“I wasn’t focusing on his voice, okay?” Laura defended.
“Then what were you focusing on?”
Laura looked at her oddly, and Rebecca raised her eyebrows in question. “I was watching out for stuff,” she said unintelligently.
“What stuff? Would you care to give me any specifics?”
Laura folded her arms. “No,” she said simply.
“Ah,” Rebecca said, turning away.
Xarissa leaned over to whisper to Laura. “I think it’s cool to have a boyfriend that ends up being some hot terrorist and kicks your friend’s butt.”
Laura gasped. “Xarissa!”
“What?” Xarissa asked innocently. Laura pushed her face away, and Xarissa just shrugged.
“Just saying,” she added.
“Well, don’t.”
“Sarah, how much time do we have until we arrive?” Rebecca asked.
Sarah continued to pilot the jet, but was able to reach over and push a few buttons on the GPS. “Approximately one hour.”
“Aaagh!” Rebecca grunted at the ceiling. “This is so boring.”
“You’re telling me,” Xarissa said, looking out the window. “It’s too dark outside. I can’t see the landscape.”
“If we were in a GCA jet, this would be so much faster,” Rebecca mumbled.
“Huh?” Xarissa questioned, disinterested, as she stared out the window.
“Nothing,” Rebecca replied. Xarissa shrugged it off mentally. Rebecca talked to herself all the time.
Laura glanced at Caitlin, who was chewing her knuckle and reading a book intently. “What is that?” she asked.
“Hmm?” Caitlin questioned, peeling her eyes from the book.
“What are you reading?”
“Oh, just ‘The Average Genius’s Guide to Perfect Ambush Investigation’. I figured I could do with some catching up, considering the escapades back in Boston at that apartment.” She looked back down at the book.
“Caitlin,” Rebecca stated.
“Hmm?” she asked, looking up at Rebecca.
“You know that was the whole plan, right?”
“What, to get captured?”
“Not exactly…” Rebecca searched for the right words, but couldn’t find them. If at first you don’t succeed, screw it. “Yah, pretty much, actually.” Caitlin gave her a twisted look. “They didn’t do anything super bad, right?” Rebecca added. Anyway, she felt like she had received the brunt of the beating.
“No, I’m just surprised at how anyone could think that getting their friends--and themselves--captured would be a good idea.” She gave Rebecca a critical look, and Rebecca pursed her lips, thinking.
“It was supposed to work out in the end,” she finally said.
“And how did—”
“Sarah, turn around!” Rebecca exclaimed, jumping up onto her feet.
“What? Why? We’re not even in Missouri yet,” Sarah argued.
“Just do it! The EMP isn’t even in Kansas!”
“What?” Laura asked, confused.
Sarah turned the jet around quickly. “I hope you have a good reason for this,” she said.
Rebecca explained her theory really fast. “Why would they tell us where it was? Jace and the others have already tried to lead us in the wrong direction once. Why wouldn’t they do it again?”
“It’s a whole victory thing these people love to do. It’s kind of like, ‘Ha ha! You know where it is but you can’t do anything about it!’ They don’t really think these things through,” Xarissa suggested.
“Jace wouldn’t do anything like that. Besides, they told us it would go off in five hours. They knew we could get there in time, considering our great technology. Why wouldn’t they set it to detonate in ten minutes?”
“They’re slow?” Xarissa guessed.
“No, because they wanted to insure that we were in Kansas by the time it went off so that we couldn’t stop them. We would scope for the EMP, but never find it. By the time we realized our mistake, they would have already blown up the White House.”
“What?!” Laura almost screamed.
“Think of it this way. If you were an Albanian terrorist group, and you were super smart with all the supplies you need, where would you set your first attack?”
“Somewhere that would weaken the country the most,” Laura answered. “Probably some federal building.” The realization dawned on her, and her eyes widened.
“Exactly!” Rebecca exclaimed. And the place that would truly put our country in a crisis would be exactly where most of the important politicians and federal agents reside.”
“The White House,” Xarissa said. The jet tilted as Sarah changed course for Washington DC.
“Right.”
“How would that benefit Albania?” Laura asked.
“Albania is a small country. A lot of countries in the past have tried to take control over it. By hitting the US, Albania not only becomes a more fearsome enemy, but it would gain a lot of power,” Rebecca answered.
They reached Washington D.C. in 5 minutes, thanks to Caitlin messing with the wires on the mainframe and breaking the sound barrier.
"Hey, what's that light over there?" Xarissa asked. It was getting closer. Caitlin analyzed it and exclaimed, "It's the bomb! And it's going to hit the White House in 1.5 minutes!"
"Rebecca, make the bomb change its course!" Laura shouted.
"On it!"
"Xarissa, watch for more bombs!"
"Ok."
"I'm going to locate the terrorists."
"WHAT!?" Sarah exclaimed.
"You can't do that!" Caitlin shouted.
"Watch me." Laura replied. She grabbed a parachute pack, slid the door open, and jumped out of the plane.
"She is insane!" Xarissa remarked.
"Aren't we all?" Rebecca replied. "Now, let’s see, how can we stop that bomb? Ahhh." Rebecca climbed back to the mini airplane, disconnected from the plane, and flew towards the bomb.
"Yep, we are insane." Sarah snorted.
Rebecca reached the bomb, attached a magnetic device on it, and flew out towards the sea.
**************
Meanwhile, Laura had landed and was searching the area for the terrorists.
"You know, I'm surprised that you even figured it out this quickly. But you know what? I like surprises, like the one your friend is getting when she figures out that the bomb is a timed bomb." Laura whirled around to see Jace and the disappearing man walking towards her.
"How can you understand what it's like to be from one of the poorest countries on the earth? How can you understand what's like switching countries and languages? How can you understand what it's like to be in one of the smallest and weakest countries in the world?” Jace asked her.
"Actually, I do know. I know what it's like for all of them." Laura replied.
Jace looked confused. "What?"
"I wasn't born here. I didn't grow up learning English. I didn't live in the most powerful country in the world for the first seven years of my life. I lived in Denmark. Socialist country. I moved to Arizona before my 8th birthday. I was one in 5 million. I understand. You are the one who doesn't understand, that socialism doesn't work. Monarchies don't work. Why do you want to prove something like this? It's not worth it."
Jace was stumped, but his father wasn't. "She's lying. She probably was never born in Denmark. She was born here, to a rich fat family that eats too much." Jace thought and thought. He didn't understand. Knowing her with his experience with her, Laura was not the type to lie. Laura looked at them and said," jeg vhed a du ka ik foorstaar mig, men jeg siger vhad jeg siger, og jeg hader dig. Vhorfaar gjor du de tinger da er ikke rektig?" Laura asked them. It was enough to convince Jace.
"Dad, stop the bombs."
"No."
“Dad, stop the bombs."
"Never!"
"Babi, tee ndaluar bombat tani!"
"Kurree!" And the two fought, and Laura couldn't do a thing.
****************
Rebecca looked around for a safe place to eject the bomb. Would it be safe in the water? She didn’t know how large its radius was, so she’d have to make sure she was far from any land.
***************
“I’m practically certain that there are no more bombs,” Xarissa said. “Every bomb has a signature. I tracked down the last one, applied it to the scanner with a maximum radius, and I am satisfied with the results. There are no more bombs near the eastern coast of the United States.”
“Good job, guys. We just saved America,” Sarah said with a smile.
“Not all of America,” Caitlin said, ripping off her headphones.
“What?”
“We just got a message from an unknown source saying, ‘Jace: time bomb’.” She set the plane on autopilot and headed towards the back of the plane.
There was a small pause.
“That could either be Laura or Jace himself,” Xarissa said.
“Laura would use the Com to send messages,” Sarah countered. “It had to have been Jace.”
“It doesn’t matter. If he’s right, Rebecca’s life is on the line!” Caitlin exclaimed.
“If he’s lying, it could just be a distraction,” Sarah pointed out.
“We can take that chance. Xarissa, keep scoping for other bombs.” Caitlin opened the circuit board and began to push buttons. “Satellite transmission, locate jet SM01.”
“Jet SM01 located.” A picture popped up on the side screens.
“Zoom.” The picture got bigger, showing the small plane flying over the Atlantic. The bomb was still attached to it. Caitlin grabbed her headphones again and turned them to a new frequency. “Rebecca!”
“What?” a voice came. “I have the bomb now, and I’m going to fly a little further out before I drop it.”
“Deploy it right now,” Caitlin demanded.
“Why? I need to make sure I’m free of any land before I--”
“Just do it! It’s a time bomb!”
There was silence for a short while.
“Rebecca?”
“Give me a while longer. I need to get further out. I’m too close to Bermuda.”
“You may not have a while longer.”
“Forty seconds. I’ll be far enough away that no one can get hurt.”
This time, Caitlin paused. “Fine. Be careful. As soon as you get there, eject the bomb.”
“Yes, Agent West. Rebecca out.”
And all the communications stopped. All they could do was watch the transmission of the plane and wait.
****************