First-Class Smugglers

Dragging a Stowaway

     If someone were to map out the interior of the plane, the first-class cabin would take up the most space, reaching right from the middle to the tail of the plane, while in front of it there was a wide, empty hallway with folded-up wall benches for one's henchmen to stand in if there was an inordinate amount. In the lower level of the plane there was the flight engineer room— a cramped area with a short ceiling— from which all the mechanisms of the plane could be accessed and monitored. The cargo area was very visibly under the nose of the plane, while the pilot's cockpit was where one would expect it to be. To reach the first-class cabin coming in from the outside, Rita only had to go to her right, down the hallway, and through the door. To reach his cockpit coming in from the outside, Jase had to open the door directly to his left, which led into what he and other pilots called the "portal room," dubbed such because it was the only place from which one could access the other levels of the plane. Standing in the portal room, there was a trap door on the ground to his left which dropped down into the fight engineer room, and a ladder in front of him pointing up to another trapdoor in the ceiling, which opened up to the pilot's cockpit. As if the area wasn't cramped enough, there was a bathroom shoved in on the right, such so that hardly two people could stand in the portal room at the same time.

     But one person could manage, and Jase excitedly climbed up the ladder and pushed open the trapdoor, poking his head up into the cockpit with shining eye. Pulling himself up, Jase went and sat in the Captain's seat, ignored the co-pilot's empty chair, and familiarized himself with the data from the various gauges and monitors in front of him. There was a radio and intercom station to his left with four switches for four different locations, and he flipped the one under the FB label to notify Flight Base that he was ready to go. The man on the other side confirmed that he was clear whenever he was ready, as there were now no planes left on the base but his own.

     "Excellent, I've got some time to make this good." Jase flipped the switch under EC for Entire Cabin, and—after a deep breath—announced boisterously, "Ladies and gentlemen, this is your Captain speaking. On behalf of our crew and airline I'd like to welcome you aboard. The time is currently 12:35pm, and we will be arriving at our undisclosed California location at approximately 2:00pm Pacific Standard Time. As you know ours is a small, humble airline base; the western Canadian branch of an international organization. In our organization, we specialize in getting our clients where they need to go, whenever they need to go, without any questions or passports or background checks or anything even resembling conventional air-travel to mar the experience. So long as you can pay, we look the other way! However, I am obliged to inform you that, should you ever be caught doing whatever morally-flexible act you need our services to get to, if you should rat us out, our skilled investigative team will find you. And they will not be happy. I will leave our esteemed passengers to fill in the obvious and ominous blanks."

      Jase grinned and turned off the intercom for a moment to laugh at his own joke. Then he pressed it on again, and continued, "As you know we operate in such a way that our dedicated flight base monitors all government-approved flights so that we do not have any unfortunate collisions while midair. Additionally, our wonderful aircraft is outfitted with a state-of-the-art scanner, which continuously broadcasts faulty data to any government scanners it comes across, so that we are both figuratively and electronically invisible amongst the clouds. These precautions may require our vessel to move in awkward directions from time to time, but rest assured, it is all for your safety and to keep us out of jail. We thank you for flying with us, and hope we can do everything possible to make your illegal trip as enjoyable and incarceration-free as possible. If there is ever anything you require, please don't hesitate to ask the members of our wonderful crew. Now, if you'll all fasten your seatbelts, we will be taking off shortly..." Jase's attention was drawn to the window, where he could see Freddie eagerly sprinting down the landing strip, waving and yelling, "...or immediately. Let's say immediately. Have an enjoyable flight."