Revolution (Book 3 of POE Chronicles)

Chapter 9 The Wall

"Glad you can make it." Eleanor said as she led me towards a small jet. I pulled the hood of my jumper more securely around my head; it was the oldest tactic in the book to hide my face, but it's the most viable one because I couldn't exactly run around with a mask on my face in 32 degrees heat.

"Does anyone know that you are coming today?" Eleanor asked and I shook my head. I had made up an excuse about a video call with Nirmal, and then another one with the UGE and everyone seemed to buy it. With the exception of possibly Gerald, but I couldn't imagine anyone actually going to verify with Nirmal, not even him. And even then I doubted he would suspect what I was really up to.

"Where are we going?" I asked; they had told me very little of the plan thus far, especially since it must all be different now. It wasn't because they didn't trust me, but words have a way of getting out and it's safer to leave things face to face in a secure environment.

"We will discuss everything on the plane." Eleanor said, looking around carefully. There were only a few ground staffs moving equipment around; not that there were usually a lot of traffic on airfields anyway. Flying was highly dangerous and I wondered where they got the jet from and more importantly, how they got authorization. We would also be easily tracked.

"Won't people find out about this?" I asked, following Eleanor up a small flight of stairs and entered the cabin. We had bypassed securities so far, but there bounds to be someone who noticed us. The plane was empty at the moment except for a lone crew, who nodded at Eleanor before leading us to the back of the plane.

"We are hitching a ride." Eleanor's smiled grew boarder as she gestured for me to enter into a crew only area. It was actually a small, enclosed room stacked with supplies that was just large enough for two to three people to sit down. "This flight is going for a day return to Georgia Citybase."

Georgia. My mind tried to place that Citybase somewhere, but it was drawing up blank. I hoped it wasn't too far away. Settling in as much as I could on top of a cardboard box, I was glad to see Eleanor taking a seat too.

"Would Tristan be coming?" I asked and she shook her head, then a playful smile appeared on her face.

"Kyle would be here. This is the TV crew's plane to Georgia instead for filming. It appears that the idea of capturing the wall-less countryside outside of Pax's city limits has been ruled as too boring. So now they are running a piece on the Original Wall structures still in used." Eleanor explained and I nodded. I have learned from my school in London Citybase that some of the smaller, poorer Citybase had never upgraded their Walls since the time it was built. It would be quite amazing to see the 260 years old structure first hand as well.

"Oh good, the plan would work better that way." My mind suddenly clicked and my eyes lit up. Eleanor nodded eagerly and pulled out some papers from her briefcase – a map and some photos. "But we need to time this right; otherwise it might turn into a disaster."

We spent the rest of the flight talking over the details, my hearts fluttering as the real passengers boarded the plane and their boisterous laughter and conversations carrying through. The crew, for the most part, left us undisturbed, seemingly completely at ease with us hiding out in this small room that made me wonder if incidents like this were a common occurrence, or the fact that the existence of this room was redundant.