, and I admitted nothing. In the end, the police had no solid evidence and were forced to let me go. But Gavin locked me in my room until I told him how I'd beaten his system. I wasn't even allowed to go to school. He kept me like that for weeks but I refused to tell him. I was still in there when my wings started growing. That's why I couldn't hide from them." Her voice cracked in pain and she turned away and pressed her head on the window.

"How did you escape?" I asked gently.

Abruptly, the happy, playful Kestrel was back. "The Gremlin had a few tricks up her sleeve that even the evil Gavin couldn't predict. I guess I could have left earlier, before my wings came through, if I'd really tried. But once that happened and Gavin chained me to the floor—"

"He what?!" I yelped. Marcus and Raven shifted and I swallowed the rest of the outburst.

Kestrel's smile was thin. "I think he was trying to negotiate a price with the Evolutionaries at the time, as well as waiting for me to cough up the Gremlin info. The point is, that made it a little more difficult. But I escaped on my first try. All I needed was the right incentive."

"And what was that?"

Her voice was soft. "You."

My breath quickened and I couldn't think of what to say. A shiver ran through my wings, tickling the root of every feather.

After a moment she added, "I overheard the news reports about your accident from the TV, and Gavin talking about the Evolutionaries taking me away. So, I escaped. Safety in numbers, right?"

I shook my head. "Makes my life seem pretty tame."

"Doubt it!" She turned in her seat and pulled her knees up to her chin, looking at me expectantly.

If there was one thing I found hard to resist, it was an audience. "I guess there was that time when I was six that I put on Dad's uniform cap and scared the hell out of Mom by jumping off the roof with cardboard wings ..."