Everyone gathered the bags they wanted to carry on and started disembarking as a man in a jumpsuit came and knocked on Lou’s window. They came around the side of the van and heard Lou giving instructions that all of the luggage in the van should be loaded. The man nodded, took they keys, and drove away along a restricted-access road that ran alongside the terminal.
Lex took a deep breath as she and Victor trailed Kate and Lou into the airport. They’d waited several minutes, hoping to avoid any observers noticing their connection with the earlier “couple.” Victor had even offered her a hand as they were entering the building, and Lex had to remind herself not to clutch it too tightly in her nervousness. The terminal building seemed large and open, and they spotted a man in a trenchcoat several feet from the front of the entrance doors. He studied them for a few moments, then turned away with a look of disinterest. The airport seemed quiet at this hour, but like any other large international airport, people still moved about, getting ready for flights or arriving in the city.
They walked along the spine of the terminal, passing closed shops and some still open, banks of pay phones and benches. After a while they started to see security checkpoints on the left. As they passed the second one of those, they caught a glimpse of Casey in the doorway of what looked to be a small office and headed in that direction. A few minutes later they walked into the office to be confronted by a sleepy-looking officer who seemed to be grumpy about having been awakened.
“Are these the other two you’ve been waiting for?” he asked, directing his question to Casey, who nodded in response.
“All right,” the officer said a little sourly, “give me your passports, please.”
The whole process took less than five minutes, including the scan of their bags, and the officer settled back in his chair afterwards. “She knows where the plane is,” he said, gesturing his head at Casey. “Have a good flight.”
They followed Casey out onto the tarmac as Lou and Kate, who’d been waiting past the checkpoint office, joined them. Kate muttered to Lex, “That’s it? Nothing like what I went through the last time I flew.”
“We found out that the security isn’t the same for people flying private charters,” Lou replied in a low voice as he took Casey’s hand. “So, we figured it was a pretty good loophole for us.”
“Is everything going as planned?” Lex asked, half fearing her friend’s response.
Shrugging, Casey replied, “Well, Riss did say there’d been some developments, but nothing she couldn’t handle. Probably the sooner we get going the better, though.”
As they continued the last few yards to their plane, Lex tried to survey the area. It seemed to be sectioned off by fences from the rest of the airport. Enough space for several small planes to be loaded up and take off remained, and an entrance to a large hangar. Lex figured that had been why they’d been allowed to go out to the plane on their own, given that the only way in or out seemed to be on a plane.
Casey approached the stairs of the plane first, saying something to a person at the door about this being the rest of the party. As they crossed to board the stairs, Lex spotted the light blue van just finishing being unloaded.
“Can the people who loaded the cargo return the van to the rental desk?” she heard Casey ask the person on the plane.
The man nodded. “They’ve received instructions to do that.” He turned to the four latecomers and said, “Welcome. Could I please see your passports?”
He took each one in turn and scanned them into a small computer. After a minute or two he handed back all the passports and allowed them on the plane. Lex glanced over at Riss, who had a computer open in her lap but sat with a look of concentration, her eyes closed. Lex found a place to sit among the good number of comfortable chairs and tables and loaded her bags into a nearby bin for takeoff, taking care to remain quiet so she wouldn’t disturb Riss. As she watched, everyone else settled in around the cabin and stowed their luggage as well. Not long afterward, the man who’d checked them into the plane came back.
“We should be cleared for takeoff shortly, so I wanted to go over a few things with you,” he said as he stood near the front of the cabin. “My name is Rob Wallace and I’ll be your co-pilot today. Your pilot is Linda Cartwright, and she’s finishing the pre-flight safety check now.”
He continued, going over emergency procedures and pointing out the restrooms and kitchen. Casey followed him back into the small kitchen where Lex could hear the two of them going over the simple appliances in there; Casey had mentioned to Lex that she’d had some prepared food brought along for the flight, so all they should have to do would be to reheat it. As the two of them came back into the main cabin, Rob stood in front of the room once more.
“If none of you have any questions, I’m going to rejoin Linda because we should be taking off soon. Please wait for the seatbelts sign to go off before you start to move around the cabin, and if there’s anything you need, just press the intercom button here and let us know.”
Lex felt her stomach gurgle in a nervous way after he left. She glanced over at Riss, but her friend still had her eyes shut. She sighed and looked out the window, only then realizing they’d begun moving. With what seemed like infinitely too much care, the plane rolled out to one of the runways, and only minutes later they’d moved into position to start their take off.
Glancing around the room at all of her friends, Lex felt gratefulness swell in her chest that they’d made it so far together. Casey and Lou held hands, but Casey still managed to catch Lex’s eye as it passed over them and return a smile. Kate and Victor seemed deep in conversation about something and Riss’ eyes remained closed. Lex allowed herself a grin as she felt the small plane gather enough speed to launch itself into the sky. They climbed for a while into the wide, dark night, and Lex noticed all her friends seemed to relax as they gathered back together when the seatbelt sign went off.
“So, what do you think?” Casey asked, gesturing to the plane around them.
“Hell, I’ve never flown in anything so nice,” Kate said, taking a quick look around at the kitchen and coming back. “Great idea.”
“Lou and Casey deserve the credit for arranging it all,” Lex said, smiling at the two of them.
Casey shrugged in Lou’s direction. “He took care of everything with the plane,” she replied. “I spent most of my time taking care of everything for the show.”
Lex realized then that Riss had opened her eyes. She watched her friend blink at everyone for a moment, then gave a barely-there smile. “So, we’re off to Europe, huh?”
Lex smiled back at her. “So it seems. How’s it going?”
“Interesting things are happening,” she replied, her smile widening. “Just before you four checked in, the MSI team looking for us asked the police to put out an APB for the band members in Arizona, Nevada, and California.”
“On what grounds?” Casey asked in an angry voice.
“Persons of interest for arson, again. And again, the same contact information,” Riss said as she looked over at Casey, an eyebrow raised.
“So how did we get checked through?” Kate asked, studying Riss.
“I made the TSA officer’s computer give him the answers we wanted,” she said in a low voice. The smile she gave afterwards made Lex giggle. “After we got checked in, I changed the computer records to show that six other random people who don’t have travel warnings listed for them are on this flight.”
Riss paused, then continued a moment later. “It appears they split their efforts once they saw what was going on at the stadium. They intercepted the limo, which of course was empty, and now there are people waiting for us to board the decoy flights, too. They even have a couple people waiting for us at the ship. The two they sent to Sky Harbor seem to be almost an afterthought. And as effective, I suppose.”
Lex watched her friends’ smiles appear around the room as everyone took this in. “Is there anything else we need to do?” Lex asked, hoping she hadn’t overlooked something at this point.
No one offered any ideas and Riss shook her head as well. “No, but I’m going to monitor the radio traffic on the way over. I’ve got it rigged so at this point I can broadcast some static if someone comes on and starts to ask questions that might be awkward for us.”
“I assume we’re going to need coffee then, if someone has to monitor it for the next fourteen hours,” Casey said, standing up. “Do you have it arranged so that someone can fill in for you when you want a break?”
Riss smiled back at her. “No, but I’ll do that. Good idea.”
The conversation continued as Casey went back to the kitchen, and although Lex tried to listen, she got distracted by the sudden pain in her head. After one wave of it, she looked over to notice Kate watching her.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, looking at Lex with concern.
“Oh, it just feels like I have a headache coming on,” Lex replied, wincing as another bolt of pain shot through her.
Kate jumped up and led her to the back of the plane, folding one of the chairs down so that Lex had a place to lie down. “No way am I letting you pass out and hit your head or something,” she said, frowning. “Do you have any medicine? No, lie down and tell me where it is. I’ll get it.”
She brought Lex some pills and a glass of water and then a blanket, over which she loosely strapped the seatbelt. “Get some rest,” Kate told Lex as she dimmed the overhead lights. “Everything will be just fine.”
Lex closed her eyes but wondered if she could rest with all the excitement. After some time, however, she realized how warm and comfortable she felt despite the pain.
She remembered hearing the small, constant engine sound first as she lay with her eyes closed for a moment, not exactly able to place her location. When she opened her eyes, Lex smiled as she looked around to see the plane cabin. Lou slept on the floor nearby, having rolled out a sleeping bag and pillow. Lex noticed that those awake had tried to keep the sleeper’s corner in comparative darkness. As she unfastened the seatbelt and sat up, Lex smiled across the cabin at Kate and Victor, who sat playing cards. Kate elbowed Riss, engrossed with her laptop nearby. The other woman opened her eyes and sent a grin Lex’s way.
After standing up to stretch and grabbing a mug of tea that Casey managed to produce from nowhere, Lex made her way over to the table where her friends sat.
“Hey, sleeping beauty,” Kate said in a teasing tone. “How are you feeling?”
“Well, my headache’s gone,” Lex replied. “Now I just have to wake up again. How is everything going?”
Riss looked directly at her. “We’ve got about four hours before we get where we’re going. Nothing much has happened except one incident.”
Lex raised an eyebrow and Riss continued in a murmur. “Someone got on the radio asking whether the members of Alexander’s Army were on this flight. It sounded routine, like someone got the idea to ask all of the planes that left around a certain time whether we were on board. I had to block the signal for a few minutes until they seemed to get tired of asking. It didn’t happen again, so I’m hoping we’re in the clear.”
Nodding, Lex spoke again. “Good idea to do this monitoring. We would have been in big trouble otherwise.”
Shrugging, Riss gave a small smile. “How about you spell me for a few minutes as a thank you?”
So, Lex listened over the headphones to the radio traffic for a while, focusing on picking up any mention of them. It seemed quiet at this time of the flight, however, so she ended up turning the headphones over to Riss a while later without having had to do anything.
“Nothing much?” Riss asked, and Lex shrugged as she nodded. “Good,” Riss continued, “hopefully there won’t be anything more the rest of the time.”
To Lex’s pleasure, her friend’s words proved to be true and the six of them found themselves gathering their bags together and shuffling off the plane just a few hours later, blinking at the bright afternoon sunlight. Lex’s smile stretched wide as she felt like they’d arrived in another world.
Chapter 34: Arrival
Lex felt the first week in Brussels pass by in a blur, but everything had been so wonderfully new that she’d even managed to have some fun. Since they’d planned their initial shows centrally, they’d rented a house for the first month. They had shared one wall, but the basement seemed big enough that they hadn’t felt they had to worry about the neighbors complaining when they practiced. When Casey had taken some of her cookies over to the next-door neighbor, they found the older woman living there to be hard of hearing anyway.
For the band, the first order of business had been shopping for musical gear that needed to be replaced, and they had been able to find the needed amps and Lou’s new bass within the first afternoon of shopping. It had taken another day of searching to replace Lex’s synthesizer and also get a new laptop for Riss.
Since Lex had gotten a different model synthesizer than before, she’d missed out on a couple of sightseeing days while programming the new sounds but insisted on being included when her friends visited the Comic Strip Center museum.
She’d seen the pictures from the days when she hadn’t been able to accompany her friends, and it had seemed like everyone had been having fun. Riss had posted a number of the photos on their website so that their fans could see what the band had been up to.
“Maybe they can feel like they came along, too, even if they can’t afford the airfare,” Riss had commented to Lex as she’d posted another batch online.
Lex had found it interesting that everyone had split up and gone to see the sights they found compelling but they had all ended up going to the Comic Strip Center together. She hadn’t been able to help but smile wistfully when they passed exhibits centering on superhero comics and felt a lump in her throat as she saw her friends doing the same. They had haunted the exhibits like ghosts for some time, and then all had seemed to want to leave at the same time, meeting on the cobblestones outside, Lex noting that most of her friends had seemed to be examining their shoes.