Chapter 25 – Joe

2:08pm the next day.

'Helicopter RI302 ready for departure, over.' The helicopter pilot asked the Maui base, waiting for the response from the air control, and sure enough about fifteen seconds later we were cleared for takeoff.

I looked at the time on the digital display above the door. We were only taking up one minute late, but that minute felt like a century but I smiled as I enjoyed the freedom. Since the phone call last night, both Ella and I were locked into the nuclear bunker under the gym, on opposite sides so we couldn't even talk to each other. Not that we would need too, as we'd be spending the foreseeable future with each other down at the safe house. Annie was suppose to join us, but thankfully for her they found a safe house within Sweden, her brother's new flat that was completely uncharted so she was fine to go over there. She flew out only an hour and a half after that phone call, leaving just Ella and I with no where to go. There were discussions of sending me to an extended relative but was promptly shot down when all my family were found in the visible Net. Ella had the same issues, the only place safe for her would be her brother's flat in Denver and that brother was in the FBI. She would be in just as much danger over there as she is here. So they had to find us a safe house for the twenty nine days, and a few days after for it to blow over. They said they would work on it when we were gone but they cannot guarantee they'd be safe now as Ella was their key. They were effectively dumping us two somewhere in the middle of nowhere so we couldn't help with the efforts.

I couldn't sit on my ass for thirty days until a plane gets blown up, though. And I know full well Ella will be trying to escape the second her helicopter lands to help. She's a multitude of things, including someone who could be using me in the blunt words of Jason, but the last thing she'd do is watch a plane full of innocents get blown up.

'Joe, you need to listen to us now,' Jake shouted against the noise of the helicopter blades. I turned my gaze to him. I was sitting cross legged on the medical bench on the right side of the helicopter, whilst Jake and Quinn who are coming to accompany me down to the safe house. Based on the way the helicopter was going, we would be heading down to the South West. I knew where we were going was still in the UK, but that was about it.

'Yeah,' I replied back.

'Quite a few things you have to memorise.' Jake said, and I nodded. 'The most important is for your safety is that no one will know where you are being kept. Once you are off this plane, our memories regarding the location will be wiped and we'll be knocked unconscious until we're off the helicopter. The pilots will never remember this flight. All tracking devices on the helicopter are off, and the location is not even mentioned in any databases on site. The place you are going is a holiday home that is all we know.'

'Okay, right. So you'll have no idea of where I am at any second.'

'Correct.' Jake said.

'So we need you to wear these little black boxes. You put it on the hem of your boxers; Ella has hers on her bra. They will transmit the data to Norway, then Norway back down to base on your life statistics. So it'll tell us the vitals of your heart rate and temperature and we can see if you're still alive. There will obviously be silent periods where you don't wear it but just humour us and put it on for like an hour a day so we know you're not dead.' Quinn shouted but I only heard him through the headphones for the helicopter controls as appose to normal sound. The helicopter blades were strangely loud.

'Got it,'

'Okay, you and Ella will be sharing everything for the next month and a half – we know you like her so there is no issue for you. This is your new bank card. In the bottom of Ella's bag there is a machine that you'll have to use to set the PIN on the card which you'll use in shops to buy crap. The account is unlimited, so splash out but not too much. Don't be so bloody obvious to any passersby – don't go shopping for like Fred Perry shirts, go into Primark.'

'Right, don't be a big spender, wear the menacing black box you just shoved in my bag for me, no one knows where we are.' I repeated, as Jake did up the zip on my bag after placing the black device on my shirt in the top of the bag. 'What's in the travellers backpack, may I ask?'

'It's just what you need for a week's trip; you need to get more stuff down there obviously. You've got clothes, toiletries, a brand new laptop which hasn't been set up and same goes for the phone. Anything personal to you has been gone and is now locked away in the Nuclear Bunker in Maui. We don't need you calling us to say you're okay because that's the dumbest thing you could do when you've got death threats over you. The phone is just to keep you and Ella in touch if you lose each other when you're out. Mentioning that, any form of telepathy is banned. No talking to us and no talking to her like that either. We don't know where the person, or people, are who made that threat of if they can hear telepathy so you have to be careful,' Quinn said and Jake was on the helicopters tablet sorting out some more paperwork.

'Got it.' I said, and probably should be making notes on this as the rant still continued as we flew over the Bristol Channel. So we're not going to Wales, then. It more looked like the location would be Devon or Cornwall, on the north coast. Lovely and scenic.

'What else?' Jake asked, and Quinn shrugged.

'Don't piss Ella off,' Jake said, pointing the stylus at me and I smiled smugly back. 'I mean it. She's gone through a lot and I don't want another month with my idiotic kid brother to be another struggle for her.'

'You like her a lot more than you like me,' I said hollowly.

'Joe, Ella is currently in the helicopter in front of us alone, getting briefed by a guy she's never met before. No family to send her off. Michael had to stay to make sure we could get down here safely. That's right, the girl who is an anxious wreck, twenty times worse than you are feeling right now, is in that helicopter alone, and when we offered to go with her she point blank refused and told us to both go with you so, if something was to happen to you, at least we can have our family goodbyes down there. She cares more about us lot saying goodbye to you, then she does about herself. So currently, I am leaning towards the girl crying alone in that helicopter compared to you sitting here claiming moral high ground.' Jake snapped and I raised my eyebrow.

Ella would rather go through pain both mentally and physically so I could say goodbye to my brothers when we touched down. Bless her.

'Sorry,' I murmured.

'So be nice to Ella is on the top of your list. We know what you are like – you are quick to accuse people without thinking and you don't want to do that to Ella. Play fair, you're each other's best friends for the next month.' Quinn told me as Jake went back to tapping the screen.

'Okay, how will we know where we are?'

'Ask Ella sweetly, her main gift is being able to project. Give her ten minutes to give the place a good snoop around and you'll be sold,' Jake said.

About twenty minutes later of lectures and rapid-fire instructions the helicopters had started circling the location where I guessed the safe house was. "Safe" was probably included in the title as it was the only thing noticeable for miles around. A small bungalow sat on the cliff tops, overlooking a small and private beach about half a kilometre wide. Waves lapped at the untouched and unruined natural beach, the only way to get up the cliffs were some cheap wooden stairs. Set in the middle of fields, there was only a dirt track leading down the road. From up here in the helicopter, you could see where the dirt path met a narrow asphalt road, and it was still a good few miles down the road that the asphalt road turned into a main road – and even that was empty. We would be in the middle of nowhere for just over a month with a girl I was falling in love with who doesn't know anything much about me. Great. Commands flew across the helicopter headphones from the cockpit fast as the helicopter that travelled in front of us – taking Ella alone down to the safe house – started it's land on the cliff top to drop her off. We only had about ten more minutes left.

'Joe, from Michael, he asked if you can do him a favour and make sure his sister stays safe.' Jake asked quietly, getting up and opening the door. The small department we sat in filled with the freezing breeze.

'Stay safe how?'

'Make sure she doesn't get cold too often, and she doesn't seem depressed or anxious. Just make sure you don't seem like a threat to her and you should be fine. We all don't care how you do that – be her best friend or sleep with her, we don't care, as long as you are both safe and well by the end of this.' Jake explained, and I nodded.

'I'll go for the best friend approach,'

'Yeah, maybe not the latter approach Jake crudely suggested,' Quinn joked back and Jake grinned at him. The helicopter who had just dropped Ella down enough to jump out safely was now back up into the air, doing a U-turn in the air and flying back in land and back to base. From my side of the helicopter, I could only just see the ant-sized dot of Ella, and the ant-sized dot of her travellers back pack similar to mine walking towards the bungalow. A few seconds later, our helicopter followed the same route down to the cliff top when Ella was out of the cross wind zone. Jake, Quinn and my time together was coming to a close, and as I stood up, both brothers took a second to hug me. As we're not really a sentimental family, I knew this meant that they both thought I was in serious trouble. And I guess we were.

'We're clear for landing,' The pilot said, as we were now only four foot from touching the cliff top. I guessed we hugged for a bit longer than I thought.

'Do you remember everything we said?' Quinn yelled at me as I took off my headphones. Despite the volume of his speech, I could barely hear him over the propeller blades and the noise they made. I nodded in reply.

'We have to take off again now,' Jake told Quinn (I could only pick up what he said from lip reading him) and both brothers hugged me jointly again.

'Stay safe, little bro.' Quinn said before walking to the back of the helicopter. He was never good at saying goodbye, and I knew whilst it seemed rude it was better for him to be back there and not see me leave as he would only feel shit about it. Jake took his turn to hug me.

'Yeah, stay safe. I don't want to tell your two nieces that you died, alright?' Jake said in my ear.

'That's the only reason? Nice,' I joked and he hit me in my arm.

'Course not, wouldn't want to tell Ella either.' He joked back and I rolled my eyes. 'But seriously, stay safe. I'll see you safe and well in a month.' Jake said as he chucked my backpack on the grass as I jumped out, watching the door close behind me. Seconds later, the helicopter was gaining altitude before doing the safe U-turn and heading back to base leaving me stranded with Ella in an unknown place for God knows how long.

What's the worst that can happen?