Weipa Airport, Mission River, QLD 4874, Australia 01:45:29
Kurt, Blaine, and Santana arrived at the airport almost looking like real secret agents, even though they had no definitive plan on how to steal a helicopter from an airport. "The first thing we have to do," Santana said, talking in a low voice and ignoring all the male attention she was attracting by being herself, "is figure out where they keep the helicopters. There's no map on the internet, and it's a fairly small airport, but there has to be a terminal map somewhere."
"Agent Lopez," Blaine almost interrupted, gesturing. Santana seemed about ready to kill him for it, before she realized he was pointing to the book kiosk, where they also sold airport maps.
"Excellent," she said, without a word of recognition towards Blaine. "Hummel, what do you think?" she asked, spreading the map out on the table and glaring at anyone who looked at them curiously.
"Since there are so many airports close by, most of their helicopter traffic is probably Stheno heading north," Kurt reasoned, "so it would probably be in the west wing of the airport," he said, pointing. "That's the easiest exit point from which heading north wouldn't intersect the path of airplanes leaving off the runway." Kurt pointed as he explained, and Santana was nodding before he finished his sentences.
"Perfect." She ran her finger over the left wing, but there was almost no area that wasn't filled on the map.
"Perhaps an extension not shown on the map?" Kurt suggested, pointing towards the very end of the wing. "Maybe they worried if the map showed a blank space, tourists would get curious."
"Hummel, I have to say this is the stupidest thing you've ever done," Santana said as she stuffed the map in her pocket and began walking quickly back out the airport. "It's two in the morning, and there's absolutely no one in this place. It's amazing that we even got in."
"So you're giving up?" Blaine exclaimed, but Kurt hushed him, taking his hand as they walked outside.
"No, we're not," Kurt said firmly.
"We're heading around to the west wing to find the helicopter hangar," Santana said. "Most likely, it can be accessed through the outside of the building, and even more likely we'll have to wait until they open up the hanger anyway."
"There wouldn't be a reason for anyone to leave the hanger until morning," Kurt replied.
"And that is why this is the stupidest thing we've ever done." Santana sighed. "Turn up your Sleeper Ears a little. One of us will have to go inside and assess the situation, and the other one should stay outside until given the signal." Kurt nodded, and when Blaine's brow creased in confusion, he just shook his head, begging his boyfriend with his eyes to trust him. "If you two are done using x-ray contacts for inappropriate purposes," Santana cut in. "Hummel, do you want to go inside, or shall I?"
"I'll go," Kurt offered, despite his hesitance to leave Blaine outside with Santana. "I'm better at improvising."
"Only because that's not exactly a skill cultivated in CIA training," Santana said, but she wasn't arguing. She knew it was true.
When they reached the end of the right wing, Santana gestured to the door that opened into the farthest side of the west wing, which Kurt could tell immediately wasn't designed for airport passengers. For one, it was a steel door with a keypad entrance on the side, and for another, the sign on the front proclaimed it was for authorized personnel only. Figuring he was close enough to authorized personnel, Kurt approached the door. He could hear Santana walking away behind him, presumably dragging Blaine along or waiting to be followed, but he focused on the keypad. It was simple, a four-number code, and Kurt didn't want to waste time trying the 24 possible combinations (the keys were worn, and it was very easy to tell that the code contained a 1, 3, 7, and 9). Instead, Kurt pulled the laser out of his belt under his clothing (a very difficult task), and used it quickly to open the box. One cut wire, and the door clicked open. Kurt opened it gently, and was worried to see a lot of activity in the hanger.
Helicopters lined the two walls, Kurt and the door hidden from most of the room by a row of them. He crept in as small a crack in the door as he could manage, not bothering to close it behind him. There was no wind, and there would be no draft. Kurt snuck to the edge of the row, and looked around the room. The door immediately to the west opened up in three separate spots, comically large garage doors designed for helicopters. There were switches between the doors for them to be opened, but there was also a desk opposite Kurt. He quickly backed up, ducking behind a helicopter to be at less of a direct angle to the desk before observing it. It was manned, even at this hour of the morning, the two men sitting there were typing furiously, not even having looked up. They didn't seem alert enough to be guards, but rather seemed to be technicians.
The people Kurt was more worried about were the gathering of Stheno agents around one of the helicopters down the line, including the one that had taken the same plane as Kurt, Santana, and Blaine on their way to Weipa. Apparently, they were disagreeing, but they weren't speaking English, so Kurt had no idea what was going on. He tapped his ear to turn up his Sleeper Ear, then whispered, "Santana, can you hear me?"
"Loud and clear," was the soft response. "There's no way to open these doors from inside. Is there anyone in there?"
"A few oblivious technicians at a desk, and a gaggle of Stheno agents around one of the helicopters. There's no way this hanger is actually related to the airport, it seems entirely run by the company."
"That's not exactly surprising, Hummel. Any ideas of how to get a helicopter out of there? Can you even fly a helicopter?"
"Yes," Kurt whispered defensively. "It was part of my training. There seem to be two ways of opening the doors: old-fashioned switches and the security desk. The problem is the gaggle of agents."
"Any chance those are the nice kind of action-movie switches where if you shoot them, they'll open?" she asked him rather sarcastically.
"Not a chance," Kurt answered.
"Any ideas?"
"None."
"Want me to come inside and help you?"
"I don't want Blaine in here."
"Hummel, your boyfriend already gave up his security when he-"
"Shut up," Kurt hissed, slapping at his Sleeper Ear as the argument between the agents died down and they started wandering. Kurt didn't know if they were there to guard the helicopters or trying to figure something out, but either way they were very much in danger of seeing him. Kurt really hoped Santana wasn't about to bring Blaine into the hangar. It wouldn't end well.
Kurt ducked underneath a helicopter as an agent got a little too near to him, but his eyes snapped to the man's hand. There was a gray rectangle in it, with green buttons that glowed a little, and Kurt started to concoct a plan that probably wasn't very smart, but if he pulled it off they would be at Cape York in a few hours.
"Santana," he whispered even more quietly, not turning up his own Sleeper Ear. "Shut up and listen closely."
Stheno Helicopter Hangar, Weipa Airport, Mission River, QLD 4874, Australia 02:13:45
Kurt had abandoned his suit, tucking it into the gears of one of the scarier-looking, military-grade helicopters, and was observing the Stheno agents surrounding him, gun in hand. Santana and Blaine were in position, though he was positive that Santana thought this was a stupid and reckless plan. It probably was, but it was his only plan.
He positioned himself by the middle helicopter, planning to aim for the middle door because he didn't trust his theoretical helicopter-driving training, and he didn't want to damage their helicopter before they were even out of the pad. He was under the belly of the helicopter when the perfect moment struck. Three agents had gone behind the security desk, where Kurt presumed the bathroom was. Two others were arguing, which left three on the floor wandering, including his target.
His target was the only unarmed one among them, all the rest having one or two rather intimidating-looking guns on them. He wasn't the only one with a remote, but he was one of the three, and he also seemed to be the least powerful. He was by far the smallest, shorter but more muscular than Kurt. Judging by his gait, he wasn't particularly well-trained either. It was the best opportunity he was going to get, and if he was lucky he wouldn't have to hurt anyone.
He moved as fast as possible, grabbing the man's belt with the hand holding his gun and slapping a hand over his mouth at the same time, pulling him between two helicopters. He let go of the man's belt in favor of pointing the gun at the man. "Hello," he said rather calmly as the man got a rough grip on his shoulder, the one holding the remote pressed twisted behind his back, Kurt holding him against the smooth edge of the helicopter, aware of all the ways the man could slip out of his grasp. "I really don't want to hurt you, but I can, and all I need is that remote."
The man stared back at him blankly, not moving his arm an inch and showing no fear in his eyes. Stheno had created soulless automatons out of their agents, ones who believed he was the bad guy. Considering how important Dr. Anderson and his son were, this man probably knew who he was. Kurt's captive didn't say anything, so Kurt sighed.
"Fine, have it your way," he said, pressing his gun into the guy's jaw like he was going to shoot him. Instead, he pinched a nerve in the guy's neck, and his whole body went slack, eyes slipping shut as he fell into unconsciousness. Kurt grabbed the remote before it could fall to the floor, giving away his position, and he maneuvered the guy onto the ground under a helicopter, figuring he would be found later.
It took two minutes for the other agents to start calling out the guys name, and Kurt took advantage of the sudden increase of sound to hop into a helicopter, shutting the door slowly. He pulled a frequency jammer out of his belt and said a quick prayer to anyone listening. Then he hit the button on the remote marked 2 (matching the number above the helicopter door) before hitting the frequency jammer. Kurt wasn't sure how the door was going to react, but it continued steadily going up as everything else in the room freaked out: the security desk went dark, the fire alarms went off, the sprinklers turned on, the gears of the other two doors started grinding, and half of the helicopters turned on.
Satisfied with the melee, despite the screaming of the fire alarm and the water coating his windshield, Kurt turned on his helicopter as the other ones did, keeping a careful eye out for the agents. Two ran to the doors, trying to close the middle door with the switch, but it wasn't reacting properly. Another ran over to the security desk, trying to ask the technicians what happened. Men were retrieved out of the bathroom, and unsuccessful attempts at phone calls were made. Meanwhile, Kurt quickly familiarized himself with the mechanisms of the Blue Hawaiian helicopter he had chosen, and waited until his path was clear before tugging at the accelerator and starting a descent.
A gunshot immediately pinged off his copter's stomach, some agent on the ball, but Kurt got just high enough to clear the other helicopters and headed for the main door before the shots started coming, pinging off his stomach and a few trying to get his rotors. However, that was a stupid move, and those that tried that got rebound bullets flying around for their trouble. Kurt was only about two feet off the ground, and he hoped that he hadn't ruined his own plan as he hit the button for one of the military helicopters marked on the remote he had stolen. Sure enough, despite the fact that frequencies everywhere were being activated, the signal reached the helicopter, and it started ascending, the gunshots being pointed in that direction as Kurt made it through the hangar door, opening his back door for Blaine and Santana, praying that it would work.
Despite the fact she claimed not to care for his safety, Agent Lopez practically threw Blaine into the helicopter ahead of herself, running along for a few seconds before she could jump in herself. Blaine was muttering swears and hanging on to one of the seats for dear life, but Santana had more practice with helicopters. As soon as Santana's feet hit the floor, Kurt started ascending, only a few more bullets pinging off his back as Santana threw the back door shut.
8,000 feet above Queensland, Australia 02:34:19
"That is by far the stupidest thing you've ever done," Santana commented as she strapped Blaine into one of the back seats before climbing into the front herself. "If the rest of the mission is going to be anything like that, I'm going to need some anti-anxiety pills."
"The probability is good that the rest of the mission is going to be exactly like that," Kurt said with a grin, "by that I mean highly successful, of course. Do you want to drive?"
"I'm fine in the passenger seat," Santana said, relaxing a little bit as she strapped herself in. "Let me know if you get too tired, you're the one who's slept the least of all of us."
"Will do." Kurt was sure Australia was very beautiful from the air, but since it was only about two in the morning, he couldn't see anything; there were no guiding lights in the northern tip of Queensland. "Is there any navigational system?" There was a possibility that he wasn't heading towards Cape York, even though he was heading north.
"I'll check," Santana said, leaning down to play with the helicopter's settings. "You could have gotten yourself killed, you know. Frequency jammers are meant to be directed towards a source, not used to send appliances into chaos."
"It was entirely possible it wouldn't work," Kurt admitted, "but then I would have still been in a helicopter with a remote, and there are endless possibilities that I'm sure would have occurred to me." Santana's only response was a very sassy 'mm-hm,' that reminded Kurt of his best friend from McKinley. "You okay back there, Blaine?" Kurt asked, wishing he had some sort of rearview mirror to look at his boyfriend in, because Blaine hadn't said anything since they got in the helicopter.
"Fine," Blaine said, not sounding very convincing. "I just… wow."
"Should've stayed in the hotel," Santana murmured, but before Blaine could respond, she added in a louder voice, "found the navigation system."
"Excellent."
"You need to go a little more east, but you're fine." Kurt directed the helicopter as such, and Santana sighed. "How far from the coordinates do you think we should land?" she asked him, clearly past being on her high horse. Making up plans on the spot was not her area of expertise, and they were too far from Columbus to worry about CIA hierarchy.
"How far are the coordinates from the coast," Kurt asked. Santana pulled out her phone to check, muttering about how expensive her phone bill was going to be and about how the CIA better reimburse her if she was still alive. Kurt ignored that last part and hoped Blaine hadn't heard it.
"Half a mile from the nearest beach, and since it's so remote, I'm willing to bet they went with beach access. At some point, it's just overkill." Kurt agreed with her.
"Well, we're in a giant helicopter, and I'm willing to bet there isn't much cover. At the same time, we have no other form of transportation, so however far we land, we'll have to walk."
Santana appeared to consider that statement and smiled at her conclusion. "Yes, but sometimes lack of cover can be a good thing. We'll descend far away, and we'll creep up fairly close to the ground. There isn't much for us to hit. That way, we should only have to walk a little ways before finding the beach and trying to figure out the most difficult part."
"Where we enter into the lab," Kurt said, completing her thought. "Is Stheno smart enough to have the kind of stairs the CIA does?"
"I have no idea," Santana answered honestly. "There's a good chance the door is land-based, but it could also be under the water. I have no idea, and there's no way of knowing until we get there."
"Hey, Kur-woah," Blaine muttered suddenly, his cheeks heating up as he peered around the edge of Kurt's chair. Kurt was about to ask until he remembered that Blaine also had x-ray contacts in and he had just gotten an excellent look at… everything and now Kurt's face was on fire. "Um…" Blaine leaned back, but there was no erasing the awkward.
"Ah, young love," Santana said sassily, leaning back in her chair with an amused smirk, eyes closed, "so sexual, so awkward."
"Sorry," Blaine muttered, still blushing. "I was wondering if we could use the x-ray contacts or night vision binoculars with thermal imaging to figure out where the lab entrance was, possibly even from a distance."
"That's actually a pretty good idea," Santana admitted. "For now, we have an hour and a half of flight to go, and helicopter rotors give me a headache. Kurt, wake me if you want me to spell you, or if we're within half an hour of the lab. That's when we should start descending."
Kurt waited until Santana's breathing had smoothed and evened out to address Blaine. "Are you really okay back there, Blaine?"
"Yeah, I'm fine, it's just… you held a gun to a guy's head and Agent Lopez threw me into a helicopter and we were shot at and… I don't think I'm made for this kind of stuff," Blaine admitted, looking down. Kurt wanted to look back at his boyfriend, but he didn't know how to while he still had the x-ray contacts in his eyes without making things more awkward than they still were.
"That's not a bad thing," Kurt assured him, still looking forward into blackness, occasionally checking the navigation system Santana had left up to ensure he was going in the right direction. "Being an agent means being a little heartless and cold-blooded. You have the bravery and the heart and the brains, Blaine."
"So I have the Wizard of Oz hat trick?" Blaine asked, and Kurt could tell from his voice that he was smiling, hopefully a little cheered up.
"Exactly. All you're missing is the bad stuff. I mean, you don't have the training, but you also don't have the ability to strike people down. I'm still not sure I do," Kurt admitted, and Blaine's hands snuck onto his shoulders around his headrest.
"That's not a bad thing, either," Blaine assured him, pressing a kiss to his cheek.
2,000 feet above Queensland, Australia 03:46:28
Kurt shook Santana awake when they were within fifteen minutes of the shore, having already descended quite a bit. The land between them and the coast was almost bare, Kurt able to see the sparkling sea from his spot in the sky. "You don't do well with orders, do you?" Santana asked once she was fully conscious, noticing the time.
"I started descending when you asked me to," Kurt replied. "You looked like you could use the rest."
"You're the one who could use the rest, Hummel," Santana said, but she didn't bust his butt any further about it, which was a definite win. She surveyed the land for a few seconds before pointing to the west side of the coast. "Land over there."
"Why?"
"Because then we have the cliff covering us as we land, but it's still not too long a walk to the shore adjacent to the laboratory," Santana replied, and Kurt couldn't argue with that logic, pointing them west. "You all right, Anderson?"
"Fine," Blaine said, and it sounded like he meant it.
Kurt landed the helicopter without incident, and Santana checked their exact location on her phone as they all hopped out of the helicopter. Kurt was the only one who had ditched his suit at the helicopter hangar, and Santana started to strip out of her formal clothes as she looked. Blaine, taking the hint, did the same. "We're about a mile and a quarter walk from the beach. We'll set up a quick surveillance on the west side of the island and see if we can figure out anything about the lab's location. Hopefully we won't have to steal a fucking submarine," she hissed as she started to walk, Blaine tripping after her, still half-dressed.
"Relax," Kurt said, stopping his boyfriend from trying to multitask. "She's not angry at anything and she doesn't dislike you. She's just very far out of her element. She'll calm down once the mission is over."
"She thinks we're going to die," Blaine said as he took off his shoes, and stashed his and Santana's clothes in the helicopter.
"She's a pessimist," Kurt said with a shrug. "You're an optimist. I'm the smart one, a realist, and I think there's a good chance we'll be fine."
"That means there's also a chance that we won't be," Blaine pointed out, and Kurt didn't say anything in reply. He knew it was possible that someone wouldn't survive this mission, he was just determined that it wouldn't be Blaine.
Instead of answering, he took his boyfriend's hand and followed after Santana at a brisk pace.
-10° 42.058', 142° 31.044', Cape York Peninsula, Queensland, Australia 03:46:28
Kurt had landed the helicopter within sight of a landmark Santana called Mona's Rock (since she started spouting out information on the quick walk to Cape York Peninsula), and it was only 2 kilometers to the exact coordinates of the beach. The exact coordinates of Blaine's father's cell phone (which hadn't moved) were somewhere in the Arafura Sea: -10° 41.370', 142° 31.191'.
Santana didn't share her exact plans, but when she crouched on the edge of a rather rocky beach, Kurt followed her lead, pulling Blaine down next to him. "Do you see any movement?" Santana asked him, and Kurt began scanning the beach, just with his contacts.
"No," Kurt answered, but he pulled out the night vision binoculars and handed them to her.
"Nothing," she said after a few seconds of searching, standing up and walking towards the middle of the beach, confident in her estimation. Kurt saw the red light before she did and threw himself at her, knocking her to the ground as a bullet shot right above them. Taking another quick look, he noticed the machines by the edge of the beach. Guns, big ones, automated and probably heat-seeking. Awesome. "Into the water," he called to Blaine, dragging Santana up and running with her, ducking and weaving as a few more bullets shot by them. Kurt had no idea how long the range on the guns were, but they seemed to settle once all three of them were about twenty feet out.
"Jesus!" Santana exclaimed.
"Clever," was Kurt's only comment. "They're not something that would be noticed by someone with thermal-imaging, but they would notice anything alive. They don't need guards with those things."
"I'm guessing, since the guns don't seem to care that we're in the water, that the entrance is in fact on the beach."
Blaine had had the foresight to bring the night vision binoculars on, and was scanning the beach with them. "What do you see?" Kurt asked, feeling slightly impatient.
"Look for yourself," Blaine said, not annoyed in the least (judging by his tone), handing Kurt the binoculars. Kurt looked through them, ignoring the dizzying assortment of colors caused by mixing x-ray contacts and night vision binoculars. Kurt could see some spots of heat around the guns, left over from when they had been shooting at Kurt and Santana. He also saw a square that was darker than the sand around it, the kind of dark that could only come from artificial cooling.
"Trapdoor," Kurt concluded, and Blaine nodded. "Santana, I don't suppose there's any way to use a frequency jammer to shut those off without getting close to them?"
"You could try doing what you did at the hangar, but most likely they would just go crazy and start shooting at everything," she replied.
"Which is not helpful," Blaine added rather needlessly. "What about your bombs? Or guns? Or lasers?"
"Bombs and guns would probably just ignite all of the guns and gunpowders in those things," Santana replied, being slightly nicer to Blaine now that Kurt had just saved her life. "It would blow up the whole area, us included, and be like a beacon to the Stheno executives in Weipa. God only knows what they would do with our corpses."
"Thank you, Santana, for that pleasant thought," Kurt said dryly.
"Lasers?" Blaine asked again, and Kurt and Santana both stopped to consider it.
"Lasers wouldn't ignite any of the gunpowder," Kurt commented.
"But they're not powerful enough to kill guns like those, especially from this distance," Santana commented, and her teeth were starting to chatter. The stealth suits were temperature-controlled to a point, but the water was closed, and they couldn't stand there for much longer.
"What about as decoys?" Blaine asked again, and Kurt and Santana both looked at him, urging him silently to go on. "They're heat-based, right? How many guns are there?"
"Several," Santana replied.
"But they seem localized," Kurt said, starting to concoct a plan. "Only one shot at Santana, instead of all of them. We would just have to distract the ones closest to the trapdoor… and what do you bet that trapdoor is made of thick steel?"
"Where are you going with this, Hummel?" Santana asked.
"You and Blaine hold lasers on either side of the trapdoor, distracted the nearest pair of guns pointed in that area. I run over there. If the trapdoor opens towards the guns, Blaine tosses me his laser pointer, I point it at the ground where it was pointed before, he crawls over to the trapdoor. If it picks up on his heat signal, he stays low enough for the door to absorb the bullet. Then we do the same for you." Admittedly, his plan wasn't fool-proof, but it was the only thing they had.
"And if the trapdoor opens the other way?" Blaine asked.
"Then I run back, and we come up with something else."
"I'm going to be gray by the end of this," Santana said, pulling out her laser pointer and gesturing for Blaine to do the same thing.
It took a few seconds for the laser pointers to heat up the sand sufficiently, but the guns started shooting, the steady pop-pop making Kurt's teeth ache and the bullets sending up puffs of sand. He checked to make sure that the other guns weren't reacting, and then waited until the sand was starting to crystallize before starting to walk out of the water. Walking made him nervous, which wasn't entirely irrational, so as soon as he was able to, he crouched down, combat-crawling once he reached the beach.
Of course, he didn't factor in the idea that the trapdoor wouldn't be easy to open. It was a safe-opening, and Kurt braced himself to get shot as he whipped out his own laser pointer, pointing it at the safe just until he heard it click. There was only one set of popping happening, there was a grinding of gears, and Kurt felt a searing blast of pain through his ear as Santana yelled, "What the fuck are you doing, Hummel?" from the water.
Wiping a few tears out of his eyes and ignoring the hot blood pouring down the side of his head, Kurt popped the trapdoor open, relieved when he heard a second set of pop-popping and whooshing of sand. He was even more relieved when the trapdoor opened towards the bullets, and he slid his body into the entry, going blind. His feet found a few rungs, one of which he cut off with the laser and used to prop up the door. If it was shot, it was going to slam shut, but it was the best Kurt could do for now. He rested his feet on another rung, and pointed his laser pointer at the sand on his right, yelling for someone to come forward.
The next body against the horizon was Blaine's, much to Kurt's relief. This was going to be the safer of the two attempts, though not by very much. The sand on both sides was starting to melt, but Kurt heard the grinding of gears as Blaine got down to combat-crawl, not as fast as Kurt would have liked, and he threw up the door just as a bullet pinged off it, sending it with force down and making Kurt knock his head against the opening, almost losing his footing and plunging into the deep drop he knew was below. Luckily, the bullet rebounded, and by the time the gun readjusted, Blaine was behind the door, dropping down with Kurt.
"How are you suspended like that?" he whispered, as if sound made any difference at this point.
"Put your feet on the rung," Kurt said, gesturing as best he could, and Blaine managed to suspend himself across the opening, shaking a little. "Are you okay?"
"Fine," Blaine whispered, pointing his laser pointer at the sand on their left. "Come on, Santana!" he hollered.
"Run!" Kurt yelled. "Don't bother to crawl, they take time to readjust, the fast you get here, the better."
Santana followed his advice and sprinted across the sand, sending up clouds in her wake. She ducked under the trap door just as two guns fired at the door, which Kurt was trying to hold up. Kurt didn't have the coordination to point, help support Blaine, and hold the door up, and the door slammed shut, knocking Kurt and Blaine's heads against the side of the tunnel and sending Santana on top of them. Suspended as they were, they couldn't support her weight, and all three of them tumbled down the tunnel.
A/N: I do apologize this is two days late, but the next one will for sure be on Friday, especially since this is a little bit of a cliffhanger. We've had some bad blackouts in Maine (I'm home for Christmas), and I just got my power and internet back. Do forgive me, dear internet people, and I promise there will be more soon, when I'm back in Boston.
Also, I have no idea how to fly a helicopter. And yes, they are extremely reckless in this chapter, but that's going to be a recurring theme, because I enjoy recklessness in my secret agents.
Reviews are Love.