“You’re not going”, I yell but she acts like she can’t hear me. She keeps her eyes locked on the watery tumult below. We hit a bit of turbulence and we both grip the the helicopter to keep balance. I’m not sure how long the harnesses we are strapped into will hold in the storm. The helicopter dips from the punishing rain and the torrential downpour sprays us with cold water. The sun is hidden behind thick angry clouds, below the flooding had wiped out the small island town beneath us. If our informant was still down there, he had to be dead.
Below I could see the last of the RescueNet aide boats heading towards high ground. Refugees desperately clung to the boat, they were way over the 35 person limit but they could maybe make it to safety. The tides where changing fast and I turned away as one of the aide boats capsized. When I looked back I saw the aide workers and refugees scrambling to set it right. I had to accept we were to faraway to help. Besides we had a mission of our own.
I turned back to Seraphina, her hands were covered in blood from where she’d cut herself while trying to cut her harness off. The pilot, probably some kid who didn’t have a hard enough trainer at the Coast Guard boot camp, screamed at Seraphina to clip back in
“We got to get back to the base, Sera”, I roared over the storm, “It’s over… we’ll get another lead. We always do”
“He knows something”, she said bracing her hands on either side of the door. The harsh and rain plastering her hair to her face. She leaned out the opening, her fingers tensing.
“No he doesn’t. No one ever does, Sera. We need to get back. Let me—“
I’m hoping to goad her into a fight long enough for the pilot to get us the fuck out of here, of course both of us would have had to be talkers for that to work. Instead Sera lets go . She gracefully lets herself fall out of the helicopter and the pilot screams. I order the pilot to go down so we can follower her but the kid pilot wasn’t having it.
“Fuck.”
I unclipped my harness and went for the door. I didn’t see Sera hit the water. But I did see our man--the informant--floating on a makes shift raft. He thought he could hide here, thought he could run from us and go back into hiding in his small Pakistani village. He didn’t count on a tropical monsoon hitting his village, it was a fucking disasters and bad timing but it made it easier for us to get into the country.
I went to the back of the helicopter, then I ran forward and took a running leap out of the helicopter. My wings expanding and bursting through my shirt. From my position in the sky I could see the informant’s raft had toppled over. The rain beat down on me and I tried to stay hidden in the dark sky. I watched the informant resurface, he abandoned his raft and was swimming toward the tide.
I finally spotted Sera a few feet behind him, she wasn’t a strong swimmer and the water was filled with debris and remains of an entire village’s life. I lowered myself to hover just over the informant, then I made a grab for him. He was a heavy man and I couldn’t lift him that high, the wind was fucking with my equilibrium.
“The Legion says fuck you”, the informant says. The informant twists out of my grasp, I try to grab him but he smacks face first into a floating car. His blood darkening the water and his body is gently carried away. Beneath the sound of rushing water, I hear Sera cursing at me.
“Fuck you”, she shouts, “You fucking idiot what were you thin—“
Sera’s curses are swallowed up by the rushing water. I hover with my boots skimming the surface of the water. I take in the devastation around us. It was all so futile. I watched the water waiting for her to come back up, “Come on, Sera.”
She’d pushes herself up to the surface reaching for something to float on. I grab her hand leverage her weight and pull her from the water. I heave her onto my shoulder and began to ascend. Luckily the pilot mets me halfway.
“Get us out of here”, I said to the pilot once we were both inside. The pilot stares at my wings with disgust and horror. I instantly fold them back and pull on a jacket.
Sera was knocked out cold. She didn’t come to until we were back at the Bengal Military base. The small U.K base was flooded with refugees and aid workers. The pilot gets off the helicopter to a ring of applause. Well-deserved even if we did pay her to fly an unauthorized mission that had nothing to do with saving people.
Sera and I waited on the helicopter for the hanger to clear out, we didn’t need the attention. Our being here was less than noble and we’d helped no one. Sera braided back her chin length hair into a messy crown around her head. The she slowly picked herself up. I followed.
The hanger was empty except for a few mechanics, after observing this she turns and throws a fist in my face, I saw it coming and ducked. I grab her wrist to throw her off balance but she knees me hard enough that she manages to flip me. I get right back up, ready to hit her in her pretty face but she weaves and lands a right hook in my nose and an unexpected left hook to my jaw , I wiped the blood from my nose just before the bitch knocks me out cold.