Natural Born Angel (Immortal City 2)

“I’m proud of you,” Susan said, putting her hand on Maddy’s shoulder. Her eyes grew serious. “We, I mean, I have high hopes for you. More than you can imagine.”

“Thank you,” Maddy said, starting to feel a little emotional. She felt a bond with Susan. Out of all the Angels – besides Jacks, of course – Susan understood her the most.

“I’ll be sad to see you go,” Susan said, her eyes glimmering. “But you have some lives to save.”

Maddy’s last flying session was the next day. Following her Cessna flight with Tom, Maddy had been practising flying the obstacle course on off-hours, taking advantage of an extra set of keys Susan had sneaked to her. She used the principles Tom had taught her, and she found herself getting better each time. He had been right: she’d needed to learn flying the way a pilot does. She might be part-Angel, she might have wings, but it didn’t come naturally to her. She needed to learn to put one wing in front of the other.

Instructor Trueway was waiting for her in indoor hanger #7 for their last flying session. The blinding overhead lights arced over the indoor course, which extended far into the distance. Emily and Mitch were just leaving as Maddy arrived. Maddy looked out and saw that the agility course had been set to “Difficult”.

“Hey, Maddy!” Mitch said, seeming more friendly than he had the previous week. “Ready for assessment? Almost as brutal as that first interview with Tara Reeves post-Commissioning.”

Maddy laughed to hide her nervousness. She had to hand it to Mitch: although you could tell it made him uneasy that Maddy was being advanced towards Guardianship so quickly, at least he was trying to be a good sport about it. Better than some other Angels she could mention, like the one right next to him.

“We were just getting a workout in. You know, kind of polishing our skills, since we’ve been training for years,” Emily said snootily, looking back at the course. “Don’t worry, he’ll set it back to beginner’s level for you.”

She walked up close to Maddy and spat at her under her breath: “What you’re doing is a disgrace. You’re a fraud. I just wanted to tell you. And we’re not going to take it lying down.”

Emily stepped away and turned to Mitch, raising her voice again. “Come on, Mitch, I’ve got a four o’clock with Valerie.”

“Thanks for letting me know, Emily!” Maddy said, beaming a big fake smile at her.

Mitch, who was clueless about what had just happened between the two girls, simply smiled and waved goodbye.

Maddy turned to Trueway. He was going over notes on a clipboard. He gave her a serious look.

“Maddy, as you know, we’ve had some . . . difficulties in honing your flying skills. There are challenges we’ve never had to face before in training one of our nominees. And now there’s this . . . unprecedented . . . potential promotion. Now I’m not saying that I absolutely can’t recommend you for Guardianship, but it certainly is in question right now.”

A shot of adrenaline ran through Maddy. It was time to apply everything she’d learned. Now or never.

“I understand. I’m ready.”

The instructor reached to adjust the course in front of them.

“And can we do it on intermediate?”

Trueway raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure?”

Maddy nodded. “Yes.”

The huge platforms along the floor and ceiling began rotating, using the complex hydraulic system the Angels had designed.

Steep walls, a long tube tunnel that took a number of turns, a narrow gully that quickly climbed up towards the ceiling, as well as a number of hoops gleaming in the bright light – these all appeared as the course set itself to intermediate.

A blast of air rippled her ponytail sideways as Maddy’s wings extended quickly. She only grimaced slightly this time – the pain lessened with every unfolding.

You’ve got this, Maddy told herself.

Instructor Trueway looked at her. “Ready when you are.”

Leaning forward – her wings beating once, twice – then Maddy was flying along the agility course. The ground blurred underneath her as she approached the first obstacles. It was the fastest she’d ever gone on the course, but she had to make an impression. The first few segments were easy hoops that Maddy flew through, making turns to pass through each one. Kind of like a warm-up. Ahead was a series of walls extending from both the floor and ceiling, which she had to fly in between. Concentrating, Maddy lowered her speed and used the hard, sharp beats of her wings to manoeuvre through the walls. Once on the other side, she was able to pick up some speed, moving towards the far end of the course.

She had to fly down into a gully, which was so narrow that she had to pull her wings in as close to her sides as she could; for once her smaller wings were an asset instead of a hindrance. The gully climbed up to the ceiling and started circling over. Doing an inversion, Maddy flipped over near the ceiling and rocketed down towards the next section, in which she had to zigzag back and forth between a series of massive poles, the most technical part of the course. She gulped for air, starting to tire with the effort as she neared the final stretch. Her ponytail snapped from side to side as she whipped back and forth between the poles and on to an open stretch.

The mouth of the tunnel appeared. Maddy dived straight into it, setting her wings. It was narrow, but not too bad. The lighting inside was a spiral of LEDs, guiding the Angels through the twists and turns. Maddy grunted, using her concentration to avoid crashing into the sides as she zipped through.

She was actually doing it. She trusted her wings; she knew that when she did one thing with them, it would result in a consistent outcome. Tom had shown her that, through the constants of physics and aerodynamics. She had of course known it, but now she felt it.

The end of the tunnel appeared, and Maddy tore into the bright light of the open air. Only one section left: the final series of hoops, which were arranged in a difficult spiralling pattern. The hardest part of the course.