NEW FLESH

CHAPTER EIGHT: WEIGHTLESS FLIGHTS

MARGO watched the man beside her- Mitch- he glanced out to the aisle as if he had been expecting someone but saw no one. He shifted in his seat, turning to look at Margo, as casually as possible he intertwined his fingers with hers, the two of them resting their paired hands in the middle of the seats.

"You know what I find funny?" she asked, Mitch looked up from his shoes, he'd been staring at them for no reason besides the fact he had nothing else to do, "what?", he felt like he was entertaining her now, and in a way, he was.

"I find it hilarious how paranoid you are, I can understand why you would be though", Mitch rolled his eyes finding little to no humor in her statement, "aww come on babes, you remember how confused you were when Josi attacked you? If it wasn't for me she would've killed you" she paused, "but that's the thing Rapp" she began again, "it seems that wherever you go, people die, and people always die, the one thing about it though, is that sometimes we get to choose who does and doesn't", Mitch turned his head away from her hoping that was a sign enough for her to stop.

"You wouldn't know anything about that though, would you?" she asked, Mitch abruptly stood from his seat and offered her a fake smile- a cover for everyone else- before he made his way down the aisle to the bathroom, once he was inside Margo leaned back in her seat and smiled to herself. She'd finally gotten through his tough exterior, she could feel Stan burning holes through her seat with his glare but pretended she couldn't feel it, she knew she'd be scolded as soon as they were out of the public eye.

She opened her book again and began to flip through the pages until she found the one she'd left off on. Reading War and Peace made time feel like it was slipping away, like nothing mattered, like absolutely nothing was relevant or real, so when she awoke a few hours later with her book planted on her lap and Mitch's fingers intertwined with hers she forced herself to try and remember when she'd fallen asleep, nothing came to mind.

She rubbed her head with her free hand and glanced around their row, "how long was I out?" she mumbled, he checked his watch, "about seven or eight hours" he answered, she straightened in her seat furrowing her brows, "how? I was reading...?" she trailed off, he shrugged his shoulders, Margo watched as he turned his head, his long brown locks moving with the motion.

She reached out and ran her hand through a few of them quickly catching his attention, "you need a haircut" she sighed, he frowned at the statement turning his head to look at her as she continued to run her hands through his locks, "no, seriously, I'm giving you a haircut when we get back" she spoke, he could tell by her tone that she was being serious, "I'm not letting you cut my hair" he warned, she smiled and shook her head, "yes, you are" she chuckled, he smiled slightly shaking his head again.

"Fine, what about a trim? Just cut off like half an inch?" she asked, he thought about it for a few seconds before giving his normal shrug, Margo pulled her knees up beneath her and leaned forward planting both her hands in his hair to ruffle his dark locks, "aww come on Mitchy" she whined a smile on her lips, her balance faltered for a brief second making Mitch think she was going to fall on him, as if he had a sixth instinct, he reached his hands out and rested them on her hips to keep her from falling.

When it became apparent neither of them were going to fall or be fallen on they awkwardly stared at each other for a few moments before Mitch slowly pulled his hands away from her waist, Margo removed her hands from his hair and sat back in her chair quietly opening her book again.

Mitch waited a few minutes before he spoke again, "I guess half an inch isn't so bad", Margo smiled her eyes leaving her book to look at him, "thank god" she reached a hand out and gently tugged on one of his locks, "it's so long" she added giving him a look between a glare and distasteful expression.

He feigned a fake chuckle watching as she went back to reading her book, he pulled out his phone- ignoring his orders- and powered the device back on, the screen flashed its regular apple icon as it went through the process of powering on, when it was done he entered his passcode, he could see several unknown files appearing on his screen before the it glitched out and flashed red one singular time, a green bar appeared on the screen slowly filling by the minute, he glanced at Margo gently tapping her shoulder, "what the hell is this?" he asked showing her the screen, she widened her eyes glaring at him, "why the hell would you power the damn thing on?" she asked her words clipped, he returned the glare and pointed at the screen, "how do I stop it?".

She shook her head carefully glancing to where Eric sat, "I won't be able to get it to him" she thought for a quick moment, "give it to me" she ordered, he stared at her before she held her hand out, he reluctantly placed the device in her hand and watched as she pried the back cover off.

Once that was off she pulled two wires connected to the motherboard of the device, the two of them watched as the screen flicked to black- it had been powered off by the removal of the wires- she handed him the phone dusting her hands off once he took it from her, "keep it off this time" she warned, he imperceptibly nodded his head shoving the phone and the back cover into his pocket, he'd have to ask Eric to fix it later.

And according to his watch, they still had four hours left.

He could feel his eyes growing heavy, it was from trying to stay awake for so long, trying to make sure one of them was awake while the other slept, except he didn't want to sleep at all, he didn't want to be caught off guard.
Margo took quick notice of this and set her book in her lap, "Mitch, get some sleep, you're not going to be fully operative without it, last thing I need is a partner who can't stay awake" she teased, he gave her a slow nod letting his eyes close as he leaned back in his seat, the last things he saw were the seat in front of him and Margo opening her book again.

When he awoke, the plane was bustling with noise, Margo was standing in their row gently shaking his shoulder, "Mitch, wake up, it's time to go" she sighed, he fully opened his eyes rubbing them as he stood up, he waited for the people in the aisle to pass before he moved into the aisle with Margo behind him and grabbed his bag from the overhead bin, he slid the strap over his shoulder and followed behind Margo reaching out and taking her hand in his.

They climbed off the plane stretching their legs as they went, they only had one carry on each making the process of leaving faster than Josh had anticipated.

When they exited the airport they all stayed within their small groups making sure to keep distance between one another until they watched two vans halt to a stop ahead of them a brunette woman stepping out of the first van, she leaned against her open-door the man in the van behind her climbing out and making his way to the back of the car to open the trunk, they slowed reformed their group as they approached.

Stan was the first to hand the man his bag, they all followed suit making sure to stick with their partners as they prepared to climb into the two separate vehicles, Mitch, Margo, Stan, and Victor in the first van, the others- Josi, Josh, and Eric- would be going in the van parked behind the first one, Mitch, Victor and the woman driving the first van exchanged a few words in Turkish before actually climbing into the vehicle.

Mitch held out his arm to block Victor from climbing in, he was waiting for Margo to go first. She rolled her eyes and slipped past the two men climbing past the first row of seats to the very back, Mitch was next, plopping down in the seat beside her he glanced out her window for a brief moment his attention shifting to Victor as Stan climbed in beside him with a stack of folders in his lap.

The woman- her name having been Annika- climbed into the driver's seat. She slammed her door closed, the noise reverberating through the small space. She slipped her car key into the ignition and shifted the car into drive before beginning to pull out of the airport parking lot, once they'd managed to put some distance down and pulled onto one of the smaller highways, Stan handed out folders talking as he did so.

"You know what you're gonna do here?" he asked, "no sir" Margo replied, Mitch followed a half-second later with the same automatic response, Victor simply nodded his head in acknowledgment.

"Correct. You don't. So keep your eyes open and your mouths shut. Wait for my orders" he stated opening his folder, Margo did as he did opening her own folder to begin looking through its contents, "Hamdi Sharif, real-estate mogul/arms dealer" he paused glancing to where Mitch and Margo sat looking through their folders, "he's like Santa Claus for terrorists."

"Scumbag" Mitch mumbled flipping through some of the photos that were waiting inside, "spare me your junior-year-abroad moral opinion, would you, Rapp?", Mitch's lower lip twitched slightly before he spoke up, "not really an opinion, sir. Sharif's a piece of shit." he replied.

Margo watched as Stan glanced into the back once again his sunglasses blocking his eyes, "it's not a crusade. This mission is practical. Don't make it-"

"Personal?" Mitch asked looking up from the file, "exactly" Stan replied seemingly satisfied with the fact that it had been ingrained in Mitch's brain. "Yes sir" he added, Stan glanced to the seat beside him- or rather more the person in it- "Victor, you're with me", he turned to look back at them again, "Rapp, you and Lee are eyes on, Annika, I want you watching him" he explained, Mitch frowned unsure as to why he was being targeted the way he was.

"You're unpredictable Rapp, I need someone else there in the event Lee can't handle you" he added, Victor chuckled, "so in the event she gets killed?" he asked looking up from his light brown folder, Stan glared at him from behind his tinted sunglasses the look alone being enough to earn silence, "Sharif has a routine" Annika began in hopes of cutting through the thick atmosphere, "let's see if anything breaks his pattern".

Stan looked to Mitch directly knowing he would have the most issues with following orders, "yes, sir" Mitch mumbled, they could all tell he was more than annoyed to have been called out again, Stan sat straight in his seat glancing out the window for a brief moment, "all right, we got forty-eight hours" he paused to glance over at Victor, "quick, clean. No footprint. This town's already ready to blow as it is" he added.

They drove for a bit longer, dropping off Mitch and Margo in a different area from Annika so it wasn't obvious they knew each other, they found a nice bench to sit on only a few meters away from the slightly older woman, her eyes silently judging them.

NEW FLESH

CHAPTER EIGHT: WEIGHTLESS FLIGHTS