WINDOW OF TIME

by DJ Erfert

  Rocky sat down across the aisle from her. “I’m not hiding, Agent James. I’m doing what I love with the time I have left.”

  Lucy huffed. “Time you have left. What a way to talk. You make it sound like you’re on your deathbed. I’ve known people who’ve reacted to near death experiences in ways that don’t make any sense. Some take extreme chances because they feel like they’ve beaten death, and others are like you.”

  “How do you see me?”

  Lucy stretched her neck while she thought about how to phrase her answer without hurting his feelings—and couldn’t do it. “Cowardly.”

  Rocky jumped up and threw back his shoulders. Lucy didn’t move, but Johnny and Dusty ran down the aisle to where they were … talking.

  “I’m not a coward,” he said with a controlled voice. “I landed that plane where no other pilot would have been able to.”

  “And what did you do afterward, Rocky?” Lucy changed the tone of her voice to a more sympathetic one. “Did you climb back into cockpit and use your skill to fly another jet? Or did you become a mechanic and tinker away the next five years?”

  Rocky fell back into his seat, his shoulders slumping. Lucy got up and knelt next to him. “I know how you feel—”

  “How could you possibly know?” Rocky asked, cutting her off. “You weren’t there. You didn’t feel the controls under your hands go stiff and unresponsive and know that at any second over two hundred people would die and it would be your fault.”

  “It wouldn’t have been your fault,” Sunny said. She stopped next to Dusty, holding her stomach. “One of our agents was on board that flight. I took care of him while he was in the emergency room for the few hours he was there, so I had an interest in the details of what happened. I read about it from the original FAA report, Rocky. You did the right thing when you tried to gain altitude. That other pilot was wrong. Did you read any follow up on him?”

  He looked up, along with everyone else. “No.”

  Leaning against Dusty, Sunny said, “An agent from the FBI, along with one from our agency, investigated the incident looking for any terrorist connection or to see if our agent was a target. They were able to follow Jeffery Kincaid’s movements back twelve hours before he took off from the airport.”

  “Kincaid,” Rocky muttered. “I remember reading his name in the newspaper.”

  Sunny continued. “He’d been drinking up until four in the morning over at a friend’s house, and then again at the airport’s lounge an hour before he climbed in the cockpit. He wasn’t a terrorist necessarily, although he certainly terrorized all those innocent people on board your jet that day.”

  “And you, too, it seems,” Lucy said, touching his hand.

  “Yeah,” he said softly, “me, too.” Rocky looked around at the bags. “So I guess I’m flying another agent, but this time I’m going on a secret mission, aren’t I? To someplace dangerous, I assume?”

  “Maybe. Do you want out at our next stop? Captain Sanderson is now fully qualified to fly the Belle.” Lucy grinned.

  “Well, after a surprise visit to the Space Center, which, by the way I thought was very cool, where do you have us refueling next?” Rocky asked as he stood up.

  Lucy stepped back in front of her seat and let her pilot walk by. “I know a guy at the Cape.”

  “The cape?” Rocky asked, shaking his head.

  “Cape Canaveral Air Station.” Lucy looked at her watch. “And we better hurry. He’s holding a strip open for us.”

  ~*~

  “I’m glad they had a delay,” Johnny whispered in Lucy’s ear.

  Their plane lay silent on a side runway waiting for their pilots to catch up on some sleep. Rocky and Adam took their naps reclining in seats near the cockpit while Sunny slept where she had over the past few hours. Dusty’s light snoring came from the bunk above Sunny’s. Johnny originally had climbed up onto the bed above Lucy’s, but when the plane grew quiet he slipped down and knelt beside her. She touched his hand, and he had moved onto the bed beside to her. “I am, too. I think the rest is doing everybody good. It’s been a long flight.”

  “You made Rocky’s year when he got to land here. Maybe even his decade.”

  “He did look happy.”

  “I think that’s an understatement,” he whispered.

  “I’m glad Sunny’s feeling better.”

  “She didn’t even need her walk when we landed. That’s a good sign.”

  “We should’ve taken a walk anyway, just to stretch our legs, but the refueling went so fast.”

  “That’s good, though. Right?”

  “The quicker we get to the island, the better.”

  Johnny pressed his hand against Lucy’s forehead. “You feel a little warm. Do you still have a headache?”

  Nodding, Lucy turned sideways and snuggled into his chest. “I’ll be alright.”

  He wrapped his arms around her back. “I know. You’ll be fine. But for now, you better sleep for a couple of hours.”

  “I think I can do that,” Lucy said as she relaxed into his embrace. “Especially with you holding me.”

  Johnny rested his cheek against her forehead. “Can I ask you a question?”

  “Sure.”

  “What did Kate mean when she said that you didn’t know she had visited you in Paris after your husband was killed?”

  “I was unconscious.”

  “Why?”

  Lucy rolled a little more onto her back and pulled up the bottom of her shirt. “Give me your hand.” She placed Johnny’s fingers against her left ribs and felt him touch her skin. He worked in small circles until he stopped his search and concentrated on one tiny area.

  “Scar tissue,” Johnny said softly.

  “I was shot.”

  “I thought you said your husband—”

  “He saved my life,” Lucy whispered. “And he died doing it. But he didn’t get to me before I got hit once.”

  “The bullet went into your lung?”

  “Yes.”

  “How long were you in the hospital?”

  Lucy sighed. “Over two months. I almost didn’t make it.” She pressed her forehead close to Johnny’s cheek and inhaled the faint scent of his woodsy aftershave. “I remember thinking how easy it would be just to give up. No more pain. No more windows … My husband had died in my arms. I was alone and heartbroken. Every breath was a struggle, and I wondered if trying was worth the effort. But then I made a conscious decision, and I chose to live. Otherwise, Mac died for nothing.”

  Johnny held her tighter. “I’ll be forever grateful that you did.”

  ~*~

  “Where are they now?” Jim dropped down into the chair he’d vacated three hours earlier and took a sip of his hot coffee.

  Junie Brockway, Jim’s wife, who’d tracked him to the information center after he didn’t come home for dinner, took the cup from him and took a sip before giving it back. “The DC-3 hasn’t moved from the side runway for the past two hours. There’s been no activity.” She stood up, stretching her arms up over her head. “I would get the boring shift.” Junie reached over the back of his chair and slid her arms down his chest. “How did you get authorization to co-opt a satellite to spy on their mission?”

  Jim caressed his wife’s arms, pulling her closer. “I didn’t exactly ask permission. I’m borrowing one for a few hours.”

  “Oh, I love it when you talk rogue,” Junie said with her mouth pressed next to his ear.

  “If this intrigues you so much, do you want to come back to work?”

  Junie tried to pull out of his grip. “No chance. I’m retired.”

  “But the kids are off in college, and—”

  “And I finally have to time to breathe.” Junie kissed his cheek. “Look—”

  Jim looked over at the computer’s monitor. A cloud of light smoke drifted around an engine as the propeller started moving. The other propeller then began to move. “They’re on their way again.”

  “Why did you w
ant to watch them so badly?”

  “When I found out she got clearance to land at the Space Center, and then at the Cape, I knew I had to follow her.”

  Junie relaxed against his shoulders. “You don’t trust her? Kate seems to think the world of her, you know.”

  “It’s not that.”

  “Then why?”

  “I’m not sure, but there’s something about Lucy that …”

  “Should I be jealous?” Junie asked, running her fingers in between his shirt buttons.

  Jim shook his head. “You and I went on a lot of missions together, sweetheart. And we were pretty successful. But I read Mackenzie’s reports. They were …”

  “Let me guess. Boastful, arrogant, conceited, egotistical, prideful.”

  “All of the above, but they were more than that. They were fantastic, like scripts from James Bond movies and Mackenzie was 007 without the sex.” Jim glanced up at his wife and said, “And I wonder if he didn’t throw in a little of that, too.”

  “You don’t think he was faithful to Lucy?”

  “Would you like to go through that list again?”

  “Oh, right,” Junie said with a deep sigh. “He did have a reputation.”

  “I believe Mackenzie may have been the muscle behind the team, but—”

  “But what?”

  Jim sighed loudly. “I think Lucy’s special.”

  “Like I said, Kate does too.”

  “No, I mean there’s something different about her, and I want to know what it is.”

  Junie lifted her hand and pointed at the computer. “And you’re willing to spy on her to find out what the little voice is trying to tell you?”

  Nodding, Jim pulled his wife around the chair and down onto his lap. “You know when I have one of my hunches that I need to satisfy it.”

  Junie slid her arms around his neck. “Yes, dear. I know. Tell me, why did you bother sending Lucy on this mission if you could’ve used a satellite like you’re doing right now?”

  “I already had this argument with Lucy. It wasn’t possible to do this officially without more evidence tying our agent’s death to that compound. I’m risking getting sanctioned for taking a bird out of service, as it is.” Jim shook his head. “No, I’m trying to keep is as low-keyed as possible.”

  Turning toward the console, they watched the DC-3 silently take off and turn into the sunrise.

  Twenty-three

  “How long is the runway?” Adam asked, taking the map from Lucy’s fingers.

  “I’m not sure, but long enough for Rocky to land the Belle, I think.” Switching her gaze to the pilot, she said, “If you stay low enough, I don’t think you’d give away our being on the island if you did a flyby to check first. My … assignment is far enough away that the Belle’s engines shouldn’t be heard.”

  “Let me see that.” Rocky leaned sideways while Adam held up the map. “It runs east west. You may be right. Are all your bags secured?”

  “Yes, they are.”

  “Then, buckle up, Lucy. That’s Long Island up ahead.”

  Lucy could see it on the horizon through the windscreen. It looked so innocuous, but she knew there were secrets that had gotten Gabe killed. She had to be careful.

  Lucy had spent the last couple of hours in the jump seat of the cockpit talking with her pilots and getting to know them better. She did enough talking of her own, within certain parameters of course, and her confidence in Rockwell Sizemore grew with every passing mile.

  Unfortunately, her temperature also grew over the miles, as well as her headache. Her chest felt heavy, congested. She wanted to cough, but that would draw attention from Sunny, something that she didn’t need. Sunny gave her ibuprofen in an attempt to keep her fever down, but her doctor’s prognosis was an infection in her lungs, probably the flu. Her recommendation of staying in bed was impossible, at least for the next couple of hours or so.

  “Can I stay here while we do the flyby?” Lucy asked.

  Rocky reached around and patted her knee. “Absolutely. But could you go back and tell your crew to get in their seats and buckle up? I wouldn’t want to surprise them with the sudden maneuvers.”

  “Sure.” Lucy tucked the map inside a pocket in her pants before she stood up. She didn’t get much past the small galley before she experienced sudden vertigo and lost her balance. She tried to grab for the partition to keep upright, but she missed and ended up on the floor between the seats.

  “Lucy!” Johnny yelled from down the aisle as he ran toward her.

  “I’m okay,” Lucy pushed up into a sitting position—or almost. She held her head, trying to stop the spinning. Johnny grabbed her shoulders, lifted her, and set her down into her seat.

  Sunny asked, “Are you dizzy?” as she pressed her hand against Lucy’s forehead. “Open your eyes and look at me.”

  Lucy looked up, but couldn’t keep her eyes still. She closed them again to keep her stomach from twisting in a knot.

  “Thought so. Dusty, would you go get my jump bag? I left it under Lucy’s bunk.”

  “What’s wrong with her, Sunny?” Adam asked.

  “She’s getting sicker,” Johnny said, holding her hand. “Your fever is higher, Lu.”

  “Sunny,” Adam said. “We’re going to be doing a flyby of our destination in about five minutes. You guys need to get seat-belted, or you’ll be flying all over the cabin.”

  “That’s just great!” Johnny said sarcastically. He grabbed Lucy’s seatbelt and clicked it together before he buckled his own.

  “Sunny, sit down.” Lucy pushed her away. “Fuss over me later, okay?”

  “Good idea.” Dusty took Sunny’s elbow, pulling her to her seat. “You can take Lucy’s temperature after we land. I’m sure she’ll still have one.”

  Sunny buckled her belt. “Very funny.”

  “I’m fine—”

  “No, you’re not!” Johnny, Sunny, and Dusty said in tandem.

  The plane descended and then leveled out. Lucy didn’t try to look out the window. Her vertigo hadn’t subsided. She could feel every movement, although she couldn’t exactly tell what they were. For all Lucy knew, they were flying upside down and backward, a maneuver she wouldn’t put past Rocky at that point. Shortly after she felt the subtle bounce of the touchdown, the plane quickly came to a stop. Rocky had done it. He had landed within three miles of her assignment. Now if only she could walk straight enough to get there.

  “Lucy—” Johnny took her hand and held it tightly. “You can’t still be thinking about going, can you?”

  ~*~

  “My bag—” Sunny took the medical kit from Dusty and knelt in front of Lucy. After she found her stethoscope, she sat Lucy forward, pulled her shirt up, and pressed the chest piece against her back. “Breathe deeply.”

  “I have the flu, Sunny—”

  “Shush now,” Sunny said as she listened to Lucy’s breathing like she’d done a dozen times since the fever had first appeared. It didn’t take but a few moments to hear a slight change. “I was afraid of that.”

  “What is it?” Johnny asked.

  Sunny turned her gaze from the apprehensive, firefighter boyfriend to the irritated secret agent under her care. “I can’t be sure without a chest x-ray, but I think you have pneumonia.”

  “No,” Lucy snapped. “I don’t have time for this.”

  Sunny tossed the stethoscope into her bag. “You don’t get a choice about it, but I do have something that will help.”

  “What? A magic wand?” Lucy asked with her hand over her eyes.

  “No.” Sunny dug to the bottom of her bag and took out a syringe and a brown vial of liquid. “A mega-dose of antibiotic.” She then found a plastic, amber prescription bottle. “I’ll give you an injection, and then you’ll take one of these once a day for five days, and you’ll be …” Sunny chuckled and said, “Fine.”

  She passed the prescription bottle to Johnny and then used a pair of blunt-nosed scissors to cut a slit in Lucy’s sleev
e at her shoulder. After she cleansed the small patch of her skin with an alcohol pad, she gave her the injection. “I also want to give you some Thiamin, or B-1 vitamin.” Sunny took off the safety cap of a different syringe and injected into the same sanitized slit.

  “How long will it take for me to start feeling better?” Lucy leaned into Johnny.

  Sunny lifted Lucy’s wrist and took her pulse. “You should be feeling your medication right about … now.”

  Lucy slumped heavily against Johnny.

  “Lu? Lucy!” Johnny leaned her back into her seat. Her eyes were closed and her face relaxed. “What’s wrong with her?”

  “She’s asleep,” Sunny said as she replaced her equipment in her bag. “Please carry her to her bunk and make sure she’s comfortable.”

  “What do you mean she’s asleep?” Johnny pressed his fingers to Lucy’s carotid artery.

  “I gave her a sedative.”

  “You said she had pneumonia. Did you lie?” Johnny asked, his voice rising in concern.

  Dusty stood up next to Sunny. “Why did you do that?”

  “My patient does have pneumonia. Right now it’s not bad, but if she doesn’t get the rest she needs then she’ll get sicker and she can die.” Sunny glared at Dusty. “I gave her an antibiotic, like I said. I did what I think was best for Lucy, and I don’t need anyone to question my decisions. Not even you.”

  “What about the mission?” Adam asked. “She was sent here for a reason, and it wasn’t to take a nap.”

  “I know that,” Sunny said. “I’m going in her place.”

  “What?” Dusty grabbed her arm. “You’re not an operative.”

  “I know what I am,” Sunny said as she pulled out of his grasp. “Look, Lucy told me enough about her assignment—in case something happened to her and we needed to call in Steele Reinforcements as backup.” She reached into Lucy’s pants pocket and pulled out the map. “But I don’t plan on infiltrating the compound, just doing some surveillance—take a few pictures from outside the fence for her.” She looked at Adam. “And Agent Sanderson’s coming with me. You’ve had field experience. Right?”