After that, the aircraft landed without incidence. The passenger up front filed off the plane, and when it got to Max and Kat's row, she nodded at him while staying where she was. "See you later."
Max looked like he wanted to say something, but instead nodded back and stood up. Knowing that one fourth of their team was watching him from the back of the cabin, he nodded again to no one in particular and made his way towards the front to disembark with the other passengers. Kat watched the rest of the people walk past her as she pretended to search for something in her bad. Sarlo, the last one off, glanced at her with what seemed like regret. She stared back at him, suddenly uncomfortable with the situation, but it was too late to turn back now. Abigail needed to be collected. Once everyone else had left, the air marshal and stewardess she had spoken to came to meet her.
"This way please," the woman addressed her in a business-like manner.
Kat nodded, struggling to keep a straight face. She wondered what John Dread would have to say about this.
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Abigail herself didn't have much to say at the moment. She didn't have much to think either. In fact, all she did think was how badly she just wanted for everything to stop moving. The plotting of revenge would come later.
As if on cue, the door to the bathroom unlocked with a painful click and slid open, presenting a very smug looking Kat Ryan. As if it would have been anyone else.
"We put a tranquilizer in her champagne- standard procedure for first class cases," a large man commented fuzzily. Or maybe there were two large men- she couldn't tell. Twins, maybe? She giggled.
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Following the girl's gaze, Kat found she was staring at the air next to the marshal. Definitely time to go, she thought.
"Well, thank you for your assistance, I will be sure to include your cooperation in my report. If you could just uncuff her, we'll be on our way."
"Of course." The air marshal unlocked the chains linking Abigail and the handbar in the restroom and brought her to a standing position. He began to loosen his grip, but Abigail did not seem ready to stand on her own just yet. "Um…maybe I should assist you getting her through the terminal."
"Oh don't worry about that," Kat replied cheerfully, waving him off. And with that she wrapped her arm around Abigail's shoulders and held her up as the two slowly shambled off the plane together, looking like the best of friends.
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Meanwhile, Max had gotten off the plane and found a good place from which he could observe the passengers get off the plane. He had only been there for two minutes when he heard someone behind him. Spinning around to catch whoever it was that had surprised him, he found himself face to face with Blaine.
"Ready to go?" the man asked softly.
"Um…yeah." Max didn't know how the man had managed to avoid being seen, but didn't dwell on it for too long. When one was still an amateur in the international secret agent trade, being surprised by more experienced people became common place.
Blaine waited for Max to take the lead. After a few seconds, however, the younger man had failed to do so.
Blaine cleared his throat. "All right then. I assume Kat has some sort of plan?" he asked coaxingly.
Max snapped back to attention. "Yeah. We're supposed to go to the hotel and wait there for the two of them. She figured she'll be a little while before she can meet us. There's a company car waiting for us in the long term parking lot."
"Lead the way."
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As the tranquilizer began to wear off more and more, Abigail, or course, became more and more indignant. While she still wasn't ready to walk on her own, she was, apparently, able to recognize her ability to impede Kat's progress. Dragging her feet, or letting her body go limp was an easy way to trip up her escort…literally.
After putting up with this for a while, Kat grabbed an unattended wheelchair and shoved the brat into it. She had been expecting some payback, so she wasn't as annoyed as she could have been, but that sure didn't mean she was happy about things. Looking up briefly to survey the crowd, she could see that the two of them were attracting a good amount of attention from bystanders. Terrific. Her only consolation was that the other half of their team was probably having a lot easier time of not getting noticed.
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"Here it is," Max looked up as he reached the specified parking spot. A black Audi sat waiting for them. "Not bad," he grinned. He took a few eager steps towards the driver's side and then stopped. "Um…do you want to drive?" he asked in the polite way of someone who really wanted to hear a negative answer.
The other man grinned. "Nah, you can have this one."
Max's face lit up. "Sweet!"
Blaine got into the passenger side and strapped himself in. Here we go, he thought. While Max was busy guiding the car out of the lot, the passenger began fiddling with his cell phone. A minute later, he seemed to lose interest, and put it in his jacket pocket. Making sure Max was distracted with traffic, he casually reached under his seat and felt the object he'd been looking for taped there, just as it was supposed to be. It seemed John Dread was a man who could be counted on.
