The Soldier of Summer: Book 1

Chapter 11

A/N I'm typing this out in a car, so if there are more typos than usual that's why;)

   Winter and I landed in the woods near a private airport somewhere in Khalistan.  He jumped off as soon as the plane stopped, and I leaned back in my seat to breath a sigh of relief.
   We made it.
   "Hey, let's go!" He called to me. I hugged and jumped down with my backpack.
   "We don't need to do anything with the plane, we'll be long gone by the time they get here," I said to Winter. "There's an airport somewhere that way." I pointed North.
   "Alright I guess that's where we'll go."
   We walked in silence watching planes fly above us. None of them had a travel logo, confirming that it was a private airport. And soon enough, we came to a chain link fence .
   A plane was charging down the runway behind it. As it took off, it created a rush of wind that sent my hair flying, Winter's too.
   "Come on." I lead Winter around the fence to the point where we could see the building,but still stay hidden in the trees. This airport was definitely private; it was the only building for miles, surrounded by woodlands.
   It was a bit outdated as well, which was perfect because HYDRA probably wouldn't expect us to come here. But for a small airport, there sure were a lot of people here.
   "Wait," Winter whispered. "How are we going to get tickets? Even here, a ticket is going to be expensive, and $1000 isn't going to cut it."
   I reached into my bag and pulled out a notebook. In this notebook, there were two slips of paper acting as bookmarks.
   "These will act as our tickets. The barcode on these goes through the system when scanned and pulls up empty seats on the flight. Don't worry, HYDRA won't detect this, I took them off the database a long time ago."
   I could tell that the more I told him, the harder it was for him to not be impressed with me. To impress the Winter Soldier was an honor, and I planned on continuing to do that.
   "What about passports?" He thought he would try to stump me.
   "Oh we won't be going through security, so we don't need them. This airport only checks passports when you go through customs." I lead him to the side of the building as I explained. It was small, so it didn't take very long.
   I broke the lock on a back door and we stalked into a hallway. Down this hallway was another door that lead into the main terminal area. Winter and I made sure we couldn't see each others metal arms before walking out of that door.
   We made our way over to the directory so we could decide where to go.
   "Where do you want to go?" I asked him. He looked at me in disbelief.
   "You mean you don't know where we're going?"
   I shrugged. "Well we didn't have any way of finding out which flights from which airport landed in which destination. That's what the phones are for."
   "Oh," he nodded. "That makes sense."
   We looked back at all the flights. There was a flight in 45 minutes to Canada.
   "Hey how about this one?" I pointed to it and he examined it and nodded.
   "Yeah, that's the closest to New York without actually going there. Let's do that."
   "Great." We sat down at a table and I pulled out my phone to send the coordinates to the rest of the team. Winters phone lit up with my message.
   "This is almost 30 miles north from the airport this flight goes to," he said skeptically.
   "I know," I scoffed. "But this will be another thing they have to figure out before they get us. Call it a safety net."
   Our phones vibrates with a message from Steve.
   Great. I'll be there within a few days.
   Natasha responded as well.
   Same. I should be there before Monday.
   Today was Thursday. Monday would work.
   Winter and I kind of sat and waited in an awkward silence. Sam didn't respond by the time that they called our flight, and I hoped nothing happened to him. His blood would be on my hands.
   We took out our fake boarding passes and got in line. I was first so I had to give my paper to the flight attendant first. He scanned it, and the light turned green, so I took that to mean everything was okay. I let out a breath when the man handed my pass back to me.
   I adjusted my backpack as Winter gave his slip to the attendant. The light turned green for him too, and we we walked side by side down the terminal to the plane.
   Winter went before me this time down the aisle, and I could see he was tense.
   "All the way to the back," I whispered. He nodded and unclenches his fist. We got to the last row and he turned left. A woman was already in the window seat, so he took the middle seat, and I got the aisle.
   I took off my backpack and placed it under my chair.
   20 minutes to take off came the voice over. I checked my phone again. Still no response from Sam.
   As the captain started going over safety and emergency procedures, I settled in for a long flight.