Chapter 9
WhitemanAirport, 6:00pm.
Whiteman Airport shone brightly in the dark of the early, winter night. It's many runways were alight with row upon row of red and yellow guiding lights. Airport security and maintenance patrol vehicles darted around like fireflies in the dark, the airport itself was a smashing blend of colours; whites, reds, yellows, blues. From the air, the entire view was quite spectacular.
The airport was very busy; families and relatives arriving for the Christmas holidays and people heading to other places in the world to spend their Christmases, this is what made up the majority of the crowds at the airport. In fact, it was so busy, it was hard to find a clear place to walk- what with all the luggage everybody towed with them.
But in this entire throng, there were three people who were not going anywhere to celebrate.
Sam, Clover and Alex were stuck behind a family that was being greeted by an elderly couple, they were saying their hello's and giving their hugs, their bags and suitcases spread out over the floor, preventing anyone who wanted to pass by from passing in the crowded space. The whole thing was touching to watch, but at the same time it was highly inconsiderate.
The three were at the airport for the simple reason being that they had had no way of getting to Jakarta- which the girls had found out was almost completely on the other side of the world, in the country of Indonesia. Without Jerry or the resources of WOOHP, they would have to find their own way.
Ivan Svernykov was a Russian man in his early fifties, or at least one of his aliases was; what the three had been able to learn from the X-powder's onboard database and handy Internet connection was that he was a suspected arms dealer operating in a number of countries, quite obviously the 'suspicions' of his dealing were true; according to King Nagawa, he had been selling arms to both King Nagawa's and President Juhimba's nations in their ongoing war- that much they had managed to piece together from Jerry's broken message; a treaty between those two nations would mean an end to business for Ivan. Aside from those little snippets of information, the three spies were unable to come up with anything more on him, apparently he was very cautious- which made things difficult for authorities to track him. It was a stroke of pure luck that GLADIS had been able to find him at all- yet alone on such short notice.
At last the family had finally realised that they were holding up the growing throng of people that was forming up behind the three girls, and started to move to make room for everyone trying to get by.
"About time." Clover huffed as they went by.
They walked through the airport a little farther, dodging and weaving through the people bustling about until they could see a flight schedule hanging from the high white ceiling. It's yellow LED lights arranged to form words numbers showed the varied departure times for every flight. There was no sign of a flight to Indonesia.
"Wait here, I'll see if there's any flight's that might at least be headed in that direction." Sam said as she headed towards to the ticket collection counters.
"This place is so packed." Clover said as she pressed herself against the white wall behind her to make way for another family trying to make its way through crowd.
"You know, I didn't realise how much we rely on Jerry to get us around. I mean, we're usually WOOHPed away to wherever it is we're needed; now we gotta try and get to the other side of the world. At this rate we'll never get there." Alex said. Reluctantly, Clover had to agree with her.
Half an hour later, Sam came back, by this time the crowd had significantly lessened; they must have arrived at the same time a number of flights had arrived.
"There are no direct flights to Indonesia." Sam started.
"Alex and Clover sighed in disappointment and frustration.
"But;" She continued, "The guy at the counter said that there's a flight to Honolulu in forty-five minutes that connects to Vanuatu and then to Jakarta."
"Talk about taking the long way around." Said Clover.
"It's the only way." Sam consoled.
"But we have one more problem." Alex added. "I'm not sure about you two, but I don't exactly carry a few thousand dollars in cash on me everywhere I go." It was an unfortunate circumstance; without the money to pay for the airfare, they were going nowhere.
Hope seemed to have vanished from them; but then Alex's head jerked up as if something had hit her. Clover and Sam looked at her, worried.
"I just had an idea." Alex said smiling widely.
"Oh is that what that was?" Clover said, mimicking Alex's head jerk.
"It sure looked like…something." Sam.
Alex grabbed her friends by the hand and quickly led them into a restroom. In the first stroke of good fortune that night for the girls, the restroom was empty of other people.
"Sammie, give me your X-powder." Alex said excitedly.
Sam had no sooner pulled out the small device than Alex practically snatched it away from her. Alex grinned, her white teeth flashing, her eyes sparkling with anticipation. She keyed through the disguise menu until she came to what she was looking for. As she pressed down, victoriously, on the select button, a white beam of light enveloped the three girls. Instantly, their clothes were transformed into those of flight attendants royal blue uniforms.
"Alex?" Sam asked.
"Flight attendants and pilots fly for free;" Alex quickly explained. "All we have to do is pass ourselves off as attendants."
"I don't think that'll be a problem." Clover said while she admired herself in the mirror.
"How is it you know this?" Sam enquired.
"I saw it on a movie- 'Try and catch me'; it was based on a true story." Alex replied.
"Oh I remember that movie, that lead actor was hot." Was Clover's input.
7:10pm.
"Did that movie happen show us a way to get past customs officers?" Sam asked.
They were only about a hundred meters from getting on the flight to Honolulu, but now there was yet another obstacle in their way- Customs.
"Actually…no, I think all the flights in the movie were domestic. Do you recall, Clover?"
"Uh, was this before or after the sauna scene?" Clover asked unhelpfully.
"Okay…" Sam said, trying to figure out what to do.
"Do we even have passports?" Alex asked. The thought had not occurred to them until this moment. Quickly they checked their pockets and remarkably enough, found passports for each.
"What doesn't WOOHP think of?" Alex said offhandedly.
At the very end of the customs inspection counters was a young customs officer; he was sweating (something easily seen because of the strong lights picking up the glisten), nervous and probably new. Perfect.
"With me girls, this might be easier than we hoped." Clover started off towards the officer. Alex and Sam followed closely, having seen where Clover was going and what she meant.
Sam, Clover and Alex came to the officer at the same time.
"One at a time, please." He said licking his lips.
Clover gave the young man a dazzling smile.
"Do we have to? We're running late for our flight."
The officer was unsure what to do a moment, but any resolve he had was melted by the smile he was getting from the attractive blonde before him.
"I shouldn't, but seeing as you work here; let me see your passports."
They handed the young man their passports. WOOHP was ingenious for making the impossible possible, but the odds of their passports being valid (especially with WOOHP effectively shut down and under scrutiny) were very low. He ran the crucial pieces of paper through the computer.
"Do we have to go through [Iall[/I the formalities?" Sam asked.
"We only have a few minutes really." Alex chimed in.
"Surely you can bend the rules a little?" Clover added; she threw in her patented hair flip-smile to seal the deal.
The young man was far to distracted by the three girls combined pleads and Clovers devastatingly effective hair flip-smile to notice the notice that came up on the computer screen that were telling him to call security to detain them.
"These check out fine." He said sheepishly as he stamped the passports.
"Thanks." Alex and Sam said as they passed through customs.
"Oh no," Clover whispered to herself. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted two men dressed in black and white. Government agents- the same two from the mall.
"What is it?" The young customs officer asked.
"It's my ex," Clover replied, thinking fast; "I broke up with him months ago but he just won't get over me- he's following me everywhere." She feigned dismay.
The customs officer looked from Clover to the two agents.
"I'll take care of him. You have a safe flight."
"Thankyou." Clover squeezed the young mans hand, which instantly made his face turn a bright red.
Clover caught up with her friends at the gate to the Honolulu flight; they were talking with another attendant.
"Yes," Sam was saying, "There should have been a manifest saying we would be joining you- our shift starts on a flight from Honolulu, but in order to get to that flight, we have to be on yours." Sam explained to the attendant.
"I haven't received any such manifest." The attendant replied. "But things have been so hectic around here tonight, I wouldn't be surprised if someone forgot about that- it's happened to me dozens of times. Alright, come on; we're off the ground in a few minutes."
Sam, Clover, Alex and the attendant made their way onto the plane. Ten minutes later, they were bound for Honolulu.
Back at customs, the two agents were surrounded by airport security undergoing a random security inspection. There was a hype of activity as the security personnel found the agents side arms; the two agents weren't given a chance to show their ID as they were roughly escorted to airport security for a more thorough search.