Picfic Tuesday: Teenage Rescue

[alynwa.livejournal.com]

Illya, Napoleon, Mark and April were hogtied in the rear of a military - style cargo plane trying desperately to free themselves.  They had been captured while attempting to save the teenage daughter of an American general from a THRUSH mid – level leader tasked with blackmailing Pentagon secrets from him. 

It had seemed like a good plan.  Illya had cut power to the facility plunging the underground satrap into darkness for a few precious minutes.  April was able to locate and free the frightened girl from her cell after darting the guard and extracting the door key from his pocket.  The plan then was for the two of them to rendezvous with the men and, using one of the vehicles stored in the garage, drive through that door and escape.  It might have worked, too, if their charge could have kept her mouth shut and not panicked.  As it turned out, the sixteen year old tripped as they ran toward a vehicle and starting screaming like a banshee that her ankle was broken.  The birds got the drop on them while they were trying to pick her up off the floor.

When the head THRUSH realized who his minions had captured, he decided on the spot to fly them to THRUSH Central to hand them to the Chairman and collect personally the bounty on each of the top UNCLE agents’ heads.  The teenager was also tied up and because she wouldn’t stop screaming, she had been gagged.

A piece of cake, April thought sarcastically.  She looked toward the front of the plane where the satrap leader was piloting the aircraft.  Seeing that both he and the co – pilot wore headphones, she felt comfortable speaking over the sound of the engines to her fellow agents.  “Anyone having any luck with these ropes?”

Illya was using his gymnast’s training to twist his body back and forth to loosen the knots slightly.  “I think I can get loose,” he gasped as he arched his back and stretched his arms to grasp the ropes around his ankles.  “Napoleon, tell me when I have grabbed the end of the knot!”  At Napoleon’s nod, he pulled until he felt the rope slip.  Scissoring his calves quickly, he got enough slack to free his legs.

Napoleon, Mark and April had moved together as much as they dared in order to block the view of the birds in case they turned around.  Illya was finally able to maneuver his hands in front of him.  He freed himself followed by Napoleon, April and Mark.  Quickly, he and Mark moved forward with Napoleon bringing up the rear.  Illya reached around and snatched the gun from the pilot’s holster and pointed it at both men.

“Get out of those seats!  Mark, take over the controls!  April, you and Napoleon…”  He was cut off by the co – pilot pushing his boss into Mark who got tangled up with Illya, causing him to drop the gun.  They all began to fight while the plane, with no one at the controls, began to pitch, yaw and roll to the side throwing everyone off balance. 

Suddenly, the silence was deafening.  “Oh, my God, the engines stalled!” the co – pilot screamed.  The fight was forgotten as Mark flung himself into the left seat and began trying to restart the engines.  April bent down and grabbed the gun and backed away from the men quickly and moved to the girl. 

She ripped the duct tape off the girl’s mouth and was rewarded by ear piercing screams.  “I can’t deal with this right now!” she muttered fiercely before replacing the tape.  “When I untie you, if you remove that tape and start screaming again, I will shoot you myself.  Understand?”  At the girl’s frantic nod, she swiftly untied her.  The girl started to remove the tape, but April’s glare stopped her cold.

“This isn’t working!” Mark yelled as he kept working on the controls. 

Napoleon had been searching frantically and with a shout of triumph, pulled out parachutes from a storage trunk.  “There’s only four!”  At that, the lead THRUSH leapt at Napoleon only to be shot dead by April.  Before anyone could react, she killed the co – pilot.

“Mark, forget it!  Come on!”  She tucked the gun into her waistband, snatched a parachute and put it on.  Bending down, she grabbed some of the discarded ropes, stepped behind the teen and began to tie the girl to her at their waist.  “Listen,” she said quietly, “I’ve skydived before; when we get out of plane, just go limp and I promise you’ll be fine.”

The men all had their parachutes on and Mark dashed to April to check the tightness of the ropes.  Satisfied, he assisted Napoleon and Illya with forcing the door open.  “Ladies first!” he shouted. 

April shuffled the two of them to the door.  When the girl started to dig in her heels, April looked at her partner who pushed the women out the opening.  He waited a few seconds and then followed.

“Illya, go!”  The Russian stared at Napoleon and then rushed out the door.  As Napoleon waited, the plane started to roll and break up.  He got out just before the plane rolled completely over.  As he opened his chute, he was relieved to see three open chutes below him.

The plane broke into three pieces that slammed into the ground and immediately disappeared into bursts of spectacular fireballs while the agents and their innocent floated down to earth comparatively softly about a quarter mile away. 

Still lying on the ground where they had finally come to a stop, April thought, This is really going to hurt tomorrow before she slowly untied herself from the girl who, the moment she was free, scurried away from her on her hands and knees.  She ripped the tape from her mouth and between sobs yelled, “You shot those two men in cold blood!  How could you?” 

When the men came to their position, they were equally banged up and in no mood for hysterics.  Illya snarled at her, “There were four parachutes and seven people.  We were sent in to rescue you, so leaving you was not an option.  Would you have preferred that two of us stayed behind?  Or, that we left those two men alive so they could experience that?” as he pointed to the balls of flame still rising.

Napoleon stepped over and gently pulled his partner away.  He said to the girl, “Listen, we’re all very shaken up; however, you see those people heading this way from those buildings?  As far as they are concerned, we’re the only people who were on that plane.  As soon as they take us to the hospital, I’ll call our boss who’ll make sure we all get back home.  Can you do that for me, Callie?”

Callie’s eyes widened.  “I, I didn’t think any of you knew my name!”

Napoleon’s smile, even tinged with pain, was still charming.  “Given the circumstances, we really were never formally introduced.  We’ll rectify that when we get you back to your father.  For now, can you do as I asked?”

“Yes, we were the only people on the plane.  I can do that.”  Napoleon’s response was to kiss her hand.

Mark was sitting next to April watching their help running across the field toward them.  “Cor blimey, Illya, does he ever turn it off?”

The Russian carefully lowered himself on the other side of April.  “No.”