Operation M.I.A: Missing in Action (IN NEED OF REVISING)

Chapter XIX

AVERY

Music: Far Out from Pac-Man World

We take flight shortly after returning the girls home. Sam decides that he'll let the hovercraft randomly choose a location for us to go next, and it chooses the one in Russia. From there, it takes about twenty minutes to fly there. For most of the flight, I isolate myself from everybody else to think about Brielle. She's still out there somewhere, and ever since that close encounter we had last night, there isn't a single doubt in my mind that we can save her.

As for taking down the rest of the corporation, I'm not sure. But hey, never hurts to try, I guess?

We've actually been making pretty good time today. Three locations out of the eight we've established looking at are already over with, and it's only 11:30 AM. So at the very least, if nothing goes wrong, we should be done by the end of the day. Doubtful, but there's hope.

When the hovercraft suddenly halts, my mind is temporarily thrown off and I quickly snap right back into reality. I take a look at our destination, which is not enough to determine what exactly it is. It's just another giant building.

"This is apparently the Vostochny Space Center," Sam explains. Heath's face immediately lights up; he's always been one for this space/science geeky stuff.

"Now this I've gotta see," he nods.

Mia and her side of the team are a step ahead of us. "Guys, look over here!" Mia calls out, glaring through a window. The rest of us go join her and take a look at what's inside.

It's literally just like in the movies and on TV. Dozens of chairs are filled with men working on computers, and at the head of it all is a huge monitor showing various maps of the world. I'm not exactly into this kind of stuff, but I will admit it's impressive.

"Never in a million years did I ever think I'd have the chance to see one of these in real life," Heath says in awe.

I then look to the left and notice an unmarked door. Apparently some other people have the same idea as me, because pretty soon we start walking over to the door. Sam opens it cautiously, and we're surprised (and a bit pleased) to find that the door is not only unlocked, but no alarms or anything go off once it is opened.

Inside, we run into a group of people touring the place, with a tour guide (speaking in what I believe is Russian) leading them along. Our team quietly sneaks in and we easily blend in. We only walk through a couple of different hallways before Elle notices that Sam's not by her side anymore.

Indeed, Sam has stopped when he notices a door with a sign saying "Только авторизированный доступ". Mackenzie takes one look at it and then tells us, "That sign translates to 'Authorized Access Only'"."

"You know Russian?" I ask, surprised.

"Figured I'd learn more foreign languages, while I'm at it," she chuckles. (she also knows Spanish pretty well)

"We probably shouldn't go in there, then," Sean suggests, starting to walk away. "I mean, we're probably not allowed in there."

"Never stopped me before," Sam says, opening the door and walking inside. A few of us grumble, and we all trail in after him.

Now, I don't know how many pointless rooms you've seen in your life, but this has got to be the most pointless room ever. It's literally just a huge, open box with absolutely nothing in it. At all.

"Well, isn't this lovely. There's nothing freaking here," I sigh.

"I doubt that. The room wouldn't be this big and not have anything in it," Sam replies, looking around. I will say that the ceiling is pretty damn high up. A glass wall on the far end reveals that this is an outer room of the space center.