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‘Shit, I think
we’re flying blind,’ yelled Zol.

Just at that
moment, Madeline entered the cockpit.

‘Just been
talking to Nuttall - asked me how you’re getting on flying in the
dar… Oh my God!’ she screamed.

Madeline knew
nothing about flying a plane except for what she’d seen in disaster
movies. She instinctively yanked the stick back as far as it would
go. Once again the engines roared and the plane shook.

‘You can see?’
yelled Zol.

‘Yes,
fortunately I’ve got zero lux vision. Nearly went into the side of
a mountain.’

‘We have to go
down… too high,’ gasped Zol.

‘We’re well
above everything now,’ said Madeline.

Zol gently
pushed the stick forward and reduced the altitude.

‘You’ll have to
be our eyes. Grayling, let Madeline sit there… Grayling! ... Bloody
brilliant, he’s passed out.’ said Zol.

Madeline
selected level 2 explosive motion and carried Grayling into the
back.

Of all the
things Zol had seen Madeline do, this was by far the most
impressive - even more than last night’s entertainment. A twenty
stone man effortlessly picked up and carried by a slither of a
woman who didn’t even bother to work out.

‘See what you
can do with him sweetheart. I’m needed up front,’ said
Madeline.

She plonked
Grayling in a seat next to Adam and returned to the cockpit. It was
a relatively easy job; all she had to do was say up, up! or UP!!
And Zol pulled the stick back accordingly.

‘Bloody
aircraft mechanic, obviously one of Nuttall’s men. He must have
interfered with the lights and the G-P-W-S.’

‘The what?’

‘Ground
proximity warning system.’

‘So that’s what
I am now?’

‘Yes, a damn
cute one at that!’

‘Zol! You’ll
have me blushing,’ said Madeline disingenuously.

Now that Zol
had Madeline’s see in the dark, zero lux vision at hand, the flight
was pretty much uneventful. They sat there for many a while in
silence and then Madeline asked a question.

‘You and
Nuttall, how did you meet?’

‘At
Cambridge.’

‘That’s a
coincidence, that’s where Professor…’

‘…Braugenhau
went,’ Zol interrupted. ‘We were all there together.’

‘She showed me
a photo. Now then, where is it…’ said Madeline.

She accessed
the photo from her gallery and examined it.

‘Yes, I can see
the resemblance now – you and… no, is that Nuttall?’

Zol continued
to find it hard to accept that she wasn’t human. If she just had a
few android traits like a ‘robot voice’ or jerky movements or cold
staring eyes but she didn’t, she was so perfect in every detail.
Being android based, having a photographic memory function was a
matter of course.

‘We had hair
then, lots of it. We were good friends – even in the boat race
together. You probably remember it, the one where the Cox fell in
the Thames.’ Zol broadly smiled. ‘Can’t blame him for trying to
save a world from extinction… and knowing Nuttall, he’s probably
getting his own back for what we called him.’

‘What,
nutty?’

‘No, that would
have been far too expected, he was always acting the clown, that’s
partly why the Cox fell overboard - so we called him Coco.’

‘Coco Nuttall…’
said Madeline disconcertingly.

For some
reason, the full name troubled her. She shook off the feeling and
continued.

‘At least now I
know how to irritate him. Anyway, thanks for all you’ve done for
me. I know I’m weirdly thanking a figment of my imagination but you
are real to me here.’

‘I am real!
Don’t, for one second, belittle my life here. It goes against every
fibre in my body helping you to leave this world… I just know it is
the right and proper thing to do,’ said Zol testily.

‘Well I
appreciate it anyway. I’m deeply sorry for everyone in this world
but it’s tough love, I have to get back.’

That’s all
Madeline could say. She had forgotten that not so long ago, Zol was
prepared to do anything it took for Madeline to stay. This involved
all manner of ruthlessness and violence but fortunately for
Madeline, he had had a change of heart. She now recognised him as a
man with good virtues - whether Nuttall also had the same qualities
was debatable especially after the black fighter jet incident.

Madeline proved
very useful over the next six hours. It wasn’t flying by
instruments but flying by Madeline.

Eventually a
glimmer of light came over the horizon, dawn was beginning.
Madeline’s unique gift was no longer required. Grayling returned to
his rightful place and Madeline returned to Adam. He had finally
overcome the noise and discomfort and fallen asleep. Madeline
cuddled into him, resting her head on his shoulder, she too feel
asleep.

Finally Ulika
Batter runway lights could be seen in the distance. The seat belt
sign came on – one of the few things that worked. Adam and Madeline
woke up together.

‘Bloody thief
that Grayling, he’s conned me out of eighty quid!’ complained
Adam.

‘Don’t worry
sweetheart, I’ll get it back off him,’ assured Madeline.

‘I’m pretty
sure it was a trick deck of cards.’

‘Oh… perhaps I
won’t then,’ said Madeline.

The landing was
definitely smoother, perhaps because it was a proper international
airport this time. It would have been an absolutely perfect landing
too, if the brakes had worked. For a start, it didn’t help that
they’d come in a bit steep and slightly over shot the runway. It
didn’t help that they had landed without permission either. Their
excuse was that the radio didn’t work – which wasn’t a lie, it
didn’t, no real surprise there. It wouldn’t have been much use
anyway because they couldn’t speak Russian or what ever language
they spoke in Ulika Batter.

As it was an
international airport there was an abundance of ground staff,
security staff and places where they could lock people up. Madeline
was beginning to lose count how many times she’d been locked in
small holding rooms. With Madeline’s assets, getting out would be
easy but the security staff carried guns and three out of the four
of them were not bullet proof.

Each was
interrogated individually: Adam was basically a passenger with a
valid passport – they let him go. Grayling was Zol’s butler, he was
just doing the job he was paid to do – they let him go. It was
Zol’s plane, he had the papers, he had landed recklessly and
bypassed all airport protocols but he had lots and lots of money –
after negotiations, eventually they let him go too. Madeline was
merely a passenger just like Adam but she had no passport so they
didn’t let her go. It was highly frustrating, she didn’t want to
use her fart gas or go on a stunning spree with her laser finger
but time was ticking. There was still a long way to go - nearly two
thousand miles to Mount Everest. Locked up in a little grey room
was not exactly where she wanted to be - she called Adam on her
internal mobile phone for a little advice.

‘Hi sweetie
pie, I may be breaking out, what’s your take on that?’

‘We thought you
might. If you hang on, Zol’s in the process of chartering a
commuter aircraft. I’ll give you a call when we’re on the
runway.’

‘Remember I’m
in high heels, can’t run in them.’

‘You’ll have to
take them off then. Oh… and try and be gentle with the staff.’

‘Aren’t I
always?!’

Chapter 47:
Breaking the speed limit

Commuter
aircrafts are sometimes classed as air taxis but there is a crucial
difference, you can’t just hail one down. It was nearly three hours
before all the checks had been done on the plane and Adam, Zol and
Grayling were allowed to pass through border control. Then it took
a further hour before there was an available slot for them to take
off. Four hours later Adam rang Madeline.

‘
When you’re
ready, we’re taxiing out to the runway.’

‘Thought you’d
forgotten about me. Okay, see you in a minute. Leave your phone
on.’

Explosive
motion setting 4 should be all she needed. The door caved in easily
and she was out of the building long before any bullets whizzed
passed her. The size of international airports are always
deceptive, it was nearly half a mile to the runway. She took off
her high heels and within seconds she was striding across the
airport runway at a comfortable 20 MPH. The commuter plane was
ahead of her, about to take off. After two minutes she was almost
along side but then the plane began to accelerate.

‘Hang on, I’m
not there yet!’ Madeline screamed.

‘We are
committed, run faster!’ said Adam in her head.

Madeline put
her explosive motion on the highest setting.

‘Holy shiiiit!’
she screamed.

Her strides
became immense, touching the ground only every fifteen metres. She
was moving so fast that she was literally becoming airborne
herself. Her feet were taking the bulk of the rough treatment. Her
thick black tights were now completely worn away and riding up her
legs. Her USB socket in her big toe was totally wrecked and the
skin on the bottom of her feet was getting scratched to hell. 70
MPH was her maximum speed, just enough to line up with the open
door of the plane and jump in. She landed violently inside, in a
heap.

‘Wow, that was
fun!’

Within moments,
the commuter plane was in the air and steadily ascending. Ulika
Batter airport was quickly disappearing into the distance.

The TV in the
nondescript motel room was still turned on and tuned into the Vixen
News channel. It really was time someone visited the vacant room
and turned it off.

‘
Let’s go
over to Berny for the very latest international news,’
said
Carol Star in the News studio.

‘
Morning
Carol. Not a lot going on for a change. Since the amnesty for world
peace following the ‘rest of the world hating America’ debacle, all
is relatively quiet,’
said Berny
.

‘
Yes, very
strange all that. Never really had a proper explanation as to why
it happened.’

‘
Don’t think
we ever will. Anyway, good came out of bad. For the first time in
history everyone is at peace. The downside is that I’m running out
of things to report. There is one thing the viewers may be
interested in, there’s a video going viral on the
internet…’

‘
Let’s have
a look…’

The poor
quality video showed a woman dressed only in a colourful jumper and
black tights running at an incredible speed, catching up a plane in
the process of taking off. The video finished off by showing the
woman jumping in through the open door.

‘
That’s
incredible!
’ said Carol
. ‘Obviously a fake but very well
done.’

‘
I agree but
have a closer look, who does she remind you of?’
asked
Berny.

‘
Oh – my -
god, it does, doesn’t it?
’ said Carol.

‘
Someone’s
obviously having a laugh at Madeline’s expense,’
said
Berny.

‘
Well it’s
obviously not Madeline…come on now, a baggy granny jumper and black
tights? Not clothes Madeline would be seen dead in,’
Carol
rationalised.

‘
Notice
you’ve got quite a fetching carnation pink outfit on today,’
said Berny.

‘
Why, thank
you Berny. I think the colours bring out my complexion, don’t
you?
’ said Carol blatantly blushing on air.

That was the
plan and it had worked. The ultrasound signal had, at the time,
brought out the worst in people. Hatred towards the Americans was
so intense that a world war almost began. But that was never their
intention, they knew that the ultrasound brainwashing had a
permanent rebound effect - when the ultrasound stopped, the hate
turned into love. The emitters at the South Pole were scheduled to
be turned off long before the invasion fleet reached American
shores but Madeline got there first with her explosives. No matter,
within moments of the ultrasound ending the world began to love
each other – especially the North Americans. All wars immediately
ended. All hate gave way for kindness, greed gave way for
generosity, condemnation gave way for forgiveness and cruelty gave
way for compassion.

Madeline’s
world was completely at peace.

Chapter 48:
Power sockets

Even though
Madeline was essentially an android, she remained tangled in a heap
for some time whilst she
sort of
got her breath back. No one
came to her assistance because rules are rules - Adam had been told
to stay belted up. Eventually she examined her feet, they had
survived reasonably well although her USB socket would never see
the likes of a dongle or flash drive again. No matter, she took the
remains of her thousand denier granny tights off to reveal her
silky smooth shapely legs and put her white high heeled leather
boots back on. A quick run through her hair with her fingers and
wipe down with a wet wipe and she was ravishingly gorgeous again.
She sat down next to Adam.

‘Hi beautiful,
decided to join me then?’ said Adam cheerfully.

Madeline was
just about to give him a loving hug when she suddenly realised her
explosive motion was still on full setting. It didn’t bear thinking
about what would have happened - but she did. The ‘hug’ would have
crushed his ribcage, mulched all his internal organs and certainly
killed him.

‘God, that was
so close. I hate, hate, hate being different,’ she complained.

‘Being
different is what makes you special.’

‘Exactly, I
don’t want to be special anymore.’

‘Don’t worry
angel, won’t be long now.’

It would take a
mere five hours to get to Lukla.