A Bullet to the Heart, ₗₑₑ Fₑₗᵢₓ

27.

⇝ ⇝ ⇝  A week's holiday in Sydney had done a world full of good - I had got closer to Felix and his family. I met his other sister, Rachel, who was lovely and easy to get along with. I often drove Olivia to her college classes and she was easy to converse with. Felix's mother was a treasure and made me cancel the hotel payments because she wanted me to stay in her home. His father was much of the same and we bonded about building things and mechanics together - I found out he has a huge passion for such things.

At the end of the week, we decided to meet up with Chan. The eldest member was also visiting family; together we decided to walk around Sydney and enjoy ourselves as friends. Felix informed Chan about my intentions, and it felt wonderful to have Chan's approval. His support and encouragement meant a lot to me, because he meant a lot to Felix.

After that week, I split off from Felix at the airport and ended up calling for a direct flight to London under my government privilege. It wasn't often we were allowed to do such things, calling for private government flights which get us to our destination directly with limited persons on. I never used it before because I had no need to but it's usually used for emergencies. Stuff like family members passing if you're on a mission, or if you get injured and need to go home afterwards.

This time, it was for the simple reason of retirement. As I was on the flight, I decided to start wrapping up the mission, making folders of information, and writing down documents and essays about everything I could remember. I needed to figure out a lot of times and dates, a lot of which I wrote down in my tiny notebook. Since the duration of the flight was a staggering 22 hours, even directly, then I had loads of time to kill.

I rang my boss to give him a heads-up.

"Steeleye, nice to hear from you, it's been a while," He answered, his voice the same roughness as I remembered.

"It has," I said, "I'm on a flight back to London right now,"

"I didn't hear of this, how come you're coming back?" He asked, shuffling papers sounding from his end.

"I was supposed to finish a few weeks ago, I decided to stay longer because I wanted to make sure the members were protected overseas,"

"I see," He said, "Shame, I could've used your help after New York,"

"Where were you stationed after New York boss?" I asked, genuinely curious as to where my squadron had been.

"After New York, we were asked to go to Okinawa," He said, "Something about these US soldiers living there giving the locals a hard time,"

"Something tells me it was something more than that," I said to him.

"Aye, I'll tell you when you home,"

I nodded, contemplating even mentioning anything to do with my early retirement plan. For so long, I had looked up to this man as a source of inspiration, I worked under him and now I was suggesting leaving early. Would he support it? Would he be disappointed?

"Okay, see you later boss,"

The call ended - I looked down at my lap, the papers and folders that came from one of my bags were spread everywhere. I gathered them all together neatly and put them away. I still had 10 more hours of this seemingly endless flight ahead of me, but I figured I could use the time to catch up on some sleep and make the hours pass more quickly.

~

London air was still chilly in the midst of the country's early summer, a stark contrast to the Australian warm air despite it being their winter months. The moment I stepped out into the open air, a gentle, refreshing breeze brushed against my skin, instantly lifting my spirits. The warm, radiant rays of the London sun added a touch of magic, waking me up to begin my day. It was a much-needed respite after a long day of travelling.