Thanks to everyone who encouraged me to continue this especially Ariel Hedgehog.
Chapter Two Up, Up and Away
"But where are we going?" Helena asked Myka on that crisp Sunday morning as she followed Myka to the black SUV.
"You'll see," is all Myka offered for the third time since she told Helena to get ready. She had to answer a dozen questions about what to wear, where they were going, how far it was, what they would be doing, how long would they be there. Myka was nothing short of patient with each inquiry but she wouldn't budge. She wasn't going to spoil the surprise.
"At least give me a hint," Helena pleaded because she loved puzzles and riddles and anything else that needed solving.
"It's far," Myka answered but rather than satisfy her, it only brought more questions from the Brit.
"Now by far, do you mean less than a hundred miles or more than a hundred miles?" HG asked.
"More than," Myka said as she strapped in the car and it gave her pause to think how many questions her partner could ask before reaching their destination.
"More than one hundred miles," Helena repeated and began scanning the mental map in her brain. She reviewed what she knew about her location and what might be more than 100 miles away.
"Which way will we be headed?" she asked nonchalantly because she wanted to narrow down her choices.
"North," Myka answered at she headed onto the highway. "Want to play a game, Helena?" she asked.
"A game?" Helena asked because she took all of this seriously.
"It's called Twenty Questions. You can ask me twenty questions about where we're going," Myka informed her.
"Alright, I'll try," HG said.
"Good, you have one more question left," Myka said smiling at her own deception.
"What? Wait!" Helena said piecing together what just happened. In Pete's words, she had just walked right into that.
"When did you get to be so mean?" Helena asked and feigned annoyance.
"That was number twenty. OK, you're done. No more questions," Myka said laughing at how easily Helena had fallen for that.
"You're not funny, Myka Bering," HG said with a smile belying her words.
Myka put the radio on and watched Helena out of the corner of her eye. She was quiet but Myka swore she could hear the wheels in the Brit's head turning. She knew it was just a matter of time before ….
"Are we going to the pole of inaccessibility in Kyle?" Helena asked with great enthusiasm referring to the location in southern South Dakota so designated because of its geographic features that hindered anyone from getting to it. Myka simply raised her eyebrows because she knew it would only take Helena a few seconds to see the flaws in that suggestion.
"No, that's not it," she concluded quickly. "That location is 43.36 degrees north, 101.12 degrees west," and Myka smiled at how exact her friend was.
Myka was certain Helena would never guess the destination because there simply would be no way to guess it based on location. Even if she could deduce that their journey's end was Brookings, a straight shot up Route 29, she would have no way of knowing what was there.
Myka had toyed with the idea of taking Helena to a spa or a concert. She thought maybe she would enjoy the museum and even considered horseback riding, based on a comment Helena had made about it one time. She had done all the research and found the perfect place – a ranch not too far from them that would provide horses. They could ride to a location for a picnic lunch and then, if they had time, relax in the ranch's spa before heading home. Myka would have liked to have made a weekend of it but it was a spur of the moment trip. And then she saw something on television that changed her mind. The spa, the horseback riding and even the museum would have to wait. This is what Helena would love, Myka thought and she set out to make it happen.
It would take a few phone calls and calling in a couple of old favors to get the clearance and authorization. But Myka Bering did all that just so that Helena could have a chance to get the ride of her life. Short of a trip on the space shuttle or the commercial Virgin Galactic, this was as close to space as Myka could think.
Helena finally relinquished her ability to guess and took Myka's advice and sat back and enjoyed the ride. The landscape of South Dakota was nothing like London and she took in the scenery as they drove north. She finally decided that given the distance from Univille and that they only had the day; Myka must have planned something like a day at a spa or perhaps horseback riding since she had instructed her not to over dress.
Helena's first surprise was when they arrived in Brookings at the airport. It was a small airport and Myka pulled up to the only hangar on the airstrip.
"Are we going somewhere?" HG asked.
"Well, you are but I'm not," Myka said smiling and HG didn't like the sound of that but Myka was already out of the car.
Helena watched as a man in military uniform approached her. He was smiling and gave Myka a big hug when they finally met halfway between the car and the hangar. Of all the things Helena imagined this day to be about, this was not on the list. She eyed the man surreptitiously trying to decide what her greeting would be. Helena could not ignore the feeling in the pit of her stomach and although it was new to her, she quickly surmised it to be, well, jealousy. She had little basis to go on since she couldn't recall feeling it before but it was the only thing that made sense. She chided herself for overacting and decided to at least meet the man before scorching him with one of her looks.
Her fears were allayed when she emerged from the van and Myka was introducing her to 'her old friend, Colonel Daggett.' The man grabbed Helena's hand and shook it vigorously. "I don't know how she talked me into this, Agent Wells but your friend is very convincing," he was saying and HG wasn't sure she liked him using such a familiar tone about Myka.
"Shall we get started?" he asked and with that Myka started to follow him. Helena's mind raced to put these pieces together. She was at a small airstrip with only one hangar and off the beaten track. Myka knew the military man and he certainly seemed to know her. There were few cars or trucks and HG could not even see any planes. Then they walked into the hanger and there was the aircraft; an F/A 18 Hornet.
"Agent Bering, Agent Wells, this is Captain Stevens," the colonel said and the young man in the crew cut hair and pilot's jumpsuit shook their hands.
"Helena, Captain Stevens is a Blue Angel pilot and that is his F/18 jet. I asked Colonel Daggett if it would be alright for you to see how the jet works," Myka said.
Helena looked at the aircraft and marveled at it. She wanted nothing more than to open that engine up and see what it was that made this fly so fast. The young captain extended his hand out indicating to Helena 'this way' and she walked slowly, looking very much like a kid in a candy store.
"We don't get many civilians out here who want to take a peek under the hood, so to speak," the colonel said. "Well, not beautiful ones," he smiled at Myka.
The young captain helped Helena climb up to look at the engine and she had more questions for him than his final exam in the academy. He was impressed with her knowledge of combustion systems, hydraulics and jet propulsion systems. An hour later, he was alone in the cockpit with her as she scrutinized the various components. She made such easy connections to what he had said before about the engine that he was happy to see she was a government agent and on his side.
Helena could not stop asking questions. She absorbed everything he said at lightning speed and although Myka only caught bits and pieces, she could see how impressed the pilot was with her probing. The colonel had brought in some light refreshments because Myka had politely declined his invitation to come to his office and have them. If she was going to give Helena the thrill of a lifetime, she sure wanted to be around to watch her.
"How long ago did you eat, Agent Wells?" the captain asked as they walked back to where Myka was sitting. She could tell by HG's expression that she didn't see the relevance of that question.
"Cause when you're hit with that force on a downward fall, you don't want to meet your breakfast on the way up," the captain said. Helene knew enough about descending pressure and force to finally understand what he meant.
"I suggest you help her into this, Agent Bering," the captain said with only a hint of disappointment that protocol did not allow him to do it. He handed Myka a jumpsuit and she unzipped it so that HG could step into it.
"I'm going up in that, Myka!" Helena all but squealed as if Myka hadn't arranged the entire event.
"Yes, I know sweetie," Myka said pleased that HG was so excited. "Helena, please promise me you will listen to everything the pilot tells you. Mrs. Frederic would never forgive me if I didn't bring you back from this," Myka said.
The aircraft was pulled outside and the pilot and HG proceeded to get into their separate compartments. He was speaking to her through the helmet's communication system and HG thought she could ask questions for a year and not be done. The pilot started the engines, rolled out onto the airstrip and slowly they rolled down until he pulled back on the throttle and made them airborne.
The pilot ascended and could hear the gasps through the earpiece in his helmet. He took comments such as, "I knew it would be like this,' or 'Yes, my calculations were correct,' in stride and never asked his passenger what she meant.
Twenty minutes later, the jet landed and HG emerged – speechless – for the first time that day. She thanked the pilot profusely finally and ran to Myka. The exhilaration on her face was Myka's reward. They thanked the colonel for all his help and he extended an open invitation to them any time they wanted to come back.
Helena was so excited about the experience that she could not stop talking about it. She took Myka through every detail of the engine, the systems and then the sensation of flying. Her hands were motioning up and down and she was animated every time she tried to describe the feeling of being above the clouds.
"This was far better than a day at the spa or horseback riding," Helena exclaimed and Myka marveled at how she had come to know what Myka had been considering both of those things before seeing the Blue Angels on TV.
"So you enjoyed it then?" Myka asked laughing at Helena who simply could not sit back she was so excited.
"When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return. Leonardo da Vinci said that Myka," HG said. "Thank you for the most wonderful experience," she added and leaned over and squeezed Myka's hand.
Myka held onto to HG's hand as she drove back. She marveled to think that she was sitting next to a visionary much like da Vinci himself.
They stopped off at a little diner along the road because it was getting late and Myka didn't want to get back too late. She had to tell Helena to change the subject while they ate since she didn't want it advertised that civilians were out in Brookings flying F18's. But Helena found it hard to contain herself and so she attempted to employ one of Pete's tricks which was to substitute another object for the real one. But Myka knew they were in trouble when HG was trying to explain what was like to use the jet's controls when Captain Stevens turned them over to her momentarily.
"I didn't do it for too long, Myka but when I grabbed it with both hands and pulled all the way back on it, I could feel the power in it. It was so forceful and I was thrilled just to be able to hold onto it," HG said and Myka noticed a couple of heads turn their way.
"He gave me the most exhilarating ride of my life!" though is what made Myka kick HG under the table. Even if the Brit didn't understand what it sounded like, Myka wasn't about to explain it there.
Myka could not shuffle Helena out of the diner fast enough and HG never took note of the curious looks and elbow jabbing from their fellow diners.
Neither of them took note of the car parked across the highway at an abandoned gas station -nor the driver with the Nikon 5100 camera, shooting frame after frame of Helena as she got back into the van asking Myka; "What? What did I do?"
As always, I read your comments/feedback and so often, try to incorporate them so that this is an much fun for you to read as it is for me to write.