“Two hours.”
Sam walked over to another table. He picked up an armor vest and a shirt.
“Here are some clothes that you can wear for the mission. Scratch that, you are required to wear them.”
“Black?” Sandy held up a pair of pants.
“Going in the dark.” Ryder said.
“These vests have been modified.” Sam said.
“Modified how?” I asked.
“The armor is denser and lighter.” Ryder threw one of the vests into the air and caught with one finger.
“Silence take Grace out to the practice field and get some combat training in with her abilities. Be back here in one and a half hours.” Sam said.
A half an hour later we stood on the practice field.
“Give me your best shot.” Ryder stood with his feet planted ready for my attack.
“Are you sure that you don’t want to use the dummies?” I didn’t want to lose control and hurt him.
“Come on, you can’t hit me anyway.” he egged me on. I balled my fists and then opened them, flames licked my palms.
I threw a fire ball like a baseball at Ryder.
He dodged it with ease.
A wooden target flew up; I threw a ball of flame at it blowing it to pieces. He appeared behind me, sweeping my legs out from underneath me.
I got up rubbing my lower back.
“You can do better than that.” He circled.
I tried to throw another ball of flame at him, but he used a piece of the wooden target to send it back at me. It hit me in the shoulder sending me spiraling onto my back. I hit my head on the ground.
I got up rubbing the back of my head. I balled my fist and started to run in his direction. I threw another ball of fire at him, but this time when he dodged I used a boost of flame to send myself flying at him.
I tackled him to the ground, landing on top of him.
My face was inches from his; I could feel his breath on my cheek. He grinned like a maniac, "Good job, think outside of the box, but don’t always rely on your abilities.” he chuckled.
“Thank you.” I held him to the ground.
“Thank you for what?”
“For all your help, for everything that you have done for me.” before he could say anything I pressed my lips to his. He kissed back; sending shivers my spine.
A feeling that I had never felt before.
Quickly I came to my senses and jumped up off of him. I hardly knew him and I did not know how he felt for me. I cleared my throat and stood with my back to him.
“You’re welcome.” he stood brushing himself off.
“How do you think that I am doing?”
“You’re doing great; I wasn’t pulling any punches either.” We walked to his car.
“I’m nervous about this mission.” I leaned against the hood of his car.
“Understandable, Sam wouldn’t usually send anyone on a mission so soon after arrival, but he doesn’t have another team available.” He leaned next to me on the car.
“It’s so soon.”
“It is, but we need to get going.” I leaned over onto his shoulder and took a deep breath.
Back at the hanger everyone was waiting outside. They looked like some kind of black ops strike team. I laughed at the image of us from the orphanage dressed up like swat and preparing to raid some corporate facility.
I changed in a back room and joined them.
“Code names, does everyone have one picked out?” Sam took out his phone and opened some kind of recording app.
“I decided to go with Sear.” I said looking around the room at everyone.
“Call me Arch.” Ronnie shot a bolt of lightning between his open palms.
“What do you think about Shift?” Sandy looked for everyone’s approval.
“All I could think of was Chrono.” Kenny said.
“I’m going with Blackout.” Rachel said.
“I’m gonna go with Sear for those of you that aren’t aware.” I said.
Sam handed me the storage device, “It can take a beating, but it isn’t indestructible. Just get it plugged in.”
“Easy enough.” I said.
“I hope so and I wish you luck.” Sam said.
Chapter 21: Descent
“Where is the plane?” the runway and the taxiway were both empty. We stood outside of the hanger in the dark.
“Wait for it.” Silence turned as the door began to open slowly. A massive plane rolled out of the darkness almost as quiet as a whisper. I had never seen a plane that looked like it before.
“What is that?”
“This is the BF-1007. We call her Big Bertha. This aircraft is one of the remnants of AdvaGen Technologies. She is built for speed, stealth, and the ability to deliver large payloads without ever being seen.” Silence held out his hands, “Isn’t she a beaut?”
The huge wings unfolded as they were free of the doorway. It taxied forward and turned to line up with the small runway. We all climbed into the plane one at a time and Silence pulled the door closed behind us.
Seats lined the sides of the interior. I strapped into a seat and said a prayer to myself. The plane quickly picked up speed as it sped down the small runway. My stomach rose into my throat as we lifted into the air. I still didn’t like flying, but was thankful it wasn’t one of the small planes we came into town on.
“Sam has asked me to return with the plane.” Silence leaned over and whispered in my ear, "A few things that we need to go over before we get to the drop point. Your headsets are always connected, tap on the ear piece twice, say the code name of who you want to speak with, and then talk. Sam’s code name is Acumen.”
“Good to know.” I nodded.
“Next when you jump out of the plane hold the antigrav genny to your chest, and press the button. Do not let go and do not remove it from your chest. You will fall. You hit the button when you have twelve hundred feet left to fall.”
“What’s it like?” Shift asked.
“What? Landing with antigrav? Like a feather landing on a goose down bed.” he said.
The pilot came over the comm.-system, "Get ready to jump.”
Silence stood and we followed. A door in the floor of the plane opened and we all had to take hold of a hand bar above our heads so we wouldn’t get sucked out. Lights from the cities below rushed by in many blurred lines.
“GO!” Silence yelled.
I let go of the hand bar. My body was sucked out of the bottom of the plane as if pulled by my chest. The wind slapped past my head, burning my ears. I looked at my watch, the numbers displayed counted how far the ground was away from me.
They ran down unbelievably fast.
“As soon as you hit twelve hundred.” Silence chirped in my ear. I turned over to be falling on my back. Silence had jumped from the plane along with the rest of us.
I tapped on my ear piece and said, "Silence. I thought that you were supposed to go back with the plane?” I had to yell over the whipping winds.
“You think that I’ll let you go on your own. You have much to learn.” he pressed his arms to his sides and shot past me like a rocket.
My watch started to make a beeping noise. I was at thirteen hundred and fifty feet. I held the antigrav generator to my chest and kept my eyes on my watch. As soon as it hit the twelve hundred mark I pressed the button.
I slowed to almost a stop like everyone around me, "How is everyone doing?” I yelled.
“Doing good.” Arch yelled, everyone else agreed.
My hand started to get cold. Colder than anything that I had ever felt before. It started to burn my skin. I held on with all of my might but I had to let go.
I started to free fall, I reached out for the generator, but it had flown out of my reach.
“GRACE!!” Silence yelled.
I had no idea what to do. The ground was rushing up so fast. Silence was yelling something but I couldn’t hear. All I could see were his lips moving. I turned back over onto my stomach. I threw my hands and legs out in front of me.