Jake had his senses on alert as they approached and passed through Las Cruces. Nothing happened. He turned that part of his mind off with a click. He turned to William. "Looks like our best case scenario worked out. No attack."
"Yeah right. It's still a ways to Albuquerque. Stay alert, little buddy. You better keep checking your strange intelligence source."
Jake drank a bottle of water, got some peanuts. He felt tired. He looked pale. It was like the aftermath of a long distance run. When he finished the peanuts, he tried to reach the second mind, but couldn't seem to find the connection.
"William I've got a problem." They discussed it. William caught the drift. He suggested sugar. He pulled a couple candy bars out of his back pack and gave them to Jake.
They were nearing White Sands. Jake mentioned it to William as a sight he should see. William grinned. "Hey, little buddy, I've been in New Mexico a long time. I've been there."
Jake's color was better after the candy. He tried to reach for the awareness, once more. "Nope. Not yet." he told William. As he finished his statement, he froze into the same white faced rigidity from earlier. There was a change. Jake was only partially visible. Cabin lights and electronics popped and buzzed. Lights blew out in the interior cabin. William muttered "Good God, now what?" The plane went into overdrive. William could feel the acceleration as it banked to the right and dove. Moments later there were three explosions.
THE OPPOSITION
Sigrid and his team saw the explosions bloom in the distance. His team cheered. "Bundle up everything," he said. "Let's get the hell out of here." Ten minutes later they were moving back to the vehicles. He checked every item into the vehicles, took a quick look for the GPS signal. It was gone. Vaporized in the explosion he suspected. Good confirmation. He made the call on his SAT phone, relayed the details. He was smiling as the two SUVs drove back to Albuquerque. Sigrid silently marked Jake off of his mental bucket list.
THE HOME TEAM
The jet righted itself, slowed down and returned to its flight path like nothing happened. Jake appeared partially phased. William reached over to touch him on the arm, and Jake became solid at his touch. Jake looked different. His face was leaner. His arms thinner. "Jake? Jake?"
"Yes, I'm here big buddy."
"What the hell happened?"
"A lot more than I expected." Jake said. "I reached to touch the second mind, couldn't even find it, and then it took over my body. It was incredible. Everything seemed so easy." Jake looked around, seeing shattered bits of plastic everywhere, a pair of extra seats across from them had exploded. "Wow. How did I do this." He looked all around the plane.
"Give with the details. I want details."
"Ok. I'll try. I didn't see what happened on the inside of the jet. So I didn't expect all of this. I am still sharing that second mind, though. It makes it hard to speak."
William could hear the difficulty Jake was having.
There were lots of pauses, but Jake managed to push through them."This is awesome. I don't know if it will last, though."
William wanted more.
"Ok Ok. I'll try to put it in order."
William listened intently through the pauses.
"It all seemed to happen at the same time." Jake paused, looking into space, as he talked. "Once the mind took over, I saw Sigrid, the missiles, the pilot, the trackers they used, the plane and- the entire Universe was visible in the background. I reached out and mentally shifted the plane, threw a solid blockade in front of the missiles, destroyed the trackers. All of it at the same time." Jake looked around the plane again. "And a lot more too, it looks like." Jake's brow furrowed. William watched as the broken pieces of plastic disappeared.The pieces of plastic and the airplane's electronics were restored. "I also blanked the memories of the crew. They'll remember nothing of this. I did a whole bunch of things I didn't know I could do."
"What about the opposition?"
"I let them be. They think we are dead. We will see them later. Right now, I need a fast nap. We'll be in Albuquerque in ten minutes. We'll be early due to shifting. Wake me."
Jake was gone. He was not just asleep. He was physically gone. William moved his hand through the space Jake had occupied. "Damn. How I am I going to wake you, if I can't find you?" There was no response. William got up to look around. He saw the stewardess standing by the door to the pilot's cabin. She looked frozen. She should have seen Jake disappear. She was looking straight at them, but would not recall that any passengers were ever aboard. The invoice would show they flight was picking up passengers, not delivering them.The plane was left to the crew as it flew toward Albuquerque, twenty minutes away.
THE OPPOSITION
Inside the Albuquerque airport a team awaited the arrival of the passenger jet. Once announced they dispersed to their assigned points. They knew nothing about other teams. They had their assignment. Their assignment was to kill the passengers on the arriving jet from Baton Rouge. They had pictures of the passengers and crew. It was a surprise when only the crew departed the plane. They would inspect the plane.
THE HOME TEAM
William stood next to Jake. They were somewhere. The light was dim and gray. They could see each other. Energy from some source was streaming into Jake's body. His face, arms, and belly were filling back out.
"Where the hell are we? What is going on?"
"I'm not sure. I'm feeling stronger than I ever have.I think we are somewhere safe for now."
"I thought we had a mission in Rimrock for the General."
"We do. We'll get there when we are supposed to get there."