I hefted my duffle bag and glared at the floor. "Are you sure this is a good idea? I mean, I could just get on the next plane back to Pittsburgh." I muttered into the cell phone and tossed my long blond hair impatiently.
"We've talked enough about this, Ciara," Mika said sternley. I could almost imagine his face getting red. It often did when he talked to me. "You have to be there to help Anya, there's no telling what kind of trouble she could get into."
"No one's here yet. Are you sure it had to be a helicopter?" That wasn't totally true, there were tons of people running to and from their destinations, but there was no one waiting for me. I sighed into the phone. I had a fear of helicopters (my parents died in a chopper crash), but I hadn't told anyone of it before. Especially not to Mika. It would be unheard of for me to have a fear of anything. "I'd even deal with a small charter plane."
"And where, pray tell, would a small charter plane land on a cruise ship? You're the best agent I've got, Ciara, and I haven't got a clue as to why you're bitching about a chopper." Mika sighed. "Just...deal with it, okay? Anya's waiting for you and she needs your help."
"C'mon, Mik," I stressed on his name, "What's the genius have to worry about? No-one's gonna kill her on the ship. Unless she got stupid and got stuck in the cargo hold."
Just then, a stocky man around 35 ran up to me, the barest shadow of a beard on his tanned features. An ID badge with the word:
"Oh, dear." I said in a low tone. "Mom, the pilot just arrived." With a quick goodbye to a stuttering Mika, I slipped the little Nokia into my duffle bag and smiled at the pilot. "Hi." I said, offering my hand to him for a handshake. He shook it, looking a bit dazed, and said, "We will be leaving now for the ship." He led me to a door that led out to the tarmac.
Mika was still in touch with me, through intricate comm-units that functioned double duty as an illusion necklace and a pair of thin gold dangle earrings. "You should be thrilled, Ciara. We told him he was taking Mariah Carey to the MTV cruise ship."
I just sighed, Mika, you old dirt bag. I promised myself I could throttle him when I got back to base.
Rain was drizzling as we walked towards a slick-ass black and blue helicopter. I may have a fear of the things, but I could appreciate fine machinery when I saw it.
"So, you are going to perform on the cruise ship?" The words were spoken in an awed tone.
"Yeah, I suppose so." Keenly aware of the warm misty rain, I shuddered inside. I didn't want to even think of the rain getting worse. Enrique, that's his name, took my duffle bag and placed it in a compartment in middle of the chopper. There were two seats up front, for the pilot and co-pilot, and two bench seats behind a semi-divider wall. Haven't a clue as to what I'm talking about? Picture the helicopter from any of the Jurassic Park movies.
What I wasn't expecting were the two people already inside the chopper. I was slightly surprised that I hadn't sensed them, and I kept my voice even toned when I asked Enrique, "Who are they?"
That caught Mika's attention, "What? Who's there, Ciara?"
"Oh por favor, Mariah," He offered to help me up and I accepted. "I was asked to take these two gentlemen to the cruise ship also. As the three of you are destined for the same location." With a smile, he closed the door, walked around the chopper, and got in his seat, putting a bulky pair of headphones on.
While Enrique did his pilot thing, I sat far to the side, away from the two guys. They were around my age and looked as if they were a bit wary of me. That's where we were the same. I didn't trust them either. They were dressed in what looked like very expensive, though casual, clothes. One of them had on very strong, very expensive, cologne. That was a good thing, 'cause the helicopter had a thick musty smell that the cologne kinda covered.
AJ McLean was quiet, shrugging at me before turning to look out the chopper's windows. Howie Dorough simply smiled and tightened his seat belt. There was no time for conversation as the rotors powered up with a strong whine. I clenched my duffle bag tightly to me as the chopper hovered above the ground and suddenly, the airport vanished into a cloud of grey, and we were on our way to the cruise ship.
Damn I hate helicopters, I thought as I closed my eyes.
The weather was not good for a helicopter trip to a cruise ship, what with drizzling rain and thick low clouds. The Miata was naturally musty smelling, but it was competing with both the humidity of the storm outside and the thick cologne. Musty/heavy cologne smell 1, Humidity 0. My stomach was getting queasy and I had been passing the time playing on a Gameboy Advance Mika snagged for me.
The two Backstreet Boys had kept a safe distance from me at first, but seeing as how I wasn't jumping their bones, they seemed to have relaxed. They really had nothing to worry about. Lucky for them, they kept to themselves. Howie kept trying to get AJ to talk, something about getting Nick back for some prank, but AJ was ignoring him. I felt a bit bad for Howie, but said nothing.
The chopper ride from Miami to the damn ship was about three hours long, according to Enrique, and most of that boring time had passed. The weather had been good throughout the flight, if you count drizzle as good, until we were about a half hour from the damn ship.
I think the guys might have been curious about me. I was dressed in khaki shorts and a white tank top, my black duffle bag was now at my hiking boot encased feet. I had had a black windbreaker on, but I'd taken it off an hour ago and wrapped it around my waist.
Suddenly, a funny feeling grabbed at my instincts and I turned off the GBA, and shoved it in my waterproof duffle bag. I had learned the hard way not to ignore that gut feeling. I thought to warn the guys and Enrique, but a quick look around let me know that we all had on our safety belts.
I knew this was going too well, I thought to myself. That was all I had a chance to do.
I took a look back at Howie when it happened.
The chopper suddenly developed engine troubles. Naturally, the rain blew up suddenly into overdrive at that point, lightning all around us, rain pounding the chopper, wind gusts tossing us like cookies.
Howie let loose a choice string of Spanish and gripped hard to his seat as the chopper settled to simply shaking steadily. AJ was still quiet, though pale, and he'd lost his sunglasses.
I gripped hard on the seat and looked out the window. Below us, my stomach heaving at the sight was a mess of waves; whitecapped and looking bigger than this Miata of a helicopter, they churned below us. The ocean looked like a zebra, black water and white frothy waves. In addition to helicopters, I am also deathly afraid of dark water, some childhood thing, and I gulped and squeezed my eyes shut. That didn't help my heaving stomach.
Mika, who had shut off comm-link for the past hour, suddenly spoke in my ears, startling me. I'm rarely startled. "Ciara, what's happening! Some storm seems to have appeared out of nowhere!"
I didn't reply, how could I when they were right there?
"Ciara, damn it! Answer me, I don't care who's with you!" Mika sounded scared...he never sounded scared.
Uncaring about the Boys' reaction to me, I answered Mika, "It's a storm, Mik. I don't know if we'll make it to the damn ship."
Around me, the two Backstreet Boys were giving me strange looks. "Who's she talking to, AJ? You or me?"
"Neither of you two!" I barked, not giving AJ time to reply. The lights in the helicopter's cabin blinked and then vanished. Reddish lights, back-up lights, came on and gave an eerie glow to our surroundings. Lightning also flashed its awesome power, way too close for my tastes. "Mika, I don't know if we'll make it to the damn ship. Keep a tab on my location!" A pause...no answer. "Mika! Answer me!"
Nothing. I blinked back tears of frustration, bile was rising in my throat, when suddenly I heard Mika's voice, choppy and barely understandable, but he was there.
"Ciara, I....hold the link but....can hear you...erfectly clear....an you hear me?..." Static, and then, "Hold tight...e will find you!" Then nothing.
I looked back up to see Enrique sweating and pale. He looked momentarily at me.
"I am sorry, senorita, but I think we may have to land in the water."
"Land!" Howie squeaked.
"To land is better than to crash..." Suddenly, the helicopter went dead. "...Although we may experience that too."
And then all of us screamed, an odd chorus of sounds, as the helicopter lost all power, and we fell sickeningly to the dark waters below.