A/N: Yeah, I know... slow to update, story of my life! This should hold y'all over for the next few weeks while I'm out of town, I hope. As usual, not mine, not profiting from it (drat), and unending thanks to KJay99 for the beta work, and allowing my often time-consuming things to become important and worthwhile to you.
"So, this is your case file," Joanne said to Myka as she reached into a pocket alongside her seat. She rummaged for just a moment, before yanking something out and glancing down at it. "No, those are my charts," she muttered as she shoved the papers under one leg to secure them. After another moment, her face brightened and the searching hand came back up, holding a beat-up manila folder which she passed over to Myka before putting her aviation maps back where they came from. "It's probably not organized like you're accustomed to, but I did what I could with the information Artie dumped on me during his Las Vegas layover."
"I thought he was in Denver," Myka muttered, already flipping through the pages and organizing them to her liking.
"He had a second plane change in Vegas," Joanne explained, "so at this point he knows I'm bringing you to catch up, and I was able to get some data for you. It looks like a pretty hairy mess, there, from what I saw."
"Nothing we haven't dealt with before," Myka muttered.
"Well, you have some time to review that," Joanne said. "I'll land at an airport about two hours' drive from where you're going. I don't know exactly how you're going to get the rest of the way, but Leena's all over that already, and she'll get some information to us before we land."
Myka nodded, allowing herself to sink into the case file. John Spencer, an avid hiker and nature aficionado, had been picked up by law enforcement after concerned tourists had reported observing him and his wife Marion behind the visitors' center, acting strangely. Park rangers had expected the usual overly-amorous visitors, but instead they found John giving a very convincing pep talk about the benefits of giving one's life to the cause of ridding the forest of human interference. It might not have been quite so bizarre if he hadn't been wielding some sort of homemade flamethrower, and talking to two pine trees whose branches overhung the roof of the building, but he was, so it was, and that was evidently how it ended up alerting Artie.
When local law enforcement had attempted to arrest him, two officers and Marion had ended up getting burned by the surprisingly effective flamethrower. All three were currently heavily sedated, but expected to survive with varying degree of permanent effects. John's friend Bruce had been along on the hiking trip, and was also in custody, but he seemed not to be involved, judging by the way he'd given chase and gotten himself injured while trying to stop John from escaping capture. Rangers were trying to track him, but Yosemite being some of the most rugged terrain on the continent, and Thomas's lifelong love of the forest both meant that they probably weren't going to find him anytime soon. This was someone who probably had the experience to stay hidden for weeks, and lord only knew how long he could hold out with the resources in his hiking pack.
Artie had included a note that as a teen, John Spencer had run afoul of the law by participating in anti-logging demonstrations in his native Oregon, but he'd seemed to figure out, somewhere in college, how to be a tree-hugger without committing any felonies... until today, anyway.
Myka blew out a weary sigh. She had a feeling that by the end of this case, they were going to wish they'd only been asked to find a needle in a haystack. She glanced at what she supposed was the altimeter, then shot a curious look at Joanne. They seemed to be at cruising altitude, but she wasn't entirely sure.
"Getting hungry?" Joanne asked, noticing Myka's gaze. The agent nodded in reply, though Joanne was already scanning the information available to her. "Yeah, it looks smooth for the next little bit. Go rummage in the galley and see what you can scare up for the both of us. Could you get some coffee brewing, too? It was a little cold in... where I was this morning. I'm still thawing out." Joanne chuckled to herself once Myka had stepped away to find dinner. The agent was trying to act calm and collected, but her round eyes spoke plainly of how unnerving this was for her. She knew that the agent had been called to active duty on her girls' day out with Leena, coming straight to a very high-pressure case from a day at the spa. It had to be hard to shift gears from one extreme to the other. The agent was clearly handling it well, but it was as plain as the nose on her face that Myka was being stretched to her limit today.
Claudia shoved her Farnsworth off onto the nightstand. She was suddenly glad that Pete had left the pair's shared communication device with Myka, depending on just Claudia's on this trip. At least it'd be easier for them all to regroup and figure out what they were doing. Claudia didn't even bother to get out of bed to change her clothes, merely shoving jeans off and yanking knit pajama pants on before she rolled over and flicked off the bedside lamp, plunging her room into darkness. They would naturally wake up well before dawn, simply because of the time difference. She would tell Pete about their change of plans in the morning.
Claudia's plan only lasted about two more minutes, when the door connecting her room to Pete's suddenly flung open. Note to self, leave that door locked when on a case with Pete, she thought to herself.
"I got a bad vibe," Pete said, his tone sounding disturbingly urgent. Claudia rolled back over and opened her eyes, then immediately threw her forearm over them.
"For the love of pete, Pete, give a woman some warning when you're going to burst into her bedroom naked!" she snapped, more from frustration after her chat with Leena, than anything else.
Pete, having not heard the actual cause of his temporary partner's irritation, looked down at himself. "I'm covered..." he said, genuinely uncertain as to what Claudia was griping about. It wasn't the first time he'd come out of the bathroom wrapped in a towel, after all. "Did you talk to Artie?" Pete asked.
"Sorry, just a little frustrated. Artie wasn't there; I talked to Leena," Claudia said, then cringed inwardly when Pete made that obnoxious "confused cartoon dog" grunt that pretty much demanded that she explain further. So much for her wait-for-morning plan. "Artie got a ping and ran off by himself, and she says she doesn't..." Claudia's voice trailed off as she put two and two together. Pete had a vibe. Leena had a nasty feeling. This couldn't be good. "Leena doesn't have a good feeling about the case Artie's on," she finished weakly.
"Neither do I, now," Pete muttered. "Vibe was about Artie." Yeah, saw that one coming, the teen thought, blowing out a sigh of frustration. Could this day get any more irritating?
"Well, he's on his way to California. Leena wanted us to drive back to Fresno, and then go chase him through some national park, or forest, or... anyway, she said we could sleep and then catch up to him," Claudia explained. "But we could start driving now, if you think we should. I don't mind," she lied. She hadn't rested well the night before, with the excitement and nervousness of being sent into the field, and she estimated she'd been up for twenty-two hours at this point. But if Pete and Leena both had a bad feeling about Artie, then that obviously came first. Through half-closed eyes, Claudia watched Pete nod. She drew in a deep breath and exhaled slowly. It wasn't quite the aggravated scream she wanted to let loose with, but it helped.
Within minutes, they were checked out and back in the car, Pete in the driver's seat with a cup of coffee, and Claudia reclined across the back seat, using her bag for a pillow. Pete surfed the satellite radio stations until he found a nice, relaxing jazz station. He would have preferred a companion for this drive, but somebody needed to be marginally coherent by the time they caught up to Artie, and Pete figured it should be the one of them that had been bouncing off the walls and running on nothing but coffee since mid-morning. Silently, he prayed to every deity he could think of, that Myka would catch up to Artie before they did, and for her to have the wherewithal to solve the case, so he and Claudia could get some sleep.
"So where are we now?" Myka asked after a period of comfortable quiet, simply watching the setting sun that was getting away from them even as they pursued it. Joanne glanced briefly at the navigational computer, then she peered out the windows and down at the ground below, pretending to consider the terrain. She grabbed a chart and glanced at it a couple times, then unfolded and refolded it to a different section and studied it some more, even holding it up next to her side window as she compared it to the landscape below, just for the effect.
"Pretty sure that's Denver, over there," Joanne said, pointing toward the large city ahead of them, when she thought she'd carried the act just about far enough. "We've got maybe two hours before... well, unless it's Salt Lake City. I never was good at telling those two apart." Myka stared at the woman, wide-eyed, and Joanne began shaking with gentle laughter. "I'm kidding, the navigation system says we're over Greeley, Colorado, and I know darn well what Denver looks like from eighteen thousand feet. We're still heading southwest, and we'll turn more directly west in a little bit."
"How do you read all that?" Myka asked, staring in awe at the display Joanne had pointed to. The easy, confident smile spread across the pilot's face again, and she began to patiently explain each piece of information, starting with the navigational information and moving along to the rest of the gauges and controls.
"You want to try it?" Joanne offered when she realized she'd explained just about every switch, and the fascinated expression was still present on Myka's face. The other woman gave Joanne an almost frightened look that made her chuckle. "What? It's not that hard, and I'm right here. I'm not going to let anything happen. Grab the yoke."
She shot another of her warm smiles at Myka as the agent gingerly reached out, as if she thought the controls would bite her if she didn't handle them just so. "It's a little like driving. You make tiny motions, miniscule corrections this way and that, just enough to keep us nice and even. Want to give it a try?" Joanne kept her attention focused on her job, even while glancing at Myka now and then, watching the way Myka's expression was slowly changing from terror to curiosity. The experienced pilot knew that look; it was only a matter of time before fascination would overshadow fear.
After a few more minutes, Myka found her voice. "Yeah, sure, when am I ever going to get the opportunity again?" Joanne smiled at her again, taking the opportunity to double-check where Myka's hands and feet were before she turned over control.
"Just make tiny corrections," she reminded Myka. Giving frequent feedback and encouragement, she talked Myka through not only flying even, but through using the rudder, and banking towards the west coast, all the while watching the look of uncertainty melt into confidence and just a touch of empowerment. That was always Joanne's favourite part, watching even a very strong, independent woman like Myka gain an even stronger sense of accomplishment through the simple act of flying.
"Wait till I tell Pete about this," Myka muttered, glancing towards the instruments to verify her position in the atmosphere.
"Wait till you tell Artie," Joanne said. "As many times as he's sat up here with me, I have never gotten that man to touch anything, let alone take full control."
Myka burst out laughing at that. "Artie, not touching everything like he owns the place?" she said. She wasn't quite sure she believed that one.
"I know, it's weird, but he won't do it," Joanne replied. "And here you are, flying it so well, I could practically go take a nap!" The women laughed together, and Joanne watched as another layer of Myka's shell peeled away. Joanne grinned again, settling into a comfortable conversation with her impromptu first officer. This flight wasn't going to suck as badly as she'd thought when she'd gotten the call, she decided as the subject of their somewhat-idle chatter turned to their shared irritation with Artie's more annoying ways.