L. Marie Adeline- S.E.C.R.E.T

was ludicrous, no matter what promises lay beyond the ride. The limo came to a full
stop twenty feet from the helipad. This was not good at all. The driver stepped out and
opened my door. I sat frozen in my seat, the word no emanating from every pore of my
body.
“Cassie, there is nothing to be afraid of,” the driver yelled over the loud wind and the
even louder propeller. “Please follow that young man! He will take very good care of
you! I promise!”
It was then that I noticed the pilot, who was holding his cap and running towards the
limo. As he got closer, he combed back his sun-bleached blond hair with his ngers and
placed the cap on his head, giving me the impression he rarely wore it otherwise. He
saluted me in a sweetly awkward way.
“Cassie, I’m Captain Archer. I’m meant take you to your destination. Please come with
me!” He must have seen me hesitate. “It’s going to be fine.”
What choice did I have? I suppose a few, including one to remain welded to the seat
and demand that the driver take me home. Instead I launched myself out of the limo
before my brain could convince me to do otherwise. Captain Archer clasped my wrist
with a big tanned hand and we made a run for it, ducking under the speedy propeller.
In the helicopter, that same hand reached across my lap, brushing my thighs while he
secured me in the back seat. It’s okay, it’s okay, it’s okay, I kept telling myself over and
over again. There’s nothing to be afraid of. I felt the lash of stray hairs on my cheek and
was grateful for my kerchief. As he carefully placed large headphones over my ears, I
could smell mint gum on his breath. Then he looked at me with eyes that were deep gray
and intense.
“Can you hear me?” he asked, his voice now buzzing directly in my ears through his
microphone. Was that an Australian accent?
I nodded.
“I’ve got you, Cassie, don’t worry. You’re safe. Relax and enjoy the ride.”
I did nd it a little unnerving that S.E.C.R.E.T. participants all seemed to know my
name. This is my life, I thought kind of headily. A limo picks me up. No big thing. Makes its
way to a waiting helicopter. Whatever. And an impossibly handsome pilot whisks me away to
parts unknown.
We lifted o and once we were above the ominous dark clouds, the day looked
completely dierent, like one in a tropical paradise. Captain Archer caught me staring
down at the clouds as we left the bad weather below us and angled towards the sunrise.
“That’s a big storm brewing. But where we’re going it won’t touch us.”
“Where are we going?”
“You’ll see,” he said, his eyes smiling, lingering on mine.
My butteries were still there, but they were becoming more manageable, and the
fear, something I could push through. That I would willingly head o in a helicopter
when a storm was brewing, ying above it to who knows where, to do who knows what
with who knows who, would have been impossible to imagine ve months ago. But
today, beneath the natural fear was a feeling I recognized as sheer excitement.
Once we had stabilized above the clouds, the helicopter sped towards the vivid blue