Almost immediately after H.G. called her men to order, a helicopter flew dangerously close passing over them. The two women along with Williams jerked their heads as they followed it from the port window to the starboard.
"Shit! Tell me that's not what I think it is," H.G. muttered, where Myka instantaneously felt her heart stop in a response to her tone. Merely seconds ago the Victorian was filled with confidence that seemed to have dissipated on sight of there enemy.
"An MI-24 Mil gun ship," Williams added in a tone that read a little perturbed, which would normally not bother one, but coming from the roly-poly man, it frightened the hell out of Myka.
"There is no way our weaponry will so much as leave a dent on that craft," H.G. pointed out the window, where the helicopter was still within view, as it turned its self to come back around. "Why haven't they shot us down yet?"
As if her question was being answered, another English man shouted from within the hatch that led to command, "Eh, Captain, they wanna speak with you!"
"I'll be right there," she called out, "wait Jeffery! Is that all they said?"
A slender man with strawberry blond hair poked his head out from the hatch behind Williams, "Ah well no, not exactly; The short form of their message was; Give us back our goggles or else well shoot you down, and we're not scared to look through the wreckage and rubble to find them if we gotta."
"So basically they're giving us the chose to get shot down before, or get shot down after, the exchange," H.G. nodded her head.
"Yup! Pretty much," the same man responded.
"Williams get the entire crew down to the engine room, Agent Bering included, we're executing Plan-V," H.G. instructed as she made her way to command.
"With all do respect Ma'am, have you lost your barking mind?" Williams spoke, wide-eyed, "none of that stuff has even been tested we…"
"Do you see any other viable option?" H.G. cut him off, "If you do, I'd love to hear it."
"No Ma'am," He along with H.G. locked gazes for a moment before they both disbursed in their opposite directions, after silently confirming that they were both on the same page.
"I'll stall them for as long as I can," She yelled back whilst disappearing threw the hatch and down into the gondola.
"Come along Agent Bering," he mumbled as she quickly fell in step behind him, leading them both through the wooden door.
"I'm not an agent," Myka muttered to herself, "not any more."
Myka was led down, along with five other crewmen, into the inner hull of the craft which housed a cluster of four engines. "Alright men, we're doing Plan-V," the whole crew froze and stared at Williams, "Come one move!" he clapped his hands together, "that's an order." They all snapped out of their fear trances and got to work.
Williams turned to Myka as he unscrewed a valve from a large fuel cell that sat beside one of the engines, "You see where their getting those from?" He gestured with his head towards a vault like housing box that sat against a far bulkhead where two crewmembers were taking small metal cylinders, about the size of ones forearm, out from it.
"Yeah," she nodded her head.
He then screwed a pipe into the fuel cell that connected to an injector, "Good, go get me one, and be carful not to disturb the contents of it while in transport."
She shot him a quick puzzled expression before running to the storage unit to fetch one, "holly crap," she muttered to herself before she very gently picked up the, highly explosive, nitro glycerin cell and walked quickly and carefully back to Williams. It was not until she passed one of the other engines, that the other crew members were seeing to, that she noticed that the other fuel that was hooked up to be injected into the engines was hydrogen peroxide.
"Are you crazy?" Myka spat out at Williams as she approached, "Why are we hooking up an unstable fuel and an even more unstable explosive into the ships engines, you do realize we're already hanging from a hydrogen thermite bag?
"Captain's orders," he said as a matter of fact while taking the nitro glycerin from her and quickly screwing it onto the other side of the fuel injector.
"What the heck is Plan-V anyway?" She asked aggregately.
"Plan-V-1 Flying Bomb," Paul said loudly from a neighboring engine where he was screwing in another nitro glycerin cell into that particular engine's fuel injector. "The original V-l prototype has de ability to generate a slipstream allowing de bomb to accelerate through it, but once de projectile hits terminal velocity de slipstream dissipates, making de bomb almost useless for its originally intended task."
"…okay that's interesting and all, but what the heck does it have to do with our current situation?"
"Well we strapped de prototype bomb to de front of de ship, inside de envelope."
"The prototype bomb?" Myka gasped.
"Yeah, making this entire craft one big ol' slipstream travelin' vessel."
"Yeah, if it doesn't blow up!"
"Yeah… well fingers crossed there," he smirked at her.
H.G. then came running into the room with a bunch of heavy duty headphones around her arms, "Everyone put one of these on, and make certain that they work." The crew started to take them one-by-one from her.
"Work," Myka whispered in confusion towards Paul.
"Yeah, when you turn dem on they make white noise," he explained.
"Why."
"Because," H.G. interjected, "we are about to strum The Sirens' Barbitos…"
"It's like a lyra," Paule whispers in her ear.
"…over the laud-speaker to lure the chopper closer on our six."
"Closer?" Myka practically yelled in horror.
"Yes," the Victorian smiled briefly towards the brunette before handing her her ear protection.
"Oh," it all clicked inside Myka's head after a moment, "You want them in close for when you ignite the engines. The shockwave would send them flying."
H.G. chuckled, "That's why you've always been my favorite; you're so very clever."
"Captain, you guys ready down there?" Jeffrey's voice emanated from a radio on H.G.'s belt.
She took the communicator in her hand and talked into it, "just about." She then looked to the rest of the crew, "Alright everybody, get yourselves strapped down." The crew disbursed around the room to various jump-seats that were attached to the bulkheads. Myka buckled herself into a chair that was just a little ways from H.G. where everyone else was clear across the room from them. "Everyone put on your headphones and turn them on," She yelled to get her order across the entire room where everyone complied, Myka then saw H.G. talk into her radio once again before putting on her own headphones.
After a short few seconds Myka spotted HG fidgeting with her ear-protection while wearing a worried expression on her face. Then the woman's face went expressionless as she calmly removed her earphones and her seatbelt as if she were is a trance. Myka quickly looked to the other men in the room to try and get their attention, but they didn't seem to notice either woman. H.G. then stood up and quickly walked to and up the stairs exiting the engine room, where Myka was quick to leap after her. The brunette caught up with her on the upper deck where H.G. was just about to open an outer emergency hatch that lead outside, and straight down to ones death. Myka lunged at her pulling her back before she could lift the door's lever. Just as she yanked her away the aircraft burst forwards knocking both women straight back into a wall, pinning them securely against the mass, both unable to move.
Myka had never experienced so much pressure and force on her as she had just then. It felt as if a heavy weight was crushing her chest making it hard to breath. After a few unbearable minutes the zeppelin abruptly halted which sent both women hard across the small room and into the bulkhead that lay mere meters away. H.G. crashed into it leading with her shoulder where Myka flew head first banging into it, knocking her headphones off.
Myka hit the floor hard as she blinked once lazily before darkness took her over.
H.G. slowly moved her hands beneath herself and pushed up off the floor where she cried out in pain, she sat up and crumpled over while holding her shoulder, when she looked down to it she saw that it had popped out of place. Soon hazed flashes of what had just happened sped through her head as she remembered following the most beautiful sound to her potential death. She then recalled Myka pulling her back before she had attempted to walk out of the ship to meat the fates themselves.
"Myka!" her head jerked up to spot the brunette laying still on the floor, "Myka? "She called again before dragging herself along the ground with her good arm. The woman was on her back with her head turned away from her. H.G.'s breath caught in her throat as a whirlwind of horrors blew through her mind. Did she have any broken bones? Was she paralyzed? Was she breathing? Did she have any brain damage? Oh God, was she dead?
The Victorian then notices Myka's chest rise and fall ever so slightly which brought some ease to her thoughts. "Myka?" she murmured through hot tears that she didn't realize that she was shedding while she gently cupped the brunette's chin bringing her head to face her, "Myka sweetie open your eyes and look at me," she gently caressed her cheek, "I know I haven't earned the right to ask of you for anything, but please, I beg of you, please open those beautiful emeralds of yours and look at me," she cried as her hand shook on her friend's face.
"Captain?" the same voice came from her radio, "eh captain, we have a bit of a problem, three of our four engines are burnt out."
H.G. shut her eyes hard as she felt her entire world, once again, crashing down on her. She gripped the back of Myka's neck as if she were her life-raft keeping her afloat as she tried to breath.
"Captain are you there?" came the same voice.
"Yeah, she's here," said Williams right behind his commanding officer as he spoke into his own radio, "What's the situation?"
"Ah, like I said, three of the engines are down, so we are slowly losing altitude. The good news is if we follow our current speed, our E.T.A. will be seven minutes, where I'm hopping that I'll be able to bring us in before we crash into the ocean."
"Copy that," he grunted into the communicator. He then bent down and with one swift motion grabbed H.G.'s shoulder and re-set it, where she cried out in pain at the moment it made a loud pop sound.
After a long growl of pain H.G. ordered through clenched teeth, "Make sure everything is dealt with accordingly."
Williams looked to her with an expression that said that he wanted to see to her well being, but he nodded in compliances knowing that she would not allow him to do anything otherwise. He then quickly left with another two crewmen that had just climbed the stairs and entered the room.
Myka lazily opened her eyes where she saw a blurred image of H.G. next to her looking towards Williams and two other men leaving through a doorway. The brunette lifted her heavy limb to rest her hand on the Victorian's face.
H.G. quickly whipped her head to look down to her, "Myka," she almost laughed through a cascade of tears where she was fast to grab her hand and push it hard against her mouth, kissing it with great relief. She then swiftly wiped her eyes, "Okay Darling, can you move?" Myka shifted her legs ever so slightly in her attempts, "that's good," she smiled in knowing that she did not receive any critical spinal damage. "Alright reach your arms out to me," she instructed where Myka complied and grabbed her shoulders. H.G. then wrapped her arms around her back and hosted her up into a sitting position while wincing in pain, where H.G. held her tight in her embrace. "Are you alright Darling?" she asked while pushing Myka's curls out of her face. Myka only nodded, evidently still in a lightheaded daze. "You saved my life," H.G. locked eyes with her, "thank you."
"Well I didn't really want to get caught up in the paperwork that ensues after a fellow agent falls to their death," she said while breaking eye contact as she was quickly coming out of her trance like state.
"Right," H.G. mumbled in a hurt voice, "Well let's get you up, you've got a job to do when we land in a few minutes," she stood to her feet while pulling Myka along with.
Myka then took note to her surroundings when she reached for a wall to stabilize herself after removing herself from the other woman's arms, "speaking of landing, why does it feel like we're descending so quickly?"
"Oh, because we are, it's going to be bit of a crash landing."
"A what?" Myka yelled in high anxiety.
"Oh don't be so dramatic, we've still got one engine, and we're in a zeppelin, so it's not like we're falling out of the sky in an airplane, or anything to that crucial degree"
"Oh I'm dramatic," Myka laughed in shock, "I'm not the one who is carrying nitro glycerin AND hydrogen peroxide fuel on an AIRSHIP!"
"Well it seemed to have saved your life," she muttered to herself.
"Okay, everybody, ya better strap yourselves down, we're going in hot," the voice instructed through H.G.'s radio.
"Thank God," they both mumbled to themselves in unison, in response to the interruption. They both would have rather experienced an emergency landing than continue their banter.
H.G. then turned and walked away in the direction of command, not saying a word. Myka didn't know if she was supposed to follow. She crossed her arms whilst letting out a growl of frustration, deciding no to chase after her like a stray dog. She then spun around and made her way back down the stairs, with quite some difficulty due to the ship being at such an intense angle. When she arrived back into the hull she found her same seat from before and buckled herself in quickly.
They were falling fast now; Myka's stomach felt like it was flying up inside her body. She speedily brought her head down and hugged her legs tight as the airship made contact with the ground; her body banged the back of her seat as her grip broke during their initial touchdown. They bounced twice before skidding to a stop. "Well I guess we didn't hit the water," she said to herself aloud with a smirk.
"Nope, we sure didn't… not like de last time at least," Paul smirked from across the room at her. She didn't even take note to the others in the giant engine room with her until just than.
"Paul, is Agent Bering down there with you?" H.G.'s voice came through his radio.
"Yep," he said after he grabbed his radio, "you sure know how to show a girl a good time there Cap'n," he smiled at Myka.
H.G. apparently let that remark slide when she answered, "bring her off the ship, I'm already on my way out."
"On it," he said before putting his radio back onto his belt before leading Myka out a hatch where they had to climb down via rope ladder.
When Myka was safely on the grass she looked around at her surroundings, they were in a large field that was actually quite a ways off from the water; there were a few giant skid marks in the ground where the earth was ripped up from their emergency landing. Inland lay a large building, which appeared to be a small resort hotel, and just past the structure lay a gathering of small rocky foothills. "That's were de entrance into De Labyrinth lies," Paul informed her as he noticed her eye line, "that hotel up there has been rented out and is serving us as home base for de duration of the mission."
Myka merely nodded her head as they walked around the side of the craft where they soon caught sight of H.G. talking to a short and stout man, whose back was to them. Myka gulped, she knew that brown coat and that messy wiry hair.
"You know Helena; it doesn't look good on your evaluation when you crash the only Hindenburg class ship in existence, twice in a single year."
H.G. chuckled, "Oh come now Artie, you and I both know that they will do nothing about it. Merely frown and grumble and that'll be that; just like the last time."
He let out a chuckle of his own, "Yeah, you're probably right."
"Oh I got you something," H.G. handed him a small beige sac where he took it and opened it before inhaling the sent of its contents.
"Gah- that smells good."
"Fresh from Columbia, just as you like it."
"You are a godsend, you know that?"
Myka shook her head in disbelief, "Did I just step into the twilight-zone or something?" she muttered to herself.
"Myka?" Artie questioned before turning around to see his former agent standing behind him. "Myka," he said again in shock, "Wha- How-," he turned back to H.G., "is she the agent they picked for the mission?" H.G. nodded before he whipped his head back to the American woman putting on a genuine smile. "How are you doing kiddo?" He asked with purpose before hugging her.
Myka let out a relived laugh as she threw her arms around him, "fine Artie, I'm really doing fine, good actually," her tone fell grave, "…well I'm doing better than Pete for sure."
Artie pulled her away, but still grasped her shoulders, "yeah, hey, but we're going to make it all alright. Okay?" Myka nodded her head while trying to suppress her tears. "Do you think that you'll be ready to go into the tunnels right away, I mean we're kind of on the clock here?"
"Yeah I'm ready."
"That's my girl," he smirked before patting her shoulders and turning back to H.G.
"I'll let you two go at it," H.G. smirked at Artie where her gaze soon drifted to Myka's. They locked eyes, both expressionless, not really knowing where they stood with the other.
"Good luck with your ship," Artie huffed with a smirk.
H.G. broke eye contact with the brunette and looked back to him, "You know I will," she smiled.
"Come on Myka, we better get in there," Artie instructed.
Myka nodded and followed after her former boss, she glanced over her shoulder where she saw H.G. watching her. Myka's heart broke in seeing her expression, she looked sad; as Myka assumed that she herself probably appeared to look as well. She hated herself in that moment for acting with such cruelty towards her former best friend.
"Here," Artie passed her Gutenberg's Goggles, which snapped her out of her train of thought. She took them while trying to mentally ready herself for her mission. Her focus was now primarily on Pete. She would, indeed, save his life and complete the mission, she just had to.