I did a double take at the sign the man was holding up in the airport arrivals area.

Well, it couldn’t exactly say ‘Miracle Force’ could it? Let alone ‘Weakling’.

“Hey guys; over there.” I got Mute and Djinn’s attention and pointed to the driver.

When he saw us walking over to him he put down his sign.

“G’day,” he said in proud Australian. “I assume you’re the three students that have been sent by Mr Abram.”

“That’s us,” I said, and introduced us with our fake names. Abram had told us that Aurora’s staff would think of us as students. We were sort of students, anyway--we had lessons at the Base.

The man told us his name was Dan and shook our hands. “Great to meet you,” he said. “If you’d like to come with me.”

I was expecting Dan to take us to a car and drive us somewhere--Abram hadn’t told us where we were meeting Aurora--but instead he led us over to a coffee shop in the arrivals area, bought us all coffee, and took us over to a table in the corner.

At this table sat a young woman in a buttoned-up white coat of light material and beige trousers, with a white scarf done up over her tied-back blonde hair and dark sunglasses. It wasn’t very practical attire in this climate, although the coffee shop was air-conditioned, but it hid her identity from those who weren’t looking for it.

I guessed Aurora didn’t want to be identified out in public, since she was apparently a celebirty of some fame. I recognised the shape of her face well enough from our briefing, though.

“Here we are, Miss C,” Dan said to the woman, gesturing for us to sit down at the table with her.

Aurora didn’t even stand up to greet us. She just stayed sat sternly where she was, two hands holding her coffee cup in front of her, her mouth a tight line. It was impossible to tell where she was looking behind her sunglasses.

I supposed we didn’t seem too unusual: two plain-clothed teenagers, two suited men and one discretely dressed young lady meeting up together in a coffee shop. We could be meeting as part of some kind of foreign exchange programme or something, for all people knew. If only people knew...

“Mr Abram,” said the young woman. She had an Australian accent but one that aspired to British poshness. “My people tell me that you can help me to understand my new...skills.” She wasted no time with any formalities but cut straight to business.

“Indeed that’s right, Miss ‘C’,” said Abram warmly, smiling, and took his seat. The rest of us followed suit. “I can tell you all about that. But first, please let me introduce my associates. You will understand if I refer to them by their codenames, since in our organisation we seek to protect our members’ anonymity as much as possible. Of course that won’t be possible in your case, because of your distinguished modelling and music career--”

“And acting,” said Aurora.

“Of course--and acting,” Abraham demurred.

{Gosh, this girl’s a bit full of herself, isn’t she?} I heard Mute say in my head over the mind link.

{Cut it out Mute,} Abram said over the mind link. {No chatter.} He held out an open palm to indicate each of us in turn, and spoke aloud again: “This is Mute, from the United Kingdom. He was the first to be recruited to our orgainsation. This is Captain Weakling, from the US, who joined us soon after. And this is our latest member, Djinn, from Iran.”

‘Miss C’ merely grunted.

“All of these young people,” Abram went on, undeterred, “have...‘skills’, as you put it, just like you.” He dropped his voice a bit, for dramatic effect more than anything else, I judged--apart from the second looks at Djinn nobody was really paying us any attention. “Mute can interact with people telepathically, and fly. Weakling is invulnerable and super strong. And Djinn can turn intangible and teleport.”

Miss C still didn’t say anything, but I couldn’t help from noticing that her eyebrows edged up slightly above her dark glasses.

The Commander kept going. “Under the direction and tutelage of myself and others at our organisation, each of them has learned to understand, control and even develop their new skills by--

“But have they chosen to do that?” Miss C interrupted Abram. “My people also tell me that your ‘organisation’ is sanctioned by the UN and its nations’ governments. They tell me that these kids aren’t ‘members’ but recruits?”

Kids? I looked at Abram. He paused a moment before he replied, but he didn’t seem flustered at all. I hadn’t known that Aurora hadn’t been totally clear on what Miracle Force. What was he going to say? Is he going to lie to her?

“Your people are correct,” said Abram. Ah, phew. He wasn’t going to lie. “Although we are based in the US, my organisation does in fact operate under the authority of the United Nations. We are an international initiative that works for the good of every country, aiming to preserve peace and counteract terror. If you sign up with us, you will be a part of that work too.

Miss C tilted her head forward ever so slightly so that we could just see her eyes for a moment in the gaps above the lenses of her sunglasses. They were cool blue, flecked with ice. “Listen, Mr Abram,” she said, “I’m not going to be anyone’s recruit. If I come with you, it’s going to be willingly.”

“Of course,” said Abram. “I completely understand. Would you like to hear from Mute, Weakling and Djinn themselves about how our organization has helped them?”

Miss C’s head tilted back now and her eyes were completely hidden again.

“Actually, she said, “I think I’ve seen enough already. A couple of pasty-faced teenage boys and a girl who looks like a terrorist herself, with ridiculous superhero names, led by a beared middle aged man who talks like a used car salesman. What is this outfit? There’s no way I’m coming with you!”

I looked at Abram again for his reaction. I thought I could see just the littlest bit of tension in his cheek as he held his jaw closed for a moment. His eyes flashed.

I started a little as Abram spoke to us over the mind link. {I am going to say some things now to try extra hard to persuade this young lady to join us. Do not let them upset you. They are true, but as you know they are not the entire picture. Do you understand?}

{Yes sir,} the others’ voices chimed in my mind, along with my own. I heard as much reluctance in them as I felt myself.

“Miss Celeste,” Abram said out loud at length, “allowe me to be quite clear.” He set his coffee cup down in its saucer. “The particular circumstances of your coming into contact with us may have been quite unusual because of your own unique situation and...means, which have led to us making this offer to you.” He glanced to either side at the three of us Miracle Force soldiers sitting next to him. “But do let me be quite clear: If you do not opt to come with us, you are putting yourself at great risk. If your country’s government figures out that you have developed metahuman abilities--which, by the way, they may already have done, although I have not yet been contacted by them--as part of an agreement based on their UN membership, they will compel you to join us anyway. If you do not join up with us then, you could risk punitive action, including incarceration. Or something even worse. We are not the only organisation seeking to recruit metahumans--as my associates here know all too well. There are others, and some of them will seek to compel you to join them by forceful means, whether you want to or not. What I am doing here by offering you this open invitation is offering you an opportunity to...circumvent the usual processes by which recruits would normally be conscripted to us by their nations’ governments in order to, as it were, ‘sign up’ freely, of your own accord, with less fuss. I would advise you that it would be very much in your best interests to do so.”

I squirmed a little in my chair. This was one of those rare times when Abram sounded angry and disapproving. I didn’t like it. Also, his speech had been a reminder: While I loved being a part of Miracle Force, and could never imagine leaving it, I hadn’t ever really had a choice about in the matter. I was a ‘recruit’ just like this woman had called us. A ‘conscript’, to use Abram’s word. Still, better a happy Miracle Force conscript than a miserable High School one...

Now Miss C’s mouth had come slightly open. She seemed to have been slightly stunned by Abram’s speech. But it couldn’t have persuaded her, could it?

Unexpectedly, Dan, the man who had met us when we first got off the plane, lent in towards Miss C from his place next to her. “Honey,” he said in a hushed tone. “I agree with Mr Abram. I really think it would be best for you if you decided to go with him.”

Miss C looked down at the table. Her eyes behind her dark glasses were hidden underneath her eyelids.

There was an excruciatingly long pause, pregnant with possibility.

Then: “Alright,” she said in a very small voice. “Ok. I’ll do it. I’ll come with you.”

“Wonderful!” said Abram, and beamed through his beard. “You won’t regret this decision, Miss Celeste. I can assure you we have your very best interests at heart. As I’m sure you can imagine, we’ve been on a very long couple of flights, so it won’t be practical for us to fly back to the US with you right away. But my assistant will be in touch with you in due course to arrange the logistics of your travel to New York. You’ve made the right decision.”

He reached across the table and held out his hand, which after a moment she gingerly took and allowed to be shaken. She was wearing long white gloves.

{What?} said Mute over the mind link as we all took our last swigs of our coffees and got to our feet. {That’s it? She’s changed her mind just like that? The three of us didn’t even have to say anything!}

{I believe I made quite a compelling argument,} Abram replied over the link. {And it does help that her father is in support of our cause. But your presence here will have meant more than you know, Mute. I am sure that seeing other young people who have powers will have helped to convince Aurora too.}

“Thank you very much, Mr Abram,” Dan, Aurora’s father, was saying as he shook Abram’s hand himself. “We’re very grateful that you’re able to make this special arrangement for our family.

“Not at all, not at all,” said Abram jovially. “I’m just glad that we’ve all been able to come to cooperative agreement.”

The six of us left the coffee shop together and began walking across the polished floor of the spacious arrivals area towards one of the exits of the airport. Aurora and her father hung back a little, walking behind the rest of us and talking to each other out of our hearing. The plan, we knew, was for the four of us to recover from the flights at a nearby hotel before flying back to New York again, this time with Aurora too.

And that, as Mute had said, was it. Twenty two and half hours on two different planes, and we had successfully achieved our mission objective in--what?--five minutes? Everything had gone according to plan, without a hitch.

Then someone started shooting at us.