“What do we do!?” I shouted at the top of my lungs, as I looked beyond the cockpit to the darkened skies ahead.

  “We land this thing,” Jack said, waltzing on through, sliding into one of the two pilot’s seats.

  “I thought these things were always supposed to have two pilots?” I yelped, looking around, helplessly.

  “Guess autopilot was the 2nd pilot today,” Jack affirmed, strapping in.

  “Wait,” I said, coming to grips, “you’re a spy, you know how to fly a plane.” I looked to Jack, who returned with a puzzled glaze over his eyes. “You do know how to fly a plane, right? That’s one of those things they teach you at spy school.”

  “Spy school?” Jack smirked.

  “I mean, you’ve done it before, you must have,” I followed up, finding those tensions that I'd just released moments ago winding and weaving back around my chest.

  Jack shrugged.

  “You’ve never flown a plane?” I said, wide eyed, the lack of comprehension swirling within my mind, that a spy, of all people, had never flown a plane before!

  “Well, I did play Flight Simulator on Windows 98 once.” Jack stroked his chin in thought.

  “Oh god, we’re gonna die.” I held my hands to my head.

  “Have a seat,” Jack said, “you’ll want to get comfortable.”

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  Agreeing, I sat down, strapping uncomfortably into the coffin beside him.

  “I think I might know enough to get us landed.” Jack said, scrutinizing the wide array of controls and buttons that whirled and flashed before us like a carnival display.

  “What do you know?” I said, feeling sick to my stomach.

  “I know how to steer...”

  “Jack!” I snapped.

  “And I think,” Jack continued, pulling back on some instruments before also seemingly turning the engine off, “these should slow us down a bit.”

  “But, how do we land!” I gulped. “Where do we land?”

  “Uh...” Jack said, looking off in the distance, peering through the darkened glass, before gazing at the radar and monitors along the way. “I don’t know. How about there?”

  “Where?”

  Jack motioned to a long stretch of road beneath us, barely illuminated by rows of street lamps.

  “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph,” I said, clutching my chest.

  “I didn't know you grew up in a religious household.”

  “I didn't,” I turned, hissing with malice from beyond.

  Jack laughed, before triggering the landing gear as we descended.

  “Are you sure you know what you’re doing?” I asked.

  “Have I ever failed you before?” Jack winked, angling the plane down lower, its nose tilting towards the ground that seemed to come toward us faster than I'd expected.

  “No,” I sighed, acknowledging the truth of the situation. Jack had never given me any reason to doubt his ability to save me...to save us, and I should give him that benefit.

  “And not today either,” he smiled.

  That winning smile of his, putting me at ease again...if ever so slightly. I dealt a hand over to him, crossing atop his own, which tilted us even further, ruining a potentially tender moment.

  “Ah!” I sat back startled. Maybe now was not the time. Even if there were things...things I thought about telling him. It was too soon though for something like that...right? I guess no time was better than right now...with death upon us and all...for the millionth time.

  “Jack,” I started up, “I think I'm falling--”

  “Here we go then,” Jack cut in, dipping us further as we approached closer to the narrow road, marked by little amber lights here and there, in between stretches of dark green pasture and brush.

  The ground came at us even faster, as we plummeted earthbound, blinking lights and warning chimes hollering endlessly at us along the way, while I couldn’t help but let out a scream, embarrassingly.

  Jack’s grip tightened on the controls, the white in his knuckles pressing through.

  “Hang on!”