Chapter 31 A memorable parents' evening

Liz sat yawning at the school table, staring at the massive back of Mrs. Schlüters, her class teacher. She always felt like she was staring at a wild boar. It was parents' afternoon and her mother was out somewhere as usual.

She looked around, all the parents were there, except for her and Mei, who was sitting at her table concentrating and pretending to be interested, but she knew that Mei, like her, wasn't in the mood for any of this. 

Liz looked ahead again. Mrs. Schlüter turned around and stared at Liz with piggy eyes, she hated Liz. Liz raised her hand.

"Mrs. Schlüter, Mei and I can go, our mothers aren't coming anyway. "

"You're staying! There was no sign-out!" 

"But my uncle told me in the car this morning and he works for my father."

She gasped.

" Who never showed up."

"Our dad travels a lot on business," Mei said. Liz nodded in agreement.

" You two stay here until someone picks you up."

"Our uncle said we'd be picked up as usual."

Mrs. Schlüter came closer and Liz smelled her cheap perfume mixed with old sweat. 

"You're going to help with the dismantling," she dug her finger into Liz's shoulder. 

" What? Nope. Why?" 

" Because I said so!" 

Liz groaned and leaned back. 

"All shit!"

Mrs. Schlüter was still staring at her. "Minus points."

Liz looked at her. " What? Like what?"

"Because," said Schlüter, turning to face those present.

"These two troublemakers are a prime example of broken parenting, neither parent has shown up for a talk yet. It's..." she wanted to continue. There was the sound of screeching tires and slamming car doors from outside.

Schlüter looked out of the window for a moment, confused. 

"It's important that they are always present," she continued. Irritated, she looked at the parents, some of whom were looking out of the window.

"Aren't those soldiers down there?" muttered one mother to another father. 

"Uhh, hopefully our uncle," Liz grinned. Mei grinned too.

They were on the 2nd floor, echoing heavy footsteps could be heard, which made most of the parents freeze, some turned pale. 

"They're just footsteps, what's wrong with them?" asked Schlüter.

A father cleared his throat. 

"They're soldiers, Mrs. Schlüter, not security."

"And? What are they afraid of?" 

The footsteps stopped outside the door. Liz looked at the door, expecting Uncle John or Uncle Mike at any moment. 

The door opened and Alex in the shape of Miles came in, wearing a BDU. The parents fell silent. Alex looked at the door sign, then at those present. Then the clock on the wall. 

"Ha, right on time. Come on you two, let's go."

Liz's eyes grew wide.

"Dad! " She jumped up and reached for her bag.

"Better than Uncle John," Mei had already reached for her things too, but before they got to him, Schlüter had rolled in front of Alex.

"Who are they? And what do they want?" she snorted.

Alex looked at her disinterestedly.

"Well, I'm picking up my daughters, they won't be back until the week after next."

Schlüter grumbled.

" You can't decide that!"

" Yes, I can, it's in the system."

"Your daughters will fail."

Alex looked at her, raised an eyebrow, then looked at the parents, who nodded individually. He looked at the blackboard, where Schlüters had written the topic of the evening in exaggerated cursive. 

"Is she doing that? "He went to the table, picked up an information sheet and skimmed it. 

"Do you know the education system of the North Block?" He looked at Schlüter.

"Of course I do. I've been a teacher for half my life!" 

"Good. Then you should realize that what you're writing here doesn't exist. "

" Ha! How do you know that?" 

Alex looked at her. 

"I'll make a request to the Council and summon you," he looked at her. "Go to the council page, there's a link for complaints." 

He looked at his watch.

"Come on kids," Liz stormed out of the room with Mei and waved to her friends. Outside, two soldiers stood guard. 

" Ha! Dogs that bark don't bite! That makes them even more important than they are! "

One of the soldiers listened to the radio.

"Sir, we have to ..." 

Liz could only see her father's back. 

"I see you in front of the committee, Mrs. Schlüter, what you're doing here is against the resolutions of the Education Council." 

Then it got hectic, shouts from the parents in the classroom, one of the soldiers raised his rifle and pointed it at Schlüter.

"Code Red!" he shouted to the other. He grabbed Liz and Mei. Liz looked back in confusion as she was pulled away, seeing her father lying on the floor. 

"Get down on the ground!" yelled the soldier, then the other, yelling into the radio. 

"Code red, code red again." She was dragged outside, she was scared, soldiers had rushed past her. 

Outside, helicopters thundered and soldiers got out to cordon off the area. An off-road vehicle came racing up and John and Jannet jumped out of it.

"What step? " came from Jannet. The soldier looked at her, then at the girls.

"Stray cat down." Hold it from the radio.

Jannet turned white as a sheet. John cursed and ran into the building. Mrs. Schlüter was dragged out of the building by two soldiers.

"Let go of me, you bastards! I've got contacts!" she screamed, but the soldiers held her down. 

Jannet looked at Liz and Mei.

"Take these two to the car," the soldier obeyed. Liz wanted to know what was going on and her fear grew with every step. Sue and April sat in the wagon and looked at her.

"What's going on? Ma and Uncle John are panicking."

" They said something about Code Red and some code word."

April mused.

"It has something to do with Dad, he was down," Mei said. April stared at her.

Liz looked outside, a helicopter was landing on the roof of the school. Jannet was busy with Schlüter. 

"I'm going to check on Dad," Liz said.

"I'm coming with you," came directly from Mei. April nodded a little hesitantly. 

They got out carefully on the other side and ran between the cars to the side entrance of the building. There they saw Alex being loaded into the helicopter on a pole. 

Liz's heart clenched when she saw the blood on his clothes and his breathing mask. She waited for a moment when the guards weren't looking and ran to the helicopter. They climbed in, straight onto the cot where Alex was lying with his eyes closed. Liz's tears began to flow and she reached for him.

"Dad...? " came hesitantly and fearfully. Mei, April and Sue also touched him.

"Don't you have to be in the car?" came from John, who came to the helicopter with two soldiers. Liz hugged Alex and the others followed suit.

"What about Dad?" came out of her in tears. 

"It's going to be all right, kids," John began and came closer.

Liz flinched when she felt Alex's hand on her head.

" I want this woman in front of the council John, accounts lock full program." Came muffled from behind the mask.

"She'll be tried for that alone." 

Liz looked at her father. 

"You owe me a tenner, your daughters got that vagrancy from you."

Alex laughed weakly and fainted.

Liz panicked and clung to him tighter. 

John sighed, waved her off, reached for his cell phone and dialed a number.

"Go to the SUV."

Liz heard some very loud cursing coming from the cell phone.

"The four of them are going to the hospital. No, I'll make sure the four of them are safe. Jannet's taking care of the press release. " He hung up the phone. Looked at Liz.

Liz hadn't really noticed the flight, it wasn't until they landed again and they were met by soldiers in exo-suits that she realized something was wrong. Her father was pushed away and she and her sisters were intercepted in the aisle. Two EXO soldiers were guarding the door they had brought him through. 

"John!!! Tell me what the hell is going on!" Will came stomping after him extremely upset, Hen was more concerned. 

John groaned. 

" That means the alarm Will!" 

Will glared at him, then looked at Liz and the other girls, only now noticing them and all the blood on Liz and the others. Liz felt Henne's hands on her.

"They're unhurt, whose blood is that, Liz?" 

Liz looked at her.

"Dad's..." it came out with difficulty.

"We're still trying to find out what happened, Will," John began.

"It was our teacher, Dad said the shit she does isn't legal and he saw her in front of the council...something like that..." came quietly from Mei.

Hen looked at her cell phone and ran past the soldiers through the door. Liz heard the chaotic beeping of medical equipment as the door opened. So did hurried voices.

"Shit, we're losing him!"

Then silence fell again, only Sue whimpered. 

Will looked at the girls, then at John. 

He pulled out his cell phone and stared at it in silence.

John was silent. 

Liz's heart ached, her mind was racing. She looked at Will, her godfather, as he dialed a number and held the phone to his ear. She had never seen him so angry and worried. 

"I know you said you didn't want to be disturbed because you're working on a project that's important. It ..."

Liz suddenly felt like she was standing in front of the open freezer, first two soldiers emerged blinking, looking even meaner than the others, then a man in BDU appeared, it took her a moment. Until she recognized him, her other godfather Uther.

"So?"

Will lowered the phone, Uther looked at him, turned and saw Liz and the others, his eyes found Liz, looked at her scrutinizingly and knowingly.

He bobbed his head at her. Liz didn't know why, but even though everyone said he wasn't part of her family, she felt comfortable and it was the same feeling as if she was with her father. 

"Alex was attacked."

Uther looked from John to the Operationroom.

"Tell your people I'm sending someone out to get whoever did this." 

He turned to the door of the op and walked in, the soldiers following him. 

Liz only heard a " Everybody out ", then the doctors, the nurses, the hen went purring to Will.

" You called the monster?!"

Will clutched the phone tensely.

" Who else, hen? Earl? He's just a drunk and unreliable."

" But maybe with his extraterrestrial knowledge..."

Will fell silent.

Liz looked at Henne questioningly.

"Why is he a monster?"

Hen looked at Liz and realized that she and her sisters were there.

"Oh honey... it's just..." she looked at Will.

Uther came out of surgery 20 minutes later, wiping his hands.

"The prototypes for the equipment will be delivered to the hospitals early."

He reached into his pocket and pulled out several ampoules that sparkled in the light.

"You can treat him as normal now."

Hen gritted her teeth. 

Uther looked at her.

"This is the serum you asked Hen for at the Council. Alex was the first one it was used on. "

He pressed the vials into her hand. 

Hen looked at them, then at Uther.

"But the researchers said ..."

" Yes, yes, not for the next ten years. What do you mean, my project, Henne? That and the equipment so you can work more easily."

Henne hurried past him into the operating theater. 

Liz looked after her, Uther put his hand on her head.

"He'll be fine. ".

Liz noticed how she was led away by soldiers and taken into a room, into which Babsi came running shortly afterwards. She hugged them all. 

"You said daddy..." began Sue.

Babsi looked at her.

"Why are there so many soldiers..." began April.

Babsi sat down on the bed that was in the room.

" They've given the general alarm, children. "

" Uncle Will is here ..he said Uncle John ."

Babsi stared at Liz, she pulled out her phone and speed dialed.

"Bettina, stay with John. Yeah..don't let him get out of control," she hung up and sighed.

"You didn't say Uther was there..."

"He was in the operating theater and..."

Babsi sighed.

"It's like this kids, John without your dad is no good, neither is Will without your dad and Uther..." she went pale as if she seemed to remember something. 

"But Mom always told me that Dad works for the North Block, just like her..."

Babsi smiled weakly. 

"Your father is the Nordblock children."

They looked at her, confused. 

Babsi sighed. The door opened and Will came in.

"Whose idea was it to sneak into the helicopter?" 

Liz hung her head. 

" We ... We didn't want to go without Dad..." she stammered. 

Will crouched down in front of her. She flinched when she felt his hand on her head.

"You should have stayed in the car."

"Dad looked at us when we were in the helicopter..." came quietly from Liz. Will looked at her and sighed.

" We can't change it, you're here now and you're staying, understand?" 

Liz continued to look at him. 

"Aunt Babsi said that Dad is the north block, what does that mean?"

He looked at Babsi, then at Liz.

 "Your father has many faces children, when he steps in front of the press he is the emperor."

Liz continued to look at him. 

"Will ... tell me, what does the alarm actually mean?" 

"The armed forces are alerted if one of the Free States makes a wrong move..."

Babsi turned even paler. Will switched on the television, which was on a small table showing the news, the press frantically showing videos of the borders, where soldiers from the northern bloc were sealing off the borders and deploying heavy equipment. Battle tanks drove up, omega transporters unloaded soldiers. The image switched to defensive cannons being raised from standby mode and moving towards the free states".