(This post brought to you by Scarlet, Chief, Calico, Nevon, VictheSlick, & DericStorm)
The lights that lined the runway of the Base Aérea de Santos sparkled in the early-morning darkness as the inbound Gulfstream G550 aligned itself to land; the aircraft steadily losing altitude until its wheels hit the asphalt with a slight thud. The sound of air rushing through the jet’s spoilers filled the cabin.
In the distance, the headlights of an Antonov An-124 and two AMX-A1s grew starkly visible, the distinct roar of the strike fighters' engines a prelude to their approach.
The Gulfstream taxied towards a nearby hanger and halted just outside the structure. From within it, a dozen military-clad personnel rushed out and towards the pale-silvery craft as its clam-shell door yawned opened to reveal the silhouetted figure of Chief Everard Weller. The ACME team had arrived... but only just in time.
Deric fastened the last strap on his bulletproof vest while the rest of the plane was abuzz with activity. As the plane was taxiing to the hangar the Brazilians had indicated, he grabbed an extra vest that he had packed and handed it to Chief Weller.
“Chief, I’m gonna need you to put this on, sir.”
Chief Weller was the first at the door of the plane. Outside was damp, and precipitation from the clouds that the plane had passed clung to the skin of the Gulfstream as if it had been through heavy rain.
An attendant handed each of the ACME team with their own night vision goggles and ear protection. When the Antonov landed, it would thunder.
Deric yelled to make himself heard over the Gulfstream’s engines “Alright team, listen up. You all know what to do.” Meeting the gaze of each agent and doctor, “Hailey is our top priority; arresting the crew of that plane is secondary. Trust your training and we will get through this.” Breaking into a toothy grin, he also said, “Okay, let’s go.”
Nevon half grimaced in reply, he gets to stand as lookout, so he was scanning the airfield for a good place to be. It looked like the best place was at the top of the plane’s movable stairway.
“This is the highest spot around,” Nevon spoke up, “I’ll keep a post here, with my binoculars.”
“There is a ladder for going on top of the plane,” Cali tapped Nevon on the back and pushed on him a bag of equipment, “this has a radio and a electric head gear, you better learn how to use light filtering now, if you don’t know.”
Feeling a little confused, but also a little guilty from not knowing what a light filter was, Nevon took Cali’s advice and headed for a higher spot without another word.
Deric watched the younger agent scurry away and chuckled. Looking at Cali, he asked jokingly, “Why did we bring him again?”
Cali winked back and smiled. “I will talk to the Brazilian pilots, first” she said to Deric. Grabbing hold of a pair of ear protection, Cali climbed down from the plane but stood close to it for the Antonov and the Guide planes first to land. A coordinating agent was near by, also commissioned by the government, and Cali signaled to him what her brother told her to do, he replied back with a number of the radio station for communication with the pilots.
The Russian transport plane had only light cargo, and needed much less than its recommended 2.5 kilometers of landing space. As it descended, the noise was almost unbearable without dampeners. Inside the plane, Vic the Slick was still not sure of what to do.
“My ears hurt,” Hailey Weller complained.
“Just sit tight, girly,” Vic told her, “You’ll be seeing your grand daddy soon.”
“Yay!” the little girl looked excited, “Will Carmen be there too?”
Vic shook his head, “Not if things go right.”
The Russian plane and the Brazilian attackers landed with loudly in the field. After everything came to a complete stop, the sound was echoing still. In the silence, Cali asked for confirmation from the pilots sent to them from the Brazilian Air Force. After they talked a while, the translator turned to her partner, Deric, and to Chief also.
“They are standing by,” she said, “waiting for order.”
“Move in on the plane,” Deric ordered, “Make sure they do NOT take off. Otherwise, everyone on the plane is to be taken unharmed.” He stressed the last word to make sure no unnecessary violence ensued. Anything could go wrong and lead to Hailey being injured. “Getting the kid back safe is the primary objective.”
“Okay,” Cali replied to Deric and began to speak to the pilots in Brazilian.
The last passenger out of the Gulfstream, Sophie Conrad had taken up a position between Chief Weller and a Brazilian military personnel. With the administered ear protection firmly over her head, she had peered through her NVD, adjusting its scope as she took in the darkened landscape and accounted for all the ACME team members, even as the VILE craft and its escorting jets landed.
It had been more than a decade since she had last been in Brazil and she had entertained a tingle of excitement, stepping out of the dry, cold cabin air of the aeroplane and into the warm humidity that hung over the city and its surroundings. The smell of jet fuel and smog-laden precipitation conspired to tease her senses.
While Cali was talking to the military, Deric checked the magazines in his pistols for a fourth time to alleviate some of his anxiety. As it was the previous three times, the guns were loaded with non-lethal rounds. Once that was done, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Ilya, his Academy instructor, always used to joke and say he was finding his “eye of the storm.” Taking his place alongside the Brazilian military, they made their way towards the plane.
It was the pilot who got the call first, and he forwarded it to Vincent Fumigalli. While Vic was clearly the brains of the present operation, he was definitely having a headache.
Half of him expected Hailey Weller to start crying, but she didn't. The little girl just played with the wristwatch Carmen gave her like the ticking it made calmed her down.
"ACME Agents," the pilot said, "they want us to open the door."
"Then open the door!" Vic said. Outside, he could see a team with a ladder, a few agents ready to barge.
In a few seconds, the navigator went up to the door, gave the thumbs up to the captain, the hydraulics hissed, and they simultaneously released the locks.
Vic stood up, figuring he’d be the first one they’d cuff. Hailey sat to his right hand side, still completely ignoring the situation. It looked like she was just waiting for someone to call her name and tell her what to do.
It took less than a minute for the team to storm the plane. One group of soldiers went to secure the cockpit while the rest, including Deric, went to the passenger cabin. ‘Storming’ wasn’t the best work to use as the plane was almost empty. Hearing the aggressive tone coming from the Brazilians, Deric knew he had to keep things from getting out of hand.
“Não atire” Deric barked to the soldiers to make sure no one did anything extreme. Making his way to the front of the group, Deric could see that besides the flight crew there were only two passengers.
“So Devineaux went the other way, ah?” Vic said as soon as he saw Deric, “sent his other dog here instead. Nice t’know Ima all important.”
“You don’t need the lead wolf to bag the sacrificial lamb, Vic.” Deric pulled out a set of handcuffs and tossed them to the other man. “You know the drill.”
Letting the cuffs fall to the ground, Vic shrugged, “Ain’t cuffin’ myself, kiddo.”
“You wanna add ‘resisting arrest’ to the charges, slick?”
Cali first made sure the Brazilians on their team understood to stand down, then she headed into the plane and went to the VILE pilot since Deric was talking to Vic.
“Hands up and turn around,” she said, “if you run, the men outside will make this more difficult.”
Being the people they were, both the pilot and the navigator followed the Brazilian girl’s instructions. There wasn’t much use resisting, and that wasn’t the plan anyway.
Cali cuffed the men under arrest, and a Brazilian officer helped her get both out off the plane. She wondered a little what Deric was doing making Vic put on his own cuffs. In Brazil, that was dangerous, maybe in the United States, it was common place.
She gave her attention to the hostage in this situation, now that the heroes are here and the baddies are arrested. Like ACME’s anticipation, Hailey was happy and unharmed.
“Hello, your grandfather is outside,” she said in her Brazilian accent, “come with me?”
Seeing Cali talk with the little girl, Deric knew it was all clear. Grabbing his radio, he signalled the Chief. “This is Storm,” he spoke into the radio, “we have the girl. I repeat, we have Hailey.”
“Awesome,” Nevon said to himself, then pushed a button on the radio to transmit back, “I’m coming down, over.”
He checked the gears Cali gave him to see if everything was all there before moving from his position. The rookie was a little embarrassed that he hadn’t learned to use any of the gadgets right. When he got back to San Francisco, he’ll have to start figuring them out.
Chief Weller took a position outside of the plane. He anticipated little retaliation from VILE, his only reassurance resting on the fact that its leader often kept promises.
As Hailey exited the plane with Cali Corranos, Dr. Weller could hardly contain his own relief. She looked well, running straight to her grandfather. After a long-awaited hug, Chief heard a light ticking and quickly surveyed his granddaughter. A cumbersome watch hung loosely on Hailey’s wrist.
“It’s for Piano Man,” were her first words to her ‘Kuppa’, “from the Thanksgiving party, remember?”
She was talking about Chase Devineaux, Dr. Weller understood, but what this meant was a mystery for another day; perhaps also, to be solved by another man.
Removing her ear protection soon after the landing of the Antonov and the two AMX aircrafts, Sophie focused on the dark outline of the cargo jet and listened in to the transmissions exchanged across the radio channels. The VILE crew on the Russian transport seemed acquiescent and the ACME-led raid passed with speed and without trouble.
She continued to watch, her position unchanged in its stillness and her features unmoved from their gravity, as the six-year-old child the team had come to retrieve leapt into the arms of her grandfather. She considered the innocent and oblivious joy on the face of the child and the affectionate relief on that of the older man. Hailey Weller, as far as the doctor could tell from her polite distance, looked to be as healthy and contented as a six-year-old could be expected to, seemingly unfazed by the events that had passed in the twenty-four hours prior, or the past fifteen minutes.
Wrapped around one of her arms were a bright-pink coloured watch and another bearing the likeness of Mickey Mouse. What then, was an odd third timepiece strapped onto the child, was the watch of a man – one she recognised as no less than an antiquated model from Patek Philippe. She did not hear what Hailey told Dr. Everard Weller about the watch and its owner and could only wonder, without satisfaction, how such an item came to complete the collection.
Then, as though perceiving her curiosity, Hailey lifted her head, peering at Sophie with warm, precocious eyes that were filled with an equal measure of interest. Sophie held the child’s gaze for a moment, and then smiled.
Deric watched the scene between Chief and his granddaughter unfold from the plane with a slight tear in his eye. Wiping it away with one hand, he reached for his ACME communicator in the other. Pulling up his saved contacts, Deric connected to the one listed under ‘C. Devineaux‘ and sent a quick message:
Hailey is safe with the Chief and we have Vic the Slick in custody along with the flight crew. Sending the girl back with Chief, Blair and Dr. Conrad. Will handle extradition for flight crew and Vic.
