Page 18 of Radar (Iniquus Certified Cerberus Tactical K9 #2)

Elyssa

Friday morning

Newark, NJ

Elyssa looked over at Eddie as he slid his phone out of airplane mode and accessed his airline app. She lifted her brows and waited.

“It’s still on the ground boarding.”

“Possible then?” Her face brightened.

“Possible, I guess. I mean it should be in the air. But if one flight is off schedule, it’s reasonable for others to be off theirs, too. I’m just looking here, it’s asking me if I want to change my tickets, and the next one out is tomorrow afternoon, getting in the next morning.”

“We’d miss everything. Well, I would. I need to fly back Wednesday, so I’d basically be landing, running down to the park to see Uncle Orest, pet his dogs, and driving back to Fairbanks for my flight home.

” She reached under her seat and grabbed her backpack, setting it on her lap, ready to stand when it was her turn to disembark.

First class was the first to deplane. That might just make the difference in making it to their connecting flight.

“Short window for a cross-country trip,” Eddie said as he leaned over her lap so he could reach his own bag.

“Yeah, but you saw how cute Uncle Orest was when he was talking about his puppies and how much he wanted us to see them. Food, science, and his sled team—and at the top of that list is his devotion to family. You can’t say that’s a bad way to live or that he’s got his priorities messed up.

” Elyssa stood and took a step back to protect Eddie as he clambered out of their row and reached up to the overhead bin for his roller bag and their coats.

“How could anyone say no to that little pout of his?”

“Adorbs,” Eddie agreed. “But also, he was feeding you chocolate.”

“We’re in agreement, right? We’re going to make a mad dash and see if we can’t get there on time? Otherwise, you need to head on to Fairbanks on the next available flight, and I’ll just catch a flight back home.”

“Would that be weird?” Eddie asked. “That would be weird. I’m the tag-along friend. I can’t show up all by myself as a guest. I’ve shared two meals with the man. You’re the connector. You need to be there to do the connecting in order to make this work without being uncomfortable.”

“My uncle has wanted to meet you forever. France was the first time you both were in the same place at the same time. He specifically told me,” Elyssa lifted her chin to tell Eddie he could move forward, “that my friends were my family, and my family was his family.”

“Big heart. I love that. Speaking of big hearts,” Eddie said over his shoulder as he hustled forward past the “Buh bye, buh-bye” from the attendants, “I don’t think your running through an airport is safe or sane. You shouldn’t run.”

“Any other ideas?” Elyssa asked. Thinking that Eddie was right, but it was such a mess not to have better options.

“I could always piggyback you,” he offered, striding across the metal lip onto the skyway.

“Piggyback a grown ass woman with my backpack on my back, and you're also pulling your roller case with your backpack on top. Do you think security would allow such a thing?”

“Okay, you’re right. I didn’t think it through,” Eddie said. “But listen, if there was an extra wheelchair sitting out there, like there are sometimes. I say we put you in it. Pile the bags on your lap, and I push you along at a solid trot.”

“Putting the cart in front of the horse.” Elyssa grinned.

“Or, if we see one of those tram things, the thing that makes that terrible pinging noise.” They moved through the door across the carpeted gate waiting area onto the walkway.

“How are you?” Eddie looked down to check.

“You look okay. Just a fast walk, right? Stretch your long legs. We’ll do our best, and if we don’t make it, it’s fine.

It will be fine. But if we didn’t have these carry-ons with us, I’d give you a piggyback. ”

“You’re the best.” Elyssa tried to manage her anxiety. She really did want to make this flight. If Eddie could bolt, she was sure he’d make it. She was the one complicating the issue.

“Oh, hey!” Eddie let go of her hand and ran toward a tram that was sitting in the corner.

The driver looked like she was taking her scheduled break.

“Hey!” he waved his hand in the air and dodged through the crowd of highly focused passengers beelining it to their own embarkation points.

“My friend, her,” he said, reaching for Elyssa’s hand and dragging her over to his side.

“She’s disabled.” He lifted her wrist to show the driver Elyssa’s medical alert bracelet.

“She’s not allowed to run. And we’re about to miss our flight. ”

The attendant glanced briefly at Elyssa’s wrist without reading her diagnosis, then looked at Eddie’s phone, where he’d queued up their ticket and was holding it up for her to read. “They changed gates, and we won’t make it.” Then he added, “We have first-class seats.”

That last part, Elyssa thought, could go either way.

First-class seats might mean this woman wanted to give them first-class treatment because they had paid for it.

Or, it could mean that this woman, who probably had a second job waiting for her at the end of this day so she could put food on the table for her family, was unimpressed or perhaps bitter enough to need a dose of schadenfreude at the rich folks’ inconvenience to give her morale a boost.

“Yes, ma’am,” she said, looking straight at Elyssa. “I’ll do my best, but this plane looks like it’s ready to close its doors.”

“Thank you.” Elyssa let her pack slide down her arms, then Eddie piled it on the seat beside her as she climbed into place, and he scrambled his long, thin frame onto the plastic seat beside her.

Elyssa would admit, as obnoxious as these trams were with their blinking lights and their cacophonous bleats, it was a much better way to race for a gate than trying to run with a heavy sack banging against your back.

The tram driver could only get them so close. The ticket attendant was reaching out to close the doors.

Eddie leapt from the tram. “No! Don’t shut them.

We’re here! Two seconds!” And then he threw it out there, again, like it was the open sesame for the airline industry.

“We have first-class seats!” With her bag over his shoulder and his bag over the other, he grabbed Elyssa’s hand and dragged her behind him along with his roller bag.

Elyssa turned and called over her shoulder, “Thank you, ma’am. I appreciate your effort.” Then she pulled out her phone and swiped to find her ticket.

As they hustled toward the plane, Elyssa pulled her pack off Eddie’s arm and took the weight herself so he could maneuver into the cabin.

Panting and laughing, they rushed into the aisle just before the attendant shut the doors.

“Made it!” she announced victoriously. With a glance at her ticket, she made her way to her seat.

“Hello, Uncle. We thought for sure we were going to miss the plane. We were late leaving D.C.” Eddie was lifting her carry-on into the overhead bin.

“Our luggage won’t be able to catch up with us.

” She reached for the water bottle Eddie pulled from the side pocket.

“Thank you.” She smiled at Uncle Orest. “Electrolytes and compression hose. It should be a good flight.”

Eddie was maneuvering into his place.

“Just a second,” Elyssa said. “I want to give Uncle Orest a hug.” She put a knee on the seat and leaned in to give him a squeeze.

“What an adventure! Are you all right? You look stressed.” Stress might have been close to what she saw on his face, but it wasn’t the whole picture.

He was a little pale and a little sweaty.

And there was a distraction in his eyes that wasn’t typically there.

Her uncle was jovial and let life flow past him, finding something to fill him with awe at every turn.

As a matter of fact, the only time she ever heard scolding or disappointment in his voice was over food.

Orest glanced down at his watch. “No, no, right now all is good. I had anticipated a slight delay. Perhaps not this long. But we benefit as you were able to make plane.”

“Ladies and gentlemen, if you would take your seats. I’ve put on the seatbelt sign. We’ve been cleared for takeoff. It’s a busy day here in Newark, and we want to take advantage of the window of opportunity. Attendants prepare for takeoff.”

“Eddie is sitting next to you for the flight. I’m so glad you’ll have a chance to chat.

Your mutual love of food and food sciences will be very entertaining.

I’m just in front of you.” She edged out of the seat and accepted her pack back from Eddie.

She took a step forward and smiled politely at the man in the aisle seat. “Hey there, I’m the window seat.”

The guy shuffled out of her way, and Elyssa quickly arranged herself. She wasn’t used to flying first class. As a matter of fact, Uncle Orest’s invitations were the only time it had happened, and then it was first class for everything. A girl could get used to a little pampering.

“May I get you a beverage?” the attendant asked.

“Cranberry and soda, please.” Yeah, it was nice.

These little touches were nice. But they weren’t something Elyssa strived for.

She liked to keep things simple. She enjoyed second-hand.

Going to a shop and buying things from a factory-stuffed box felt too impersonal to her.

She preferred thrift shops, where she found clothes and household items that needed a little love and a little creativity to make them her own.

She liked a reason to exercise her creative muscles.

The attendant appeared with Elyssa’s mid-morning mocktail in a crystal glass.

Accepting it, Elyssa would admit that a little luxury as a gift here and there was very pleasant.

The attendants swarmed the aisles, checking that electronics were properly secured, that seatbacks and trays were up, and that belts were securely in place.

As they taxied toward the runway, the attendants stood at precise points in the aisle and moved through the safety instructions.

Up, up, up into the air. This was the part of the flight that Elyssa disliked the most. The part where she was most afraid of how her heart would handle things.

So far, she’d been fine with the changes in altitude.

But that didn’t mean that she wasn’t afraid of having a mid-flight event.

In her nightmare scenario, the staff wigged out and instead of just letting her regain her equilibrium on her own and take care of herself, they’d insist on landing and pulling her off the plane.

In this scenario, she imagined herself in Indiana, somewhere between her destination and home, and denied the ability to get back on a plane.

She wasn’t cleared to drive.

Elyssa wondered how much a car service would cost to drive her from Indiana to Washington, D.C.

Behind her, Elyssa heard her uncle release a great exhale followed by a rich chuckle. He probably felt the way she did about takeoffs.

Whatever had been stressing him just moments earlier seemed to have passed.

“Look below us, Elyssa, do you see beautiful farmland?” he said in a voice loud enough to carry to her.

“Now, imagine that this is all returned to Mother Nature and wild beasts because it is no longer necessary for farming, no more cow methane to increase greenhouse gases. You and I will save this world.”

“That’s the dream, Uncle.”