This is the best day of Nono Rodriguez’ life. Well, best evening. She is going on a mission!
Her mom drops her off at Maury’s house. Maury calls a taxi, and Nono takes it to the airport. Emma is waiting for her, looking impatiently at her watch. The girls take a tram to one of the satellite terminals. They don’t talk much. Nono keeps excitedly ruffling through her backpack. She does note that Emma is much more casual, even laid back. How routine is this sort of thing for a supervillain?
The girls are on the tarmac at 7:45pm - almost “twenty hundred hours”. There’s a big airplane here. It’s not marked with the AEGIS logo or anything. But it’s the right place.
After a minute, Alice Chan - no, Alycia Chin, though I can’t call her that at school - shows up. “Get on board!” she yells over the noise of distant aircraft, taxiing and taking off and landing. Nono starts to obey, but then sees a boy she recognizes. Leo Snow? Is he here too? Alycia, too, catches sight of him, anticipates Nono’s thought, and cuts her off. “It’s not him. I’ll explain once we’re aboard. Now get on and stow your kit.”
Emma jerks a thumb and starts walking, and Nono follows. The back of the airplane is open, revealing a jeep that’s strapped to the deck. The two girls skirt past it and find some narrow, uncomfortable seats. It’s the same kind of airplane that Nono rode on with Emma before, when they visited Dinosaur island. A Lockheed C-130, she remembers. Is it the same plane? Nono doesn’t think so. It’s cleaner, and the writing is in English rather than Russian.
“Put your backpack here,” Emma says, and illustrates how to secure stuff in the metal storage bins with her own bag. Nono already sees two sets of bags, similarly locked down, and wonders how many people are coming along.
“1950 hours!” shouts Alycia Chin. “Comm up!”
Emma gestures again, and the two make their way forward. Alycia is handing out headsets, like gaming headsets only much more rugged. Putting them on drowns out a lot of the noise, including the propellers of the C-130 warming up. Emma taps a switch on her headset, then on Nono’s. Her voice comes through via the headphones, sounding staticky but very audible. “Now sit down and prepare to be bored. Hope you brought a book.”
“I have my phone!” Nono replies, but Emma shakes her head. “No reception, and the signal will give us away. Power it off, plus any other electronics, and stow it.”
The voice of an older man - the pilot, Nono guesses - comes over the comms in a few minutes. “Clearance coming in from HLC, folks, sit tight, we’ll be moving this bucket of bolts in a few minutes. This flight is designated OZMA-9.”
Alycia, plus the not-Leo-Snow, plus another kid, take their seats opposite Emma and Nono. “Introductions. This is Alex, aka Agent 1337. AEGIS operative.”
Nono blinks and squints. Wait, she’s seen this Alex person at school…
“This is SNOWMAN.” Alycia gestures at the not-Leo, who doesn’t even wave, just shrugs in greeting.
“You’ll find a briefing packet under your seats,” Alycia says. Nono fishes around and finds it. There’s a “CLASSIFIED TOP SECRET” banner at the top, which really excites her, and she starts flipping through the paperwork immediately.
She’s interrupted by Alycia. "OpSec rules. No real names. SNOWMAN and 1337 already have aliases. I’m Charade. You’re… " She points. “Agent Em. Agent R. That’s Alfa Mike and Alfa Romeo if we’re on distant comms.”
Alex - Agent 1337 - speaks up next. “I’ll be managing comms while we’re on the ground, plus the satellite uplinks, data feeds, whatever. If ya need something, let me know and Hacker Claus will visit you for Christmas. If you’ve been good that is.”
Alycia rolls her eyes but doesn’t contradict any of that. She gestures at SNOWMAN instead. “Nono, you know Leo Snow, but this version of him has never met you. I suggest you two work that out amongst yourselves. After you finish the briefing.”
Right. Time to do my homework.
“Where’s your kit?” Alycia asks, out of the blue. The airplane’s been in the air for two hours, and only now has she said anything more than she did at the briefing.
“Uh…” Nono stalls while she thinks. Stow your kit. Backpack! “It’s in the um, the bins.”
“What kind of analytics tools did you bring?”
Tools? What? All she remembers is Alycia telling her that her chemistry knowledge would be needed, and to pack up.
“I um, didn’t bring any tools…?”
Alycia sighs. “My fault. You’re an amateur still.”
“You’ve been teaching me–”
“–The very basics. Listen, Rodriguez, you’re still new at all this. This isn’t one of your stories. I’m bringing you here for your brain, not your imagination. And I’m still filling it with how to do this sort of thing. But I’ve been doing it for a lifetime, and you – you haven’t. Remembering that is on me.” Alycia scowls, but Nono knows it’s not aimed at her. “Okay. Lesson for next time. If you have tools you’d use for chemical analysis, when you’re called on a job, bring them along. If you’re not sure what tools are appropriate, ask your contact to be specific. Got it?”
“Got it, ma’am!” Nono salutes.
Alycia winces like she experienced physical pain. “Don’t do that again. Alright, we’ll make do. The jeep comes with some basic tools for fieldwork. Just… go over the dossier a few more times, before we land.”
Alycia leaves. And Nono spots SNOWMAN staring at her, as the other girl walks away. He’s even scarier than the Leo I know.
The pilot’s voice comes over the headsets again. “OZMA-9 coming up on drop point. We hope you’ve had a pleasant flight. Rendezvous scheduled at 0600.”
Alycia gestures at the jeep. “Everyone in. Leave your headsets on the hooks, over there on the wall.”
“Shotgun!” calls Alex, and hops into the passenger side seat. Emma gestures for Nono to follow her into the back seat, where they buckle up. Alycia slides with practiced ease into the driver’s seat. Behind them, the ramp of the airplane is opening - but they’re still flying! Nono can only see darkness, and starts to freak out. Emma instinctively takes her hand.
Her curiosity jolts her out of the brief panic. The jeep has four seats. There’s five people–
“See ya on the other side,” announces SNOWMAN, and throws himself out of the plane.
What?!
“OZMA-9, Baby Chick leaving the nest,” calls Alycia over the jeep’s radio handset. She yanks on a lever. The jeep, and its passengers, suddenly slide out the back of the aircraft. Nono watches in horror as the plane slides away and above them. The vehicle is now in free fall. And she’s in it.
WHAT??!