Hair///Trigger

"Jess's last message said the co-pilot was an insider. Had the c.o.c.kpit rigged to blow." I explain the circ.u.mstances behind another one of our life threatening bonding moments. We're currently in some forest in France. Exactly where, I don't know.

"Anything after that? Did they know who we were?"

"No, thankfully. The last message I received before I dropped the phone was that they only knew US4-D1 had sent a Hunter to France. They didn't know who they were looking for, so they looked for what plane we'd use instead. We got out of that first mess, but we're not clear yet. All our gear was up there, including our way to call back home."

"And I assume you don't speak French, either?" He asks. I kinda wish I could, though. My study on human culture implied that it's a s.e.xy language, apparently.

"Nope. So we're in an unknown space with no comms, three handguns, one rifle, and only one mag each. We need be careful for anyone looking for survivors, well, you know. Us."

I hand him the rifle and one of the pistols. One of the two pistols I'm keeping has the custom ammo Athena requested for me. Hopefully, we won't have to fall back on something so conspicuous. I'm the professional here. He's a human without our specialized military equipment nor training. I have to keep focused and stay strong for him, mentally and physically.

"Hey. Exactly how good is your hearing? If you had to measure a distance, how far could you hear things like say, someone stepping on a branch, someone hitting a tree, or a car starting?"

He asks me three relevant and easily imaginable sounds. I look around for a reference and point at an ugly in the distance.

"For a car starting, or tree, I'd say as far as that tree over there. As for the branch, I'd say twice the length of our math classroom."

"Are you serious!? That's amazing!"

"Don't worry about it, though. I'll hear someone coming. just stay behind me and we'll get through this together."

I need him to not be overconfident—we're still in potentially hostile territory. We need to move carefully since—I don't have Jess or Feng keeping overwatch anymore. I'll just move far ahead of Felix and keep him behind me, then we—

"Janine, wait. We really need to plan this out. First. Don't stress over me. Second, you're better with this rifle, and I won't shoot unless I have to. I'll do my best to not be a burden if an emergency happens, so you can focus on doing what you do best. I'll support you as best I can without getting in your way."

"You're being surprisingly calm about this, are you sure you're okay?"

How can he be okay? Furthermore, being realistic here—what can he even do? If we do bump into hostiles, he doesn't have the experience nor training to fight back.

"Of course I'm not okay. We're in a forest in the middle of the night. You and I should have just gotten 'home' from math class a while ago. But we're going to figure this out. We're going to be counting a lot on your hearing and vision, though. For that, I have a plan. Just give me a bit to map this all out in my head before we get out of here."

"We don't know where 'here' is, though, and we don't speak the native language. Asking around in English is bound to get us noticed, too."

"We're just outside of Paris. This place is a global tourism hotspot. We're bound to hear others speaking English, and we can ask for general directions and figure out potential solutions."

"Paris? You mean this is our destination? How do you know that?" We don't have a map or our gear with our monitors. It's not like looking out the windows of that plane said much about where we were, either.

"The Eiffel Tower, Janine. The big tower you saw on the way down. It's one of the iconic things about Paris. There's a park or forest of some sort west of the tower, and that's probably where we are."

I didn't know about any of this stuff. But if he's right, then we should be able to find a way to contact home. The problem is that tower was pretty far, and by the time we make it, any tourists might be going to bed. Still, I think I can count on him for those details. I take back the rifle, following his suggestion.

He explains his plan. We're improvising, but it's genius. I'm more noticeable because of my hair, but he blends in. So he walks ahead, and I listen for anyone nearby while following from behind, point to point, jumping from tree to tree. If he spots a threat ahead of us, he'll make noises with the rocks he put in his pockets. I'll be able to hear it, but our enemies won't unless they're reborn. Our intel, however, implied most of the suspects are, surprisingly, human. Once at the city, we disassemble the rifle and work our way towards that tower.

We can do this. He instantly recognized where we were, and he's more in control of this situation than I am right now. I'm counting on you, Felix.