"No, Cobra, I won't shut up," Dan said, glaring at Natalie. They were on the Winner's jet, provided by the Ekaterinas, who had created all of the jets. Originally only Amy and Dan had been on it, but Amy had taken a "random" detour to the Lucian jet, and Ian had kicked Natalie onto this jet, saying that she needed to get to know Dan more.
Natalie didn't know what he had been thinking. After all, why would she "need to get to know" a manner less orphan like him?
But either way, she had been dumped here, in all her fashionable glory, and there was no way she could get off unless she sky dived. Ha, like that was going to happen.
The Lucian jet and the Winner's jet had been accompanied by the Madrigal, Tomas, Ekaterina, and Janus jets. On board were everyone who had competed in the Clue Hunt, in their respective branches, plus three of the top agents of each branch. They were headed to North Twin Island, Canada.
North Twin Island was very small, roughly seven miles long, averaged about three miles across, supposedly uninhabited, and very cold. It would make a perfect spot for a Vesper stronghold.
The Cahill's plan was to storm the stronghold, attempting to take prisoners back for questioning. If all went well, they would take the Vespers by surprise, not lose any of their agents, and successfully capture four live prisoners. One for each branch.
Before Natalie could answer, the jet hit a spot of turbulence, and both of them stumbled and almost fell over. They had been blatantly ignoring the pilot when he had told them to put on their seat belts, but now they both sat down in a seat as soon as they got their balance back, and quickly clicked their seat belts in.
"What was that about?" Dan muttered, loosening his seat belt so that he was able to lean over Natalie, who had sat next to him, to see out the window on her other side.
"Daniel, get off of me!" Natalie ordered, pushing him away. Dan huffed angrily and sat back in his seat. He hadn't been able to see before she had pushed him back.
"Then get up!" He said back to her. She shifted a little in her seat, seeming almost. . . nervous?
"No." But her voice had lost its powerful, commanding quality, making her sound young and afraid.
"What? Scared of a little turbulence?" Dan taunted mockingly.
"Of course not," Natalie replied, gritting her teeth and forcing her mind to shut down the picture inside her that saw the plane spiraling down, with them trapped inside. She unbuckled her seat belt and stepped away, letting Dan through. Just then the jet took a sharp left turn, flipped over, and began a series of moves that showed that the pilot seriously wanted to punish the two terrified Cahills for not having their seat belts on.
That was Natalie's theory anyway, but Dan knew differently. He had seen out the window a split second before he had toppled over from what was definitely not turbulence.
They were being shot at.
The jet flipped to one side, so that one of its wings was almost vertical. Natalie grabbed onto the arm of one of the seats, but Dan was too far away from one to do so. He slammed into the opposite side of the jet, causing pain to explode in his shoulder.
He cried out, his right shoulder feeling like it was on fire, and barely noticed when the plane righted itself.
"Daniel?" Natalie's voice was tentative and worried. She must have heard him cry out. Perhaps, had his brain been working correctly, Dan would have wondered why she cared. But given the circumstances, he wasn't prepared to think too deeply on it.
He forced himself to stagger upright, clutching his shoulder, and used the wall to steady himself.
"I'm fine," He grunted. With his experiences with broken bones and sprains, he knew he wasn't, but Natalie didn't need to know that. He walked carefully over to the other side of the jet, aimed at the wall he had just moved from, and smashed himself, shoulder first, into it. He heard the satisfying pop that meant that he had relocated his shoulder, and the burning pain receded, and slowly disappeared.
"My shoulder was dislocated," he explained to Natalie, seeing her face. She nodded slowly, and he noticed that she was still clutching the arm of one of the chairs. Her fingers were white from holding on so tightly, and he went over to her and carefully pried her fingers off of it.
"We were being shot at, before. I don't know if we still are," he continued. She nodded again, using the hand he offered to help her stand. He was surprised she did, was her sense of pride abandoning her?
He went over to a window and looked out. He couldn't see the other jets or bullets. He frowned as clouds blocked the view. Wait. . . He glanced at the bottom of the window, trying to see below them. Then he saw the ground. It was covered with trees, and they were going from little green dots to bigger green dots to toy trees in seconds.
"Natalie, take the top off of the seat," Dan commanded, forcing his voice to sound calm for the sake of Natalie.
She did so without question, something very unlike her, and looked back up at Dan for further instructions.
"Hand me what's inside, and then open another." Natalie handed him the closed parachute, and it looked sort of like a vest, and he put it on. Amy had read him a safety guide before she had gone to the Lucian jet, and some of what she had said he remembered now.
As Natalie returned with the parachute, he quickly told her to put it on like he had. As she did, Dan struggled to remember exactly what Amy had said about jumping out of a plane.
When forced to jump from the plane, be sure to wear the helmets attached to the back of the parachute found beneath every seat, as they prevent being knocked out by the strong wind.
That was it. Dan found his helmet and put it on, and then ordered Natalie to. Natalie must have figured out what they were doing by now, but she hadn't spoken. Her face was pale as she followed Dan to the hatch, and took a deep breath when he opened it and the full force of the wind knocked into her.
It almost blew her over, but she held onto the wall and stared at Dan. You want me to do that? She thought. "Come on," he said, his voice coming in through attached microphones in their helmets.
She looked out over the land, still paralyzingly far away, but coming up so fast. . ."I'm terrified of heights," Natalie whispered through the microphone.
Dan grabbed her hand. "On three. One. Two. Three!"
RageRunsStill is my uber!awesome beta. I don't own The 39 Clues and I don't own Flight 29 Down (the inspiration for the title.)
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