I make a few calls to ensure the aircraft is ready and direct my driver around to the private area where it is waiting.
The snow has abated, and the sky is clearing which means the next few hours are going to be uncomfortable. The car pulls into a large hangar and drives through to the other side past my private jet.
“We’re going in ahelicopter?” Lucy says as we reach the far side to where the doors are wide open, the landing pad cleared of snow by the heated section underneath. “Where?”
“You’ll see.”
“I don’t like surprises,” she growls at me, her hand in her coat to where I know she has the stake hidden.
“I appreciate that, but this is a trip I’d like to keep between ourselves.”
I hope the inflection in my voice is enough for her to get my meaning. She opens her mouth, studies my face, then closes it again and says nothing.
Lucy Cushing is not stupid. I’m well aware of her talents, not including those she has with two feet of sharpened wood. She understands we have to keep our final destination from as many people as possible.
The snow blanketing the rest of the airport deadens most sounds, save for those of planes taking off. In the distance, the clouds which dropped their recent load have moved away to the west.
We exit the car and a worker hurries up to me.
“Mr. Király? I have the weather report for you,” he says in Hungarian.
“The snow?”
“Moving to the west. There’s a high coming in, and the weather should be good enough providing you’re not flying outside of Hungary.”
I nod as he hands me the folder containing the relevant documents which I tuck under my arm before holding out my hand to shake his.
He takes it and I pull him close.
“You will not remember this interaction. You will remove all references to it from your computer systems when you return to your desk. You will forget you ever saw me.”
“I will forget I ever saw you,” he repeats.
“Good.” I spin him around and put an arm around Lucy. “This way, my dear.”
We walk out onto landing pad to the helicopter. I open the passenger side door to allow her to get in and direct her on how to put on the safety belts, then walk around to the other side and climb in.
“You’re flying?” Lucy says.
“Yes. Of course.”
“Is there any other way to get where we’re going?”
“You still don’t trust me?”
“You’re going to have to do more than show me a helicopter to get me to trust you, vampire,” she retorts.
Looks like this trip is going to feel far longer than it will take.
Lucy
Dominik confirmshe’s going to be flying the helicopter with the air of a vampire who thinks a vampire helicopter pilot is completely normal.
I don’t even want to ask when or how he learnt to fly. Obviously he can fly…when he’s a bat. Does Dominik turn into a bat? I can’t actually imagine him as a bat. He seems too uptight and pompous to ever turn into a flying mouse.
Admittedly, every vampire bat I’ve ever encountered was about as far from a flying mouse as a house cat is from a jaguar. I’m also letting my imagination get away with me as Dominik checks over the aircraft and then does what I presume is the start up sequence. Above us, the rotors start to turn, and Dominik gestures for me to put on a set of heavy headphones.
“Okay,” I hear him say, his baritone tinny as it turns into electronics. “Taking off, easterly course, runway two.”
