FB5-12 "Havoc In The Helicopter"

A Chapter by dw817

"I'm on it." Janet said a little impatiently. She flicked on a bunch of switches above her head. The propeller then started to twirl. Then we saw a full-line up of the Sevens all guns trained on us !

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Secret Technology, Unrequited Love, Absolute Vengeance

© May 2022 - Written by David Wicker
Please do not reprint without permission

CHAPTER 12 - "HAVOC IN THE HELICOPTER"

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* * *

This chapter is Rated: TEEN

Slice Of Life (05-20-22)

Good afternoon.

Life does seem to be consistently changing doesn't it ?

I mean if there is one thing we can count on for in this world it is change, right ? I mean you can stand perfectly still and do absolutely nothing in the day if you so choose, but the world will go on unfettered by your lassitude. It WILL go on without you.

CHRIS AND HIS JEALOUS MATE

You know that idiot Rick wrote me again stating something insulting and with the way the church has accepted me with open arms, I wrote back Rick the following:

I am better now without Chris.

On Fridays and Sundays I am now going to the church I grew up with as a boy, and have already made a lot of new friends there and Carlos, Katy, and me have attended get-togethers sharing interests, stories, and fun. It's great to meet new people and open new horizons !

Thank you, Rick, for pulling me out of my rut. I hope you are happy with the decision you have made and take good care of Chris.

. . .

Needless to say he did not write after that. Maybe he considers that a victory because he gets Chris, maybe he considers it a loss because he did not rile me. I'm not sure. And I'm not going to worry about it because surely what I wrote ENDS whatever jealousy he had earlier.

But yeah, it really was being in a rut with Chris. I mean sure it was fun to see Chris every Sunday, but he's just one person and the fun we usually did entitled two things. Going out to eat and shopping. That's it. Nothing much further than that except on a few rare days.

At church it goes so much further than this. I get a chance to renew my faith and experience the church as I did as a little boy. I'm also rekindling friendships with people who knew me from then.

As I worded in my profile:

I am Episcopalian and I go to All Saints church with my Godfather and niece. Mostly for the experience I had when I went there as a little boy. The dominant presence the preacher has. I have always admired and respected that.

And to you people out there who may have some other activity for Sunday other than church. Don't you miss it ? Do you miss the ritual ? It's not too late to get back into the swing of things.

I mean look at me. The last time I went to church I was 13-years old. So it's been over 40 years since I went - but I am back. And I am not only welcomed back to the church where I did find some of my friends from years ago - I am expected. And that is a nice feeling - to be expected because people like your company.

. . .

GAYLE AND THE INFORMATION THAT WASN'T

So what's happening locally ?

Well, Gayle, you remember, Carlos's wife, she is in the nursing home and - apparently not doing very well at all. She is prone to hearing things that were just not said and seeing things that are just not there.

And it's a problem because Carlos wants to be there for her - however when she cries wolf on something and he shows up in a big emergency, and nothing is wrong ?

Well, that can be difficult because he is already doing so many other things in the day.

She called me early one morning for instance to state that they told her she was getting moved to a new location. I asked her where. She said she didn't know. I thought about it for a second and finally said, "Call me back when you know." She thanked me for the conversation and hung up.

Now I was in a bit of a dilemma myself because I knew Carlos would be busy doing things and I had to balance whether or not it was important to either tell him NOW that she called or tell him after he picks up Katy from school so they could both go.

I finally decided on the latter and about the time he picked up Katy I called and said what she told me. I also stated why I waited to call until later. He said that's fine, he'll call down there to see what the situation is.

Later he called to tell me that it was indeed another false alarm. That he just spoke with the nurse that was handling Gayle and there was no talk or anything about moving her from her current position. So ... age does this to people.

I hope it doesn't happen to me. I have had lapses of memory sometimes. I think I mentioned a bit about it. And it's sort of scary when you really try to pin it down.

For it's not so much that you forget something - it's that you cannot remember what it is you forgot. It's =THAT= deep a thing. Like a total absence in the brain.

Like someone tells you something and it's not even so much that you forgot it, you think they are LYING to you - to tell you something you have no recollection of.

Then it gets bad. You harbor feelings of ill will and think others are trying to be mean to you - to trick you, when all it is - you have memory loss and apparently fairly serious at that.

Bad business that but this is what you face when you get older. I think keeping your mind sharp by NOT watching television informercials or commercials and in fact getting involved in activities that require your brain.

Whether it's playing puzzle-games on your cellphone or playing real chess with your buddy, keep that brain of yours engaged !

Your children likely work on puzzles every day when in school or at play - there is no reason for you not to as well.

As Captain Kirk in Star Trek's episode, "Shore Leave" said:

"The more complex the mind, the greater the need for the simplicity of play."

. . .

KATY AND HER SORE THROAT

Regarding Katy she is STILL having a sore throat all the time. I know she's taking medicine for this now but yet can't still wonder if all she needs is her tonsils removed. I told her when she does she gets to eat all the ice-cream she wants.

Now while she seems quite happy about that I think she is a little reluctant to consider giving up her tonsils. Why I'm not sure except that I know she thinks it is a part of her body and why on Earth would she ever remove a part of her body to get healthier ?

. . .

CARLOS STAYS BUSY

Carlos of course is staying immeasurably busy in everything that he is doing. The main refrigerator there went out and the difficulty of course is to get it replaced. Katy was also telling me the air-conditioner there is not working well.

So I invite them over here as often as I can. My refrigerator works well, I keep it 50-degrees in my home, and I have plenty of food for guests. Also we can go upstairs and watch a movie or show on the big screen I have.

. . .

PROGRAMMING MOTIVATION

I guess I want to mention what is happening with programming at this point, too.

It's not there. I know I stated this earlier yet even the desire to program in BlitzMAX, the one programming language I really like is not there. Oh I still have the utilities and tools I wrote, I'll continue to use those daily. But the desire to write like a game-maker or RPG Maker, it's just not there right now for some reason.

I hunger for the almighty APK, either in Pico-8 or some other keyboard-only programming language, yet I don't think it is going to be appearing in my time.

I've been far too caught up recently in - well, the nicest way to put it is examining my spoils, including DVDs I've purchased. For I have been collecting well just a little bit of everything the internet has had to offer since it first appeared and it is now.

For instance I am just now getting around to looking at all of it. The first of which are the earliest Doctor Who episodes, originally black-and-white, with William Hartnell.

Maybe it will change but for now, but no, that's what I look at for the moment. And of course organizing my heap of unsorted Shockwave SWF files.

. . .

Anyways, I know what you're here for. What's happening with Dev and Nikki ? Well that is about to be explained.

. . .

The first thing I noticed in returning home ...

Was that my Dad, Mom, Lilly's Mom, and Tyr's Mom were all outside anxiously looking to see what vehicle was driving up to them. And of course it was us.

As we pulled up, my Mom immediately pulled on the door handle and fairly dragged me out of the car, my feet scuffing on the dirt as she showered me in kisses. "Oh my baby ! My poor baby ! Where you have you been ? How could you worry your Mother like this ? Oh my gosh ! You are such a mess !"

Tyr and Lilly snickered quietly but didn't say anything. As I extricated myself from her loving embrace, it was then my parents were introduced to Nikki.

It was clear to them that they thought her tail was fake. That maybe Nikki was wearing an elaborate costume. I sighed. Adults are often this way. They can't accept reality even if it's right in front of them.

But then Janet stepped out of the vehicle and took control of the situation speaking.

"Susanne, Harold, Coraline, and Annie. Be aware that the station we were in was attacked by someone calling themselves The Sevens. They assassinated Mr. White. He is dead now."

Harold nodded solemnly, "That's what happens when you're rich or famous, Dev. Never forget what happened. You never want to stand out in a crowd, not really. Someone will always have their hand out for a piece of your pie, but watch out."

"Sometimes they are after more than that, like the knife to cut the pie so they can have the whole thing for themselves. Do you see what I'm telling you ?"

I nodded. I understood. Jealousy. I remembered reading an article online about a fellow who found no less than 1-billion dollars in cold hard cash in the floorboards of his home !

Well stupid man that he was he told everyone about it and sure enough in a short time the police had called for both the FBI and SWAT team to have him arrested. The charge ? Being rich. Literally.

There was absolutely nothing else they were holding him on. They just all wanted a piece of that pie and would be more than happy to bend the rules doing so saying he did something illegal when in fact he didn't.

I sighed. Yeah, I did understand Dad at that. He could see that and came over to pat me on my back.

Annie spoke quietly, "What are we going to do now then ?"

Janet snapped to attention again, "We're getting the hell out of here. While you might all be comfortable in the house, with Mr. White dead a few things are going to happen if we stay."

"One, we'll be accused of the murder and face a grand lynching mob who is likely up for hanging us up in rope."

"Two, the Sevens will return to claim Mr. White's kingdom as their own."

"In any case, we don't want to be around when any of these items come to light. There is a freight helicopter behind the house hidden in the 2nd storage shed. I have a key to it. Grab what is yours from the house and let's get out of here ! We'll meet back here in 10-minutes !"

I ran back in the house and got my favorite Teddy Bear, "Teepo." The other girls and parents grabbed their clothes and belongings.

We went to the back of the house and sure enough there were two huge storage sheds. Janet went up to one and put her palm print up against the sensor. It beeped acknowledgement and opened.

And sure enough inside was a huge helicopter. Big enough for an army of people.

As we were looking there was suddenly the sound of commotion behind us. Then a dull explosion that was less than a mile away.

"Hurry !" Janet urged raising her head to the forest to see if she could isolate where the boom came from. And then it was us and we all piled aboard the helicopter. She ran to the cockpit and did a quick preflight check to make sure everything was in order.

Suddenly I heard a scary voice yell, "They're behind the house ! Don't let them get away !"

Janet pushed a large orange button in the middle of the helicopter and the radio signal sent a message to open the roof of the storage shed we were in.

Then I heard the familiar PING of a gunshot.

"Janet - " I urged.

"I'm on it." she said a little impatiently. She flicked on a bunch of switches above her head. The propeller then started to twirl. Then we saw them a full-line up of the Sevens all guns trained on us outside the cockpit.

One approached with a megaphone, "You cannot escape ! Power yourself down and step out of the helicopter or we will open fire and destroy you !"

"Janet - " now I was just frightened.

"I'm scared." I heard Nikki behind us.

But the look on her face showed a strict image of sternness I had not seen before. "Strap in." she told me.

"What ?"

* * *

"Strap in !" she yelled and then yelled it to the back of the helicopter, "Strap in ! Now !"

So saying we did.

The Seven leader on the megaphone spoke again, "You have 15-seconds to comply !"

That was enough time for me to buckle in so I did. Then I saw what she did. She had accelerated the top propeller to full and then used the back propeller to lean forward.

In doing so a sudden and unavoidable gust of air from the powerful turbines now blowing at a 45 degree angle literally knocked down all the agents, their guns firing uselessly in mid-air and then Janet pulled back on the stick for an emergency takeoff.

And it worked ! We cleared the skyline of the storage building and the Seven operatives were still fumbling over each other as the leader was yelling, "Fire fire ! Damn you ! Shoot them down ! Shoot the engine !"

But Janet was taking no chances. She forced that helicopter to climb as high as possible - and fortunately it was airtight or we might've been out of air in an instant.

Janet then touched a light aqua button and a small display lit up on her console saying, "O2."

A sweet smelling kind of chemically balanced air shot out of the vents. Janet then impelled the helicopter forward and we approached the Faraday Shield. She went to a 5x2 button display that showed the 10-digits and rapidly typed out a code. A pleasant beep acknowledged a correctly entered code.

The Faraday shield then winked off for a moment and as she cleared it in the helicopter it turned back on behind us.

We had clear skies ahead. She grinned and looking at me quietly spoke, "We're going to make it."

I smiled to that myself. She then yelled behind her, "We're going to make it !"

"Thank heavens for that !" I heard Coraline now speak. There was the chatter and hub-bub behind me as the parents counted their lucky stars they managed to get away with their skins - and their children - all intact.

As I was pretty interested in all the controls and gadgets Janet had ahead of her I was suddenly distracted when I noticed a commercial jet plane was headed straight for us !

"I see it !" Janet informed me, then turned the helicopter hard to the right !

"Ouch !" I heard Tyr exclaim from the back.

"Are you all buckled up back there !?" Janet retorted.

"I am now." I heard Tyr say in her innocence.

"God help me." Janet said and then continued to skirt around the commercial jet until we were past it.

It was smooth flying again.

"Well that's not so - " but I was interrupted by a man's voice on her intercom speaking.

"This is Fearmont Airport calling. May I ask who is flying this unlicensed helicopter ? over !"

I was quiet. For all I knew my very breathing would be heard. Janet touched a switch on the console and spoke.

"This is Delta Zulu Niner. A private flight. If you will check my records, I will send them to you now."

"Roger Zulu Niner. Standing by."

Then she went to the digit console and typed in a bunch more digits. She returned back to the intercom.

"Records sent. Please Confirm." she said.

There was quiet, then a moment later, "Roger Zulu Niner. Welcome to Fearmont. You are clear to use the airways. Please be aware you were on a commercial lane earlier. Suggest you level off at 28,000 feet to continue your destination uninterrupted, over."

She spoke, "Confirmed, base. Over and out."

Now I was curious. Surely there was no way an air traffic controller would allow a rogue helicopter clearance. "What did you type in ?" I asked Janet.

She shrugged, "I know the codes for most flights out here. I stated that I was a private helicopter transporting the mayor of Wannabee to his destination for an important meeting. That gave us clearance right there."

I marveled at Janet. She seemed so much smarter than Tyr or even Lilly. She was older yes but it was clear I had a fondness for intelligence - if not cleverness.

She saw the look on my face like she had seen many times before. Turning down someone who was obviously infatuated with her.

She shook her head and smiled, "Strap in Romeo. We're about due to land."

END OF CHAPTER 12