cascade | kotlc

2. A Cold Open, Literally

 "I never should've agreed to this," Faye complained from her very cramped and very uncomfortable position with her new sister June.

"Same," June groaned. "I've fucking claustrophobic. Fuck myself for suggesting this idea. Why the fuck did I think this would work? Well, it worked, but fucking hell I hate myself."

"Oh, you okay?" Faye asked, wanting to comfort her. Unfortunately, it was literally impossible to move in the shipment of cargo.

"No, I'm not okay. Thanks for asking." Her face shifted into a frown in the dimly lit crate. "I wish Fitz was here."

Fitz was currently attending his brother's tribunal. Their Team Echelon missions seriously had the worst dates -- they seemed to overlap with literally every major event that happened in their lives. Faye was seriously wondering if the Neverseen were doing it just to spite them.

They had been hiding in the plane for thirteen hours, after three mindnumbing hours of waiting around for the plane to load its packages. Then, of course, they had to clamber in. Faye was sure the Tribunal had already finished by this point, despite Ro's and Keefe's endless bickering about the duration required for Alvar's sentencing.

"Are we there yet?" June whined. Faye checked her watch, which displayed their current location. They were still about fifty miles away from their scheduled location, the Chacaltaya Ski Resort on the Andes.

"Oh, that's right, we're literally crashing the plane into a mountain," June grumbled. "Who came up with that idea again?"

"You," Faye said flatly, and June looked ready to cry.

"Ughh. I'm going to rot in here. What did they put in here, fermented brie cheese? Decaying animal carcasses? Spoiled food?"

"Isn't this smuggling top-secret files?" Faye reminded her. "I thought that was why we needed to destroy it."

"It smells. And I can't even blow it away. Because the crate is sealed."

"Three minutes," Faye reported, tuning her watch and zooming in. They were quickly approaching their destination. She clucked her tongue, pressing a wood-shatterer to the inside of the crate and locking the device in.

"And how many heavily armed men are currently in this plane right now?" June asked, huffing and crossing her legs, bumping into all the storage beside her.

"About fifty. That's not that bad. We had to deal with, like, two hundred last time. Where was that? Was that the Kremlin one or the Area 51 one?"

"I thought that was Area 51. But even that plan wasn't as stupid as this one. Seriously? Bring the entire plane down? Couldn't we have shot the plane down or something? I'm sure the elves have a bazooka lying somewhere."

"You didn't want to kill anyone," Faye recalled.

"Ugh. Damned morals. Are we there yet?"

"One minute. Our current cruising altitude is 20,000 feet, maybe a couple thousand lower. We should survive this 2,000 feet drop. Probably. Most likely. The snow should be enough to tank our impact.

"Ughhhh. I hate this. Why isn't my boyfriend here? Where's my boyfriend when I need it?"

"It?"

"Him," June amended, shaking her head and whimpering.

"Hey, we're almost there! Thirty seconds. Hey, don't worry, alright? You're going to do great. We're going to stall, crash, survive the fall, get stranded in the snow, and hopefully somehow make our way down the slope."