CHAPTER 10 - BREAKING AND ENTERING
"This is so stupid," Zane said. I could tell he was angry, partly because he had been pacing back and forth in the came spot for almost an hour. "There has to be something we can do. We can't just sit here and wait til tomorrow! Who knows what Cilas could have done by then."
Our room was tiny. It had one very small bed and a little bit of floor space. That was it.
As I sat on the bed, and Zane paced, I understood what he meant. I was scared too. I was scared for Mason and Carter. Tomorrow night. Yeah, we could wait that long - could being the opperative word - but why should we have to? There were tons of airplanes outside. I had seen them, and what were they doing? Nothing.
"You're going to put a hole in the floor."
Zane stopped pacing and sat on the other end of the bed. "What are we going to do, Payson? I don't want to just sit here."
"I know, but what can we do?"
Zane sat back against the wall. "We could get out of here."
"Huh?"
Zane smiled. "Do you know how to fly a plane?"
I had never seen someone pick a lock so fast in my life. I'd always thought it would be cool to learn how to pick a lock, but I never actually thought it would come in handy. I was seriously wrong. Thankfully, with my Dad's knife, Zane got it open without a sound.
The corridore was empty - pretty much the first bit of luck we'd had the entire trip. We went back the way Harvey had taken us, and soon we were out in the main hanger area. Unfortunately, we found where all the people were. Apparently, that was the place to be at four o'clock.
Back in our room, I had told Zane all about my summer at aviation camp. About how I learned to fly, how I learned all about planes, and how I got a whole summer without therapy sessions with Dr. Cave.
"What kind of plane did you fly?" Zane asked, looking around at all the aircraft in the hanger.
I pointed to a small, red one in the corner. "It was sort of like that one." Thankfully, it was not surrounded by people, like all the others were. It was all alone in the corner. I hoped that it wasn't because it didn't work. Because once we got in, the chances of someone seeing us were very high. We wouldn't have time to switch planes if it didn't work.
Apparently, DQA was expecting a plane soon, so they had the massive doors open. The plane would be there in about ten minutes - that's what we heard from a guy that was near us.
Zane and I made our way over to the red plane, skirting around the outside of the crowds. There were more people, or Dopplegangers, here than there were at DQA's headquarters.
"You don't expect them to hang around there, do you? They get their quests, then they're off," Zane explained when I shared my thoughts.
The plane seemed to be getting further and further away. The hanger hadn't seemed so big until we decided to sneak across it without being seen.
When we were about half way across, I spotted something strange.
"What's that?" I asked, pointing out into the crowd.
Zane followed my finger and smiled. "A Doppleganger."
I looked at it again. It was almost transparent, and a sickly grey color. "But it -"
"Remember what I said?"
To be honest, I don't remember alot of things Zane says. I tune them out, so not remembering this - it wasn't a shock.
"Dopplegangers can look like flesh and blood, or they can look like a spirit. That's all."
"I've never seen one before."
"Yeah, well, they're very rare. Honestly, it would be annoying. It'd be like - like having a ghost follow you or something. It'd be creepy."
"Yeah," I agreed, and Zane and I began to walk again.
Okay, so technically one summer at aviation camp didn't count as experience, but I was pretty sure I could do it. I mean, I had flown a plane by myself, once. I racked my brain trying to remember everything. Well, we had to try, right? Flying was the easy part; the tough part was taking off, and if I failed, well, we'd still be on the ground, right?
We were on the side of the plane facing the wall. Zane was trying to pick the lock.
"Hurry up," I whispered, glancing around. Thanks goodness, nobody noticed us.
"I'm trying," he whispered back. "Plane locks are different than door locks."
I was getting impatient. "Well, do something."
Zane glanced over his shoulder. "It'll probably make noise," he warned. "You'll have almost no time before security's here."
"Just do it," I said, not knowing what he had planned.
Zane took the knife, lifted it over his head, and hit the plane's lock with all he had. Instead of picking the lock, he picked the lock off.
I glared at him. "That's breaking and entering."
"So?"
"So, it's illegal," I informed him.
He opened the door. "So's stealing a plane."
Deciding he was right, I hopped in and sat at the controls. They were a lot like the ones at camp. Okay, I told myself. Think. How do you fly a plane?
"Hurry," Zane said tensly. "They heard that."
I glanced out the window. He was right. Several Dopplegangers were pointing at the plane, and some were on their way over.
I began hitting buttons and flipping switches, remembering what my flight instructor had told me that summer. Soon, the engine roared. "Yes!" I said.
"Can we get going?" Zane asked. "Security's here."
I glanced back. He was right. There was Harvey, and several others, all decked out with guns. They were making their way toward us.
The plane began to move forward. I managed to get it around the other planes, not run over anyone, and get it out of the hanger. I concidered that a personal victory. Still, Harvey was coming. Actually, he was running, trying to stop us. And Carl had come to. He had a bull-horn and was yelling stuff like, "Pull the plane over! Or we will use force!" And other clever taunts like that. But I didn't listen.
I tried to remember how to get the plane off the ground.
"Let's go," Zane yelled.
"I'm working on it," I said as calmly as I could, which actually sounded calm. I was shocked, cause inside, I was freaking out.
Finally, we began to lift. I was relieved, to say the least. No way they'd have let us on that flight if we had crashed their plane. I know it would make me mad if someone crashed my plane. (Not that I had one, but if I did...)
"Wahoo!" Zane yelled as we lifted into the air, higher than the trees. "You did it!"
"You sound surprised," I accused.
He laughed. "Well, after the way you drove that car..."
Now it was my turn to laugh.
It was getting increasingly darker, and I had never flown in the dark before, so I was nervous. But I kept my eyes on the radar and hoped like crazy that I wouldn't hit anything.
I did it, I thought to myself. I actually did it.
