Zahra dove away from the console just as it was destroyed by falling debris. Her stomach lurched at the sight but settled. The plane continued to rise. So, she climbed forward and started off. She descended the steps down to the floor in a chaotic fashion. Luckily for her, the console wasn’t all that far away from the planes.
Boulders as large as her landed only feet away. She looked up and ran with her chin to the sky, watching for incoming subterranean meteors. She meandered left to avoid one, then spotted another as it detached and fell. She slinked back to the right, then immediately went back left.
“Zahra, hurry!” She wasn’t sure her voice could even be heard over the sound of the spattering engine, but when she glanced down, Yana and Hammet were waving her forward. The one consolation was that the lift didn’t move all that fast. A grinding noise picked up above them as the floor to the East Wing opened. Equipment fell as it did. It was clear to see that the Sixth Seal had not meant for them to open yet. The floor would have been clear of all equipment if it were. Luckily, nothing sizeable hit the plane.
Zahra was nearly there, but the plane was already fifteen feet off the ground. She wasn’t going to be able to reach it without a little help. She detached her grappling hook and gave the closed head some slack.
“Hammet! Get ready!”
He saw her, and he knelt. Hammet held his hands out in front of him, awaiting the special delivery. Zahra twirled the hook next to her, and after four rotations, she released it.
“Watch your face!”
Zahra had aimed right for Hammet’s nose.
It hit Hammet in the hands but pushed straight through them. Zahra had given it everything she could just in case she didn’t have a lot to give. He scrambled back for the hook’s head.
From somewhere out of sight, Hammet shouted, “Climb!”
So, Zahra climbed. But she also swung. The movement threw off her technique. Her pace was slow and filled with hesitation.
“Zahra! The ceiling!”
She stopped and looked up. There was only twenty feet to the ceiling, and she was still ten feet beneath the platform. If she didn’t make it in time, her cord would be cleaved in two, as could her body, depending on the timing of her ascent.
There were twin animalistic roars from above, and Zahra was yanked halfway up onto the platform. She lifted her right knee and rolled onto it with ten feet to spare. Both Yana and Hammet were, once again, holding the other end of her grappling hook.
Zahra climbed to her feet as they re-entered Sub-Level 5 of the Underworld.
“You two are making a habit out of saving my life.” The B-29’s prop wash partially drowned out Zahra’s words. Three of the four engines whirled like crazy. The outside engine on the left wing was lifeless.
She met Hammet’s eyes, then quickly looked away.
Yana nudged him. “See what I told you?
The blood drained from Zahra’s face. What on earth had Yana told him?
The Russian grinned. “Come. Let’s get this bird ready for takeoff.” Yana headed inside.
Zahra’s mouth fell open, and she turned to Hammet. “She’s not serious, is she?”
“About the flirting thing?” he answered. “Well, you see, I’m on the road a lot, and I don’t get to go out much, and I’ve never been good with men…”
Normally, Hammet’s face was all business. But now, he looked like he was enjoying himself.
Zahra finally understood why.
“You were asking about the plane’s ability to fly, not my inability to flirt, weren’t you?”
Hammet smiled and tilted his head toward the stairs beneath the cone of the plane. “Let’s get out of here first,
Either Hammet had just acknowledged he did have feelings for her, or he was screwing with her. For now, Zahra was going to assume that Yana had rubbed off on him and that he was full of shit. They had more important things to worry about right now.
She followed Hammet into the aircraft and was instantly transported back in time. Everything was how it had been during the war, or that’s what Zahra imagined. She could see the flight crew shouting at one another in preparation for their next bombing run. Zahra wasn’t sure if the flight crew wore headsets back then, and she didn’t care.
A screech of metal announced the mechanized retrieval of the stairs, as well as the closing of the nose door.
Yana was in the left-hand pilot’s chair. Hammet sat next to her. The only option upfront for Zahra was to slide between them both and sit down in a very nerve-wracking position within the tip of the nose.
“Bombardier seat,” Hammet explained. “Yana says it was the envy of the crew.”
Zahra’s nose curled up. “I bet.” She looked down at the backward-facing seat behind Hammet. It was positioned in front of a wall of aeronautic instruments. “You’re more than welcome to it.” She patted the backrest of this seat. “I’ll take navigation.”
