No Man's Land

19- In Which the Passengers Have a Revelation

Maxine Clarke

*****

Thirty-two people surrounded the fire, some sitting idly, others standing tense with clenched fists. Seventeen agents, two flight attendants, a flight engineer, and twelve civilians. There should have been thirty-three.

"I'm just going to say it as it is- a passenger, Rosalind Lopez, is missing." Parker sighed. I watched the crowd for reactions, most civilians looking mildly shocked and all the agents less fazed. It seemed that the shock of the past days' events had essentially numbed many of the civilians' reactions. They weren't use to being on the ground floor of disasters.

"Right now our only possible theory is that she ran off on her own accord. If at any time you think you see her, don't go after her. Tell us, and we will figure out what to do."

"You think she killed the pilot, right?" A woman spoke up. Her name was Andrea, if I remembered correctly.

"We don't know enough to make an assumption, so as of now I wouldn't go as far as to say that." I spoke up. Another passenger stepped forward.

"Look, this isn't just another assignment or something. I don't think you guys have noticed, but our lives kind of hang in the balance here. You're not secret agents, or spies, or whatever you are, here, so you're just like the rest of us. Just be frank with us- she's right, isn't she?" I looked to Parker, sighing. He looked tense, his jaw clenched as he looked straight forward, standing with military posture.

"Yes." Jana said, breaking the silence. "But that doesn't condemn her fate, it just calls for some extra measures to be safe." Her words eerily reminded me that only a day ago we had suspected her of being the saboteur. Oh how quickly opinions can change. After a few seconds, he nodded and backed down.

"Really? The little girl has to stand up for you?" A gruff man laughed- another passenger.

"Excuse me?" Jana asked, challenging him.

"Leave it, Jana." Michael muttered, grabbing her by the wrist.

"Oh, I just think it's interesting how the girl who's barely old enough to drink alcohol is the one who's calling the shots for the all of you."

"What does age have to do with a person's skill?" Jana pressed, looking straight at the man, appearing ready to stare him down.

"Nothing. Au contraire, it's just that those clearly higher up aren't saying their piece."

"I'm sorry to break it to you, sir, but there are no higher ups here. We're seventeen different people from three different agencies trying to keep thirty three people alive while we find a way off an island somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Rank doesn't apply- experience and skill does. If you have a problem with the way we're operating, you can feel free to voice it. Just don't question the weight of someone's opinion just because of where they stand on the rank ladder."

The way she spoke, Jana sounded used to this. Like she was used to her skills and importance being questioned.

"Pray tell, then, what do you think we should do next, miss?"

Jana took in a deep breath and began to work on pulling her hair back into a ponytail as she started to speak.

"In my opinion, we need to enact counter-measures. I'm not going to deny that all of us are armed, and have a surplus of useful materials on hand for a situation like this. If Ms. Lopez really is involved in the plane crash, then we have reason to assume there are several perpetrators. We set up watch/guard schedules for the night and send out larger groups when making trips for to hunt or get water. However, I'm only speaking for myself, so if you'd like to propose a better idea, feel free." The man remained silent.

"Great. Well in that case, unless anyone has any other objections, that ends this meeting." I said, changing the subject. As soon as people started to disperse, Jana pulled her wrist out of Michael's grasp.

"Don't do that again, Michael." She muttered. Turning away from him, she shot me an expectant look.

"I'm going to go take a better look at where she was sleeping. Care to join me?" She asked, already starting towards the spot. I nodded, trailing behind her.

The three college kids who had been sleeping in the area had since cleared out and gone to scuttle the airplane wreckage with a couple of agents, leaving only a few flattened spots of grass and makeshift blankets in their wake. Jana gravitated toward the area where Rosalind had presumably been sleeping and crouched down.

I kneeled down next to her and lifted the discarded travel blanket with a stick, careful not to touch it. We didn't have any of the normal resources here, so the least we could do was be cautious.

"She only took her backpack off the plane, correct?" I asked, nodding to the small navy backpack that was still leaned against the tree.

"Right." Wordlessly, I pulled a sheathed tactical knife out of my boot and carefully picked up the backpack.

"Wow, how did you manage to sneak that in there?" She asked. Normally I would have been able to carry around such a weapon without concealment, but outside of the UK the legal boundaries I am normally able to surpass becomes much heavier. It had taken my fair share of parlor tricks to keep many of my resources on hand.

"Airport security is often immeasurably less heavy in private terminals. It's a large reason why MI6 prefers to fly us private." I carefully started to cut a hole in the side of the backpack. I wanted to avoid the zipper in case the backpack was rigged. Though unlikely, there are many cases of bombs being rigged like this in order to assure a targeted blast. With my free hand I peeled away the cut fabric and examined the bags contents.

"Looks safe." Jana noted. I took that as my cue to unzip the bag, and pulled out its meager items; there was a phone, a paperback book, and a small makeup case. Jana stood up, frowning at the bag.

"Kind of underwhelming." She hummed, taking a step back into the thicker grass. Her steps faltered, and she quickly stepped to the side, swearing. I looked up at her expectantly as she reached down to pull something out of the grass. After a few moments, she took a few more steps away from the grass line that inadvertently stood as the border of our camp, and pulled something else out of the foliage.

She stood back up and held the two beaded bracelets in front of her face, examining them.

"Well isn't that convenient."

-

SO NML just got 200 reads in about 2 days. We went from 100 reads a week to 100 reads a day in about a day. Like, what?! Thank you guys so much. Originally I was going to take this week off as a way for me to reorganize but this sudden influx of reads made me really inspired lol. I have officially plotted the rest of the story, albeit roughly. Though there's always been an end in sight, I've always had trouble plotting midgrounds and making sure stories are not rushed. In ITL I felt that there was ~too~ much action too the point where there weren't enough surprises. With the suspense build up I've sustained in NML, it has left me a lot more room for character development. Wow this is getting long.

Also, I felt that I'd just put it out there that Jana's character was partially inspired by Nola Brown from The Escape Artist (amazing read, totally recommend it). I liked the idea of a youngish protagonist who doesn't really have that youth aspect to them so that when those emotional moments spring up, they're hard hitting. Now, some house cleaning:

Just in case anyone was wondering the flight contained the following- 30 passengers, two flight attendants, a flight engineer, and a pilot. There have been some inconsistencies with number in past chapters- however they have since been fixed.

Anyways, that's it. Next update will still be on Friday/Saturday. This week's music rec is once again a musical. Sorry- I'm a theatre kid. Spies Are Forever has some killer vocals and great music in general- on top of the fact that it's just really funny. Okay I'll stop writing. Thanks for the support <3

-K