Act 11.
April and Mark arrived at the Skunkworks about half hour before the test flight. They met again with Petersen and Major Young.
"Good to see you again Miss Dancer, Mr Slate. Where is your Miss Andrews?"
"Thank you for your invitation Mr Young. Rebecca will join us later, she is still trying to find who the inside person is."
"Yes, it would be good to know who is feeding this information to outsiders Mr Slate. I will look forward to meeting Miss Andrews later then."
"Well, then are we ready to see the test flight?" Petersen asked.
"Yes please, it's a shame that Rebecca will miss it, she would have loved to see it fly." April replied
"Maybe next time then, eh?"
"That would be good."
The agents, Cody, Petersen and Major Young walked across to the hangar housing the XJ23-S. The jet was sat outside the hanger, it almost blended into its surroundings. Technicians busily checked over every part of it. Outside in the daylight, the skin didn't seem to hurt their eyes so much. Mark commented on this.
"The skin sort of absorbs the light and with it being outside it blends itself to the surroundings." Petersen tried to explain.
Just then April's communicator beeped. "Dancer here, found anything Becca?"
"Yes, but I can't say here. I will meet you there in a couple of hours, please send Cody to collect me. I'll tell you then."
April looked over at Cody, he nodded and started back to the jeep, "I'll be about an hour."
"Okay, Becca. Cody's here and has heard you. He's already on his way. We'll see you later. Dancer out."
She looked over at Mark, "Looks like we might be getting somewhere at last."
"Yup, hopefully. It's going to be at least a couple of hours before she gets here though."
Major Young spoke up "you will keep me informed won't you?"
"Yes, of course Major, as soon as we know anything, we'll let you know." Replied Mark.
They looked over to the jet and saw the pilot climbing up the access ladder located under the nose of the aircraft just behind the nose wheel, closely followed by the co-pilot. Soon after the whine of an engine starting broke the silence, a few seconds later another engine started followed by the remaining two. Gradually they got louder as they began building up power and then held steady.
There were a few hand signals from the ground crew and then the access ladder retracted and the door closed sealing the pilots inside. The ground crew gave a final signal and moved out the way. The jets engines increased in power a bit more and slowly and gracefully it moved forward, swinging round to line up with the long taxiway to the end of the runway.
"Well, I think we are all ready for the test flight, Lady, gentlemen, if you don't mind getting in the jeep, we'll follow the jet to the runway and watch from there."
"Thank you Mr Petersen. I'm looking forward to this."
They all climbed into the jeep and followed the retreating aircraft at a safe distance, keeping far enough away not to get blasted by the jets engine exhaust. As the jet moved, it seemed to absorb the colours around it; the colours swirling around in the skin, blending it into its surroundings. You really had to look at it to see it and that was something that was hard to do.
The jet reached the end of the runway and the jeep turned off onto another taxiway and drove to a hard standing, parking up facing the runway so that they had a good view of the full length. They were given some glasses to enable them to see the aircraft easier before the jets engines increased in power and the whine turned into a scream as it sped down the runway and gracefully leapt into the sky about two thirds of the way down. They watched as it gained altitude steeply before levelling out and banking to the right. They followed it as it flew around the perimeter of the airfield.
"Try watching it without the glasses." Suggested Major Young.
April and Mark removed the glasses and the aircraft virtually disappeared, they could just about see it by noticing that there was 'something' distorting the sky, a bit like the effect you get when you look at something through a magnifying glass from a distance. They put the glasses back on and the aircraft became clearer again.
"How will other pilots see the aircraft, friendly's that is, will they have to wear glasses like these?"
"A good question Mr Slate, in effect yes. The lenses are just plain glass that have a special coating on them. If this aircraft goes into production, our aircraft and those of our allies will have their cockpit windows coated with the same substance, enabling the pilots and crew to see the aircraft."
"Ah, I see."
They watched the jet through a series of manoeuvres before coming in to land, a brake chute trailing behind slowing it down before being released and falling onto the runway. It taxied down to the end of the runway pausing at the end before turning onto the taxiway and heading back towards its hanger. The jeep made its way to where the brake chute was lying on the runway, the driver got out and gathered it up before stuffing it into the back of the jeep and then driving back to the jet. When they got there, it was already parked up and the engines were winding down, soon a deafening silence returned and then then the crew access hatch opened and the ladder extended before the pilots climbed back down.
"Please excuse me. I need to debrief the pilots and get their evaluation of today's test flight."
"Yes, of course Major. Thank you for inviting us, it was very enjoyable."
"Yes, a very interesting aircraft, it is a shame that Rebecca missed it, she would have enjoyed the display." Commented Mark.
The agents walked back towards the offices with Petersen.
"I thought Miss Andrews was joining us" said Petersen
"It is about time Rebecca was back isn't it April, it's over two hours since Cody left to collect her."
"Yes, I thought she should have been here by now, we'll give her a few more minutes, then I'll contact her."
They went to Petersen's office and he poured them each a coffee. They chatted about the aircraft and the flight for a while, after 10 minutes there was a knock on the door and April breathed a sigh of relief now that Rebecca had finally arrived.
Petersen called for them to enter and the door opened, but it was only Cody that stepped through the door.
"Where's Rebecca Cody?"
"Err, when I went to collect her, Lieutenant Colonel Hayes said that she had already left. He said that he sent her here with another driver so that she didn't have to wait for me to collect her. Is she not here then Miss Dancer?"
"No Cody, she is not, we haven't heard from her since you left."
"Oh, I wonder what has happened to them then."
"I'll contact her, see if we can locate where they are. Open channel F, Andrews please."
There was some static from the communicator, but no answer. April tried again.
"Open channel F, Andrews please." There was no answer. "Rebecca come in please."
Still there was only static and no answer from Rebecca. April looked towards Mark.
"Something's not right, there is no way she wouldn't answer if she was able to."
"I agree April, something's wrong."
April looked to Cody and Petersen
"Is it possible that the jeep could have gone off the road somewhere and they are stranded?"
"It is possible I suppose, there are many different routes between Edwards and here, they could be anywhere; it's a big area to search." Petersen replied.
"I'm going to see if HQ can put a trace on her communicator, maybe we will be able to locate her with that. Open channel D, Communications please"
"Communications, How can I help Miss Dancer?"
"Hi Sandra, can you put a trace on Miss Andrews communicator please?"
"Yes okay, just a minute." The channel went quiet for a few minutes then she came back "I'm sorry April, her communicators not broadcasting."
"Okay, thank you Sandra."
"Before you go April, Mr Waverly wants to speak with you."
"Okay Sandra, thank you."
"Miss Dancer, your report please."
"Yes Sir. We have discovered the aircraft that THRUSH is interested in and have notified Mr Solo and Mr Kuryakin. Mr Waverly, we think also Miss Andrews has gone missing. "
"Okay, thank you Miss Dancer, does Mr Solo and Mr Kuryakin know of this development?"
"No, we have not informed them yet, I was going to after finishing this call."
"Negative Miss Dancer, do not inform them yet. Keep looking for her."
"But sir, they should know about this development."
"No, Miss Dancer, that is an order."
"Okay, yes sir. April out."
April was unhappy about not being able to inform Napoleon and Illya, she knew they would be mad when they eventually found out, especially Illya.
"We need to try and find her Mark."
"Agreed, Mr Petersen, do you have a helicopter we can use?"
"Yes, I'll clear you for it, you can leave it at Edwards and it can be collected tomorrow."
"Thank you sir."
Half hour later the two agents were flying over the area searching for any sign that Rebecca had been on her way to the Lockheed instillation or of any evidence that a jeep she could have been travelling in had gone off the road. After over two hours they found nothing. It was gone 10pm by the time they landed at Edwards, with no sign of Rebecca at all.
"I don't like this Mark. It's like she's just disappeared into thin air."
"I know, think we should go and see Hayes?"
"Yes, I think we should."
They made their way to his office, but it was empty and in darkness.
"I think we should check the cells."
"You don't think that she could be in there do you?"
"No, not really, but we need to check just to make sure, if we can get in."
"Yes, you're right, if she has been in there, there might be something left behind."
They went to check the cells, but the door to them was securely locked when Mark tried the handle. April pulled out some explosive putty and pressed it into the lock, then standing back detonated it with her watch.
They opened the door and entered the cell block, all the rooms, except for Reinhardts, were empty. They shone the torch into each of the rooms and in the third room noticed a dark stain on the floor.
"Is that what I think it is?"
"Yes, I think so April, do you think it's….?"
"God, I hope not, Mark, there's a lot there."
They retreated from the cell block and after finding some sandwiches in the canteen, made their way back to their rooms.
"I don't like not letting Illya and Napoleon know about this, Mark."
"They're not going to like it when they do find out."
"I only hope we're still over here and they're still over there when they do find out!"
"Yes, I rather like being in one piece! I think considering that something happened to Rebecca, we should stay together tonight. I'll take first watch, you sleep."
"Sounds good to me. Are you going to make the report to Waverly?"
"Yes, Though there isn't much to report. Open channel D, Waverly please."
"Waverly here, any progress Mr Slate?"
"No, sir, we searched for Rebecca, but there is no sign of her so far. We have found a cell with a large amount of blood on the floor, but don't know if it belongs to her. We will continue looking tomorrow. Slate out"