The Young Spy (Book One)

Chapter 8: Conforming

Something touches Swift's elbow, trying to wake him up from his fairly relaxing sleep. Next thing Swift knows he wakes up, exiting the blackness that enveloped his vision. Swift finds himself sitting in the cosy and cold seat of an airplane. His arms crossed in front of his chest, as well as his legs. He wondered why his head felt weird, and that's when he realized his head was leaning to the right next to the window. Swift sets his head straight and because of that, a sharp sensation runs through the side of his neck as if a needle stabbed through it.

"Wake up, sleepyhead."

Swift looks to his side to confront the voice telling him to snap out of it and immediately sees Tom staring at him.

"We're here."

Swift's vision isn't too clear for his surroundings other than the near Tom beside him, but his eyes recovered moments later. Looking out of the window beside him, Swift is met by the sight of an airport compound. The plane isn't flying up in the air anymore. It must be in the taxiway. Swift noted that the plane's engine noise sounded a lot lower than the last time he heard it.

"Huh. L.A." Swift mutters.

In front of Tom and Swift's seat row is another, but it's occupied by a dozed-off Carter, next to him is an empty seat which is lucky because no one could be disturbed by his obnoxious snoring. Tom looks over the side of the seat in front and notices Carter has been hugging a white-colored tablet during the entire flight, with the tablet slightly slipped from the clutches of Carter's arms. Tom didn't seem to be concerned too much by it though, Carter's an analyst. He tends to spend his time in the CIA in front of a screen, almost always.

"Pst. Dude. Wake up." Tom taps his hand on Carter's shoulder. Then he accidentally taps Carter's face on the right side, beginning to slap him awake.

"Hey!" Carter swats Tom's hand out of annoyance, immediately waking up.

"Seriously, I'm not your alarm clock. Can you two get ready now, please?" Tom says.

Swift and Carter instantly agree. Just like the other passengers on the same plane, the three of them made sure their belongings were all gathered and not a single item was forgotten. Tom scoots out of his seat and that way allowing Swift to exit his seat into the aisle. It's such a commotion with other passengers being huddled along the airplane aisle. Tom slides his hand back to his seat to grab his soda bottle, his arm going past Swift's side. After tucking in his sling bag, Swift opens the overhead locker above him and collects his and Tom's backpacks while Carter opens his overhead locker and grabbed his heavy suitcase. Several people have already exited the airplane and when the time came and the aisle got relatively unobstructed, it was time for the three of them to get off the airplane through the boarding bridge out front of the aisle.

Took them quite a while to exit the airport, but they managed to follow the stream of people walking out from the terminal. Eventually Swift, Tom, and Carter made it out of the airport through the lobby, exiting from the arrivals section. Dragging a suitcase across the floor, Carter leads the way out to the driveway, and both Swift and Tom follow him crossing the street after dodging incoming cars. The three of them arrived at a parking lot, where allegedly, a package has been dropped for them.

"So why are we here again?" Swift asks.

"You'll see," Carter smirks.

They entered the ground level of the lot, where there were at least a few cars parked around them, the rest of the parking spaces unoccupied. Swift then notices how the three of them approached one particular car. A sedan, stone gray in color which is a Lexus grand sedan. It looked expensive just by the very modern appearance of it. In Swift's opinion, it looked almost futuristic, spotting the sharp-edged parts of the front bumper. The plate numbers are colored blue on a white background. He soon realizes Carter was actually heading for that specific sedan. Allison, you shouldn't have. Maybe Allison took Tom's comment from the last job seriously, this time she lent a vehicle for them to use. Swift's surprise is proven to be just the beginning when Carter planted his thumb on the car trunk's handle, continued by an unexpected neon green light appearing on the handle. A small click is heard before Carter successfully unlocks the trunk, making Swift's lips form into an impressed smile. The gray sedan uses a fingerprint reader to unlock it and it recognized Carter.