Spy School: Zoe or Erica?

Departation (continued)

After riding in the car for a long, boring time and sitting a little but too close next to Zoe for my comforts, we finally pulled up into the airplane parking lot.

The second the taxi went from moving to a stop, Jawa and Chip sprang out of the carry-on compartment like a jack-in-a-box.

"Ah!" Chip said. "Finally out of there! Being squished with this guy and luggage in an uncomfortable position was so freaking boring and painful."

Jawa pushed him away, and Chip laughed and strong-armed him into a chokehold. After some begging and whimpering, Jawa sat up, red-faced, while Chip took our bags from the back of the taxi. Jawa muttered something about Chip going to the gym too much.

"Hey, you never can have too much muscle," Chip said.

"I don't have any visible muscle," Erica said from behind Chip. "And I'm still stronger than you."

Chip pursed his lips and set his suitcase down. "You got me there, Ice Queen."

I swear Erica smiled when she pulled out her tiny duffel bag.

Erica pulled some bills out of her pocket, handing them over to the taxi driver as he prepared to pull away. "We were never here," she said and handed over an extra five bucks.

"You were never here," the taxi driver said, then pulled away and kicked up some gravel from the parking lot.

We headed over towards the airport, wheels of our suitcases screeching onto the hard concrete. Erica moved faster than us, which wasn't unusual, but suddenly banked to the right when we reached the airport entrance.

"Wait- we're not flying commercially?" I said when she headed over to the area consisting of private jets.

"Why would we?" Erica said. "We'd never get through airport security with these items in our bags." She pulled out a grenade at a specific angle so that we could only spot it and quickly shoved it back inside.

"That's true... but I would prefer flying normally. Wouldn't it make sense, since it wouldn't cause as much suspicion as a private jet flying above London?"

"Yes, but would you rather go through all of the fuss of having to scroll through the airplane security and squeeze in a tiny plane with strangers or have your own plane?" Erica said. "Also, if anyone of us slipped a weapon and the public saw it... well, then we'll be done for."

Erica continued onto the sidewalk, heading over to the black airplane in the corner. It was a petite figure, sitting by itself among the other gigantic airplanes. But I could see by the boosters and a tiny well-hidden Gatling gun at its side that it was built especially for us spies.

Zoe pranced up the front, passing by Erica who gave her a nasty look after I assumed that she "accidentally" knocked over Erica's suitcase. She had been especially toxic to her after I broke the news to Zoe that I would be going to the ball with Erica. I didn't really know what to do to stop it, since every time I mentioned our relationship, she would launch into a ten-minute rant of why the Berica ship shouldn't be sailing and how the railings of Zen were sturdier then I thought they were. To be honest, being stuck in this "love triangle" is kind of an internal nightmare.

As we arrived at the edge of the plane, Erica flipped open a keypad at the bottom of the hull and typed in a long combination. Unwillingly, I memorized the string of numbers. Might come in handy soon.

The plane's engines rattled to life, and a staircase lowered down to the ground. We lifted our suitcases up and headed onto the plane, and when I stepped into it, I was kind of surprised that it was much more luxurious than I thought it was probably going to be.

Fluffy velvet plush swivel chairs stood in every corner, while a mini-kitchen and a fridge were stuck in the middle of the cabin. Each seat had a wide-screen TV and a snack cabinet, while a portable air conditioner stood in the middle of the whole plane. It took me a second to realize that there was no pilot, then another second after Erica slid in the cockpit to deduce that she was flying.

To be honest, I think having Erica as a pilot was a lot safer than a normal pilot. Especially considering the fact that she was going to have to man a midair Gatling gun whilst flying. And I had a nagging feeling she was going to have to use the gun during the trip.

I settled down in the top-left seat, while the rest of us migrated to the remainder of places to sit. After Chip realized there wasn't enough space for him to sit, he pouted and walked into the cockpit to sit in the copilot's chair. He came out a few seconds later, red-faced, and dutifully sat down in the middle of the cabin. I swear I heard Erica snicker from the cockpit.

Placing my bags down next to me, I sunk into the fluff of my chair and sighed. It was about 4:30 AM by now, and I needed to get some nice sleep to cover up for my missed hours.

Just as I was about to drift off into dreamland, Erica's voice crackled into my headset and jerked be awake. I didn't know if she did that on purpose or not, but I didn't want to know, since she announced abruptly that we were taking off and that we should get some rest before the action in London.

I sat down again in my chair, and slowly drifted to sleep, hoping that this wasn't going to be the last time I would get some peaceful rest in a while.