Hanyo Soon shook his head and rolled his eyes, as he walked back to the cockpit of the decrepit 1969 DHC-6-200 Twin Otter aircraft, leaving the old man and the pretty young woman sleeping in their seats behind him. He stole one more quick glance at Rosa Jardine, his sardonic grin softening a bit.

“Sir! Are we there yet?” a young voice called out to him. Hanyo looked back at the boy in the seat across from his sleeping mother, giving him an anxious look. “I have to go, and I think Arfie does, too!” he said, pointing at the resting Husky dog on the cabin floor at his feet.

“Can you hold it for another hour?” Hanyo asked, unsympathetically and then sharply, “And don’t let your dog take a whiz in here!”

“I don’t think he can guarantee that, honey,” the beautiful woman squatting over her folded mechanical legs at the front of the cabin said brightly. “So, who is going to meet with up with us in Mexcali? It would be nice to have a hot meal and a shower.”

Hanyo looked at the blonde woman impatiently, “That’s none of your business! And I’m not some kind of vacation tour operator, Ms. Winters.”

“I can see that, Mr. Soon,” Jola said as she looked around the dusty, dirty cabin of the loudly vibrating and rattling twin-prop plane, “But you are getting paid, so I’d like to think you’ve got something arranged for us on the other side of the border?”

“I don’t,” Hanyo scowled, running his hand through his straight black hair, and then he smirked, “I don’t remember you paying anything or being a part of this deal. You just kind of showed up and tagged along with these two and the boy!”

Jola continue smiling at Hanyo and looked over at the sleeping faces of Kenji and Rosa, and then at the ball of tightly wrapped bills on the seat in front of them. “But I do know what kind of business Sheriff Haught conducts and the story behind that wad of cash he wants you to deliver. He buys and sells-“

“Shut up!” Hanyo hissed at her, and put his hand out to cover her mouth, but she ducked away from his attempt to shush her.

“He buys and sells intelligence information on the California Independence Movement!” Jola continued, then stopped talking on seeing Kenji stir and his eyes flicker slightly. In a low voice she confided with Hanyo, “and all I do is just keep tabs on Jebediah.”

“For who, I wonder? Your ‘enhancements’ reek of secret military technology,” Hanyo said in a low voice as well, gesturing at her artificial legs and the robotic limb laying on the seat beside them.

“I told you already, I had a non-military role in the SEA War. I’m no soldier, and my allegiance is to this country!” Jola whispered back, seeing now that the young boy Theo was enrapt in their conversation. “Besides, I am a child of the Cooperative as well. A little older than Rosa, and and so I have fond childhood memories of those sunny, carefree days. I vaguely remember Kenji and Jesus Jardine among the other adults running the Cooperative. There were meetings that everyone attended, even the children like me. I didn’t understand much of what was being talked about, but I do remember how people spoke passionately about what was best for the Cooperative. They had fire in their eyes, like they were dreaming of a better place that was forming right in front of their eyes.”

“’Dreaming’ is the right word for it, alright,” Hanyo said, and turned away to return to the cockpit. “I’ll see what we can do to speed up our travel time to the border. We’ll land soon after,” Hanyo said, looking at Theo, who was squirming a bit now, “and we can all take a break.” 

Soon re-entered the cockpit, and sat down in the pilot’s seat again, taking over the controls from his hulking co-pilot, Skoaler. “We’ll burn fuel faster, but I plan to shorten the trip anyway. We’ll land just outside the Diamantes Brillantes resort and-,” catching Skoaler’s concerned look, “-yes, I haven’t forgotten what happened there last time. Maybe time has healed those old wounds.” Skoaler shook his head sadly, his long black hair moving over his shoulders as he did, and he slowly ran his finger across his neck. 

“We’ll just have to take that chance. Besides, we can’t screw up Sheriff Haught’s delivery this time. We might as well hand it over directly to the person who is waiting for it and the person who would hunt me down again anyway if she didn’t receive it, the ferocious Alejandra Carrillo!”
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*** This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. ***